Today, it’s hard to imagine shopping without the help of ratings and reviews about the products and services. According to consumer research conducted by Deloitte and Touche LLP, the majority of shoppers (around 75%) use reviews to discover and evaluate products. From food and beverage and apparel, to health and beauty, reviews play an important role in the buying process for customers.
Shoppers today not only view ratings before they make a purchase, but also leave a review after they have purchased and used a product. Studies show that the number of reviews submitted increased nearly 11% year over year since 2019. With reviews, shoppers are not only converting faster, but are known to spend more money too. This lift in revenues per visitor has seen a steep rise in recent years. But, increasing sales and profits aren’t the only thing that reviews can improve for your business. Brand retailers have reported that reviews have an impact beyond the product pages online. Many times a good review directly converts into increased in-store sales too.
A vast majority of shoppers research products online before going to the store to purchase them. Consumers often turn to ratings and reviews when they are in the decision making phase of the final purchase. Reading a positive review from an existing customer gives them the confidence that the product they chose is working well for others too. Studies have also shown that reviews have the ability to influence consumers to buy a more expensive product than they had planned.
Don’t forget to check: Gain Greater Business Reach With Lokaly Buyer App
You may be surprised to find that it’s not only the positive reviews that influence purchases. Many shoppers say that negative reviews are just as important in their decision to buy. It helps them build a pros and cons list (mentally, subconsciously) and the final decision to buy a product is based on complete information. This increases their confidence in their purchase and your product.
Having reviews displayed on your site is a great first step to winning over your customers. It improves one of the most valuable assets a business can have in today’s retail landscape – trustworthiness.
“Restaurants are Looking Beyond…”, says an article by The Economic Times. Restaurants are now adopting platforms that charge lesser commission fees compared to dominant food aggregators. Asking for high commission and masking consumers’ data, restaurants are moving to marketplace-based platforms. These changes (aka savings from hefty commission %) will be rewarded to consumers as discounts on their online orders. This is going to enable a more modest and effective model – Direct to Consumer (D2C).
When businesses opting for ready-made solutions, where they can save cost, get access to their consumers’ data and manage online business easily. Lokaly is a ready-made and transparent solution for small to large businesses. Lokaly has partnered with 30+ restaurants based in Ahmedabad. Also, Lokaly has developed solutions for some famous brands in the USA. Lokaly provides free trial and support to sellers to know the platform better.
eCommerce has been around for quite some time now, but mCommerce has recently taken a dominating place. Mobile internet usage has exceeded desktop usage by 51% and over two-thirds of the world population owns a smartphone. As more and more people adopt smartphones, mobile commerce too accounts for a significant portion of the eCommerce market.
Evidently, mobile commerce or mCommerce is the future and businesses are hopping on the bandwagon to take advantage of this exponential growth. Well, the Majority of the customers are spending more and more time on mobile phones and mCommerce is the one way businesses can reach them – directly.
How can Lokaly keep you ready for a mobile future?
Lokaly is a mCommerce platform which enables store owners to quickly and conveniently create a mobile store and start selling! Moving from brick and mortar stores to a mobile commerce store was a huge challenge – simply because creating a strong and robust backend and a ready to use frontend was both times consuming and pricy. Many local stores and businesses hesitated to even think about the mobile option. But, Lokaly eliminates any hesitation the users may have while taking the leap from bricks to clicks.
Lokaly enables local departmental stores to quickly go mobile and reach out to their mobile customers. It also has convenient features for maintaining a khata (credit) for regular customers.
There’s no doubt that mobile is the future – not only for eCommerce but also for all businesses. The sooner businesses work on mobile solutions the better prepared they will be for the future. If you are a local business looking for a ready mobile commerce solution, take a look at our ready to go live product – Lokaly!
When you are a local business, you have a regionally marked territory and seldom get customers beyond a certain point. Every store has one-time customers and then there are regulars – who order weekly or monthly. It’s a great business model and a very certain business strategy. But, with all that, there are still limitations on how you can retain customers as well as gain new ones. Local stores are rarely a monopoly – there is always competition in the vicinity. So, how do you ensure that your customers get the ‘delight’, the ‘ease’, and the ‘convenience’ that a local store can or must offer?
Well, Lokaly has the answer to this plea. Lokaly is an E-Commerce application for local departmental stores and businesses. Stores can easily create their account, and avail all the features – just like a mobile app would.
Each sale is now on a digital platform. The seller can then introduce a khata system where loyal customers receive store credit. You can also check analytics to understand how your business is going. The app also has integrated features for payment reminders and ready for pickup notifications.
Once the decision is made – to move from bricks to clicks, it’s just about choosing the right platform for setting up your online or mobile store!
The year 2020 saw unprecedented circumstances and businesses were forced to innovate or close down. Those who chose to innovate and keep up with the demands of the time – survived. Technology has always been an enabler for forward thinking businesses and in tough times technology enabled businesses to stay afloat. Well, Lokaly has been one such technology solution that enabled local businesses to keep going in times of crisis. It enabled them to keep in touch with their customers, engage with them and more importantly allow users to make purchases and place orders online. In a world where distancing has become a good thing, Lokaly managed to not only help businesses survive but some of them even thrived.
Lokaly keeps adding new and innovative features to help businesses further their goals. Here are some of the latest updates to the mobile app that stood by you when the world was locked down.
We are happy to announce some of the new features:
With new features rolling in, businesses can upgrade their app and install the new updates and leverage from their benefits!
Local businesses are the ones that took the initial hit of the pandemic and the subsequent lockdown. Restaurant businesses especially thrive on the number of customers that walk into the door. The situation demanded that businesses make themselves more accessible to customers and serve their needs. This is only possible by offering easy ordering services, safe distancing and online payments and such features that keep customers in touch with your business.
Setting up a restaurant online and reaching out to customers is the key to keep business afloat during times of crisis. Lokaly is one of the online spaces where local businesses such as restaurants can quickly setup shop and begin serving their customers.
With Lokaly, restaurants can:
When it comes to hyper local businesses such as restaurants, trust plays a very important role and restaurants can benefit by taking charge of the situation and keeping customers well informed about their opening hours as well as their newly added online food delivery services. Customers to understand and trust a familiar name and it will help you not only keep your existing customers, but also create an entirely new avenue for customers to come flooding in – the mobile way!
Get your restaurant online instantly with Lokaly!
Language does connect people and Lokaly believes it. Lokaly connects the local Businesses to their Customers to easily and quickly order items from their stores. Lokaly is available in local languages so that you can deliver a personalized experience to your Customers. Having access to the app in Customer’s native language makes them feel comfortable and more convenient with the brand. Customers can easily choose the preferred language and take advantage of all the amazing features of Lokaly.
