Local Shops Transition into the Digital World

Local stores have been at the heart of supplying everyday necessities for decades. They have withstood the severe competition posed by online retailers, chain businesses, and supermarkets and have served people as constant suppliers of consumables.

However, after the pandemic hit the world, people are utilizing business services differently. Although many businesses have gone online even before COVID-19 hit, digital transformation has been a buzzword for the past few years and the market has seen a transformation accordingly.

What is Digital Transformation of Businesses?

Digital transformation of business refers to the transformation of a physical business into a digital one. Digitalization is referred to the process of buying, selling, exchanging information, and making services more accessible by utilizing upgraded digital technology.

Need to Going Online

Often local stores have limited reach to people because of a lack of performing businesses in chains. The issue is also enhanced by a lack of online presence of the local stores that prohibit customers from placing orders online which seems more convenient to the young generation especially. Moreover, the emergence of the pandemic has also accelerated the online presence of local stores, and to compete, a local store must offer its businesses online, nowadays.

The term "Dukan Tech" has been coined to refer to the rapid digital transformation of small enterprises and stores. The movement has been exploded in 2020, however, it has been part of the business ecosystem for a long time, with many companies functioning for more than 6 years.

Along with the online presence that increases brand visibility and offers more convenient services to customers, it also enables businesses to automate repetitive processes, thereby increasing efficiency. Moreover, a small business can detect customer behavior by tracking online purchases that help them to predict future consumer preferences and market trends.

How to Get Initial Online Visibility?

Getting online visibility is advantageous for small businesses because it helps them reach out to a broader set of customer segments. To get initial online visibility for your local shop, you need to start with SEO, Sem, and with a pinch of branding.

Your business needs to invest in local SEO that optimizes the search results to create awareness, visibility, and traffic from people living in the local area. The keywords used for local SEO are generally long-tail keywords that are not hard to find out with a good SEO tool.

Another way to get online visibility is to register on platforms that offer local services to customers acting as a medium. For example, Local Shopping Platforms (LSPs) are considered a promising approach for supporting local owner-operated outlets.

Buylowcal is such a Local Shopping Platform (LSP) that aims to empower customers as well as local stores by mediating a connection between them. With zero charges, the platform digitizes nearby local shops offering daily commodities like groceries, fruits, takeaways, gym, spa, pharmacies, etc. while allowing the customers to earn cash consistently for shopping from the enlisted shops for themselves or even when their local circle uses this platform.

The virtual ecosystems created by such platforms are a win-win for both customers as well as local shops enabling both to interact conveniently through online services. Moreover, the local shops do not have to think of creating visibility in a wider circle because the platforms are entirely focused on local areas.