Won’t a website hurt my sales team?

By Anastasia Stefanova, AVB Marketing

In this four-part series we explore member concerns around pricing furniture and adding payment gateways online.

With Google often being the first stop on the furniture shopper’s journey, it’s more important than ever to provide transparent pricing and an easy checkout process online.

This key ingredient in the sales process is a cost-effective way to boost revenue, track and streamline marketing efforts, improve customer satisfaction and gain market share. Yet some furniture retailers are still hesitatant adding pricing online or payment gateways to their websites. 

Legitimate concerns about competitors with razor-thin margins, sales team incentives and other fears preclude the independent dealer from providing transparent online pricing and payment options. In their effort to stay competitive, they keep their cards close to the vest in order to own the sales process, but quite the opposite is actually being achieved.

In Part I of this series, we stressed the essential role that websites play in furniture retail today, while in Part II we showed the importance of transparent pricing. Below, we’re going to cover another common concern expressed by non-transactional BrandSource members and offer insight into why it is surmountable.

Member Concern: If orders are coming in through the website, that means less foot traffic and fewer opportunities for my sales team. How will I incentivize them if I’m closing sales online?

Actually, handling the sales that come from the website would still fall on the sales team. Invoices generated during the online sales process can be disbursed among your sales team as you deem appropriate. Some members choose to give the commissions to their slowest sales resources while others choose to disburse them evenly across the team. Various sales incentives can still be incorporated at this level.

As far as store traffic, both in-store and online shoppers will use your website at the beginning of the sales journey. However, the main driver for someone who wants to actually purchase online is convenience. This type of shopper does not want to come into a store. When this customer does not find payment options on a website, they move on to a retail furniture site that does — sometimes even at the risk of not getting the exact piece they want.

It is likely that this type of customer will never make it into your store, whether you allow for a way to purchase online or not. This means that this sale will be lost, vs. persuaded to come in to be sold by the sales team.

In the same sense, a customer who wants to touch and feel the product will be unlikely to purchase online, even if you provide a way for them to do so. However, they often want to browse the inventory and pricing online before coming in, to get an idea of what to expect from the retailer. If they don’t find a way to compare pricing, browse and explore product, then you risk sending this potential in-store customer to your competitor as well. Providing transparent pricing online allows this customer to make an educated decision, and leaves the door open for them to come see your sales team in the store.

The bottom line is that the online shopper is different than the in-store shopper, and adding payment options on your site will actually boost your foot traffic by appealing to the exploring customer, while also allowing you to capture the business of those who wish to shop from home — thus leading to an overall increase in revenue from both channels. Rather than taking away from your sales team, you can drive more foot traffic to them. 

Not pricing your website is actually contributing to the complete opposite of what we wish to achieve! Rather than driving people to the store, we are driving them right into the hands of your competitors.

If you’d like to learn more about how pricing your website or adding a payment gateway might improve your business, contact me or your dedicated AVB Marketing account representative.

Anastasia Stefanova is director of marketing/home furnishings at AVB Marketing, the advertising, e-commerce and digital marketing arm of YSN publisher AVB BrandSource. Contact Ana at Anastasia.Stefanova@avb.net.

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