Many local retailers have for a long time stuck to a business model based on getting more customers into their stores. In recent years though, this model has been challenged by advances in technology and logistics, enabling customers to procure goods and services at any hour and without stepping out of the house.

The pandemic has forced local businesses, most of which are small enterprises, to quickly catch up in trying to provide a competitive e-commerce experience to their customers.

The EU statistics office has found Malta has the most significant number of enterprises which, due to COVID, increased their efforts to sell goods or services online in 2020.

Malta Chamber of SMEs CEO Abigail Agius Mamo expressed her satisfaction at how local retailers are changing their business model to meet consumers’ expectations. She also observed: “The change was driven mostly by necessity, so those who opted for quick fixes to safeguard their business must now focus on the long term.”

Few doubt that the e-commerce trend is not just here to stay but will continue to expand and evolve. Consumers will continue to look for retailers that offer the facility to buy their products online and get them delivered to their homes quickly and conveniently.

The Bolt and Wolt phenomenon attests to this. But this applies even to those items that are less than ideal to purchase online, from big pieces of furniture and white goods to clothing and perishable groceries.

So what makes for a good e-commerce experience? Local retailers would do well to study the results of social research carried out in Europe and the US on the elements that contribute to the success of internet trading. A number of studies confirm that the most critical qualities that consumers look for are the speed and stability of an online

purchase. If a site does not load quickly and remain stable, consumers will not stick around to engage with anything else a retailer has to offer. Unfortunately, many local retailers, including banks, still run websites that are too slow and sometimes unstable.

But perhaps the most significant weakness of many local sites is inadequate pricing. Too many fail to provide numbers or hide them behind registrations, sign-ups and other barriers. Most consumers care deeply about the price of a product. And most shoppers look at prices on multiple sites.

Another common flaw is that, in a misguided attempt to limit the investment cost of a good website, some local retailers fail to include an in-depth product description.

They forget that in this age of online reviews, a lot of shoppers like to get as much information as they can before they press the “buy” button. The more discerning consumer will avoid sites which offer descriptions that are too sparse and do not answer the most obvious questions about the products or services on sale.

Local retailers thinking of investing in a clicks-and-bricks business model can benefit from the physical size of the local market. Home deliveries can be much faster than in larger countries, for example – yet all too often those deliveries take days or weeks to be made.

While delivery vehicles contribute to traffic congestion, on the other hand, buyers don’t have to worry about traffic and parking if they purchase something online, so that takes cars off the roads – a win-win situation.

It is good news that local retailers are belatedly embracing the myriad advantages of e-commerce. The more successful ones will be those who avoid taking the customer for granted.