CategoryRetail management advice

Shopping ought to be enjoyable and, preferably, fun. Often, it is the experience itself which separates one retail store from another. This is why every retail business needs to devote management and front line attention to delivering a memorable and enjoyable experience.

One way to provide a memorable shopping experience is to have authentic and in the moment fun – among the sales team and with customers. Here are seven tips for having fun in any retail store:

1. Theme days. Embrace an era which with interest your customers. For example, the 1970s. Dress the store and employees in keeping with the 1970s. Have a couple of items on sale at 1970s prices – to connect the theme with a commercial outcome. Get some stories from the 1970s related to products you sell and place these on display boards in the window. Consider a competition for the customer in the best 1970s costume.
2. Other theme days include: school days, foreign country days where you wear traditional dress from a foreign country, crazy hair day and, of course, more theme days around key decades.
3. Local sports competition. Fully embrace any major local sporting event, choose a team, dress in their colours and dress the store in their colours. Be unashamedly parochial and show your customers your local support.
4. In-store buskers. Find some local musicians you enjoy and who have a repertoire which would connect with your customers and invite them in to play live for your customers. This would bring a vibrancy to the store and provide welcome entertainment for your customers as they shop. The local performers get to reach a new audience and you get to change up the feel of your business.
5. Repurposing day. Host an event where customers compete for a prize for the most innovative repurposing of a product you sell. The idea would be that they take something you sell and demonstrate a use for it in a way which is completely different to what the manufacturer expected. There would need to be a rule that the new use is genuinely useful.
6. The cutest baby. Invite your customers to bring in a photo of whey they were a baby, the older the better. Stick the photos on a wall and take votes on the best. You could change this up with two photos: as a baby and today and get customers to connect the two. Family members will come in to look at the photos and vote. A local store could get a real buzz with a promotion like this. While there is no obvious direct sales imperative, the traffic and word of mouth should drive good business.
7. Stand up comedy in store. Invite local comedians to try out their stand up routines with your customers. While you would need to be careful about content, such an event would show the store supporting local artists and it could bring some fun to quiet retail times.
8. Crazy tie day. While this has been done before plenty of times, you could kick it up with an amazing tie display – collect these from local Goodwill stores, invite customers to donate. As with the theme days idea, interact with customers and offer a prize for the best / worst.

These seven ideas are the tip of the iceberg for in-store promotions. They are designed to kick start your own thinking, to pursue what its right for your specific type of retail business.

The key here is to give everyone who works in the shop permission to have fun, and nurture fun.

Retail is very much about the shopping experience. While good customer service and a friendly shopping experience are vital, sometimes it is the wonderful unexpected experience which can get people talking about a business.

Be bold and have fun.

Selling is the lifeblood of retail, especially local small business retail.

It takes skill, stamina and creativity yet it is often treated as one of the lowest roles in an organization. Smart retailers help their sales staff improve their skills to better serve the business and its customers.

Some salespeople are naturals while others work hard to learn the skills. Everyone, no matter how experienced can improve. Take a moment to consider these five steps to better selling.

1. Be in the moment. Focus on the customer in front of you, listen and respond to their needs. Genuinely care, don’t just act like you care. The personal connection they feel from and with you is more likely to bring them back into the store than almost anything else including product and price. If you are not comfortable with developing such a personal connection then maybe retail is not for you.
2. Understand what you sell. Knowledge is king, even more so in retail. By knowing everything there is to know about the products you sell you make yourself more valuable to the business and to its customers. Good employees spend personal time learning about the products and how they are of value to their customers.
3. Enjoy yourself. Smiles and laughter are infectious. If you are happy your customers are more likely to be happy. Happy customers are more relaxed about spending money. But don’t fake it as fakes can be spotted. Know what makes you happy about your job and embrace this. Never be afraid to bring i bit of your personal self to the shop floor or the sales counter.
4. Know when to be quiet. Some shoppers like to be told what to buy but most prefer to make their own choices. It is important to spot the difference and know when to leave a shopper to make their own decision. Provide the information important to the decision but leave them space to make the decision for themselves.
5. Selling is a service. Too often, especially in busy retail environments, selling is seen as production line work. If this is how it is treated then the experience will be less personal and memorable for the shopper. If you treat it as a service and understand that service does matter, you focus on the service as the point of difference. This change in mindset alone can lead to considerable change in a retail business.

So how to these steps increase retail sales? It all comes down to the service delivered being better than elsewhere: more personal, friendlier, more knowledgeable and genuine. Combined, these attributes make for a unique shopping experience in today’s cookie-cutter obsessed retail world.

Retail employees who see retail as a career will do well for their businesses and for their careers by embracing these steps.

Here at Tower Systems we are grateful to our thousands of local specialty retail business owners for their insights, advice and support. This community will our well of knowledge, they enable us to share this with others, like we do here in this place.

Today, let’s talk about the shop window. It’s a vital business asset as it works 24/7. It pitches your business to people often who have never shopped your shop.

Get it right, and your shop window can provide an excellent financial return for a modest investment.

The window of any retail business can tell how serious the business is about business. If it does not regularly (at least weekly) change, has old stock, is dusty or dirty, is covered in signs or presents mixed messages then the business most likely is not doing do hot.

Look at the most successful retail businesses, they have a window strategy. From national groups to independents, successful retailers understand the importance of the window in the overall marketing plan.

As prime retail real estate, the window is a place to be respected, obsessed about and wholeheartedly embraced. Consider these ideas for developing a window strategy:

See your window how others see it. Step outside your business and cross the mall or the street and look at the front of your shop. Spend a while doing this. Go back again if you are not sure what you see.

Look at other windows. If you have competitors nearby, check out their windows. If you have retail businesses you admire, look at their windows too.

Develop a window calendar. Decide on themes for window displays, set dates when new displays are to be installed. Engage all team members in deciding on the display calendar. Be sure to cover off the major seasons for the business. Be sure to balance window time to all product categories in the business. Be sure to build opportunities into the calendar for community engagement – the window is a terrific place for community groups to show off and bring their contacts to your business.

Be single minded. Each window display should have a single message. This ensures greater impact and provides a better opportunity for success.

Strip it back. Retail business windows often have unnecessary items which have been added over time. Strip as many of these back as possible. Leave the maximum space for your themed displays.

Learn how to create stunning displays. Consider sending employees to a visual merchandising course to learn how to create displays. Alternatively, bring in a visual merchandiser to create the displays for you.

Be prepared to do it over. If a window display does not present the business well or reflect your point of difference – from across the street or across the mall – do it over.

Remember what window displays are for. Then window display is for your customers and would-be customers, to get them to visit and buy from you. If a display does not do this then it has failed.

A good window display will drive traffic and sales. The impact will be felt almost immediately. Be brutal in your assessment of success. It is business after all. The business needs a return on investment from this most valuable retail real estate.

A great window display can reinvigorate a retail business and help everyone involved love the business a little bit more.

Now, if you are motivated to change your window – do it yourself, from scratch. Anyone can. No experience necessary!

Across a range of specialty retail channels, Tower Systems is grateful to serve thousands of retailers. Years of doing this, collaborating with them, has helped us developed a deep well of experience and knowledge, which we happily share.

The retail sales counter is premium space in a retail business. Too often, however, the counter is cluttered with products placed there in pursuit of impulse purchases or because there is nowhere else in the store for them.

In some retail settings, the counter itself is redundant. Think about that, because if a counter in your business is redundant, having one makes no sense.

but, back to the topic at hand – making the counter more successful for you.

A cluttered counter mentality often starts with one item which works so retailers add more and more until the counter is a mess of colour and small displays.

Representatives of suppliers pressure retailers to take offers, structuring deals to make counter placement compelling.

The result is a mess of color which rarely changes and is poorly managed in terms of return on space.

A good retail counter is a profitable retail counter in terms of the value of impulse purchases achieved.

At a good retail counter, less is more. By creating better displays without products competing for attention, the featured products have a better opportunity of performing.

Here are some tips to un-cluttering a retail sales counter which have worked in many different businesses.

1. After the business is closed on a day, take all products off and clean the counter – completely off so that the counter is bare. Yes, this is hard work.  But you get to rebuild the counter you want.
2. Rebuild the counter story one product at a time. Consider the product from the customer’s perspective – is it something they are likely to purchase on impulse? Is the product understood? Is the price point attractive? Can they easily access the product?
3. Create zones for promotional purposes. Having zones and clear space around them sets rules which are easier for all team members to follow. Depending on the store, you may have items which children will like more at their level and products aimed at adults at a higher level.
4. In choosing counter products, consider what will be on the minds of customers as they transact their sale. Are there products which add-on nicely to popular products you sell? Are their guilty-pleasure products which they can enjoy while shopping – like premium candy? Do you have small gift items which work in a variety of situations? Do you have gift items which people would be happy to pick up as a gift for a friend?
5. Once the counter is rebuilt, step back and look at this from the perspective of a customer. Are the offers compelling, understood and valuable? Look at the counter from multiple points in the shop from the perspective of the counter being a marketing opportunity and not just a work desk. Are there items which could be removed?  Sometimes, less is more.
6. Change key counter offers at least weekly – more often if your customers visit multiple times in a week. This helps fight against customer and employee store blindness.

By having fewer products at the counter and being more strategic in product placement and display, the products have a better opportunity of being noticed and purchased.

Where many retailers rely on an over the counter sales pitch to achieve the impulse purchase, smart retailers configure their counters to do the up-selling for them. This gives customers ownership of the purchase.

By tracking the success of counter offers you are able to build a good database of what works and what does not work. This can guide future counter placement decisions.

The sales counter is too valuable in any retail business to allow it to grow organically. Take time to manage it and expect good results.

We are grateful to serve thousands off local small business retailers across a diverse group of specialty retail settings. Our work over many years has helped us develop insights that we willing share with local small business retailers. beyond our POS software, we actively support local retailers in myriad ways.

Today, let’s reflect on the bonus, the unexpected.

It is a good rule in business to always give your customers more than they expect.  It shows you value them, go the extra mile and delight in surprising them with good news and good opportunities.

The best way to demonstrate delivering unexpected value is to provide it here in the form of three special reports beyond the scope of what was planned and offered or RETAIL RESCUE.

Before we get to the bonus reports, consider these ideas for adding expected value to customer transactions your retail business:

• Give the customer a small gift, something completely unexpected. Even something as simple as a chocolate can be the perfect thank you.
• Package the purchase in a premium reusable shopping bag. This promotes the business and shows that you do value them.
• Provide a voucher offering a discount if the customer returns in a specified period of time.
• Depending on the nature of your store, give free gift which relates to items you sell. For example, if they buy a men’s suit, offer a free tie or if they buy six cup cakes, give them the seventh for free.
• Connect with another business and offer a gift which is a free item or a discount from their store – they could do the same for your store.

The key to giving bonus rewards like these is to not promote it.  As Nike says, JUST DO IT!

By offering added value at the counter at the end of a sale it comes across as if you are doing something special for this customer.  This will make the gift more valuable than if it is widely promoted.

Giving your customers better value or a better experience than expected will be remembered and talked about.  It will build your business.

Tower Systems helps local retailers run pop-up shops with its Retailer Roam, cloud based go anywhere POS software, connected to its POS system.

Definition: a pop-up shop is a temporary shop, one that is open for a limited period of time, usually around a month, rarely more than three months.

We have assembled our pop-up shop advice and tips into key topic areas.

WHY?!

Like any business decision, a decision to open a pop-up retail location needs to be based on good research and the business itself needs to have a purpose. So, before you begin, think about why.

Here are some reasons to do a pop-up shop:

1. To test new product categories.
2. To supplement your income.
3. To help quit slow moving stock.
4. To enhance your retail experience.
5. To experiment with a plan b where you might land if you close your main shop.
6. To engage in targeted, temporary, competition.
7. To compete with yourself.

LOCATION.

With a pop-up shop you don’t have time to find your customers. The location needs to already have good traffic passing daily, traffic you can easily leverage. Even more so than in fixed-location retail, location is critical.

The best locations are shops that have good passing traffic that is of interest to you and that have been vacant for a while where a landlord might be happy with something rather than nothing.

OCCUPANCY COST.

Negotiate the lowest rent cost possible. Some landlords see pop-up offers as a reason to charge a premium. Only sign up for a price you are 100% happy with. If it is expensive and does not work financially, don’t sign hoping it works out, because in retail it rarely does work out better. In a pop-up business you have less time to see if it works out. Also, preferably, no contingency deposit.

LABOUR COST.

Staff the business with a lean roster. This shop is about selling. that means, products placed for a price proposition rather than beautiful displays that take time to maintain. Every staff member is there to sell and maximise revenue from every shopper visit. There is no room in the roster for fat.

FIXTURES AND FITTINGS.

Don’t spend a cent on fixtures and fittings. That needs to be your starting position. It’s a pop-up shop. People expect it to be  efficient, cost-effective. Using tables and boxes adds to the feel of the shop feeling low-cost and that can help drive sales. Suppliers can be a good source for loaned fixtures.

INVENTORY.

Ask suppliers to offer consignment stock or special clearance deals they’d like to move fast. Go for items that can be sold out of a box, to make display and ranging easier. In-box displays of particularly cheap items can work very well.

PRICING MODEL.

Price to sell. This means being below usual retail. Price to understandable price points. For example, you might have a $10 table, a $20 table and so on. Consider bundling items into packs, which make price comparison difficult.

PROMOTION.

Don’t spend money on sign writing or marketing. Use social media and bargain websites and anywhere similar where you can list the store and its products.

Host an opening party. List this as a local event on Facebook.

MANAGEMENT MINDSET.

Your mindset in managing the pop-up shop needs to be different to a fixed-location retail situation. Pop-up shops are about low cost, low overheads, low prices. Be ready to do deals. Whoever manages  the pop-up shop needs to be different to how they would be in the fixed-location retail business.

SPEED.

You need to move fast. From the moment you sign a lease or agreement, the clock is ticking. Ideally, you’d open within 24 hours and when you are done, closing and clearing out the shop is done in 24 hours or less. This is all about maximising the time for income-production.

TRACK PERFORMANCE.

Cultivate good data that can guide business decisions for your next moves.

Is a pop-up shop worth doing? Only you can determine that. We have seen plenty of pop-up shops work well for the retailers, contribute good GP, help move slow stock and help open to the owners category opportunities not previously considered.

Do the planning and you should expect to benefit.