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Best Retail Webshop For Your Local Shop Ideas and Guide

A website is essential for a future-proof store nowadays. However, there is quite a difference between goals, budgets and options. That is why this article explains what the best retail webshop for a local shop or small business is. If you are looking for a professional website design, there are many options to choose from. For example, do you focus on ‘making appointments’, then it’s important that your webshop has this feature. If you want a custom design and advanced functionality, then you should add this to your checklist. However, not all of them have the features that you need for your business. Therefore, below you will also find the best retail webshop examples and ideas for your needs, but first let’s look how you can build one for your local shop within your budget.

Girl looking at phone and website

Building the Best Retail Webshop For Your Local Shop

Choosing the best retail webshop is a crucial decision. If you are running a small shop, then you know how challenging it is to find the right ecommerce website builder that suits your needs. The best way to find the perfect webshop for your online store is by considering these four factors:

  • The website’s ease of use
  • The website’s design
  • The website’s functionality
  • The pricing

So it all starts with defining the priorities of your business and find inspiration on how other shops are doing it. This can then be compared with the budget. Furthermore, a time schedule can be drawn up. Let’s dive into these three steps.

Step 1: Define your priorities

A retail website should be designed to provide the best possible customer experience. It should be easy to navigate, responsive and well-designed. However, the first step for any retailer is defining your priorities. What are your goals? What are your customers’ needs? How will you stand out from the competition? It is also important to define what you want the website to do for you and how it will help you meet your business objectives. You may want it to attract new customers or sell more products online, but it is important that these goals are aligned with what your company is trying to achieve in the long run.

Maybe you don’t want to run a webshop at all, but your main focus remains on sales through the local store. Or maybe you want to provide a service such as repairs, hairdressing or giving advice. Answer these 5 questions and you will know the right way to go.

5 general questions to determine the priority

  • What is the main goal of your website? Selling products online, attracting more store visitors or making appointments.
  • What is the strength of your company? Services, customization, cheapest, fast delivery
  • Who is your most important customer and what are their needs? Businesses, consumers, local people, women, age etc.
  • What are your most interesting and best products? Which brands, products and services do you want to have at the forefront.
  • What are your company values, your mission and how do you see the future of your business?

The most important thing when it comes to building a website for your retail shop is defining what you want it to be. Once you have that, the rest becomes easier. Answering these questions can help you or the marketing agency determine what is the priority. Below you can also read the most important features that the best retail webshop of a local shop should have.

Step 2: Read about web design trends and best practices in your industry

A well-designed website is essential to the success of any business. A good design will get customers to buy, while a bad design will drive them away. Fortunately, many people have already thought about this. So be sure to check out other inspiring websites in your industry. It is often an expensive lesson to reinvent the wheel yourself.

The following are some of the latest trends and best practices that you should keep in mind when designing the best retail webshop:

  1. Keep it simple – The simpler your site is, the better. This means avoiding plug-ins and other unnecessary features that can slow down loading times and confuse customers.
  2. Handle the data of visitors and customers properly. Privacy legislation is being tightened up further, so only collect what is necessary to offer the customer the best experience.
  3. Personalization of the content. Are customers coming to the website for a second or third time or have they viewed another page before? Make sure the content is adjusted as much as possible.
  4. Integration with other platforms. Generating attention and sales are increasingly happening directly on Social Media or in the search engines. So make sure that the website is easy to integrate with other systems.

Step 3: Consider your budget and a timeline for the best retail webshop

The cost of hiring a marketing agency to build your website is often much higher than if you were to do it yourself. However, the marketing agency will be able to give you a better idea of what the best features are for your site and how to go about implementing them. Fortunately, you don’t need much technical skills to build your own webshop. In addition, there are many online tutorials that will teach you how to do it. You can even find templates that make it easier for people without any coding skills.

The timeline for completion of a website depends on the desired functions and complexity of the project. A simple static HTML site could be completed in less than one day while more complex projects may take weeks or months. It can also differ greatly per company how quickly a website is delivered. So make clear agreements about this if you outsource it. Therefore, it is also important to have the desired functionality clear.

What does a retail webshop cost?

The costs of a retail webshop differ per provider and for the desired functionality. This are the average prices:

  • DIY – $ 0
  • Freelancer – $ 2000
  • Marketing agency – $ 6000

For this you get most of the functionality that I describe below. These prices do not include annual hosting ( $ 100 a year) and features that require a monthly fee. A lot of money is mainly spent on writing the texts and designing a branding style. That is why the price also depends on the number of pages and how much text and image you can supply.

Characteristics and features of a good retail website

In this section, we will discuss what functions make the best retail webshop. and what features it should have. Let’s briefly list the basics first and then look at specific features for local stores.

Basic features of a good webshop

In order to make your webshop more user-friendly and attractive, you need to make sure it has all the necessary basic features. These include a good design and layout and the ability to update content without any technical knowledge. Furthermore, security measures that are up-to-date with industry standards and be HTTPS enabled. The shopping cart should be easy to use and the website should be responsive. In that way customers can find what they are looking for quickly and checkout without any difficulties. Also social media links and contact options are part of the basic functionality.

Furthermore, it needs to have an automated back-up system and Terms and Conditions page. The automated back-up system is important because it will keep your data safe in case something goes wrong with your server or if you need to make changes to the website. The Terms and Conditions page is important because it will protect you from any legal issues in the future.

Last but not least, your website should have reporting tools that enable the store manager to monitor the performance of the store. In short:

  • Secure (https)
  • SEO friendly
  • Easy to maintain yourself
  • Reporting tools
  • Social Media links
  • Shopping cart
  • Contact options
  • Terms and Conditions
  • Automated back-up
Customer pays on online

Characteristics of the best retail webshop for local shops

Let’s look at the features of the best webshop for local shops. It is a powerful way to generate more store visitors and the basis for digital customer loyalty. In addition, the right features can digitize the customer orientation process. This way you can shorten the orientation phase of your customers and spend more time in the store on other things.

Imagine people coming into your store, showing their mobile with your webshop on it and saying “I want this product”. So what characteristics have a professional design that is tailored to the needs of the small business owner? These topics will help local shops increase sales:

  1. Mobile responsive
  2. Appointments
  3. Product reservations and pick-up in store
  4. Connection with Google My Business
  5. Showing your realtime stock on the webshop
  6. Connected to one CRM
  7. Integrated blog option
  8. About us page and more branding
  9. FAQ, policy and more
  10. Search, Navigation and Filters

1. Mobile responsive and functions are key

Responsive design is a web design approach that allows the content of a site to be accessible on a range of devices, such as desktop computers, tablet computers, and mobile phones. This is important because it allows your website to be viewed on any device no matter what size screen it has. This means that you will not have to worry about missing out on potential customers who might want to buy your products but can’t because they don’t have access to your website.

In addition, as a physical store you want specific functions on mobile. For example, a clear button under each page to start the route to the store. This can easily be done with a link to the store in Google Maps. In addition, you also want clear buttons on mobile to call or send an email with one click. You want to make it as easy and attractive as possible to get in touch.

WhatsApp is also an accessible medium for maintaining customer contact. You can also add a simple button as an option for this. With WhatsApp Business Manager on a desktop, you can easily chat with a decent keyboard instead of on the mobile.

2. Appointment booking

Your retail shop is able to offer a more personalized (VIP) experience by providing an online booking service . The customer can make an appointment for the time that is best for them, and even book in advance. This removes the need for customers to phone in and book their appointment, and also removes the need for staff to be on the phone all day. The nice thing is that you can also welcome the customer by mentioning his name. We talk more in another blogpost how shopping by appointment approves the physical store experience .

The customer benefits from this service because they are able to choose their own appointment time without having to wait on hold, or speak to someone over the phone. They can also book appointments in advance so that they do not have any inconvenient gaps in their schedule. Furthermore, customers are able to see when their next available appointment is which saves them from having to call back every day. In short, an essential feature for the best retail webshop for your local shop.

Girl on phone making appointment small business owner

3. Product reservations and pick-up in store

The online world has made it easier for customers to buy products and services without having to go through the hassle of reservations or pick-ups. But, this is not always the best solution for customers who want to have a hands-on experience with their purchase.

This is where pick-up in store on the best retail webshop comes into play. It allows customers to reserve products online and then go into a store of their choice to pick up the reserved product. This option has its advantages as it makes shopping more convenient for customers and provides more opportunities for retailers to make sales.

Especially for businesses who sell products that people would like to see in advance, such as jewelry or furniture. A reservation function can remove the barrier to a purchase and to come to the store.

4. Add schema markup and connect Google My Business

Consumers are looking for products and services nearby. Search engines, such as Google, want to help them with that. This also helps small businesses to grow and compete with bigger businesses. By adding a schema to the retail webshop, the search engine knows what kind of local business you have and which products are in the vicinity of the consumer.

Furthermore, Google My Business is a powerful tool that can help businesses get more customers. It helps local stores to find customers in their vicinity and gives them the advantage of being found on Google searches.

It is not hard to set up a Google My Business page and make it look professional. The page can be customized according to the business type, location, and size. The most important thing about this service is that it has a map that shows where the business is located which makes it easier for potential customers to find the store.

5. Showing your stock realtime makes it the best retail webshop

We want to make sure that the customer feels confident and trustful by knowing that the product is available in store. We have also further explained this in the advantages of the physical store compared to online shopping . Therefore, a rich addition of the best retail webshop to display products online realtime. Customers like to orientate at any time. Hereby it is a good idea to show the message “In stock at the store” on each product page.

This way, you can make sure that you are not out of stock and that your customers can buy what they want. If a customer is not sure about the stock level and availability, they will probably go to another store. In this way you also increase customer satisfaction and simplify the orientation process.

6. Connected to one CRM to collect customer information

There are many reasons why you should collect customer information on your webshop. It will help you to understand what your customers want, it will make it easier for you to deliver the products they are looking for and it will also help you to get more of their contact information so that you can offer them discounts and other benefits. So in this way you can stay in touch with customers outside the store . Furthermore, you also want to give the visitors the option to redeem a gift card online that they bought in the store.

The best retail webshop is therefore linked to your CRM system. To save time and keep an overview, it is important to store this data in one CRM. You don’t want 5 different systems, but one reliable source of information. At the start of building, make sure that the option is there to link both systems. One CRM is capable of collecting information on a customer’s preferences, purchase history, demographics and much more, which makes it the ideal tool for marketing campaigns.

7. Integrated blog option to create the best retail webshop

A blog can be a great way to introduce your company to the world. It can help you establish your expertise, provide valuable insights and inspire your customers. Blogs are a great way to provide inspiration for people who are looking for ideas. They can also be used as a way of providing information and guidance. Furthermore, blogs are not only useful for the customers, but they can also be used to help the business grow. Blogs can help companies establish their expertise in the industry and provide valuable information to their customers.

You should also consider blogging when you want to create a community around your company. Your blog can be used as an online forum for discussion, ideas and feedback. This will help you engage with your audience on a more personal level and establish trust with them. Last but not least, blogs are an important part of any website that wants to rank higher in search engine results pages (SERPs). Blogging takes a lot of time. Could you use some help? Then discover this writing tool .

8. About us page and more branding

People buy from people. Therefore, an About Us page is a vital part of the website, which allows potential customers to learn more about the retail shop and your team. The content on this page should be informative, yet not too salesy. Just show who you are and what you stand for. This is probably the most underrated page (or is that the FAQ page? Read below)

Furthermore, a logo is a company’s identity. It should be memorable and recognisable, so that people can recognise it at first glance. Fonts are an essential part of branding, because they convey emotions and feelings through their design and style. A font should be chosen carefully to match the brand image that the company wants to create for themselves, as well as their target audience’s preferences in fonts. Last but not least, colours are also very important in branding because they evoke different emotions from people depending on their mood.

9. Search, Navigation and Filters

One of the most important aspects of the best retail webshop is the navigation. The navigation is what allows customers to explore the website, find products and information, and ultimately make purchases or reservations. There are many different ways that you can navigate your way through a website. One of the most popular ways is through a search bar. This bar allows you to type in keywords that will help you locate products or information on the site.

Up to 30% of visitors to a website will use the search box, and 43% will immediately use it.

Another popular method of navigating websites is through filters. These filters allow users to narrow down their search by filtering out irrelevant products or information for their needs. For the website navigation, search function and product filters, it is important to examine the quality of these functions at the start of building.

10. FAQ, policy and more

Consumers have questions, and they want answers. So make sure you answer all possible questions with a FAQ. This removes any ambiguity that people may have before they want to take the next step. Some of these questions are not answered in the FAQ section of your website. There is a need to be more transparent and disclose the most important information about your shipping policy and terms.

Therefore, it is important for a webshop to have a clear and transparent terms and conditions page. This page should be written in simple language so that customers can understand it easily. It should also be easy to find on the site so that customers can review it before they make the purchase. If a customer does not read the terms and conditions, then they are agreeing to them by default. This means that if there are any hidden charges or other clauses in the agreement, then the customer will be liable for those charges without even knowing about them.

A good way to make sure that customers actually read your terms and conditions page is to provide summaries of what each clause means at the top of each section. This will help them easily understand what they’re agreeing to as they go through your terms and conditions.

Retail business website examples and ideas

There are many different examples of small business websites that have been successful in driving traffic and conversions. Here are some of them. Check out these ideas to create the best retail webshop.

Rituals Cosmetics

Zinzi – Jewelry and Watches

Only NY – Local clothing shop

Bring your shop to the next level

Hi, I'm George and I like retail and technology. Therefore, my passion here at Retailgear.com is to provide you with reliable information to automate and digitize your store. You can find out what we can do for your industry through our menu. Also, feel free to check out this updated list of retail tools.


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