If you operate a physical store location, kudos to you! It’s a constant struggle to drive traffic to your place of business, and that’s even more true in the era of growing online sales. Here are a few points to consider to help your store front shine.
First things first: you’ll want to make sure that your store is attractive to look at, and shop in. There’s as many philosophies behind that goal as there are types of stores, and each store needs to cater to its clientele, its location, and the unique vision of the owner. The only consistent point is to continually change it up, and continue to monitor what the effects of the changes are in your sales. You’ll need to make sure that your point of sale has the ability to help you monitor things, with granular reporting, and integrations with your other operational tools, like inventory, and book keeping. The Poynt POS, plus Moolah, makes this a snap.
Even if you sell through a website, make sure people know that you have a physical location! It adds validation to you and should be part of your brand. Push your store location proudly on your website.
For a step further, make the operational leap to click-and-collect option. There is big traction for this, especially in the restaurant business, but it can work for practically anything, from cosmetics, to clothing, to kitty litter. The key to pickups taking off is, first off, having an infrastructure that can accommodate it. This means your payment system has to be lithe enough to keep up with selling on multiple channels, and be able to let you know what’s selling where in the reports. There is also the physical, logistical concern of notifying people where to pick up their order. Take a look at your store’s layout and consider making a dedicated pickup place. There may even be opportunity to cross sell to the people picking up, with a rack of impulse buys, or other such things. They’re on your home turf. Make the experience engaging and of value to them, while also putting some of your best in front of them.
One of the most common issues that pushes people away from in-store shopping is poor service or bad experiences with the staff. While the same is certainly true for online shopping, something about an undertrained associate in front of you creates an especially bad taste in a customer’s mouth. Thankfully, the opposite is also true. Having real people selling your wares can and should be a huge draw! To make sure your people are pulling their weight, make sure that they have all the tools to do their job, which means regular training to promote familiarity with what’s in the store. Tech can come in handy, too. For example, a Poynt POS is mobile, and can walk around with associates as they cater to the needs of the customers. When they ask for a different size or color, the associate can check right from the Poynt POS, and not have to leave the customer, which can make a nice impression.
Don’t be intimidated by the flourishing of online sales. Also, don’t necessarily begin phasing back effort in your store to focus online. Tech and tough work can help your store shine, even in the digital age.