Michael Myers

The brick & mortar website: 10 ways to plug location into your site.

In #Facebook, #location
03/14/2011
3 Min read
T

Last week I posted about the future of websites as essentially being a database sending data out to a businesses outposts on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc and then I posted about businesses who have brick and mortar outlets having a distinct advantage over purely online businesses. This got me thinking about what a website with location built into its DNA (so to speak) may look like. I came up with the following list.

  1. Real time inventory shown on in-store map – This requires RFID and then pushing that data to the web, but it would make for an interesting in-store map. Maybe the items you’re most interested in are highlighted. On-site search results could be really cool.
  2. Show those who’ve checked in – Show those that have checked in to your location and any sentiment they’ve left.
  3. Show those who’ve tweeted from your location and what they said. – Enough said.
  4. Scheduled tweetups and Swarm Badge parties- If you have events at  your location – and you should – featuring them on your site is no brainer. Again, localizing your site is what we’re talking about.
  5. Live in-store video feed – Lots of businesses do this and it’s a great way to make people familiar with your store. In a passive way. Also, getting people to check out your location during one of your events would be a gerat way to get foot traffic. If Tattered Cover featured this when they had authors in, I’d definitely watch the talks if I couldn’t make it in person.
  6. Check-in based loyalty programs – Talk about the check-in based loyalty programs you offer through Gowalla and Foursquare. You do offer check-in based loyalty programs don’t you?
  7. Ability to call from the computer – Many of us have widgets installed such as Skype that let us make calls from our computer and more specifically, our browser. I now think of this as a must. (It would be fun to call in and see on the live video feed the person answer the phone.)
  8. Leader boards for check-in based services – When someone checks in on Shopkick, Foursquare, Gowalla, Whrrl, etc, you should feature them on your site. People love games and love to win. Let them show off on your site.
  9. Reviews by service, Yelp, CityGuide, Foursquare – A way to see reviews by peers for that store. (They already have this on Google Place pages. Just need to scrape it and place on your site.
  10. Virtual store tour – I’m not talking about the craptacular experience that virtual tours were in the mid 2000s. In fact, I’m not sure I’ve seen what I have in mind but it would be nice to get a tour of the store; hold the cheese.

Now. How this looks on a mobile site, is the challenge. Eventually, all of this will be built out for your Facebook presence and iPad app, but until then you could work out the kinks. Make it a ongoing project for yourself and those that frequent your location.

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By Michael Myers 03/14/2011
45 comments
Michael Myers