Retail (ecommerce) Websites: Do Bricks-and-Mortar Stores Really Need One?

Everyone says your shop needs a website. So why do nearly two-thirds of independent retailers make less than 10% of their revenue online?

Hi, I'm retail strategist and founder of Resilient Retail Club, Catherine Erdly.

This episode is brought to you by our sponsor Capify - business funding made simple. Find out more at capify.com

This is part one of a two-part series, and it takes on one of the least questioned bits of received wisdom in retail: you need a website, full stop, end of sentence. I work with a lot of bricks-and-mortar shops, and I've seen first-hand the blood, sweat and tears that go into keeping a website going alongside a shop floor. The photography, the listings, the stock updates, the SEO, the emails, the orders and the returns, all squeezed in around constant interruptions, usually by a team of three people or fewer.

In this episode I dig into the Voices of Retail 2026 research from Faire and Spring & Autumn Fair, including the number I haven't been able to stop thinking about: 64% of independent retailers make less than 10% of their revenue online, and yet more than half say growing online is one of their top priorities for the next 12 months. Elyse McAvoy from Faire also drops in with a reminder of why your shop matters more than ever: nine in ten shoppers say AI has made them more likely to want to see products in real life. I talk about why having a website and making money from a website are two completely different achievements, the ranking problem that quietly works against anyone who sells other people's brands, and why a shop can look brilliant online from the outside while the numbers underneath tell a very different story.

By the end you'll know how to work out what job your website should really be doing for your shop, the three things I've seen make the biggest difference for independent retailers, and the single biggest missed opportunity I see most shops under-using, one that doesn't rely on winning strangers from the other side of the country. If you've ever felt guilty that your website isn't pulling its weight, or you're wondering whether it's worth the hours at all, this one's for you.

Next week I flip the question: does an e-commerce brand need a bricks-and-mortar presence?

Chapters

00:00 Do bricks-and-mortar stores really need a website?

02:09 The "shop without walls" promise vs the 64% reality

06:57 Why running a website is so hard for independent retailers

09:46 Shop and site as one business: what actually works