11 ideas about how to maximise sales in retail

If you’re wondering how to maximise sales in retail during the Holiday season and even beyond that, there are several ways you can do this. More often than not brick and mortar retailers would have to opt for more than one way in order to make it work for them. In other words, you can’t expect that only one of the retail ideas to boost sales presented below will be your magic trick. Instead, you’ll have to find the right mix.

Curbside pickup

John Frigo, Digital Marketing Lead at BestPriceNutrition.Com

Hybrid models such as “buy online pickup in-store” (BOPIS) or curbside pickup will continue to grow in importance for customers who are hesitant to return to brick-and-mortar stores.

In-store retail owners who have invested in those fulfilment models will see further growth. Retailers that have considered adopting those models or have emergent versions will accelerate their efforts to adopt similar capabilities given how widely used they have become during this period of time.

Carlos Castelán, Managing Director of The Navio Group

Customer Loyalty Programs

We work with many brick and mortar clients, and especially during the pandemic it is essential that they are still generating in-person customers. Some of these businesses don’t have an eCommerce offering, so their survival is dependent on attracting new and repeat customers.

I recommend starting with your existing customer base. Develop a Customer Loyalty Program and exclusive marketing offers for existing/repeat customers. Moreover, consider setting up opt-in email or text outreach to communicate promotions and reasons for customers to come into your store.

Alex Membrillo, CEO at Cardinal Digital Marketing Agency

Build a community

Another thing that’s less tangible, but one of the best ideas to increase sales in retail stores, and we’ve had great success with is starting to build more of a community among our customers, hosting special events, etc. Basically, just building a stronger brand. 

For reference, we have started a fitness club that meets Saturday mornings to go for a hike, ride bikes, etc, that really brings customers together. We’ve also been having more special events like an axe-throwing event, martial arts events, we have a haunted bike ride coming up for Halloween where we’ve partnered with a local brewery for the event. So that’s another great tip: connecting with other local businesses to collaborate on events and things to share your customer bases with each other for a mutually beneficial arrangement.

John Frigo, Digital Marketing Lead at BestPriceNutritoin.Com

Enhance safety

It’s important to ensure that safety is prioritized in your store. As an example, are you considering a more seamless checkout experience for customers that allows for greater safety such as self-checkout or contactless payments? 

Identifying a more efficient checkout experience can not only increase safety for customers and employees alike but also enhance the customer experience if done well while reducing the cost to serve customers. Furthermore, creating clear signage to guide customers if there’s a change in protocol is important to communicate to customers.

Carlos Castelán, Managing Director of The Navio Group

Geo Targeted Digital Marketing

Secondly, connect a Google Ads account to your GMB listing and build a campaign targeting shoe store terms – that way, when people search for “shoe store near me,” they will see your advertisement at the top of the map pack. Dial in your location targeting!

We’ve seen a lot of success following this exact strategy for the Yao Clinic in Denver – local SEO has directly grown in-store traffic.

Adam Gingery, Partner at Majux Marketing

A large portion of consumers actually prefer in-store shopping, but physical retailers have to compete with the constant accessibility of online stores. Oftentimes, physical retailers do not realize they have access to powerful data analytics and marketing tools like geo-framing, IP-targeting, and more that allow them to identify and target shoppers actively looking for products.

For instance, retailers can use geo-framing to observe in-store traffic within their region to gauge which customers are shopping for which products. Once their marketing team has identified these shoppers – the store can then target them and offer them great deals for products they can pick up in their local store immediately.

Eric Grindley, Founder & CEO of Esquire Advertising

Almost everyone has a Gmail account and it’s very easy to set up a Google My Business profile. GMB profiles are usually local and are a great advantage to those having brick and mortar stores. Make use of the post feature it provides and consistently post about the various offers you run. There’s a high possibility of your post being shown to people searching for those products or services. What’s nice is that it allows you to upload photos for each individual post making it quite unique and distinctive. It also allows you to offer a discount code that they can use if they visit your store offline.

Noman Nalkhande, Founder of WP Adventure

AR experiences

While many people have become comfortable shopping online during the pandemic, when things open back up there will be a revival of in-store shopping and retailers should focus on creating amazing experiences to bring customers in.

The use of QR codes to activate Augmented Reality experiences isn’t a new concept, but a great thing to leverage today as it can help personalize the shopping experience while making customers feel safe.

For example, sales representatives can provide in-store shoppers with take-home QR codes, allowing them to use their smartphones to bring the couch or other items they are considering to life, true-to-size, in their own home to ensure it fits and looks good. In-store, QR codes can also be placed next to products so customers can obtain more information while minimizing human contact.

Brands that have been early adopters of AR technology have seen a significant lift in sales for several years. Seek’s customer data shows a 150% increase in conversion and a 25% decrease in returns. Time to make buying decisions has been cut in half.

Jon Cheney, CEO and Co-Founder of Seek

SMS marketing

Small and medium retailers who’ve been building their SMS contact lists are well-positioned to outperform this holiday season since text is emerging as *the* channel for contactless local commerce during the pandemic. If you provide the tools for potential customers to get answers, product images, pricing, and even order and pay by text, the convenience (and safety) of doing business with your store goes way up. And so do your sales.

Jon Hall, Founder and CEO of Switchbird

In-store discounts

Offering discounts that are available in-store only is a great way to increase sales for brick and mortar businesses. They have to come to your store to get the discount, and they will if it is attractive enough. Next, institute an online pick-up plan, where the customer gets a perk for placing an order online and then coming to the store to pick up the item. Including shipping is a given, but you might want to offer a nominal additional incentive. Finally, leverage social media. That’s where most of your customers are now anyways but if you can come up with a sales campaign or discount offered strictly through social media, not only will you build your following, you’ll hopefully increase sales as well.

David Bakke, Sales Department Head at National Air Warehouse

Pre-order strategy

It’s not a secret that traditional brick and mortar stores are facing one of the worst years and patrons and loyal customers are very cognizant of the struggles that local stores are facing. To combat this a strong communication strategy that enables stores to inject some cash into the business by virtue of asking customers to pre-order popular products by paying for it up front is an extremely sound strategy for the busy shopping season.

Pratik Jain, Founder of OutreachBolt.com

Visual merchandising

You can’t ask how to attract customers in retail store without mentioning the importance of visual presentation of your products and brand overall. Appealing to the eye of the customer is not easy, but utterly necessary. Because the first contact they will have with your brand is through their visual sense. 

For instance, you have to have a visually attractive display in order for them to come in. And even inside, all products must be arranged in a way that catches the attention of the customer.

Speaking of that, for fashion retailers it’s really important that the clothes display enables your customers to find what they are looking for quickly and easily, whether that’s achieved by displaying the clothes by colour, style, or collection.

Nour Eissa, Content Writer at Stacks Market 

Moreover, check with your local city on ordinances for putting out exterior signage (or balloons) to show you’re open. We have noticed that some local communities have relaxed their sign ordinances right now as a way to help small businesses show that they are open.

Alex Membrillo, CEO at Cardinal Digital Marketing Agency

Prep your staff

You can implement all of the ways to increase sales in retail mentioned above, but if your staff is uneducated about the things they sell, it’s all in vain. Customers don’t always know what they need, and they can often have dilemmas, but it’s your staff’s job to give them the right solution.

Most of the store owners don’t prepare their staff and educate them on what they are selling, and therefore they aren’t able to help the customers. This will lead to the customer not trusting the shop and leaving, so it’s important to prepare your staff to help whenever they are needed.

Nour Eissa, Content Writer at Stacks Market

Conclusion

Answering how to get customers in the door and ensure they will spend their money in your store is not achievable without a multi-layered marketing plan. Everybody wants to know how to maximise sales in retail but you can only figure it out through trial and error. One thing is for sure, you have to be consistent in your efforts and measure the results.

So, why is competition good for business?

You may ask yourself why is competition good for business when it’s Doomsday for so many companies. The truth is, small business competition is the driving force. 

Without competition in business, the market will be flat and still. 

The benefits of competition come in many forms, like innovation, creativity, pricing, expertise etc. To understand them better take a deeper look at the following examples of why competition is good for business, provided by entrepreneurs and professionals who were smart enough to take advantage of competition.

Did you know that Adidas and Puma, one of the largest sportswear manufacturers in the world, are a product of direct rivalry?

The importance of competition in business for your online visibility

This may be an unexpected answer to why is competition good for business but the fact is competitive analysis in SEO, gives valuable insights into a number of areas to improve your online visibility.

Using your competitors to discover what content they are creating, the keywords they are targeting and the strategies used to reach potential customers can be valuable.

Another area to improve your website is discovering high authority and relevant backlinks pointing to rival websites. Reverse engineering and replicating these backlinks can improve your online business reach and customer potential.

Ben McLaughlan, Founder of Easy Mode Media

Specialisation is one of the main benefits of competition in business

Without the competition, there wouldn’t be an incentive for specialisation. The rivalry challenges firms to find their niche areas and enhance expertise. That fosters long-term, fruitful ventures that bring real value to the customers. It also organically eliminates the short-sighted businesses driven only by short-term profit. In turn, relationships with clients are not formed out of necessity, but because they are mutually beneficial. That promotes meritocracy and creates more satisfying careers and cooperations.

Rebeca Sena, Consultant of Marketing for Architects & Designers at GetSpace.digital 

As a strategy consultant and executive coach to high-growth tech start-ups, competition is often at the heart of conversations and at the heart of my own practice.

It’s so easy to think that in the absence of competition we would thrive – whether we’re thinking about our business, our colleagues or even a search for a mate. But, competition is both an important indicator and a valuable circumstance.

As an indicator, it tells us something about how much the market demands our product or service. No competition? Either there is no need for what you’re selling, or you’re in the unlikely situation of having a monopoly.

In my own work, there is lots of competition. A CEO seeking a coach or strategy consultant can choose from thousands. But, the fact that there are so many choices has improved my own company. It has required us to hone our expertise, improve our messaging, and offer far better coaching and consulting than we would otherwise. I often send clients to other professionals because they are not the best client for Beyond Better, and we are not the best provider for them. Competition leads to specialization and to higher degrees of excellence.

Amie Devero, President of Beyond Better

Business competition drives improvement

Competition is what makes businesses grow and turn them into the best version of themselves. Being the only one in the market gives you an advantage because people will surely buy from you since you are the only business offering such a product but what’s not good with this set-up is the fact that you only get customers out of their necessity and not because they want it. You may survive for the first months, but it will be hard to thrive when people find an alternative or get tired of sticking with what you offer. 

Competition drives a business to improve and explore its potential in the field. When you don’t feel the threat, you won’t make a move to protect or defend yourself. This goes the same for business. You will only learn to be protective of your assets, your customers, and the business as a whole when you see someone trying to take them over. Moreover it will inspire you to look into other creative ways to make the most of your operations. In many occasions it can be extremely beneficial to form an LLC in order to compete in the country. As long as the competition is healthy, both businesses would benefit. 

Willie Greer, Founder of The Product Analyst

Competition in business forces you out of your comfort zone

Competition is great for business because it forces businesses to be resourceful, nibble, and demonstrate the value of every customer to their business. In highly competitive industries, those mastering all three of these characteristics, combined with efficient operational standards, will have an edge over their competition. Non-competitive environments tend to take much for granted, including those who use their services – the customers. 

Competitive environments demand the very best from those playing in that sandbox. The best product will not guarantee a winning position. And taking one’s eye off the company’s “raison d’être”, is not an option. Those able to respond quickly to changes, leverage technologies and tracked data to innovate quickly, drive loyal customers, and optimize price points by way of efficient operations will stay ahead of others.

Jenn Drakes, Founder of ICANNWORLD INC. 

Having competition forces you to always improve your business and stay on top of the game. There is no time for relaxing because you need to maintain the quality at all times. 

I have seen a lot of business owners who became too comfortable in their positions and didn’t pay much attention to other competitors. Slowly, other companies started taking over the market simply because they were hungry for success. Therefore, as long as you manage to stay up to date with your competition, you won’t risk losing relevance and you may be able to get additional inspiration in the process. 

The more actors there are in the market, the more creative you will have to be, which is great for your business.

Mikkel Andreassen, Customer Experience Manager at Dixa

Customers get the most benefits of competition in business

One thing that I have come to see is that competition ultimately benefits the customer.

In an effort to stay competitive, brands keep their prices within the average price range of the market. There is no undue exploitation of the consumers through charging exorbitantly high prices.

Now, since brands are not competing on price anymore. Brands and market players will adopt a more value-based pricing. In an effort to stand out from competition, brands will bundle in unique offers and services into their products.

Brands or business owners will be more creative and think of out-of-box strategies to capture their customers’ attention. They will work towards understanding the finer details of their target customers – their pain points and triggers for purchase, which can also help discover some new untapped customer needs.

With much value-based offerings, brands and businesses will continuously work towards improving their products. 

So for me, Competition is definitely good!

The customer gets to be the ultimate winner. Not only are they paying for what is appropriate, but they are also getting more value for their money.

Smruti Ghag, Owner of PharmaDigiCoach

Conclusion

Looking at the examples above there’s no doubt that competition is good for business. The benefits of competition in business are mostly felt by the consumers but employees and owners are not left out of the equation as well. It is pointless to talk about small business competition in a negative tone when it’s the cause for constant improvement.