In the era of Internet, shoppers will research information online about products that they want to buy before going to a physical store to make a purchase. On the contrary, some will go the store first to select and examine the product and then make the purchase online. This buying style of involving both digital and physical browsing of goods provides customers with a more convenient and enhanced shopping experience.

Being able to shop 24/7 and offering convenience to avoid crowds and cashier lineups, online shopping is particularly popular among young people who prefer to shop from home. Although e-commerce shopping continues to grow rapidly, in a compact city like Hong Kong people still prefer in-store shopping where they can see, touch, feel and try out products before committing to a purchase.

O2O Retail Strategy

A survey on online shop penetration found that only 29% of small and medium-sized retailers carried out O2O commerce. But, in the past 3 years the pandemic pushed more people to buy goods or services online. Retailers without online presence should stay alert that shoppers may finally embrace e-commerce which delivers a pleasant customer service experience.

Retailers today start doing business online and offline, hoping to sell in more places at the same time, should consider integrating POS with online shop. This will help retailers to monitor inventory real time and avoid over-selling. Customers will also have choices of picking up goods at store or getting them by delivery. Smart POS also helps retailers to consolidate member information, whether it comes from online or offline, so that retailers can have a holistic view of customers and business. Retailers can leverage this data to uncover insights and formulate effective cross-channel promotion and discount campaigns, helping to generate greater sales results and improve customer experience.

Shopify, an international e-commerce platform, helps retailers set up online store, handle payments and secure shipping, to start selling anywhere easily.

To succeed in the future of online shopping, retailers need to integrate virtual and real online and offline selling in a timely manner to help improve sales efficiency.