Ever since the pandemic started, the trend of online shopping has reached its peak. Online shopping has, over the years, surpassed the trend of brick-and-mortar shopping. However, since normalcy is gradually returning, people are gradually returning to the same old method of in-store shopping.
Even though some people are as excited as they were before, a majority of them are apprehensive about returning for retail experiences since they are used to shopping from the comfort of their homes. It can be a piece of bad news for retail store owners.
To avoid any losses, retail store owners need to leverage a few ways that attract and garner customers’ attention in such a way that they feel the need to return to the store often.
Confused about where to start and what to do?
In this blog, we will tell you about the best practices using which you can easily garner attention from your customers and leave a positive impact on them.
We are sure you are as excited as we are to make you acquainted with these tips. Without any further ado, let’s get started!
● Hire The Correct Employees & Train Them Well
Unlike an online shopping experience, an in-store experience demands an employee to welcome and guide potential customers. Make sure you hire enthusiastic people as salespeople as they would be introducing your products to the customers.
Train your staff to be on point. Right from body language to voice modulation and tone, everything should be convincing enough.
Your employees would be representing your brand, and it demands them to be at their best.
Communication skills are another factor that needs to give attention to and make your customers feel comfortable asking them their queries. Apart from their convincing skills, they should be able to communicate in a friendly tone and should be able to gel well with the customers.
● Keep The Safety Of The Customers In Mind
Even though things are eventually getting better, your customer may not visit your store to avoid contracting the disease. Ensure the customer that you are taking complete precautions and abiding by the government’s Covid rules and regulations.
Ensure proper sanitization and screening of the customers who are entering the store. Furthermore, display a ‘No Mask, No Entry’ sign at the store entrance to showcase that you are strict with the protocols.
If your customers feel safe, there is a chance that they would be compelled to visit your store more.
● Make A Separate Section For Kids
Many times customers avoid in-store shopping due to their kids. They are apprehensive to visit a store since they are unsure of their child’s behavior.
To make it easy for customers to shop, you can create an exclusive section for kids in your store with a few toys to keep them occupied.
Once the children are at ease, the customers would feel comfortable and be able to drive their complete attention to your products and shop to their heart’s content.
Furthermore, they will rely on your store and not think twice before visiting your store every time they shop.
Bonus – If your budget permits, you can hire a trained supervisor who can keep an eye on the kids and handle them carefully.
● Include A Social Wall With Digital Signage
To increase your customers’ experience, you can incorporate an element like a social wall on retail digital signage at your store.
If you are not aware, then a social wall is a tool that is a collection of live and aggregated feeds from a variety of social media platforms. This content can be in the form of images, videos, reviews, tweets, etc.
To make the experience more impactful, you can conduct an in-store activity where you can urge your customers to create content around your brand and its products. It can be the most highly recommended product or their overall experience with your brand.
This would help you in generating User-Generated Content and also for building social proof of your brand.
You can aggregate this content using a responsive social media aggregator, and displaying it would excite the other present customers in the store and motivate them to participate.
● Make The Checkout Experience Less Fussy
Retail store experiences often demand customers to stand in long queues for completing their shopping journey, which can be quite frustrating for them.
It is the stage where your customers may get agitated and abandon the products. Take necessary steps to avoid this. Make sure you have more than one cashier for the transaction process.
If possible, you can include a self-checkout kiosk where customers can complete the transaction by themselves.
● Enable Order & Collect
This is a great strategy to make your customers coming back to your store. It can be implemented by enabling your customers to place their orders online and telling them to collect them from your store.
It works tremendously to grab more traffic to your in-store and gives you a chance to increase your sales by implementing upselling. When your customers visit your store to collect the order, they may like to have a look at your other products. This offers brands a chance to showcase their products and increase sales.
● Offer Timely Promotions & Discounts
Your customers love discounts and promotional deals. The biggest advantage of retail stores is that you can easily tap into impulsive buying since customers can see the products in real-time.
They can look at the specifications like color, fabric, etc., in real life, and if the price intrigues them, they will be compelled to purchase there and then.
Closing Note
We have reached the end of the blog, and you are now aware of the best practices that retail store owners can use to offer a retail experience like never before.
Since you are now well acquainted with the best strategies, get going, leverage these points and watch your customers vouching for your brand. Additionally, watch your brand sales take off!
About The Author
Michelle Joe
Michelle Joe is a blogger by choice. She loves to discover the world around her. She likes to share her discoveries, experiences, and express herself through her blogs. You can find her on twitter
