Global Content Lead - Tech & Consulting
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It’s easy to tell what is running in retailers’ minds: how to improve retail sales performance online and in-store. Most retailers fight to increase their store’s foot traffic and bring customers back to their store, but within this, they forget the bigger picture: what good are more customers if they are not making the most of your in-store sales? A wise man once said that quality over quantity matters.
However, getting customers into your store is a battle you do not have to play. In-store shopping outranks e-commerce shopping by a far margin. Nonetheless, it would help if you had a strong marketing strategy in line for both areas to stay ahead of the competition and learn how to improve retail sales performance.
You also have to do some work to convince customers that spending more money in your store is worth it. It is not enough to have a store and your doors open, waiting for them to visit. Everyone is doing that. You need to understand what will drive customers to your store when there is a line of multiple other stores. What will be the pulling factor that will make them walk to your store? You will need a strategy to optimize your service level and marketing campaigns. Shopper Value by Confiz will give you clear footfall and in-store analytics.
If any of the above points align with your 2023 priorities, you have come to the right place! This blog will focus on how you can do just that with 5-expert backed strategies.
1. Find your store’s peak hours
To sell more during your peak hours is only possible if you know when your peak hours are. Historical data can help you identify what days and time windows your store has more customers coming in. Data before 2021 should be kept from being relied on because shopping habits have taken a huge turn since Covid-19 hit the markets. Even with workers returning to the office, their lives and shopping patterns have changed, so you should double-check what customers are doing now. Keep a close eye on these things to learn how to improve retail sales performance and be ahead of competitors in no time.
Point of sales system and employee reports tell times customers are coming in and in what volume. Looking at your sales by hour day report will give you a clear view of the percentage of total sales each hour of the day accounts for.
Comparing online and in-store sales every week is also a good idea. See what works better for you and what else you can do. For example, you could run exclusive in-store promotions for discounts or offer free delivery for customers ordering from your website. You should also know when your online store is most active. Look out for when customers are surfing your website, when their bounce rate is low, and when the maximum purchases occur.
2. Optimize your store layout
One smart way to track foot traffic is by optimizing your store layout in such a way. Not only will this let you know when customer volume is high, but it will also help you determine if your store’s location is optimal and how well your store layout works. For example, a heatmap service like rink retail will tell you what part of your store is a “hot zone” and a “cold zone.” This will show you what area of your store is visited the most and which is not visited. From this analysis, you may decide on ways you can rethink your layout and learn how to improve your retail sales performance.
Another clever strategy you can take advantage of is impulse buys. You can make customers buy from you even though they had never planned to in the first place through eye-appealing and aesthetic website pages, ads, and brick-and-mortar displays and services. Statistics show that an average shopper will make an average of 3 unplanned purchases in 4 of every 10 stores they visit. Now, consider placing your high-margin, seasonal, fresh items and discounted deals at the front of the store so potential customers see them as soon as they enter your store.
Another prime area that triggers impulse buying is the queue going toward the checkout counter and the area around it. Customers are more likely to add low-cost impulse items into their shopping carts when waiting in line. Having limited-time promotions can trigger customers’ sense of urgency, especially because the fear of missing out does exist. Making customers feel like they are getting more than they are paying is another way to enhance impulse buys. Holding buy-one-get-one-free offers can be the final push for them to buy more than they originally planned.
3. Provide a seamless omnichannel experience
More than 50% of customers look at a product online and buy it in-store, and vice versa. If this figure does not convince you to create an omnichannel experience for your store, then let’s take a look at a leading retailer, Zara’s omnichannel adoption. It grew sales by 24.3%, and digital sales soared up to 195%, winning a market share greater than all of its physical competitors’ thanks to the integration of physical and digital – the omnichannel.
The key is to provide customers with a seamless experience across all channels by taking care of every touchpoint of their journey. Having a variety of channels connects your customers and allows them to pick up where they left off on one channel and continue their experience on another without any hassle. If you ace this, you will learn how to improve your retail sales performance.
4. Make loyalty a key part of your retail sales strategy
Customers spend greater amounts on brands they are familiar with. Therefore, it will take less time to convince loyal customers than new ones. You can capitalize on this purchase driver with a three-pronged strategy.
Firstly, reward existing customers. You can tempt them to buy more if they can earn points or discounts on their next purchase by buying more. Setting up a loyalty program will give your business many benefits. Secondly, entice first-time customers to return with the promise of rewards. They already have a reason to love your brand and shop from you, so they’ll love the extra incentive to shop as well. They may need that extra push to keep you on the top of their head and coming back. Finally, make use of your loyalty programs’ marketing tools. A good loyalty program will have tools you can use to communicate to customers about discounts, promotions, and personalized purchase incentives. Having these strategies at your fingertips will teach you how to improve retail sales performance in no time.
5. Stay on top of stock levels
Let’s say you practice all the points we have mentioned above, and you have a customer-driven marketing strategy and an excellent campaign, and everything becomes successful. The last thing you want is for your business to run out of stock. Customers wish to products as soon as they demand them. Stockouts send people straight to your competitors. Not only will you have missed sales opportunities, but you will also harm your customer satisfaction and brand perception. Having efficient inventory management manages stock level alerts, provides accurate reporting, and helps make effective product ordering decisions.
Wrapping Up
Consumers’ shopping is always changing between in-store and online shopping, so it is smart to use as many strategies as possible to maximize the opportunities you get. The tips we’ve covered in this blog should help you increase retail sales and build on the momentum of returning customers.
But how do you create the right strategy? Confiz can help you develop a strategy with the perfect toolkit of real-time data availability, industry benchmarking, occupancy solution, and device compatibility. In addition, our team of experts will give you a detailed insight into the importance of the experiential value of stores in today’s retail space, the role of technology in ensuring store optimization, and the evolution of stores globally. For questions, reach out to us at marketing@confiz.com.
Before you know it, you’ll have learned how to improve retail sales performance in no time!
