www.linkedin.com/pulse/please-stop-blaming-internet-demise-brick-mortar-blake-nieman-davis
Lynda
A friend of mine sent me a link to this post the other day. It not only offers hope for brick and mortar stores, but some good advice as well!
www.linkedin.com/pulse/please-stop-blaming-internet-demise-brick-mortar-blake-nieman-davis Lynda
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Last week I wrote about the importance of the customer experience within your store. It is also important to make it easy to get to your store.
That means, first of all, that you have to be located near your customers or near an area where your customers are likely to shop. In addition, you need to have plenty of parking and your parking lot needs to be easily accessible from all directions. There is a grocery store in my neighborhood that is only accessible via the northbound lanes of a busy street. The only exit is via the northbound lanes, too. So, it is really only convenient to go to this store if you are traveling north. Think of how much business they are losing because of this! Easy customer access is even more important if you are competing with online stores for sales. Your customers already have to go to the extra trouble of getting dressed and leaving their comfortable homes to come and visit you. Don't make it any harder on them by putting up barriers to access. :) Lynda With all of the competition from the internet, it is more important than ever for brick and mortar stores to make sure the customer experience is exceptional. The cashier/register clerk/counter person is typically the last person your customers see when they leave your store, so it is important that he/she leaves a good lasting impression.
I saw the perfect counter person in my bakery a few weeks ago. (I haven't seen her in a while so I suspect she has gone back to school.) Here is why I thought she was so great: She was friendly, helpful, polite, cheerful, and efficient. She also seemed genuinely glad to see the customers that came in the store. I encourage you to make sure your staff is leaving your customers with a good impression. It is a relatively inexpensive way to keep those customers coming back. Lynda If you believe, as I do, that selling gift cards is good for your business, then how can you sell more of them?
The first thing you need to do is get them out of the drawer and near the register where people can see them. Your customers shouldn't have to ask you if you have gift cards. Next, give your customers some packaging options to help them personalize their gifts. A Happy Birthday carrier is a must, as is a Christmas, Hanukkah, and/or generic Holiday carrier during the holiday season. Depending on the type of store you have, you may want to offer different styles and colors that would appeal to men, women, and/or kids. Notice that I am mentioning varieties of carriers here, not varieties of cards. You don't have to spend a fortune to get good results with gift cards. I recommend that you invest in a classy-looking card that represents your store, and a variety of generic carriers for packaging options. Gift card tins, boxes, and/or bags can make the idea of purchasing a gift card even more appealing and also help you increase profits. While you might include a carrier in the cost of the gift card, you can charge extra for fancier packaging options. Finally, make sure your gift cards and packaging are attractively displayed. --Lynda I believe gift cards are one of the most under-rated and under-marketed tools available to retailers today.
Did you know that Starbucks sold 1.3 billion dollars in gift cards during the last holiday season? That apparently amounts to 25% of its sales during that period. Imagine how much better your cash flow would be if the average cost of goods sold for 25% of your sales was less than a dollar! To be sure, most of those gift cards will eventually be redeemed, but that's okay, too, because:
Then, there are the cards that are never redeemed. You get to keep the profit on those. Even if that only amounts to a few cards, it will at least help cover your card issuing costs. If you think you should give up on plastic gift cards and just wait for the electronic ones to be more common, I urge you to think again. Electronic gift cards are forecast to be less than 4% of total gift card sales this year. Next week, I'll offer some suggestions on how to increase gift card sales through better marketing. --Lynda Mobile Point-of-Sale is no longer a novelty. More and more retailers are embracing this technology and the reason is simple. It increases sales! Here's how:
--Lynda If you are like most retailers, you invest quite a bit of money in advertising, in order to get shoppers to come to your store. Once you get them there, you want them to purchase something, of course. Better yet, you'd like them to come back and purchase even more items from you in the future.
I recently came across a great article on how to keep those customers coming back: http://www.forbes.com/sites/theyec/2014/05/27/bringing-delight-back-to-retail/ Let me know what you think! --Lynda |
AuthorLynda K. Giddens is the President of ACSL Retail Systems and has been working with retailers for over 30 years. Archives
November 2019
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