A website builder for a retail business

Hours and location decide visits

The two most common things somebody checks before visiting a shop are whether you are open and where exactly you are. Getting both right in text, on the site and in your business profile, does more for footfall than anything else here, because that is what an answer engine reads out.

Publish parking, the nearest landmark and which entrance to use. Those small practical details are what turn an intention into a visit, and almost no shop website includes them.

Our page on seasonal hours covers the part most often forgotten, which is changed hours over holidays and the reversal afterward that nobody remembers.

The profile matters more than the site

For a physical shop, the business profile is usually where the decision happens. The map result, the hours, the photographs and the reviews are all there, and most people never reach the website at all.

Claim it, complete every field, and keep it matching the site exactly. Our page on business profiles covers the detail, and it is the highest-return hour available to a retail business.

The website then does what a profile cannot: explain what the shop is actually like, what it carries, and why somebody would choose it over a larger competitor down the road.

Stock, without a catalogue

You do not need an online shop to answer stock questions. A page describing the ranges you carry, the brands you stock and what you can order in answers most of what people ring up to ask.

Say plainly whether you hold something or order it, and how long an order takes. Vagueness here produces a wasted journey, which is the one experience that stops somebody returning.

A reservation or enquiry route is often better than a checkout. Somebody who reserves an item and collects it has visited the shop, which is worth more to most retailers than a posted parcel.

What a shop website needs

The list below is what a visitor checks before setting out. Every missing item is a phone call at best and a decision not to bother at worst.

• Opening hours, including the days you are closed
• The full address and which entrance to use
• Parking, and how far away it is
• What the shop carries, in plain terms
• Whether you order in and how long that takes
• Photographs of the actual shop, inside and out
• A phone number in text for stock questions

If you do sell online

Selling online brings obligations that visiting a shop does not: pricing, delivery terms, cancellation rights and refunds. Our page on ecommerce compliance covers what the rules generally require.

It is also a separate operation rather than an extension of the shop. Stock, picking, packing, postage and returns are real work, and a shop adding them casually usually discovers that within a month.

Our page on ecommerce platforms covers whether you need one. For a shop selling a handful of items online, a simpler payment route is frequently the better answer.

Photographs of the actual shop

Inside and out, in daylight, showing what it genuinely looks like. People are deciding whether to walk into an unfamiliar place, and a photograph of the frontage removes more hesitation than any description.

Include the shelves, the counter and anything that shows the character of the place. A shop with a real photograph of its interior reads as a business somebody is proud of.

Keep them current after any refit. A photograph showing a layout that changed two years ago is a small dishonesty that a visitor notices the moment they walk in.

Local search does the work

Most of what brings people to a shop happens in local results rather than on the site. Our page on local search basics covers the work, and much of it is off your own site entirely.

Consistent details matter most. Our page on consistent business details covers why a disagreement between your site, your profile and old directory entries produces the worst outcome.

Reviews carry the rest. Ask for them, respond to them, and treat a poor one as a conversation rather than an attack, because the response is read more carefully than the review.