I have recently opened a hardware store and my friends and family constantly keep telling me that I need to get a website up quickly.
As someone who doesn’t consider himself to be “tech savvy”, I fail to see the point in having one as I get enough traffic through my “plain” brick-and-mortar storefront.
Some questions for small business owners who already have a website or plan to get one would be:
What is your reasoning for creating your website?
Why not use Amazon, Shopify, or a similar platform?
Was it profitable?
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I mean… You could make a landing page (a one page website) for free with something like wix. Then sign up for Google business and point that profile to your site. But in the end. Everyone will look at Google. Ask your family and friends to give you five stars and a review. If you’re selling hardware you don’t need to build a community. You just need to sell a dude some screws. They don’t care about that. But they may look for “hardware stores near me” and you should have a web presence for thay. Signing up and getting listed with Google business is free. If you’re not tech savvy have someone help. Should take like 20 minutes.
You can make a Google business page for free if you just want to provide GPS location, hours and a phone number.
It’s free and they have a free marketing class on how to set it up. If you search Google digital garage marketing it comes up. It tries to get you to buy a Google ad campaign but it’s not required.
If you’re not gonna sell anything online there’s no point to a website. Just make a Google business page and maybe a Facebook business page if people still use that in your area.
The good part about the Google page is if someone types hardware store in their GPS you come up and it says if you’re open.
Our website is very basic. It’s one page about what we do and a contact us form. We’ll probably expand on it over time as we expand.
We did it because we already had the domain. We had the domain for our email addresses.
Nothing sketches me out more than a business that uses @gmail, @hotmail, etc. It just feels like you don’t take your business seriously enough to spend $50 and 2 hours on it, so why should I?
As a few others have mentioned. Simple solution is a google listing with accurate hours, a Facebook page with accurate hours.
Unless you’re wanting to hire someone to manage a website for you I don’t see a use case here. Source: former web designer.
Unless you plan on doing e-commerce. In which case you’d need an employee to handle shipping and fulfillment. Modern Point of Sales like Lightspeed manage inventory as well and it integrates with Shopify. EG: You have 5 Ryobi drills in stock. I buy one via your website, your inventory auto updates showing 4 in stock.
But if online sales are not a concern then I think you’re ok to not have a website.
I can go online and see if Home Depot has what I need. If I can’t see that you have the same item I’ll likely just go where I know I can easily get it rather than risk wasting my time wandering through your store.
You say you have steady foot traffic without a website. What is the demographic of a majority of those people? I am going to assume older 55+? The older demographic is use to going to the hardware store to find stuff. The younger demographic wants to go online and make sure you have it instock and the price.
You need a website with live inventory tracking, that you will need to pay someone to design. If you just have some cheap website that says your hours and phone number people will just find a hardware store that has a good website.
Too look professional
If your customers don’t come from online channels, and you don’t expect that to change any time soon, you don’t need a website.
BUT having a website and having online presence are not the same thing.
We are a hostel / BnB / Bar. Our customers come from sites like Booking, word of mouth and local marketing (WhatsApp and Facebook). We collate reviews via a business profile on Google.
None of our guests come from searching for us online,.or searching things like ‘what are some good hostels in San Cristobal’ so we don’t need a website, just social media and a profile on popular booking sites.
Don’t listen to people who tell you EVERYONE NEEDS A WEBSITE. They’re repeating platitudes or trying to sell you something. CONTEXT is everything in business.
You only need a website if your (potential) customers are using the internet to find/purchase whatever it is you offer, and even then, aggregators (like Booking.com) are usually more valuable for client flow than your own, self hosted site.
Finally, ask yourself, if you DID have a website, how would customers find it? What’s going to get traffic to your page? Is the profit from that traffic going to cover its cost of generation? If you don’t have a good answer to how customers will find your site, and you’re not sure that this is how they WANT to interact with your business, it’s not worth the time or money.
NOW, let’s say you’re currently doing fine with foot traffic but you want to open up a new market, online, with new customers with a different archetype to your foot traffic - that’s totally cool. In this instance, just note that you need a marketing plan - look into startup metrics for pirates. You need to attract potential customers and convert them. All this takes time and money, so if you’re going to do it, do it intentionally. Aim to succeed 🤙🏼
If I’m new to the area and I’m looking for a hardware store, I’m going to Google. If your store pops up as a Google listing but no website, I wouldn’t be entirely sure it’s legit. So I’d look for a website to confirm hours and any services you offer or signature brands you partner with. Maybe I need keys made and you do that, that would be great to know ahead of time. Maybe I need keys made but you don’t do that, I’ll go to your store, be annoyed I need to find somewhere else and remember that next time I need a hardware store.
My biggest pet peeve with small businesses is ones who don’t make their hours of operation accessible online. Your website doesn’t need much but it should tell potential customers you exist, what you offer and when you’re open.
This. You need a Google Maps (local) listing and a website on it. The website can be simple and informative. Hours, some key stuff that you do. A couple nice pictures of the building inside and out, etc. Doesn’t need to be e-commerce in this case.
The Google maps listing is basically the phone book of the 2020s. If you don’t exist there, you don’t exist.
New customers have found me though i have no website and literally no digital presence other than what gets scraped by normal means. They can call my phone.
You are online right now, aren’t you? Yet you don’t think your business needs to be.
Given that you are a hardware store, the biggest advantage to you is that having a website wouldn’t be for the digital billboard. It would actually be to create an e-commerce (hardware store). Basically, this would be the process of creating an online store that stands out from the competition, shows off your brand, and gets you extra sales. This would allow you to make sales for your hardware business 24/7 and not just when you are physically in the store. Additionally to this, it is still acting like a digital billboard. When it comes to the digital space, being omni present is very important. You want to be seen before your competitors so that the customer picks you first.
My company works on websites, web apps, mobile apps, and all things design. If you would like more personalized insights and tips for your business, we frequently offer free advice and help through our free consultation calls. In this call, we establish what would move your business forward.
(Not trying to advertise, just trying to help. You do not need to buy anything)
I wish you luck on your business!
Gives you more credibility.
Google maps local listing would be the top priority reason.
Really it is to make as much equal between you and your general competitors, and then to beat out our immediate competitors.
If there are 10 small hardware stores with no website, having a website will instantly put you into a different category of appeal for your customers. Now you’re with the other small stores with websites.
Look at it like climbing a ladder.
Having a website is a tool for your business, something to be invested in, much like the tools that you sell.
You can buy a good drill or a bad drill. But you can also be good bits and bad bits, specialty bits, good batteries and bad, good chargers and bad, etc.
I’m surrounded by small towns, with small hardware stores, and big box hardware stores about an hour away. I don’t want to go to the big box stores, but my small ones have no way for me to check online to see if they even carry what I need.
I don’t need to see an entire inventory, I just need to know if you carry lumber? Plumbing materials? Insulation?, I’ll spare a 15 minute drive to go and browse as long as I know atleast a category I need is there.
Why don’t I just call? I don’t want to call because a phone call takes more of my time that googling you, then click your website. I can press those buttons while I’m doing all the other things I have to get done in my life (since people these days are generally busy).
Anyway, that’s my thoughts and where I’d start. You don’t need a fully fleshed out e-commerce site yet.