How To Grow Your Retail Company

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One of the biggest challenges that retail companies face in today’s market is growing their business so that they can boost sales and stay ahead of the competition. Finding stability and earning a profit is a challenge in itself, but what do you do once you’ve reached this stage and you want to grow and stay ahead of the competition? There are a few different ways how you can do this which can have a huge impact on your company not only in terms of profit but also brand reputation and awareness. Read on for a few ideas on how any retailer can grow their business and take it to the next level.

Open Another Store

One great option is to open another store in an area different from your current one. Having one store can seriously reduce the number of people that are exposed to your products each day, particularly if you are not in a busy area. Opening another store could change this and can also do wonders for brand awareness. However, if you haven’t already, it is also important that you offer customers the opportunity to buy online so that they can shop 24/7 and from the comfort of their own home.

Gift Cards, Reward Cards & Check Acceptance

Another way to grow your retail business is to encourage consumers to come to your store. You can do this by offering gift cards, which were the most popular items on wish lists in 2017 according to the National Retail Federation and a superb way to encourage people to come and spend in your store. Additionally, reward cards are an excellent tool for customer retention and customer retention is crucial to building sustained success. Finally, accepting checks is another important area for many consumers, and it is important that your check processing is lightning-quick to reduce deposit times.

Visual Merchandising

As a retailer, you should never underestimate the power of visual merchandising as this is, essentially, your key salesperson. Every morning, think about the layout of the store as you enter the shop and think about how it could be improved. You should also consider seasonal displays and make regular changes to displays to entice people into your store from the outside and stay current.

Environment

Following on from this, it is also worth thinking about how you could create the right atmosphere in store so that people feel comfortable and will spend time browsing your products. In addition to the actual layout of the store, consider the decoration, temperature, smell, and music. These can all have a huge impact on how an individual feels and whether or not they make a purchase.

In-Store Events

Once you have found stability in your particular market, you will want to take your company to the next level by showing that you are an authoritative source. You can do this by hosting regular in-store events related to your industry, and this is particularly effective if you are in a niche market. Consider hosting parties, screenings, workshops, talks or anything else that will get people through the door, allowing them to socialize with each other.

Online Presence

Although you have a physical store, it is also vital that you have a strong online presence. One of the best ways to grow a retail company is to up their online presence through internet marketing practices like search engine optimization (SEO) and pay per click advertising (PPC). Additionally, you can use your social media channels to increase brand awareness and reputation by regularly posting updates on the store, your products, promotions and any interesting industry news. You should also engage with your audience online and help them with any questions that they might have.

Personnel

Finally, you need to make sure that you have the right people representing your brand. You could have the best products available, but people will not want to come to your store if you have lazy and apathetic or rude staff. In addition to having friendly and helpful staff, it is also a good idea to utilize staff uniforms and name tags so that people can easily identify the employee they’ve spoken to in-store. Using name tags also adds a personal touch for each employee, making your brand more relatable.

Growing a retail business is a challenge, but the above are a few great ways to take the company to the next level once you have found some initial success. You should always build on what has found your success, but making a few adjustments to enhance the customer experience and also boosting your brand reputation/awareness will bring more people through the door while also encouraging existing customers to return.

4 thoughts on “How To Grow Your Retail Company”

    • Hi DD,

      While a lot of the financial press may still tout negative headlines about our economy I agree that it is definitely on the stronger end of the spectrum these days. Cannibalization is a very interesting concept when considering opening up another location. You hear about it all the time especially in many SBUX conference calls, especially in the past. Thanks for sharing.

      Reply
    • Hi BD,

      That’s true. To some extent many of these ideas are universal and can be applied to pretty much all business types. Thank you for stopping by and commenting.

      Reply

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