How to Drive Footfall to Your Retail Store
Bricks-and-mortar stores are reliant on foot traffic to improve their revenue. The more footfall in the area. The more likely a store will survive in the competitive retail industry. We are therefore looking at the most effective ways to drive footfall to a store. This is so you can surpass your direct and indirect competitors.
Pick a Prime Location
You might have the perfect product line. What does it matter if no-one visits your store to purchase a product. Unfortunately, a store’s success is often determined by its location, not its product range. If you pick the wrong location, you may as well close your doors as soon as you have opened them.
Malls are therefore a great option to drive traffic into your store. You can guarantee you will receive a lot of passing trade. For example, you could lease a retail kiosk from a company like Westfield Specialty Leasing. This can provide 360-degree visibility to promote your business.
An Inviting Storefront
An attractive storefront can encourage visitors to shop with you. This is why you take the time to design an inviting store, and ensure you effectively maintain the premises. Customers will not be impressed with messy checkout areas, dirty floors or faulty shelving. You must therefore clean your windows, sweep the floor, dust the shelving, tidy the checkout area and replace peeling paint with a fresh coat.
Keep Your Employees Busy
Nothing is more off-putting to a customer than bored looking staff. Not only could this reflect poor customer service, but the customer will think there is a good reason the store isn’t busy.
You must therefore keep your employees busy to offer the illusion of a flourishing store, even if there are no customers on the premises. So, when an employee isn’t at the checkout, they should be moving stock, cleaning or facing the store. Encourage your staff to be mindful of their behaviour inside the store, so every individual effectively represents the company.
Footfall Is About Creating Unique Experiences
Not only must you strive to encourage people to walk through your store’s doors, but you will also want to encourage them to return in the future. To continually drive footfall to your store, you should provide unique customer experiences that will retain their loyalty.
For instance, you could provide free services attached to your product lines, such as free professional cleaning across all jewellery items. When a customer returns to the store with the items, they may make another purchase while they wait for the accessory to be professionally cleaned.
Brand Influencers
Social media is one of the most powerful marketing tools for the modern company, which is why you should try to work with brand influencers to drive traffic to your store. Try to connect with local influencers on social media, who can promote your store and product line on their Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat or Instagram pages.
There are many ways to drive footfall to your store and encourage brand loyalty. You just need to pick the perfect location, storefront and customer service experience, whilst looking for unique opportunities to promote your brand both on and offline.
