Retail Digital Marketing That Turns Clicks Into Sales

It depends on your catalog, your margins, your markets and the channels you need. Most of our retail clients pair paid search and Shopping, which drive orders right away, with SEO and email as the long-term foundation.

We’ll right-size a plan to your store and your growth goals, set budgets around the ROAS you need to stay profitable, and show you exactly where each dollar goes.

Very. At the typical retail brand in the calls we've listened to, 63% of calls went to voicemail or were never picked up: 57% during business hours and 88% after hours. And most of those callers do not try again: 75% of callers who reached voicemail did not call that business again within a week.

That is why we track every call from your campaigns, flag missed calls, and help you set up call routing, after-hours coverage and fast call-backs, so the leads you pay for are not lost at the front desk.

Based on calls to 15 retail and ecommerce brands we market, Apr to Sep 2026.

We classified a sample of 255 new-customer calls to the retail and ecommerce brands we market by what the caller wanted. The most common reasons to call were whether a specific service is offered (18%), product availability or lead times (12%), location, hours or service area (12%) and price or a quote (11%).

Typical questions: “Do you carry this product?”, “Do you have this in stock right now?”, “What are your hours and where are you located?”. Your website, ads and Google Business Profile should answer these before the phone rings, and your team should be ready to answer them when it does.

Based on calls to SmartSites clients, Apr to Sep 2026; questions paraphrased, no caller or client identified.

Mostly business hours: 29% of calls came outside Monday to Friday 9 to 5 (11% on weekends), and the busiest day is Monday. Of the calls that were answered, 52% were new-customer inquiries, 26% were existing customers, and 9% were sales pitches or wrong numbers.

That mix is why we report on qualified calls, not raw call counts.

Based on 16,000 calls to 28 retail and ecommerce brands we market, Oct 2025 to Sep 2026 (timing) and Apr to Sep 2026 (call types).

Across the Google Ads accounts of the 93 retail and ecommerce brands we manage, the median cost per lead over the last 12 months was $45, with a median cost per click of $1.10 and a median conversion rate of 2%.

Your number depends on your market, services and how well the landing page and phones convert. We use these medians as a starting benchmark, then work to beat them.

Source: Google Ads accounts managed by SmartSites, Oct 2025 to Sep 2026; a lead is a tracked call or form conversion as set up in each account.

For the 61 retail and ecommerce brands whose Google Business Profiles we manage, the median profile got about 1,370 views, 11 calls and 61 direction requests a month over the last year.

Reviews, photos, accurate hours and categories move those numbers, which is why local SEO is part of every plan we build for a retail brand.

Source: Google Business Profile performance data for profiles managed by SmartSites, Oct 2025 to Sep 2026.

Both, with different jobs. Shopping, search and social campaigns drive online orders, while local SEO, Google Business Profile updates and local inventory ads bring nearby shoppers through the door. We track online revenue and store-visit signals such as calls and direction requests, so you can see how each channel contributes and shift budget toward whatever is working this season.

We start with the product feed: clean titles, correct attributes and sharp images decide which searches your products appear for. Then we split campaigns by margin and best-sellers, cut wasted spend on search terms that don’t convert, test creative weekly on Meta, and retarget cart abandoners. Every decision is judged on revenue and ROAS, not clicks.

Paid search and Shopping usually produce orders within the first month. SEO takes a few months to build, then compounds with every season. Our retail case studies include ROAS up 796% for sneaker boutique Likelihood, orders up 2,316% for Fix Linens and revenue up 3,017% for Sullivan Hardware.

Start with the automated flows that earn money every day: welcome series, abandoned cart and browse, post-purchase and win-back. Layer on regular campaigns for launches, restocks and promotions, plus SMS for time-sensitive offers. For Walker & Hawkes, email campaigns lifted conversion rate 208%.

Planning starts months ahead. We build seasonal landing pages early so they can rank, grow email and SMS lists before the rush, line up creative and offers, and ramp ad budgets as demand rises. During peaks we monitor campaigns daily, move spend to best-sellers with stock, and adjust for shipping cutoffs so you don’t pay for clicks you can’t fulfill.

Yes. We optimize for generative engines (GEO) as well as traditional search, so your products and brand show up in ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity and the AI assistants shoppers use to compare products. That means structured product data, clear reviews and helpful buying-guide content. We track AI mentions and citations alongside rankings, so you can see where assistants recommend you.

One in-house marketer can’t cover feeds, ads, email, SEO and creative at the same time. You get a strategist and specialists for feeds, SEO, paid media, email and creative for less than one salary. A human strategist reviews every recommendation, you own all work product, and we’ve worked with businesses since 2011.