Are Small Retailers Behind the Omnichannel Curve?

A new survey from GoDaddy finds small retailers falling short of delivering a convenient online experience — at least to younger consumers — with many lacking today’s digitally driven tech tools.

The GoDaddy survey found smaller retailers lagging in the following areas:

• BOPIS (buy online, pickup in-store): 73% of Gen Z and 83% of Millennials said BOPIS is important to them, but only 34% of small retailers offer it.
• Digital payments: 85% of Gen Z and 82% of Millennials believed it’s important for small retailers to accept contactless digital payments, but 27% do not accept them.
• E-commerce: 55% of Gen Z and 61% of Millennials said it’s very important they can make purchases directly from a retailer’s website, but 28% of small retailers do not have an online store.
• Social media storefronts: 80% of Gen Z and 75% of Millennials said it’s important small retailers have storefronts linked to their social pages, but only 25% have social shopping storefronts.

Overall, 91% of the 1,000 surveyed small retailers think they offer a convenient online experience, but only 21% of 1,000 consumer respondents agreed. Younger consumers overwhelmingly (73% of Gen Z and 75% of Millennials) would shop more at small businesses if they offered the same convenience as larger chains. 

GoDaddy said in a press release, “While small businesses identified Gen Z and Millennials as top target audiences, their current practices tend to cater more to older generations.”

Other surveys, however, show that smaller retailers are far from technophobes.

A survey of 2,000 small- and mid-sized businesses from Data Catalyst Institute found that 72% of small and medium retailers get almost half of their revenue online, with 68% having a web store and 68% participating in some third-party online marketplace (i.e., Amazon, Etsy, eBay, etc.)

A recent study commissioned by CCIA Research Center based on U.S. Census Bureau data in the 2010s found a resurgence in the growth of small and medium-sized retail businesses amid the fast-track adoption of e-commerce.

CCIA Chief Economist & Director of Research Trevor Wagener said in a statement, “Before the 2010s, retail was dominated by the ‘Big Box Effect’ whereby homogeneous large retailers outcompeted smaller retailers. In the 2010s, the ‘E-commerce Effect’ reversed the trend, as widespread availability of digital tools and marketplaces reduced barriers to entry and provided diverse smaller retailers with cost-effective means to compete against incumbents at scale around the world.”