Entertaining Your Retail Customers
Historically speaking, retailing is the means of getting the product from the manufacturer to the consumer. The only place for consumers to buy products they needed was in a retail store. The harsh reality is that if you view your store from this historical perspective you are probably doomed to fail. Modern consumers have many other options for buying products that they need. You can probably imagine many ways that your customers could get the products you carry through a different channel and at a price lower than what you can charge. To keep business, you need to compete on more than just price.
Small retailers have the ability to provide better service than these competitors. There is a well-known department store that has build their brand on what might be considered an unreasonable level of service: customers can return anything for any reason. This store has been known to give refunds for items they don't even stock which customers have purchased at other stores! They have even been known to purchase items they don't stock from a competitor's store and deliver it to customers.
Specialty retailers are often successful when they offer products that require complementary services, for example: a men's store can offer alterations, a ski shop can adjust and edge skis, or art studios can sell framing. Adding a service element to your retail store is a lethal weapon you can use to beat mass merchant stores.
If there is one simple tip to improve service, increase stock turnover, and decrease employee expense it's as simple as this: eliminate your back stock and don't have a stock room. You should have a designated receiving room and merchandise should go straight from there to the sales floor. Stock rooms do not showcase merchandise, and they force employees to handle products twice. If you need an example of why this method works so well, look at Wal-Mart, where this technique has allowed them to out-pace all of their competitors. Although this may not be applicable to every business, the exceptions are few and far between.
The way your sales staff interfaces with customers is an incredibly important issue when you offer services in addition to just the products you sell. Untold numbers of customers are lost by businesses whose sales staff is rude, inattentive or uninformed. Starbucks didn't happen to hire the nicest people in your neighborhood by accident, they make it a priority to train and retain a good staff at every store they operate.
Consumers typically purchase products from retail locations not because they feel like they can get better prices or quality from retail stores, but because they enjoy the act of "going shopping." Malls provide people with a sense of excitement, socialization and action. If you provide your customers with a comfortable environment, and a more enjoyable experience than they would get with a chain-store competitor or by using the internet to shop from home, you will be rewarded with increased business.
About the Author:
G.A. Wright specializes in high-impact store closing sales that produce big increases in sales volume and attract big audiences. Check out our website for more information: http://www.gawrightsales.com
