How to Increase Sales in Retail: Creative Ideas and Promotions?

Retail is an industry in which you have to combine several different factors in order to make it. First, you need to become a master of marketing and learn how to present your products as something new and revolutionary, even if the market for them is already oversaturated. Second, you need to learn how to talk to your audience in a language that they understand. You’re selling an idea, not a product! A great staff can sell almost anything. Third, you need to come up with new ways to portray your business and attract the audience. Achieving all of this at the same time is not a simple thing. Here are 10 ideas to help you figure this one out.

Table of Contents

1. Influencer promotion

With the rising popularity of social media, influencers are taking a niche that was so far mostly reserved for celebrities. Their followers either like, trust, or admire them. This is why their endorsement of your brand may make a world of difference. However, there’s another angle to this that you shouldn’t forget. If you’re running a brick-and-mortar retail place, there’s always a chance that an influencer in question will come to buy at the same time as their audience. This means that buying from you seems like the most reliable idea for your audience to meet their idols in person.

2. Google My Business

Regardless of your aim to funnel sales through your online or offline presence, you want to register on Google My Business and similar local databases. This will make it easier to find potential clients. This is one of the best ways to optimize your search and ensure that people can find all the contact info regarding your business. This way, they have official contact info and can see that you are, indeed, a legitimate business. Since this snippet has a photo slot, it’s also a great way for you to capitalize on your curb appeal.

3. Optimize your local mobile searches

Another thing you should do is optimize for local mobile searches. Recent studies show that a vast majority of offline purchases happen as a direct result of a customer’s prior mobile activity. In other words, they use their phone to check out the product, compare it to others and see how your prices fare against other retail places. By improving your local mobile SEO, you’re drastically improving both your online and offline sales. Moreover, you’re making your business accessible to people using all sorts of devices. Needless to say, you need to work on both iOS- and Android-based users.

4. Display everything on your website

Even if you focus primarily on offline sales, it’s incredibly important that you have everything on your website. For instance, some businesses specialize as clothing distributors, which have strong logistical chains and delivery systems. Others prefer old-school, on-spot sales. The key thing is that you proudly display every item you have in offer. Look at it this way, people might be willing to travel quite a bit in order to buy from you. However, they will not do this unless they’re 100% sure that you have the item on offer. So, update your website regularly in order not to mislead them.

5. Guerilla marketing

One of the most interesting crossovers between digital and analog marketing can be seen through the use of creative ideas and promotions. When you create a compelling piece of street art, people will take photos of it and post it on their social media. There, they can also add a tag, hashtag, and location. If your business is nearby or if the mural/street art is on the side of your business, you’ve practically promoted the location of your retail place. The best thing about this method is that it provides you with coverage in both the digital and real world for the same money.

6. Human connection in retail

A well-trained staff is quite invaluable. Look at it as the replacement for all the retail techniques, tools, and software. They are there to make necessary suggestions, thus replacing a filter in an e-store. A lot of people make a decision whether to buy or not based on whether they like your staff. Sure, they won’t buy something that’s far outside of the scope of their budget but it can still be a determining factor in buying the same item here or someplace else. It’s also a determining factor between returning to your business later on or forgetting all about you.

7. Hosting an event

While people can visit your store at any time, they might need a certain sense of exclusivity. An event, especially a meaningful event creates a sense of FOMO, which plays strongly in your favor. Now, if you give them a financial incentive to spend more during this event, you’ll create a scenario in which you can funnel sales much more efficiently. Now, with COVID-19, events may be prohibited or harder to organize following all the strictest rules proscribed by medical experts. Still, even this will pass, and then, you’ll need to know how to host a proper event.

8. Cutting the price

The next thing you need to think about is cutting the price. This is something you need to be quite careful about. Sure, reducing the cost may help you sell the items that you wouldn’t be able to sell otherwise, however, it might also result in downscaling the value of the brand as a whole. Louis Vuitton, for instance, never goes on sales. If there are any leftover products (and there usually aren’t any), they will be destroyed rather than sold at a lower price. Some luxury items are so valuable and so great in fighting depreciation that people buy them as proper investments.

9. Obtainable rewards

One of the main things you need to learn is how to balance out your reward system. What does this mean? First of all, you need to make the goal relatively easy to reach in order to motivate your customers to keep going. Second, you need to find the right measure, so that you don’t bankrupt yourself trying to capitalize on this rewards system. If the rewards are too valuable, they shouldn’t be available to everyone. A prize or a contest with different tiers of rewards should be your safest bet.

10. Work on your curb appeal

You should never underestimate the significance of working on your curb appeal. Even before they enter your store, they will notice the decoration of your entryway. Now, they might not pay direct attention, instead, the impressive surroundings will only serve to improve your brand’s standing in the eyes of your potential audience. A clean and well-organized exterior of your brick-and-mortar store will show them how you do business. Also, keep in mind that it’s not that easy to make the selection of items you want to put at the front. The right items may attract people quite effortlessly.

In conclusion

Increasing sales is about more than just what you have in offer. Sure, your inventory is what attracts people but why should they buy it from you. The items that you’re selling are probably not your exclusives, which means that your customers have other means of obtaining them. With the above-listed 10 tips on your side, you’ll maximize the chance that they’ll get them from you.