Local Ecommerce Business Ideas
Hyper-local deals sites like Groupon and LivingSocial skyrocketed in popularity in the last quarter of 2010 and kept up the momentum in 2011, powered by a deal-hungry American populace hard-pressed by the economic downturn. In fact, ecommerce as a whole had a phenomenal showing in the 2010 holiday shopping season, due to this deal-seeking behavior. Despite the fact that more and more consumers turned to the Internet to fulfill their shopping needs, businesses like Groupon and LivingSocial flourished. Their model is unique in that it provide a way for local brick-and-mortar businesses to profit from the public's deal-seeking behavior and allows the public to benefit from the convenience of online purchasing (not to mention huge savings).
Local Deals: What's the Big Deal?
Ever since the Internet and ecommerce started stealing business from real-world stores, there have been advertising campaigns encouraging consumers to "think local," and turn to local retailers to satisfy their needs. The lower prices and greater selection provided by ecommerce retailers continued to keep customers shopping online.
However, the restaurant and consumer services sector remained unique as a market that could not be easily satisfied (if at all) via the Internet. How then, could these business owners use the Internet to boost their own revenues? Enter Groupon, LivingSocial, and their ilk (Tippr, Fab.com, Chirpme.com, and many others). These sites partner with local retailers to provide one extremely good deal (50% - 90% off) per day (or sometimes longer), if enough people agree to take advantage of the deal. This allows business owners to calculate the minimum necessary participate from consumers in order to make the deal worthwhile to them. Everybody wins, because consumers typically spend more than the value of the coupon they purchase.
Local Commerce: How Can It Work for Me?
In the beginngings on ecommerce, many brick-and-mortar businesses turned to the Web to stay current, but didn't really know how to make it work for them. Over time this relationship evolved, giving consumers capabilities that they never had before, allowing them to check product specs, price, and availability at a given store location before going their to pick it up, sometimes even being able to pay for it online first. With a primarilty ecommerce-driven store, the model is almost reversed: entrepreneurs who exist primarily in the virtual world are looking for a way to tap into the desire of consumers to support their local businesses.
If you don't have a brick-and-mortar store of any kind, be sure to find stores around you that have an ecommerce presence and make yourself a part of their landscape. Friend them on Facebook and follow them on Twitter (try to get them to friend and follow you back). If you have a blog and they have a blog, offer to trade some blog posts and/or links, and/or placement on each others' blogrolls (that's a list of friendly blogs that people keep on the front page of their blogs). Try to meet these other business owners in person and get your adversiting material up in their physical shops. Always be looking for ways to make this a two-way street. If you have a strong online presence and someone you know with a strong physical presence lacks one, offer a partnership that allows you to each leverage what you are best at.
Think virtual -- go local!