8 ways to improve your retail store

The retail industry is heavily saturated and intensely competitive, with new business constantly popping up with claims of having the biggest, best and cheapest products.

So just how do your differentiate yourself from the competition and ensure that once a customer has entered your shop,they stay and buy your products?

We’ll save you the trouble of searching the internet for the answers by talking you through eight effective ways to improve your retail store.

1.   Price tags

Price is a major factor when deciding to buy and customers hate having to ask store assistants how much an item costs, so save them the bother by having clearly displayed price tags for all of your products.

2.   Eye-catching visuals

If your store doesn’t look the part, your visitors won’t hang around. So display your best products front and centre or in your shop window to ensure that customers can immediately see your best efforts. Your displays should also be multi-dimensional, incorporating visual elements such as colour, depth and height. For inspiration, check out these stylish window displays on e-commerce site Shopify.

3.   Change displays regularly

Changing the displays in high traffic areas of your shop helps keep it looking fresh and encourages customers to keep coming back.

4.   Holiday based promotions

People love a celebration and since most retailers only focus on the big holidays such as Christmas, running in-store promotions centred around smaller holidays is a great way to gain a competitive edge. For example, on National Selfie Day, a clothes store could offer a discount to customers who take a selfie in the clothes they’re buying, and then upload these to social media to generate publicity.

5.   Optimize your till area

You can optimize your till area by displaying cheaper products nearby to encourage last-minute impulse buying. The most effective products to display are those that compliment your best-selling products or solve a problem related to them. For example, a shoe store might place shoe polish by the tills.

6.   Freebies

Providing your customers with freebies is a great way to provethat you value them. For example, visitors to chocolate stores such as Thorntons are usually offered a free product sample when they enter the shop. It’s an effective strategy for getting product feedback and upselling.

7.   Entrance mat

An entrance mat is the icing on the cake. It’s the first thing visitors to your store will see, so choose one that makes a big impression. Customised mats that incorporate your logo and brand colours are a good idea – you can buy these from mat suppliers such as Kleen-Tex.

 8.   Store exterior

Remember, it’s not just what’s on the inside that counts, your store needs to look great from the outside too. You therefore need to ensure that everything from your shop sign to your windows and the part of street you’re situated on looks clean and inviting.

So you see, with a little bit of creative thinking, you can breathe new life into your retail store.

What are your top tips for improving a retail store? Share them in the comments sections.