Nov. 30, 2020, 11:14 a.m. ET
DAYTONA BEACH — Online shopping is forecast to soar to new record highs this holiday season while foot traffic to brick-and-mortar stores is expected to decline because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Fortunately, Angela Heaster, owner of the Gaslamp Gift Gallery on East Granada Boulevard in Ormond Beach, is prepared. In March, she launched an e-commerce web site for her small business that’s already proving to be a godsend.
“I didn’t have to lay anybody off even though we wound up being closed for the entire month in April (because of the state mandated shutdown of non-essential brick-and-mortar stores) thanks to our e-commerce site,” Heaster said. The beachside shop employs seven workers.
“We began making online sales to customers from as far away as California and the Northeast. Our online sales now account for about 25% of our total sales,” Heaster said.
Heaster is one of a number of locally owned small retailers in the Volusia-Flagler area that either launched e-commerce sites or stepped up online marketing and sales efforts because of the COVID-19 crisis.
Sheryl Cook, one of the owners of the Tom Cook Jeweler shop in downtown Daytona Beach, said the store immediately began posting photos and descriptions of their entire inventory on its website.
The store also began offering digital eGift Cards which can be sent to anyone, anywhere. And it launched a #MilestoneMondays promotional campaign on social media to highlight various milestones in the history of the 131-year-old family business.
That allowed the store to keep its 10 workers employed, even during the month-long shutdown in April, said Sheryl Cook’s niece, Ashley Leonhardt Lee, the store’s vice president of sales and marketing. It also helped to keep Tom Cook Jeweler and both its inventory as well as the jewelry and watch repair services it offers top of mind for the store’s large base of regular customers.
“When we reopened in May, we saw a big increase in business,” said Lee. “We had one of our best summers in years.”
“I’d say our e-commerce site has made a big difference. Even if a customer prefers to buy a piece in our store so they can touch and feel it and try it on first, having it all where they see it on our website makes it easier. They can also suggest what they want for Christmas to their spouse,” said Lee.
“We are not planning anything out of the normal for Cyber Monday, but we are offering free shipping on anything purchased online as well as free curbside pickup. And throughout the holiday season, we’re offering a free gift with any purchase of $500 or more.”
In Flagler Beach, Portia Moy, owner of the County Road & Company Boutique at 209 S. Second St., began working on creating an e-commerce website in late February because of the growing coronavirus pandemic.
“I didn’t even have a website before. I wasn’t an online shopper,” said Moy. “I launched my e-commerce site (on March 12) because I could see that a potential shutdown was coming down the pike.
“It’s gone well so far. It’s definitely another revenue stream I should have tapped into a long time ago,” she said. “I’m not one of those businesses that had record sales online, but it generated enough revenue to pay the rent and stay afloat even though physically we weren’t open (in April). And our online sales have increased every month. It now accounts for 8-10% of my business, but we’re still probably 60% down in in-store sales.”
County Road & Company Boutique is a women’s apparel shop. Its e-commerce site, countyroadcompanyboutique.com, has generated sales to some customers who have never stepped foot in the physical store, Moy said. “The furthest I’ve shipped to was a customer in Miami,” she said.
Heaster said she gave e-commerce a brief try five years ago when she opened her Gaslamp Gift Gallery shop. “I shut it (the website) down because if felt like so much work to just ship a few T-shirts to California. It didn’t really pay for itself at the time. It was never my goal to be an online site. I like that we know our (regular) customers by name.”
When Heaster relaunched her e-commerce site in March, she also reached out to students at a number of colleges and universities to become social media “influencers.”
“Their payment is the merchandise. I sent them the merchandise in their size and they promote it on their own social media sites and tag our store,” Heaster said. “We now have more than 3,100 followers on Instagram.”
“Strike,” the student-run fashion magazine at the University of Florida recently interviewed Heaster for a feature article on Gaslamp Gift Gallery. “They’re going to be featuring our store and our models for Game Day weekend,” she said.
“Today everything has changed. Everyone is on social media, which especially took off when people were quarantined because of the pandemic,” Heaster said. “I can now promote something on Instagram and see an immediate result.
U.S. online sales are expected to skyrocket to $12.78 billion on Cyber Monday, which falls this year on Nov. 30, while overall consumer purchases nationally are expected to total $10.38 billion on Black Friday, according to a forecast by Adobe Analytics.
Heaster hopes to benefit for the first time ever from Cyber Monday, thanks to her new gaslampgiftgallery.com e-commerce site.
“The holidays are usually our busiest time of year. In the past, we’ve had lines of customers out the door but this year we’re going to have to limit the number of shoppers in our store to just four to five at a time (because of the pandemic),” Heaster said. “I don’t want to put my people in a compromised position.
“We are going to offer sales online and we are going to do something on Cyber Monday, but I’m not sure what yet.”
