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Over the last twenty-or-so years, traditional retail has come under increasing pressure from the incessant rise of online purchasing and e-commerce. While there’s no escaping the fact your retail business should embrace the web and have a strong online presence if you still run a real-world retail shop, it’s crucially important you find ways to stand out from the crowd and achieve a successful Return on Investment (ROI) from your premises.
With so much competition on the high street, it can often seem quite challenging to come up with ways to increase footfall. Here are some tips which could help you drive more visits to your store and increase the profitability of your shop.
Employ effective, eye-catching outdoor signage
There’s little point running a real-world store if your potential clients can’t see you – or don’t understand what your business does. Putting clear signs outside your shop should be Rule 101 of retailing, and eye-catching signage could drive significant extra trade to your business.
Remember to also consider how your sign looks during the day as well as at night. There have been considerable improvements and tumbling price-points in the sign-making industry over recent years and it’s now possible and cost-effective for even the smallest of companies to employ modern LED/LCD signs outside their premises.
Remember to closely study the difference between LED and LCD displays to find the signage solution that best suits your company and, in particular, its location and exposure to light during the day.
Offer demos and deals
In this competitive age, you need to take a proactive approach to your marketing and offering demos or deals at your premises can be a great way to encourage more store visits. There’s little room to be shy these days so don’t be afraid to get out on the street and start promoting yourself.
Making flyers or handouts advertising time-limited deals can spur potential clients into visiting. Alternatively, if you have a product you can demo in the street, get out there and start informing the public. For example, if you run a takeaway food establishment or restaurant, consider setting up a tasting session at a busy car park or thoroughfare.
Run a loyalty program
Once you have a captive audience, it’s crucially important you keep those customers returning. The 80/20 rule of business (also known as the Pareto rule), states that 80{ad6ec37a2bd3ecfa3332b96b9ac48dbf74f925fa7e3098eb9d9871fb3d85bcba} of your business will come from just 20{ad6ec37a2bd3ecfa3332b96b9ac48dbf74f925fa7e3098eb9d9871fb3d85bcba} of your customers so retaining loyalty is essential to keep a high turnover. Running a loyalty scheme helps customers feel valued and can also lead to increased client engagement.
Ignore the power of online marketing at your peril
The world is changing and e-commerce is now playing a vital role in all facets of retailing. If your business isn’t online already, invest in getting a well-designed storefront website to complement your offline sales activities.
Also, remember to build your presence on all the major social media platforms used by your clients (existing and potential). You should ideally have regularly-updated Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube accounts to best cover all bases.
Successful online marketing should be used in harmony with your offline promotions strategy to bring increased visitors to your real-world premises. Using both is a surefire way to increase your brand’s presence and drive more footfall to your store.
