The Store is a Gold mine of Marketing Opportunity

We’re spending more and more time with clients this year on “shopper marketing,” or initiatives to enhance the shopper experience in-store. The store is a medium that can have a phenomenal impact on sales.  In many categories such as food, beverage and consumer products, “70% of purchase decisions are made in-store, and 68% of in-store purchases are impulse.” (1)  Clearly, marketing initiatives need to consider both how to get prospects to the store, and then how to maximize the opportunity for a sale once they are there. 

Where to begin?

Step 1: Know Your Best Customer

Surprisingly, many growing mid-sized retailers do not take the time to identify and profile their best customers. It’s critical to determine who you really want in your store first and foremost, and then to be obsessed with learning everything you can about them in terms of who they are, how they live, what they do, and what’s important to them. It may not be possible to understand everyone that shops in your store with this degree of depth, but it’s imperative when it comes to your best customer – those that are most loyal and profitable. Armed with this type of knowledge, you’ll be better equipped to think about how to market and close sales within the store environment.  

Step 2: Know How Your Best Customer Shops

Even once you think you know your best customer, you need to follow them as they travel through your store and understand how they shop, why, what they like, what they dislike, and what triggers a purchase – especially one of those “impulse” purchases that make up 68% of in-store sales.  Ultimately, your goal is to take that learning and make the shopping experience as comfortable and as easy as possible.

For instance, in a study conducted by Indiana University’s Kelley Business School, American Eagle found that it could drive sales of men’s clothing up 23% without spending a dime. Sound too good to be true? It almost is – American Eagle discovered that men were uncomfortable picking up and interacting with merchandise because they were afraid they would not be able to refold it nicely. Thus, the company started displaying men’s clothing in piles versus neatly folded stacks.  Men began to pick up more pairs of jeans and t-shirts, try on more items, and ultimately purchase more (2). 

Similarly, when Bootlegger discovered that few jeans are seldom the right length, and that this frustration was costing the company sales, it solved the “last mile pain point” (3) by offering free hems - often in partnership with Stitches, a sewing service based in many of the same shopping centres as Bootlegger.  And at long last, home decorators and designers were thrilled when Benjamin Moore recently began offering oversized colour chips for a nominal price so people could really see how a colour would look.  Apparently, they are flying off the shelf – an inexpensive but brilliant idea when trying to decide between Soft Cream or Warm Cream.

Step 3: Know What Your Best Customer Really Thinks About You

That’s right. You absolutely need to know what your best customer really thinks about your store or product: what they expect, what they like, what they dislike, what would make their experience a whole lot better. Really try to understand why they DON’T purchase more, and we guarantee you will find a nugget to help increase sales. Get obsessed with what your customer thinks. For instance, walk the floor and talk with customers every day. Make it easy for your customers to provide feedback – in-store and online.  Implement a formalized customer satisfaction tracking program.  Put a mystery shopping program in place.  You can’t improve until you understand where you are today and where you want to go. 

What last mile pain points can you solve that will make your customer smile, and say, “yes, I’ll take it?”  For instance, when a local grocery chain in the US learned that its customers loved its deli, but couldn’t bear the wait times, it added more deli staff AND implemented a deli-order kiosk. Now busy shoppers can quickly place their deli order upon entering the store and then pick it up – with no wait time – before checking out. 

Step 4: Rethink and Reinvent

Armed with knowledge and insight about your customers, take time to revisit and rethink every aspect of the store experience regularly.  What last mile pain points could be alleviated to secure a sale? 

For instance, in our work with dozens of shopping centres, we find that customers  are looking for a centre to fulfill more needs than ever before – quickly, affordably and with increased relevance. Those needs include shopping and errands, entertaining, socializing, and even relaxation. Thus, more retailers will be bundling their products with services – similar to the Bootlegger example. Shopping centres will be offering more personal shopper and image consultant services, in tandem with fitness and nutrition services. Centres are beginning to add more relevant entertainment and relaxation features such as healthy living restaurants, pop-up initiatives (20 minute manicures, pedicures, reflexology), fitness facilities, and day spas. 

Initiatives to make the in-store experience as comfortable and easy as possible  can also be much simpler. One of our clients received a lot of positive feedback from changing the music in her store; another by reworking product merchandising to create shelf blocks with products grouped together that assist with a specific challenge such as a food allergy; and finally, another choose to develop packaging that was category appropriate, but with unique colour cues and interesting names to help it stand out.  

Know your best customer and challenge the way things have always been done in your store to better meet his or her needs, and we guarantee you will find ways to increase customers’ satisfaction, and ultimately your sales.

1 GMA, Shopper Marketing: Capturing a Shopper’s Mind, Heart and Wallet, page 3

2 http://ana.blogs.com/maestros/2008/06/win-the-hearts.html

3 GMA, Shopper Marketing: Capturing a Shopper’s Mind, Heart and Wallet, page 11