1. Become a Customer Advocate
2. Help customers feel right at home
3. Make sure customers can see your entire store
4. Constantly communicate through your signing program
5. Help customers remember the things they almost always forget
We’ve all run into stores to pick up a few things, gotten side tracked, and forgotten half of what we came in to buy. We’ve also all purchased some of the items necessary to complete a project, but not all, resulting in frustration and a return trip to the store. Helping your customers remember the things they frequently forget not only makes shopping easier, it helps you increase add on sales.
* Cross-Merchandising is a good place to start. In a well-merchandised drug store, for example, you will find disposable razors merchandised alongside the panty hose; paper towels housed next to window cleaner, and facial tissues right there next to the cough and cold medicine. You might even find toothbrushes hanging on a clip strip in the candy aisle.
Think of the cross-merchandising potential in your own store. At a store meeting, challenge each of your associates to come up with at least three cross-merchandising opportunities, then put them to work. Each time you bring in a new item or category, look for items you can cross merchandise with it. Visit Southern Imperial, Inc. at http://www.southernimperial.com for a great selection of cross-merchandising fixtures and accessories.
* Create project lists and use them as point-of-purchase marketing in key spots throughout the store. If a customer is interested in hosting a themed party for her eight year old, a list of supplies she will need to thrill the kids would be extremely helpful. House your project lists in individual book racks, or hang on clip strips with the appropriate merchandise, and make sure your associates keep copies with them in the quick draw position.
You can even take your list concept a step farther. Grocer Harris Teeter enables customers to create a shopping list on their website that can be printed and taken to the store. A very smart use of technology – do this on your own website!
* Stock must-have basic items at each checkout counter. We were making a purchase at OfficeMax and had forgotten to pickup a pack of paper that was on our list. We didn’t have time to go and get it, and wait on line again. When the cashier asked if we had found everything we were looking for, we told her we forgot the copy paper. “No, problem”, she said, and reached under the counter and grabbed a pack.
Upon further inspection, we noticed many basic items housed under each checkout counter. Mediocrity borrows and genius steals – steal this idea! Identify the basic items customers frequently forget and keep them handy at each checkout. If you don’t have enough room, stock a basket and keep it nearby. Refill it each night.
These 5 Simple Strategies are just plain, old-fashioned, relationship-building, customer de-stressing, common sense. Sure, each will help you sell more product, but they’ll also help customers shop your store with ease. And that’s what it’s is all about, isn’t it?
2. Help customers feel right at home
3. Make sure customers can see your entire store
4. Constantly communicate through your signing program
5. Help customers remember the things they almost always forget
We’ve all run into stores to pick up a few things, gotten side tracked, and forgotten half of what we came in to buy. We’ve also all purchased some of the items necessary to complete a project, but not all, resulting in frustration and a return trip to the store. Helping your customers remember the things they frequently forget not only makes shopping easier, it helps you increase add on sales.
* Cross-Merchandising is a good place to start. In a well-merchandised drug store, for example, you will find disposable razors merchandised alongside the panty hose; paper towels housed next to window cleaner, and facial tissues right there next to the cough and cold medicine. You might even find toothbrushes hanging on a clip strip in the candy aisle.
Think of the cross-merchandising potential in your own store. At a store meeting, challenge each of your associates to come up with at least three cross-merchandising opportunities, then put them to work. Each time you bring in a new item or category, look for items you can cross merchandise with it. Visit Southern Imperial, Inc. at http://www.southernimperial.com for a great selection of cross-merchandising fixtures and accessories.
* Create project lists and use them as point-of-purchase marketing in key spots throughout the store. If a customer is interested in hosting a themed party for her eight year old, a list of supplies she will need to thrill the kids would be extremely helpful. House your project lists in individual book racks, or hang on clip strips with the appropriate merchandise, and make sure your associates keep copies with them in the quick draw position.
You can even take your list concept a step farther. Grocer Harris Teeter enables customers to create a shopping list on their website that can be printed and taken to the store. A very smart use of technology – do this on your own website!
* Stock must-have basic items at each checkout counter. We were making a purchase at OfficeMax and had forgotten to pickup a pack of paper that was on our list. We didn’t have time to go and get it, and wait on line again. When the cashier asked if we had found everything we were looking for, we told her we forgot the copy paper. “No, problem”, she said, and reached under the counter and grabbed a pack.
Upon further inspection, we noticed many basic items housed under each checkout counter. Mediocrity borrows and genius steals – steal this idea! Identify the basic items customers frequently forget and keep them handy at each checkout. If you don’t have enough room, stock a basket and keep it nearby. Refill it each night.
These 5 Simple Strategies are just plain, old-fashioned, relationship-building, customer de-stressing, common sense. Sure, each will help you sell more product, but they’ll also help customers shop your store with ease. And that’s what it’s is all about, isn’t it?
