How to effectively boost sales for your store this year
Generating sales is the lifeblood of most businesses and it is an essential component of a company’s success. If your store is falling behind the competition in sales, it can severely impact the growth of your business and it can have adverse effects on other parts of the business too, like branding.
Thankfully, there are ways to improve how your business functions so that you can increase sales and outpace competitors. This article will outline useful ways to boost sales in your store, so that you can make adjustments that will improve how you generate revenue.
1. Always remember to put your customers first
Your customers are a vital aspect of the overall health of your business and they can be a good indicator of how your store is doing. To put your customers first, you really need to understand your customers and their needs so that you can best address them with your business. This goes beyond just stocking the products that they want – it should be about their entire in-store experience.
Consider how your staff treat customers when they walk in – are they addressing customer needs during their interactions? It shouldn’t be about using sales tactics at this stage but simply about putting the customer first. That might mean small talk or offering advice on what product they need for a specific problem. Even if you don’t have the perfect product for them, staff might want to suggest where the customer could collect it.
There are many great tips for cashiers to read up on that can help them learn how to properly greet customers in your store. It’s not just about being friendly and making eye contact, it’s also about the importance of acknowledging customers quickly when they enter your store, showing customers to products, and engaging in conversation with them.
The aim of all of putting customers first is to help create a space in your retail business that customers actually want to go to. A place that they trust so that if they ever have to purchase an item that is in your store, they will be coming straight to you.
2. Keep your window displays fresh all year round
Your storefront is usually the first thing prospective customers interact with when they find your store, so it should be enticing. There are lots of ways to keep your window displays fresh, but seasonality is probably the easiest to consider. This helps keep your brand and store relevant to the time of year and encourages customers to take a look at your offerings.
Widdop.co.uk stock giftware and home decor accessories by occasion and have many great products, display materials and accessories for businesses to use to keep their window displays looking fresher for longer. Whether you’re looking for ways to decorate your store front for Valentine’s Day or for Christmas, keeping your window display enticing and appealing to the outside world will encourage customers to enter your store and may also help increase your chances of a sale.
Seasonality is just one aspect of keeping your window displays fresh, but there are others. Use local events to theme your storefront to show that you are part of the wider community. If you have any big retail sales or promotions in-store, be sure to display them prominently to draw in customers. The key here is to keep it relevant, so don’t be afraid to change the storefront regularly.
4. Make sure that your store is also visible online
The landscape of shopping has changed significantly over the last few years with the adoption of smartphones and an huge increase in online usage. It is more important than ever to make your store visible online so that customers can easily find you. If someone local to your store searches for a product that you stock, the search results should be able to direct them to you. This drives sales and ensures that you capture the widest audience possible.
There are levels of complexity to setting up your business online, but to get started make sure that you are set up on business listings for platforms including Google, Yelp and Facebook. Remember to include the following key information:
- Contact details
- Business hours
- Customer reviews
- Visual content including branding and images of the store and products
Once you have a good foothold in online searches for your business, more customers will be able to find your store and purchase goods, which boosts in-store sales. If you’re a small business, it might also be useful to look into a useful guide to social media to help you improve your online social media presence too. With millions of users active on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter every day, make your business more visible to potential customers by being active on these platforms.
4. Always think of new ways to increase footfall in-store
It is important to showcase your store in a number of ways to attract customers and draw them in. This can be achieved in a number of ways, such as:
- Promoting in-store events
- Offering exclusive in-store deals
- Providing free in-store collection service
Ultimately, you should be devising events or promotions that give customers a reason to enter your store. This not only improves your branding efforts but can boost sales too.
