Talking Retail Grocery and product news for independent retailers
Patel said the number of people viewing his Google business listing has doubled since joining the NearSt platform.
“Since joining NearSt I have had a surge in phone calls for products that I am stocking in store. From the first day of going live, I saw an increase in footfall and a rise in queries for niche and special-offer products,” he commented.
NearSt is a new technology that displays retailers live in-store inventory in online platforms like Google and Facebook. It does this all automatically via integration with a store’s stock keeping system.
As a third-generation retailer who owns a 1,800sqft Londis store in London, Patel came across NearSt while looking for innovative ways to grow his business and increase his store’s visibility on Google.
Since working with them over the last 18 months, his Dartford store is said to have expanded its local customer base, boosted its online presence, and increased in-store sales.
“By connecting a live inventory of my store product list to the web, NearSt is increasing my store sales by getting my products in front of my local customers searching on Google,” he said.
“By installing a small piece of powerful software, I can upload my products instantly in as little as two clicks. Shortly afterwards customers using Google will see my entire store stock list appear in local search results, sending nearby shoppers to my store who might have otherwise ordered online or gone to a competitor.”
Patel said he has seen immediate results, especially across some of his more niche lines. So much so that he has added new lines for Christmas that he thinks will work well on NearSt.
“An example of this is the American candy and cereal lines I stock, and I am looking forward to seeing how my Christmas lines perform. I think NearSt is a massive seasonal win.”
Patel added: “I like everything about NearSt; from the live updates of my product files to the support I receive. The information I get from the traffic going through Google is next to nothing – you cannot get this anywhere else. I thought only big stores would have the ability to do that with their product files, so it is great for a little store like ours to have it.”
Nick Brackenbury, NearSt’s CEO, said: “We are delighted to be working with Nishi. The technology has been developed to make products from stores like Nishi’s visible to shoppers searching online nearby. The platform is a remarkably straightforward way for convenience retailers to establish a presence on Google, with automatic updates every 15 minutes directly from their EPOS system.
“The technology has seen widespread uptake by retailers across the UK as a powerful tool to fight back against the might of large pureplay online retailers.
Working with thousands of stores globally and across the UK, NearSt integrates with hundreds of EPOS systems including EDGEPoS, ITS, WRS, TLM, EPOSNow, RDP (ShopMate) and is adding more each week. The company says its technology is now compatible with almost three quarters of all UK stores.
