Mini-Guide for Retail SMBs: Getting Started

By ETA Retail Technology Committee
Shalav Gupta, FSS • Rory Hersch, DishOut • Parag Ladhawala, Google • Jay Myers, American Express • Russell Palay, Nuvei • Jim Poulson, AnywhereCommerce • Jenn Reichenbacher, Paysafe • Jake West, Gotab

PAYMENT-PARALLEL RESOURCES TO HELP SMBS GROW!

The way consumers and merchants approach business has changed rapidly in the last 18 months. We used to discover new stores by word of mouth, by walking downtown, or by seeing a TV or website ad. Today, consumers are discovering new businesses in a myriad of ways, and it’s important to make sure that your SMBs are positioned to be discoverable on every platform consumers have access to — like Instagram, Facebook, or a marketplace (Amazon, Poshmark, or Etsy, to name a few). Other platforms where consumers might find new businesses include Yelp, Google Reviews, and, for restaurants, food ordering sites.

It’s not only how consumers are finding new businesses that is changing, but also where and how SMBs are doing business.

SMBs are pivoting their business models. Storefronts that used to have only a physical presence now have an online presence, and online stores are opening up physical locations. Integrated payment solutions allow you to be confident that your in-store inventory matches your online presence, ensuring that you can fulfill those orders and provide a smooth shopping experience for your customers. Multiple pickup and delivery options are consumer expectations that are here to stay. Consumers want to be able to buy online and then pick up their purchases in store or curbside later that day (or alternatively, buy something at home and have it delivered to their home later that week).

To help SMBs get their business running in a new age of transactions, the ETA Retail Technology Committee put together the following tips.

GET DISCOVERED!
Finding store space in a popular part of town used to be the winning formula, but with everything going online, and increasingly so with the pandemic last year, customers are discovering not just restaurants but also SMB retail merchants online. There are still many retail categories where Amazon is not the only play in town and the idea of shopping local is still quite relevant. For example, if you’re looking for a plant nursery close to home and instinctively open Google maps and type in “plant nursery,” chances are you’ll find a local business with ratings and photos. The Yelp app offers another popular place where customers can discover retail stores. As an SMB retail merchant, at the very least you should make sure you have both a Yelp and Google profile to make it easier for customers to discover you.

MAKE SURE IT’S EASY FOR CONSUMERS TO TRANSACT WITH YOU
To be competitive in the marketplace, SMB retail merchants must provide customers with transaction options. Whether they buy online, pick up in store (BOPIS), order by phone, or purchase in store, customers expect a seamless purchase experience.  With today’s variety of available technology solutions, SMBs can meet not only their own business needs, but also the needs of customers by meeting them where they’re at and offering them the transaction methods they want and expect.

MAKE IT EASY TO FULFILL AND SECURE PURCHASED PRODUCTS/SERVICES FOR YOUR CONSUMERS
Once people know about a business’ products, an SMB can make it easier for them to securely and easily transact with its shopping site. The old days of simply capturing a customer’s credit card number and expiration date on a web form are over. Today’s consumers are far more payments-savvy and expect to pay with whichever payment method they have top-of-wallet, physical or digital. Be it a traditional credit card, debit card with no PIN, ACH/eCheck, Apple Pay, QR code, or any of the various alternative payment methods like WeChat or AliPay that are rapidly proliferating across the globe, if SMBs make it easy for customers to pay, those customers will reward the business with repeat purchases and shopper loyalty.

BE ADAPTABLE AND BE SMART!
New payment methods arrive every month. It’s essential that SMBs be open to identifying new ways to accept payments rather than assuming that all payments will be made with a credit card or debit card. Maintain your profitability with the payment options used by your consumer- there are options that are not burdensome even for the smallest SMBs. Balance your options – understand where to put yourself out there.

The pandemic has sped up the digital transformation by an estimated seven years. This transformation has occurred not only in terms of how consumers shop, but also in how they spend. Companies like Klarna and Affirm have grown exponentially as consumers shift their buying behaviors from plastic to buy now, pay later (BNPL) services. As consumers continue to move to alternative payment methods, merchants should consult with their payments providers to understand the additional solutions they can embed within their business to increase their average ticket and enable more visits. Whether offering QR for contactless payments, BNPL to increase the average ticket, exploring new point of sale systems with embedded online ordering, as an SMB, it’s important to have a strategy behind your business management software and payments offering to cater to a wider demographic of consumers.

OFFER MORE TRANSACTION OPTIONS
Perhaps now more than ever it is important for SMBs to offer multiple transaction options to their consumers. Consumers expect varied options and don’t want to have to be restricted in their transactions with you each time they frequent your business.

All of these suggestions are best served with myriad of payment options from traditional credit and debit to in house gift cards, campus cards, etc. Furthermore, there are cost effective ways for each SMB to implement creative transaction offerings. The more options your consumer has, the better your business will be served, and can be leveraged as a great marketing piece for your customers to tell their friends and post on social.