Velfix explains, through Lolita Moda, one of the town’s oldest retailers in Noia, Galicia, how the integration of software oriented toward online selling allows doubling sales not only online but also through physical stores.
“When we decided at Lolita Moda to integrate software that would gradually give us access to the major marketplaces, we discovered that, in parallel, we also had to expand our product catalog in the physical stores, selling products that, previously, were off-limits,” explains Pablo Hermo, head of e-commerce at Grupo Lolita Moda.
Although, from the Galician Federation of Commerce, its president José María Seijas notes that “the biggest challenge for local retail is being able to compete with the large online selling platforms (….) by operating under unequal and more favorable conditions,” for Pablo Hermo, “the Velfix software has allowed us to sell much more in each physical store and, in addition, to grow a lot in online sales, reaching €7,000 in monthly online sales through the digital channel.”
Understanding the Customer
For Pablo, the key to growing digital sales lies in understanding the customer. “And this is something we can sustain whether we’re selling to Noia residents through our physical stores or through marketplaces among users in neighboring communities who opt to shop online because they know us firsthand.”
Organic growth in e-commerce allows physical stores to grow, since expanding stock and buying more brands for the online environment also broadens the product catalog in the physical stores.
Since the pandemic in 2020, a premise arose that many neighborhood shops believed online commerce would spell the end of the small local store. However, the reality is that the integration of online sales into these small brick-and-mortar businesses did nothing but double sales, whether by expanding stock or by selling a greater share of the same products.
The keys to omnichannel success must include a real-time stock synchronization across the physical store, the online store, and marketplaces; having a simplified management system that centralizes day-to-day operations and avoids scattered tools; and making it as modular as possible to allow scaling according to the specific needs of each store.
