With so many stores on the high street offering very similar products, and only a certain amount of paying customers wandering through doors to shop, getting consumers to part with their money in your store can be an uphill struggle.
This is especially true in recent years when many consumers have taken their custom purely online. Of course, if you have an online and physical store, you may find that your business has benefitted from this behavior. However, if you have not, you may be on the lookout for ways to get customers to choose your store over the competition.
Remember that the customer experience starts outside your store
While it is highly likely that you are already dressing your store windows and any exterior area, you will find that all your hard work is derailed by gangs of anti-social teens loitering at the front of your store. Moving this unwanted attention away is useful, but you should not confront them yourself because you never know how anyone will react to being confronted. A group can be intimidating, no matter who they are.
There are, more subtle ways to encourage these anti-social teens to meet and hang out elsewhere. This will make your customers feel more confident about visiting your store and make it a far better establishment to work in.
Rotate your stock to ensure freshness
Although every customer likes a bargain, and some purposefully go out to find reduced items, rotating your stock is a must. It will not only ensure that you have items for sale to get the largest profit margin, but it will also make sure that you do not have out-of-date items taking up valuable shelf space. Even getting a little bit of money is better than throwing items away – but having your customers pay full price is even better.
Getting on top of your stock rotation can also help you plan your deliveries more effectively so that you are less likely to either overstock on items that are continuously marked down or sell out of your best sellers.
Teach employees how to speak and react to customers
To attract the most customers, it is highly likely that you are open for as long as you possibly can be. This means that you probably have employees to take over caring for your customers when you cannot physically be there.
Therefore, your employees must have the same standards that you have and know how to converse with your customers politely. It is also important that they know how to react and deal with difficult situations or confrontations, with a mind to calming irate or anti-social customers down without antagonizing the situation any further.
Final thoughts
Customers will want a store with everything they need in stock and in date. On the other hand, they will not venture into a store that feels uncomfortable or threatened just to walk past. When they are in your store, they are more likely to become a regular customer if they are treated with respect and spoken to professionally – so you need to make sure everything is in place for that to happen.