Sports store: an online store is a must

Anyone who runs a stinkin' sports store or retail store these days needs an online store with concrete offers and special deals from the store. Those who do not run an online store will probably harm themselves.

Nowadays, the customer makes the purchase decision online
It is not a question of setting up a large e-commerce business. Small retailers have not yet had great success with this in Switzerland. The online store takes on a completely different and important function for the customer. It offers customers the opportunity to "virtually" visit the store and take a look at what the retailer has to offer. The online store is the store's showcase in the virtual public sphere. Customer behavior has changed fundamentally in this regard. People used to step into the store and look around to see what the store had to offer and what the prices were. They also went there for advice, which influenced their buying decision. But nowadays, the consumer gets the information about a product on the Internet and also compares the prices of the stores online. Today, the customer's decision to buy is often already made on the Internet or when visiting the website of a retailer and its store. Retailers who do not communicate such offers and do not have an online store therefore run a great risk of simply not being taken into account in the customer's buying decision and of falling out of the selection. The online store is therefore an important instrument for making the customer's choice.

The great trouble of small sports stores
Small retailers in particular have great difficulty keeping up with this development and meeting these requirements due to the high effort involved and the frequent lack of know-how. Many retailers who have had to close up store in the recent past lacked such an extensive online presence. It is also not uncommon to see that younger competitors in particular have a healthy understanding of this buying behavior, whereas semesters that grew up with the previous shopping behavior find it difficult to realize, understand, accept and adapt to this changed behavior.

Requirements for retailers downright unreasonable
Many homepages of small sports stores are sometimes a real disaster when viewed from a current perspective, because they are outdated, design-wise outdated and merely a kind of virtual address of the store without having any greater benefit for the consumer. As long as the owners of such stores have not understood that they have to adapt to the new times and deliver such online concepts, they run the risk of going under and the public will soon be told of their closure. However, it must also be clearly stated that the requirements for small businesses to be successful in competition have become downright unreasonably high. Online, even local businesses are competing against a perceived billion competitors on the Internet with the means made for a fight in the local environment. As a result, small retailers often have no chance. Free unchecked competition on the Internet is simply unfair to small stores. Online shopping, which has become the norm, therefore also destroys local structures and culture as long as these are not protected or supported.

Small sports stores and retail stores can therefore only be advised to adapt their business to today's consumer expectations, install a modern online store and get politically involved to protect and defend themselves against the overwhelming power of Internet competition, if they have the desire and the time to do so.