Running a modern business is becoming increasingly complicated. The world of technology certainly has the potential to make your business more profitable, but there’s so much noise, it’s often difficult to know what to do. There are dozens of social networks on which you can market your business, there’s video marketing, and paid advertising. You also have access to more traditional means of acquiring new customers. Billboards, radio, TV, and print can be effective ways to build up a strong client base. How can you know which route will work best for your business?
In truth, there’s not really a definitive way to know which methods will work best for your business. The trouble with marketing and advertising is also that it can take a while to see results. If you want to increase revenue right away, it can be difficult to be patient since you know there are so many different ways to acquire new customers.
However, there is another way you can improve your business while also making your customer experience more enjoyable and driving revenue. What is it? Merchandising. While advertising and marketing can certainly increase revenue by driving more customers to your store, effective merchandising techniques help you to make more sales with the customers that you already have. Implementation is immediate, and results are forthcoming. This is simply one of the best ways to increase your revenue. It happens right inside your store, and you can implement changes instantly if something isn’t working. Great merchandising is highly effective. What can you do to improve your in-store layout?
Change Your Displays Frequently
If you run the type of business that is likely to have customers returning frequently, you should be updating your displays periodically. Obviously, you don’t want to adjust the layout of your entire store for a couple of reasons. This would be very time-consuming, and it would also confuse customers that need to purchase certain products repeatedly. However, most stores have displays throughout the store with seasonal or impulse items that aren’t likely to be purchased more than once.
For instance, if you sold auto parts, you wouldn’t want to change the location of motor oil every month as your customers will need to purchase this item frequently. However, you might have a display near the front of the store with impulse items like flashlights. Perhaps you could change this display so that it features smartphone accessories. This is a great way to help repeat customers to see new products. Attractive impulse items are likely to see a dramatic increase in sales using this tactic. Obviously, if you sell holiday themed items around certain holidays, you’ll want to make sure that these displays are updated for these times.
Highlight Items that Customers Will Want, Not What They Need
Using the same example of an auto parts store, your displays wouldn’t likely drive increased sales if you placed headlights in them. When a customer comes into your store looking to buy something they need, they aren’t likely to leave before finding it. Even if they don’t purchase the item for whatever reason, they won’t leave your store until they’ve at least seen that item. It’s also true that customers aren’t going to buy an item like a headlight unless they need one. For that reason, putting these kinds of items on your displays is not going to result in an increase in sales.
Instead, your displays should highlight items that your customers will want, rather than items they’ve deliberately come into your store to find. Items that are purchased on impulse are the items you want to feature in your displays and near the registers. If you’re going to purchase special signage, this would be the place to do that.
Make Sure That Items Are Organized
This may sound obvious, but many stores get this wrong. If your customer can’t find the item that they need, they’re going to become frustrated. Even if they do end up purchasing the product, this is still bad for business. Make sure that your store is organized in a way that will make sense to the buyer. This is easier said than done. If you need assistance, retail merchandising services should be able to help you out.
Another great strategy is to group items that are likely to be purchased together in close proximity, even if they aren’t necessarily similar. For instance, if you ran a sporting goods store, you might place a display with golf shoes near the golf clubs. Even though clubs and shoes are not similar items, they are likely to be purchased at the same time. In this example, you may also want to have these specialized shoes available in the shoes section of your store. If you think about it for a few moments, there are probably a lot of items you can group together into displays around the store. In the above example, you could also place golf instructional videos in the same area. This strategy could have compounding effects.
Light Your Displays
Nothing does a better job of making things look important than attractive lighting. Putting one of these displays in a dimly lit corner isn’t likely to help you increase sales. Make sure that all of your displays have attractive overhead lighting. In addition, you might also consider using some specialized lighting to make an important display look even more appealing.
Make it Easy to for Customers to Find Prices
These displays are likely to attract attention, but as these items will be unnecessary purchases for most of your customers, if they don’t see a price right away, they are very likely to move on. While you can get away with having prices that are a bit harder to find on necessary purchases, customers won’t go to a lot of trouble to find out how much these kinds of items cost.
Implementing all of these strategies can do a lot to ensure that customers in your store are spending more money. These are effective ways to increase your revenue, and you can implement them immediately. Try out these strategies in your store and see what happens.