Offline retailers are having a tough time just now with the pincer movement of reduced consumer spending and more competition from online retailing. Consumers are looking to the internet for more choice and cheaper prices. As such local retailers with less of a range and higher prices are being squeezed out.

It doesn’t have to be like this though. The Internet can be used to make informed product choices before purchasing locally.

Take for example your local outdoors store. It stocks a couple of jackets by the manufacturer you want but they don’t have a style or colour that you like. You go online, check out the manufacturers website and find a model that you do like. You can then search for that product in Google with the word “review” in the search box after the product name. This will give you loads of review sites letting you know exactly what other people think of the jacket you’ve got your eye on. If the reviews aren’t good, repeat the process until you find one you like that has reviews you are happy with.

Finally, once you are settled on a product go back up to the shop you first looked at and ask them if they’d be willing to get you the exact product you’ve asked for. 9 times out of 10 they’ll say yes. You probably wont have to pay delivery and depending on when the retailer next places an order with that supplier, you could have the garment pretty quickly.

Congratulations, you’ve just helped your local shops.