E-commerce website, marketplace, home delivery... which solutions to choose?

Create your e-commerce site to keep your business going? Joining forces with other merchants to create a common marketplace? What are the alternatives to keep the link with customers? These are many questions that merchants have been asking themselves since the beginning of the confinement.

For retailers with a physical point of sale, the Covid-19 epidemic has caused a strong slowdown, or even a total shutdown of their activity, with an additional problem of managing existing stocks. In addition to closed shops, some retailers were forced to close their doors due to a lack of visitors.

And what if digital was the solution to be able to continue an activity during this pandemic? Many methods have emerged in recent weeks: e-commerce site, common marketplace, home deliveries, drive-through, vouchers. But it is still necessary for retailers to know where to start and to be familiar with existing digital tools.

Launch your e-commerce site

Many platforms such as Prestashop, Epicery, Shopify but also Cdiscount now offer to help merchants by setting up a turnkey solution of online site operational in 24 hours. All impacted companies can use these different services and even beyond the confines of the confines of the site. The online payment services are included, the only thing left for the merchants to do is to manage the delivery or collection in store.

Numerous applications have been created, including Youseeme, which allows the creation of an online store in 20 minutes. Sponsorships between experienced and novice e-merchants are always born to help in the implementation and development of their new activity.

Co-create a local marketplace

Another flagship solution that is emerging everywhere is the local marketplace.

The idea? Several merchants with related activities come together to offer their products on a single online platform. This can take the form of common baskets that can be picked up on the drive or delivered. Find out from the merchants in your neighbourhood or from the Chamber of Commerce and Industry in your region if a platform has been set up to which you could link.

The Ollca platform, with more than 400 subscribing merchants, has long specialised in this solution. It offers a complete solution to retailers to help them take the digital turn: creation of an online shop, product shooting, online publishing and bike deliveries by the platform.

Setting up home delivery

Home delivery is by far the solution most used by closed businesses since the beginning of containment (bars, restaurants) to find an alternative to their loss of goods and turnover.

Above all, it is necessary to define a new card made up of ingredients in stock, choose containers, communicate on social networks, and use delivery platforms such as Deliveroo, Uber Eats, Just Eat...). Delivery can be done internally if you have the capacity.

Warning: check the conditions of each platform before making your choice.

Propose take away sale

The other means put in place by merchants to get out of it is the take-away sale (drive-through). Whether it is due to a drop in influence in your shop or the opposite effect preventing you from ensuring the minimum security rules, take-away sales are more and more present. You don't need an online shop, just communicate with your customers via social networks or by mailing your new offer and prepare the orders. You will still have to organize yourself to respect safety distances for withdrawals, manage your logistics and set limits so that you don't explode in mid-air.

Other solutions are emerging little by little. This is the case of the platform support merchants-artisans.fr which offers to order vouchers to be used from registered merchants as soon as the confinement ends. How does it work? The consumer orders his voucher that he can use all year round and the money is immediately paid to the merchant. This is a real boost for the merchants' cash flow.

Admittedly, all these solutions are not miraculous, but they allow merchants to ensure a link with their customers, gain visibility and reach new consumers.

"It's now or never to get started. Businesses that are already on the Internet before containment are the best equipped to resist. The others are unfortunately invisible. "says Stéphanie Durand, president of the Saint-Nazaire Shopping association.