If you’re a store owner, then the majority of your effort probably goes into buying stock and ensuring that the store looks exactly the way it should. Beyond that, it’s probably about the staff that you have and getting them to increase sales wherever they can. These are good starts, but they’re only the beginning of what you should be doing in 2017. If your store is stuck in the past, you might want to have a rethink about how you operate, because there’s technology out there that makes it easier than ever to boost your efficiency and, most importantly, boost sales.
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Keeping Customers Happy
You value each and every person who comes into your store, but you shouldn’t be valuing them equally. Why would you treat a person who has just walked in off the street the same way you would treat a loyal customer? Of course, give the potential customer respect and try to get them on board, but go the extra mile for the fans you already have. Loyal customers can provide a bedrock for any company, and they’re highly cost efficient: you’ll spend three times as much money getting new customers as you would keeping hold of the old one. Integrate a loyalty scheme for your customers and they’ll feel valued enough to stay with you.
What’s Selling?
If you’re still doing a stock inventory check by hand, then it’s time to put down the pen and make better use of your time. There’s software out there that allows you to easily track your stock in the moment, so you don’t have ever to be without your best selling items for longer than necessary. Keeping a digital track of what’s selling and what isn’t also means you’ll have much better data when it comes to planning on what you should be selling, especially as you’ll be able to identify shopping trends much easier than if all your data was on paper.
Getting the Close
Your retail POS system can be make or break for your day’s sales. It can mean making a sale, selling additional items, or getting no sale at all. If you haven’t incorporated handheld devices that allow a worker to make a sale from anywhere in the store, you might want to look into it. It offers an experience that is much more personal than what has gone before. Having the right one in place also means you’ll have access to real time data that includes stock count, employee discounts, sales, and so on.
Getting the Staff
If you go digital, you might just discover than you haven’t been putting enough emphasis on the number of staff that you have at any given time. While in the past shop owners have had the amount of staff they felt was appropriate for the level of business, having access to data that tells you exactly how much customers you have at any given time period will allow you have more or less staff working. Remember, a high percentage of potential customers walk away if they can’t find a staff member, so it’s really worth getting it right.
