At a time when the web is sometimes viewed as unfair competition for physical shops, the question of new challenges in marketing strategy is more relevant than ever. In this all-digital era, traditional retailers with a network of points of sale must adapt to consumers, who increasingly rely on digital tools to make their purchases. Indeed, did you know that 46% of Google searches are aimed at finding a local business1 ? Hence the importance of a strategy designed to address these new buying behaviours, as well as equipping yourself with a web-to-store solution to help drive footfall to your physical stores.
| 👉 Article updated in July 2026. |
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Web-to-store is a term that encompasses all online actions driving internet users to buy in-store: this expression naturally integrates new cross-channel consumption habits and stands out as a key element of any point-of-sale marketing strategy. Also known as a drive-to-store strategy, the main objective is to bring consumers into—and back to—your various points of sale via all the digital tools at your disposal, thereby boosting your sales.
According to a Wavestone study¹ conducted in 20171, 88% of consumers shop in-store at least once a week. Their purchases are nevertheless often preceded by research on the internet. Today's consumer leverages the web to refine their product knowledge and ensure they make the right choice. Consequently, local SEO and online visibility become paramount for retailers. This is essential when you consider that 92% of internet users select a business whose website appears on the first page of local SERPs. We therefore recommend having a store locator on your website to highlight your various outlets.
According to the same Wavestone study, the main reasons consumers use the internet to prepare a purchase are:
Following the information-gathering phase on mobile or desktop, consumers generally complete their buying journey in-shop, where they can receive tailored advice and try on or test the product. Given this phenomenon, the web should no longer be viewed as a competitor, but rather as a complementary ally offering sophisticated capabilities, particularly within a professional marketing strategy.
Web-to-store, also known as ROPO (Research Online, Purchase Offline), is therefore the strategy to put in place to guarantee both brand visibility and qualified footfall in-store.
According to the 2016 FEVAD study, 40% of merchants who implemented a web-to-store strategy saw both an expansion of their catchment area and an increase in their in-store turnover. Proof that web-to-store really works!
The challenge is therefore as follows: generate interest among prospects online (for instance, by working on your local SEO, your Location pages, etc.) and make their in-store experience attractive. To draw visitors into your shop, numerous strategies can be considered.
Here are 15 campaign examples to bring your customers back in-store.
Click-and-collect is a web-to-store strategy widely used by retailers, particularly in ready-to-wear fashion and the catering sector, even more so since the COVID-19 pandemic.
The principle behind click-and-collect is to combine the advantages of online shopping with those of a physical shop : customers place and pay for their order online, then head straight to their nearest store to collect and try on their products easily and quickly. This allows them to avoid delivery fees, queuing at the till, and store stock availability issues.
This solution is ideal because, according to the Wavestone study, 50% of consumers avoid buying in-store due to overcrowding, and 46% due to waiting times at the till.
Click-and-collect is therefore an excellent way to drive footfall to your point of sale while ensuring the best possible customer experience. Feeling more at ease about their purchases, consumers are also more inclined to browse other items available in-store.
A Shopatron2 study also revealed that in the United States, 40% of consumers leave with additional purchases when visiting the store !
For many retailers, regular promotional campaigns are an integral part of their web-to-store strategy. The main objective for brands is to capture customers' attention via SMS or email to encourage them to visit the store. For example, Naf-Naf has on several occasions organised special event days during which the brand asked customers to dress in a specific way to enjoy exclusive offers and activities in-store (such as make-up sessions during "Dress Day"). Organising these fun, recurring events creates a fantastic reason for customers to visit the shop and benefit from exclusive deals.
Any occasion is a good pretext to invite customers to come and see what is happening in-store. Take advantage of a new product launch, a seasonal change, or new store arrivals to launch a promotional campaign. This is precisely what Maison du Monde did in Rennes. To mark a store redesign, the shop sent a promotional SMS to its customers, encouraging them to come and check out the new layout.
Contests and gamified experiences are an excellent way to build interest in your brand and shop. Competitions are hugely popular because they allow consumers to discover products and a brand while having fun, and they are frequently featured on brands' Facebook Location pages. By creating these enjoyable opportunities, you foster an emotional connection with customers, who will remember your brand more fondly. For example, Zadig & Voltaire implemented this strategy with their "I should have been a cowboy" campaign, creating an online game that distributed discount vouchers and gifts to be collected in-store. Every contest participant won a t-shirt that had to be picked up in-store. This drove significant footfall to the points of sale while giving sales assistants the opportunity to introduce them to the new collection—a textbook example of a drive-to-store initiative.
If consumers continue to visit physical shops, it is because they offer services that are impossible to replicate on a website. Centring the store strategy around the customer experience makes the point of sale indispensable to the buying journey, creating true synergy between online and offline channels. You must play to the strengths of human interaction, which digital tools cannot replace.
Consumers visit physical shops because they want to try out products, but also to seek advice from sales assistants. Today, expert advice is what allows physical stores to set themselves apart from e-commerce sites. Retailers like Nike, Asics, and Au Vieux Campeur have understood this well. At Au Vieux Campeur in France, inclined ramps are installed in-store and are immensely useful for testing hiking boots. Furthermore, the sales assistants are genuine experts at the customers' disposal, providing tailored, high-quality advice to fully meet their needs.
For other brands like Abercrombie & Fitch, the in-store experience is taken to its absolute extreme. The point of sale appeals to all the senses and immerses the customer in a completely distinct atmosphere: hearing, smell, and sight are fully stimulated to transport the customer into another realm. Visiting an Abercrombie & Fitch store is an experience in itself, and we all remember how crowds scrambled at the opening of their flagship store on the Champs-Élysées in Paris
For service-based businesses, online appointment booking is a great way to engage customers online and bring them directly into the store. This technique is widely used by car repair garages, for example, though other types of local businesses could easily benefit from it. Backed by solid local SEO, you can save your customers time and improve efficiency across your points of sale. This is what Les Barbiers de la Garçonnière offers across their shops in Paris and Bordeaux, enabling clients to book appointments directly online. Major retail chains are also adopting this approach; Darty, for instance, allows customers to book online appointments to drop off faulty items at customer service.
Example of the "Les Garçons Barbiers" Google Business Profile listing
We also recommend optimising your store listings to boost footfall at your points of sale. These listings contain vital information such as opening hours, customer reviews, address, and phone number. Beyond providing useful details to your customers, they ensure your outlets are visible on Google search results, thereby enhancing your local SEO.
Web-to-store is the ideal way to create continuity between the online and offline customer experience. Thanks to these different strategies, you can reach customers and prospects at every stage of their purchasing journey. Each point of sale has its own assets : provide a unique experience to your visitors across each location, ranging from personalised advice to the overall store atmosphere. Every approach is valid when it comes to winning over your customers. Remember that combining digital options in-store (click-and-collect, store digitalisation) with the human touch online (informative content, active social media engagement) enables you to capture consumer attention across both channels.
References :
1 : https://www.wavestone.com/fr/insight/barometre-des-nouvelles-tendances-de-consommation/
2 : http://www.bizreport.com/2015/11/click-and-collect-drives-additional-in-store-sales.html