Today at IRCE, Yahoo Small Business revealed findings from a
recently conducted consumer survey, highlighting new opportunities for SMB
retailers to meet the evolving preferences of consumers when it comes to
shopping online so they can better keep up with their larger competitors. In a
time when consumers can choose from a wide range of online retailers, it’s
important that SMBs understand what they need to do to actively compete against
larger retailers online.
The good news: a vast majority of shoppers (75 percent of
those surveyed) want to shop at and support small businesses. However, 63
percent of consumers feel they get better prices and value at larger retailers.
Clearly, consumers appreciate the small business experience, and smaller
retailers should flex their muscles on what make them unique, but they also
need to ensure they are creating opportunities to provide value in the same way
as their larger competitors.
The survey findings also highlight areas for SMBs to focus
on as they seek to better compete against larger retailers:
- Marketing and promotion: Familiarity with
retailer was the top factor influencing whether a consumer would shop small
(selected by 38 percent of respondents). Regular marketing, together with
promotions and discounts, helps smaller retailers not only ensure they remain
top of mind for potential customers, but also that they are getting the value
they demand. - Expertise in their field: Nearly
one-third of consumers said they will choose a small retailer over a larger one
because of their expertise in their market or their knowledge of the products
that they are selling. - Human touch: Even on digital platforms,
human touch is important – 38 percent of those surveyed feel large retailers
lack personal touch, and 37 percent still want to speak to someone directly
when shopping online. - Payment choice: More than one-third of
respondents (38 percent) said it’s very important for them to have a range of
payment options to choose from when shopping online. - Stay ahead of the tech curve: Outdated
and inefficient websites/payment options were identified as a gripe by shoppers
twice as often at smaller retailers (26 percent) versus larger ones (13 percent). - Keeping customers and their data safe:
Security continues to be a top concern for shoppers, whether shopping at large or
small retailers – more than one-third of respondents identified this as worry for
both large and small retailers.
New Yahoo Small Business services empower SMB retailers
The message is clear: small retailers can compete with
larger ones, as long as they have the tools to do so!
Yahoo Small Business is committed to helping small retailers
maximize their online potential and recently launched a range of new features to
its ecommerce platform, in addition to new features from its developer partners.
These updates are specifically designed to make it easy for small businesses to
scale their operations and deliver a customer experience more in line with what
they’re used to experiencing with large internet retailers.
Key among these are:
- More
payment options: Seamless
integration with PayPal Smart Buttons allows merchants to intelligently
customize payment options for their customers. For the first time, this will
introduce Venmo as a payment option on the Yahoo Small Business platform. New
APIs also allow online merchants to utilize custom payments and work with additional
payment processors of their choice. - Expanded
subscription and promotion services: Enhanced subscription capabilities
let customers schedule orders for items they regularly need, with the ability
to offer discounts. Additionally, new promotion services let merchants easily offer
instant and timer-based discounts, flash sales, buy-one-get-one-free promotions
and more, simplifying the creation, scheduling and execution of promotions similar
to large online retailers. - Improved
marketing tools: A new range of customizable designs streamlines
the process of building custom, branded HTML email templates for personalized
communications throughout the customer journey, for everything from order
confirmation and shipping status to gift certificates and sale notifications. - Navigating
new tax complexities: With new legislation, the onus is now
on small retailers to figure out how to collect taxes from some 15,000
different taxing jurisdictions in the U.S. This new feature helps sellers to simplify
the process by integrating third party solutions for sales tax management. - Expanding
reach through other leading retailers’ platforms: A web-based
multi-channel order management system helps smaller retailers expand their
reach and manage orders across the platforms of leading retailers – including
Amazon, Lowe’s, Hayneedle, Home Depot and Walmart.
Yahoo Small Business has also introduced improved security
delivered via an end-to-end SSL, advanced order exports for faster delivery of
data, and additional developer tools for new ecommerce services.
With these new features, Yahoo Small Business is changing
the game for small retailers and committed to helping small businesses compete
with their larger competitors like never before. To learn more, please visit Yahoo Small Business.
Methodology: Survey
was conducted online among 1,008 consumers in the United States, age 18 and
over, between June 10-12, 2019.
