What a gift shop's website needs so people come in

Someone looking at your site is deciding whether to drive down. They ask four things, in this order.

1. Are you open now?
2. Do you have it?
3. Can I get it without making the trip?
4. Why this shop?

I read the sites of six independent shops in the Okanagan: books, gifts, children's, home. Five of the six answer the first three. The fourth is where they differ, and it's where you win.

1. Are you open now?

Five of the six show their hours by day. Put yours at the top of the home page, in words: "Open today until 5:30". Include the statutory holidays.

Also the address, with a line about where the door is and where to park. Only two of the six mention parking.

2. Do you have it?

Retail Council of Canada's 2026 shopper study says people on a task, who know what they want, put stock availability first. In the same study, 30 percent had run into an out-of-stock in the past three months. In an older Google survey of Canadian shoppers, 43 percent wished shops did a better job of sharing what was in stock.

You don't need a catalogue. A strip of "new this week", with a photo and a line each, answers it. Two bookshops in the sample do this. Name the makers: "Soy candles by a maker in Lumby" gives a shopper a reason to come that Amazon can't give them.

3. Can I get it without the trip?

Five of the six let you order online or reserve and pick up in store. You don't need a store. "See something you like? Text me and I'll set it aside at the counter" is the same thing. Add gift cards, which three of the six sell, since a gift shop is where gift cards come from.

One of the six has a page explaining how special orders work. It's rare, and it's what a shopper asks when the shelf is empty.

4. Why this shop?

Four of the six say how long they've been there or that they're locally owned: "since 1968", "since 1994". Do that. Then go past it. The shops that go further show a person's taste: staff picks, a collection with a name, an events calendar. Four of the six have events.

Only one of the six has a mailing list. Only one shows reviews on its own site. A shopper who liked you last Christmas has nowhere to hear from you, and a first-time shopper has nothing to read about you but your own words.

What to leave off

Long lists of every product, a newsletter pop-up the moment the page opens, and stock photos. They slow the phone and say nothing about your shop.

You can see these laid out in my shop example.

If you'd like that page, text me your hours and three things that came in this week. I'll start there.

Written by Mackenzie Bowes in Vernon, BC. October 26, 2026.