5 Ways to Create In-Store Experiences That Drive Traffic and Sales
Although e-commerce is growing rapidly every year, the majority of people are still visiting brick and mortar stores and spending there. According to statista.com, e-commerce only makes up 10 percent of retail sales. That means you don’t need to worry about losing your visitors due to the e-commerce presence. Instead, you should focus on finding ways to bring more visitors to your physical store.
People should have a good reason to come to your store. Think of something that makes them prefer to go to your store instead of an online shop. Also, think of something that makes people who see your store want to get in it. If you haven’t found the ways, don’t worry, because you’re reading the right article now. Here are five ways you can implement to create in-store experiences that help you drive traffic and sales.
1. Empower your front-line employees
Your front-line employees are resources you can rely on to improve customer experience. They are the ones who deal with customers face-to-face every day, so you have to make sure that they can build great interactions with the customers.
Your employees don’t have to be persuasive (this can be irritating for some visitors), but they must be active when facing visitors. You need to teach your employees how to approach visitors, explain your products to visitors in detail, and help visitors when they experience difficulties in finding products. Therefore, it is important for your employees to be able to understand your products and brand very well.
2. Let your customers try your products
Beautiful decorations and various modern facilities in your store certainly attract visitors’ attention visually. But focusing on visualization alone is not enough. People who come to your store certainly hope to be able to directly try your products. Therefore, make it easier for them to feel the experience of using your products so they’ll be more convinced to buy them.
This method doesn’t only apply to clothing or shoe stores, but also any types of retail stores. For example, if you sell cosmetics, then you can provide free cosmetic testing so that your visitors can directly try your makeup products. Similarly, if you sell electronics, then you can allow your visitors to try the gadgets they’re interested in as well.
3. Create a great atmosphere
You certainly want to make your customers feel at home. And you definitely want them to come back to your store again and again. So, what you have to do is to create an atmosphere that makes them feel comfortable while shopping.
Tips:
Play some cheerful music softly throughout the store. This can encourage joy and other positive emotions. Make sure your store aisles enable visitors to move freely without having to worry about dropping something. Provide a comfortable chair that can be used as a seat for tired visitors.
4. Blend digital and physical retail experiences
If you have an online store (you should!), make sure that your e-commerce site works hand in hand with your physical store. Allow your customers to place orders on your e-commerce site, then pick up their items at your store. According to the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC), 69 percent of buyers who go to stores to pick up their orders end up purchasing additional items.
You can also bring your e-commerce to your physical store by allowing customers to browse your online store in your physical location. This can be a great strategy, especially if you have multiple stores and you don’t keep your entire stock in one place.
You can integrate the online and offline shopping experiences with great ease when you use an automated retail solution. It allows you to manage sales, orders, and customer through a single system.
5. Improve your customers’ checkout experience
Customers will rethink buying your products when they see long lines at the checkout. To avoid long lines, prepare several registers and cashiers to speed up the checkout process. Mostly the queues become very long because there is only one cash register that handles the payments.
The most effective way to speed up the checkout process is by implementing a POS system in your store. Not only can it be used on cash registers, but also on smartphones and tablets, so that the cashiers don’t have to depend on cash registers to handle customer payments, especially when the cash registers aren’t working or when the electricity is out. Through this system, your staff can also easily find the products the customers are looking for in just seconds.