The retail industry is competitive, so it’s vital that you keep ahead of the trends and make the necessary adjustments to your strategy so that your business can stand out. These changes need not require a total overhaul of what you are already doing. Even a few small changes can make a big difference to the future of your business.
Read on to find out more about what you need to do to make your retail business a success.
Hire the right people
The more that you invest in your team the better they will perform. Running a retail business means keeping your customers happy and wanting to come back. A large factor in this is having the right staff and training them well.
Reward staff that consistently do a good job and give your staff room to move up and grow in your business if you plan on having them hang around. The better trained your staff are, the easier your job will be.
Update your stock
When you first opened up your retail business, you probably had a specific idea of what you wanted to sell. Once your shop has been open for a while, though, day to day tasks can get on top of you and you may order the same things over for convenience sake.
This, however, is a mistake. Keeping your retail business successful means stocking what will sell. Keep an eye on trends and what your customers like. Don’t be scared to change things.
Make sure that your customer is at the centre of everything you do. Stock things that they want rather than the things that you want.
Create events at your shop
Partnering with other local businesses or charity to create an event at your shop will bring people in. Hopefully, this will include new customers. The right event will give people a reason to visit your business.
Make sure, however, that you keep any event you host on brand. Partnering with a charity will appeal to Millennials and Gen Zs who are looking to spend their money in a more ethical way. You could donate part of the sales from the event to the selected charity or you could make your shop a drop off point for donated goods.
Get to know your customer and create events that would bring them to your shop. Should you host yoga classes? Or you could host a DIY course?
Optimise your online sales
Bricks and mortar stores can increase their sales by optimising what they offer online. Even if you don’t offer delivery, you can create a great website with up to date inventory that customers can browse through before coming to your shop.
Adding the option for customers to select items that can be kept aside for them can be a draw for shoppers.
Connect locally
Don’t, however, forget about your local community. Making people feel part of a community will make them more emotionally connected to your brand.
The events that you host can help to fulfill this goal. Partnering with local businesses and getting local people to connect with each other in your shop will put your business at the heart of the community.
If you host a charity at your shop, as discussed previously, make it a local charity or cause. This way, you can also take your support out of your shop. Make your brand apparent at charity events around your local community, at schools or town events.
Ultimately, the success of your retail business will come down to being able to adapt the running of your shop to meet your customers’ needs. You should be able to implement changes to match changes within the industry but don’t lose sight of your customer or your brand.
By Jo Thornley, Head of Brand and Partnerships at Dynamis. Joining in 2005 to co-ordinate PR and communications and produce editorial across all business brands. She earned her spurs managing the communications strategy and now creates and develops partnerships between BusinessesForSale.com, FranchiseSales.com and PropertySales.com and like-minded companies.
