DW's Blog
Out Locally-ing the Real Locals!
by DW Green — March 4, 2015
It’s well documented that consumers prefer shopping a locally owned retail store to a national or regional chain store. But being locally owned, in and of itself, is not reason enough to maintain a long-term business relationship with consumers. A local retailer needs to minimally match the national or regional retailer in terms of its product offering, quality, customer service, store cleanliness and other operational considerations like product presentation, signage, stock conditions and so forth. From my perspective, the local company should strive to exceed operational standards of its larger size retail brethren.
Aside from the many “financial benefits” of supporting a local business, as described in Adam Zack’s “In Support of REAL Local” blog, the underlying benefit or “reason to believe” in local businesses is the deeper emotional connection that consumers hold for their local community. This emotionality is enhanced by the authenticity of the local retailer. Authenticity is expressed through merchandising and messaging, local knowledge and wisdom and high levels of employee customer interaction.
It is disappointing that Whole Foods out locals the local retailer with in-store signage, messaging and décor. Let the DW Green Company help you express your local advantage to your customers.
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