Sales Promotion & Retail Marketing

After the Holiday Buzz is Over: How to Keep the Magic Alive (and Avoid the Hangover)

Posted onAuthorericw@specialtystoreservices.com

holiday-hangover2-254x300If a group of retail professionals was asked this question, “What lies at the core of high sales and profits?” how would they answer? Some would say great products and others might suggest competitive prices, but they are both wrong. Studies have proven over and over again that an outstanding customer experience is the number one answer. Without an outstanding first impression—followed by many more great experiences—your potential customers won’t give you a second thought. Providing customers with a memorable and superior customer experience should surpass the excellence of your product or low prices, especially during the holiday season.

Exterior and Interior Impressions

The festive, warm atmosphere is one of the major reasons why so many people enjoy the holiday season. Can a customer enter one of your stores and immediately be cheered up by the holiday lights, garlands, and other colorful decorations and have their shopper mojo activated? The decorations help create a positive, memorable customer experience and stimulate buying—an accomplishment that you want to maintain all year long.

Need a Boost? Some Quick & Easy Fixes

If your store branding needs a boost, you have some great options to choose from. Here are some proven ways to create a colorful, inviting atmosphere and encourage your customers to buy:

  • Use new store fixtures to add interest and excitement in different areas of the store
  • Design and develop a unique line of custom store fixtures for an entire store chain makeover
  • Choose a bright, welcoming color and repaint your stores’ exteriors and interiors
  • Add framed pictures or custom banners or signs to select areas in your stores

Creating warm, inviting storefronts and interiors is easy to accomplish during the holidays; the challenge is keeping this feeling when the holidays end. When you take the decorations down, the welcoming store atmosphere can disappear. How does your current store branding measure up when the holiday glitz and glitter are gone? As you evaluate the situation don’t gloss over areas of improvement. Be honest with yourself and your employees. The sooner you figure out what needs to be improved, the sooner you can begin building an atmosphere that welcomes and cheers customers year-round—and ultimately keeps customers buying.

Interested in learning more about how to avoid the post holiday shopping hangover? The retail experts at Specialty Store Services can help. Call us today at 800.999.0771 or click here to visit our website for more information.

3 Ways Custom Retail Fixtures Can Boost Sales

Posted onAuthorericw@specialtystoreservices.com

“We get confused a bit about what retail is. It is really just buying things, putting them on a floor and selling them.” -Gerry Harvey, Australian furniture retailer
These days, as retailers are asked to do more with less, it’s hard to determine what’s important to invest in and what is not. Which products should you sell? How many store fixtures should you purchase? What kind? The questions can become overwhelming. In the quote above, Harvey cuts through the chaos and simplifies a retailer’s job to its simplest function: SELL. All your actions should be supporting your ultimate goal of selling more merchandise.
One of the key ways to achieve that goal is to use the right store fixture to display your products. Generic fixtures can work just fine, but sometimes, the situation calls for more. Sometimes you need a superhero to come in and save the day—a secret weapon like custom store fixtures.
Custom fixtures have more flexibility than generic ones, and can sell your products more effectively. Putting your merchandise on the floor with style can do wonders for your margins. Here are three ways that custom retail fixtures can boost store sales and drive profits:
1.      Make Fixtures More Shoppable
When you customize a fixture to fit with your stores’ unique space and feel, you give your store an extra edge. Rather than sticking your merchandise on a basic, plain fixture, you’re putting it on a fixture that has character and style. A well-made, stylish fixture appeals to customers more, making them more likely to notice your merchandise and buy. Custom fixtures that truly fit the atmosphere of your store showcase your products and provide a customer experience that draws people back.
2.      Increase Branding
Custom fixtures allow stores to increase their brand presence and give customers an exceptional experience. From signage and POP displays to garment racks and gondolas, you can design a look that fits the colors, logo, message, and values of your brand. The possibilities are only as limited as your imagination. For example, one of our athletic apparel customers really wanted a unique, branded look for their store to stand out from their competitors. Custom fixtures gave them the ability to design mesh and metal fixtures that made their products stand out. When customers now enter the store, they are immediately in a branded atmosphere that they’ll remember—and buy from.
3.      Showcase a Unique Product

Another major advantage of custom retail fixtures is their design flexibility. The color, shape, and size can be designed to uniquely fit a special product. Sometime a product needs more than a stock display or shelf. Having a well-made fixture that accentuates your product will add to its appeal and encourage customers to buy. Approach it from the viewpoint of a customer. Which product are you more likely to buy—a watch that’s sitting on a plain, white shelf, or a watch nestled on a velvet square inside a gleaming glass case?

Marketing Tasks Should be a Top Priority

Posted onAuthorericw@specialtystoreservices.com

When opening or running a store, we believe that if we build it they will come. As store owners, you cannot only rely on word of mouth; you need to work at it and having good marketing is the difference between a store being successful and a store that is not.
To make a business thrive, here are 5 marketing ideas that can help you be successful:
  1. Clearly Write Out and Develop a Plan
At the beginning of every year, I write out a strategy that revolves around the calendar and I determine how many emails and the topics of the emails that I want to cover each month.  A great starting point is to revolve marketing ideas around holidays; even if it is only four times a year, it is better than not having anything at all.
  1. Promotions and Press Releases
Each month write a Press Release to your local newspaper, and have in-store promotions as well as Facebookpromotions. Consider weekly contests where they have to comment or share with a friend.  The great part about this idea is that it is no cost to you and you can only benefit from more people learning about your store. 
  1. Thank-You Cards
After each order, either send customers a thank-you card, thanking them for their purchase, or insert a card into the bag.  This goes a long way and customers will feel appreciated.  You may want to add an offer to entice the customer to come back and shop. This little token will go along way – remember, it is cheaper to keep and existing customer than it is to get new customers.
  1. Encourage Interaction through Facebook
Add new pictures of products or events to Facebook and encourage customers to “Like” your store while they are shopping and maybe give out a free gift.  The more Likes your store gets, the more exposure your store will get. 
  1. Email Blasts and Texts
Emails and texts must be done on a regular basis and in a timely manner to correlate with the seasons.  Blasts can include pictures of new products, new service, a special item that is on sale for the week. If customers like you they will be happy to hear from you no matter what. 
Marketing should be a top priority; if you don’t have the want or know how, then it is time to hire a person who is skilled at marketing.  As a Store Owner, you want only the best, so step it up and increase your bottom line.

Email Marketing is a proven way to increase your Sales

Posted onAuthorericw@specialtystoreservices.com

At Specialty Store Services we know the importance of emailing marketing, which is why we have partnered with Constant Contact.  With Constant Contact it is easy to send out sales, specials and events email right to your customers.  Constant Contact is easy to use, they have over 400+ templates to choose from. Stand out from your competition.  Sign up for a free trial offer. 
Now that you have the marketing tools now you need to get the email addresses from your customers.  Here are five legitimate and unobtrusive ways to obtain your own customers email addresses:
1.      Ask them while they are in the store
 As a business owner, you have an advantage with your own customers — they are YOUR customers.  Usually they want to see you survive and they’d be willing to help you out.  Set up an email sign-up sheet right near your register.  At the top of the sheet make a simple note like “Sign up for our email list”, add a note about confidentiality and state that you won’t sell or trade their email address  You’ll be surprised how many people will give you their email.
2.      Put a fish bowl on your counter
A quick and easy way to get your customers to provide an email is to ask customers to fill out a form. Have them drop it into a contest box and have a drawing for a free service or product. 
3.      Add an email sign-up link to your website
You should take advantage of that moment and have a prominent spot on all of your web pages pointing to an email signup form.  Make the signup as painless as possible with only the necessary fields “First name” and “Email Address”.  Any more requirements could prompt them to just close their browser.  Remember to apply the same courtesy here as on your signup sheet: note confidentiality and don’t forget “please” and “thank you”.
4.       Give something away
Put together a quick monthly or weekly giveaway of a product or service. The sign-up
slips should always require an email address.
5.      Use your social media connections
      If you have an active Facebook page you probably have access to many of your customer’s emails already.  Getting their email address should not be difficult. Take the time to ask your connections  for their email address.  It is a fairly simple process to post a link to your web sites “contact us” page on your Facebook page or even just to say “Hi, could I get your email address so I can send you our  company newsletter?”  Many people will provide their email address when asked by an established connection.
Click Here to learn more about Constant Contact and what it can do for you!!!

Customization is a Great Way to Advertise your Business

Posted onAuthorericw@specialtystoreservices.com

Have you ever walked down the street and you see someone wearing a shirt that you like? You think to yourself where did they buy it, then you notice a bag with a logo and store name on it and you google the store. This is the best advertising you can get  without it costing you a lot of money. Customizing retail bags can help reinforce your brand name and give the air of professionalism to your business. In a competitive marketplace there are hundreds of companies that are competing to get customers into their business.  A retail business wants to grab attention from any avenue, which is why Custom Imprinted Bags have become the rage.  A Custom imprinted bag is considered a walking billboard and a practical and low costing branding strategy.
At Specialty Store Services we have many different products to advertise your store.
An Eco Friendly Store may want give away Custom Imprinted Reusable Shopping Bags with the name and logo printed on it. For another option we carry Custom Imprinted Plastic Bags in many sizes  with either single or double sided printing.  And lastly if you have bags that you currently purchased we can have them imprinted in no time with a Large Custom Imprinted Labels that can be printed with your logo and store name.  If you don’t have a logo Specialty Store Services can create one for you at an additional cost.

Just remember that when your customers are buying products from your store you must always supply them in a bag so there is no reason you shouldn’t use bags to your advantage and gain some exposure as well as some new customers.

Great Retail Promotion Idea

Posted onAuthorericw@specialtystoreservices.com

Looking for a new promotion idea to use at the local festival, sidewalk sale or even in your store? Check out this “Grab Bag” idea featured by Bob Negen on the Whizbang! Training site. People like surprises and they like a good deal, and this promo idea has the best of both worlds. Plus, people are likely to spend more when them come into the store to cash in the $1-$10 gift certificate they won! Read on –

You know, a little bit of imagination can take you a long way.  Re-imagining, re-inventing an idea to make it your own is what having your own business is all about.  It’s one of the reasons we really liked this Tip sent in by a reader last week…

Sidewalk sales are coming up this month for many of you and we thought this idea from Shari Aussant could easily be transplanted from her local fair to your sidewalk.  It’s a fun, imaginative way to create excitement, increase sales, get rid of excess inventory, and boost the number of transactions per customer.
“Hi Bob –

Your Tip of the Week re: using gift certificates to increase traffic in the shop was fantastic! Our shop sponsored a table at a local fair and we were fresh out of ideas of what to do to create excitement.  The night before I re-read your email and listened again to the pod-cast and here is what we came up with;

We filled 500 grab bags with product that wasn’t moving.  Candles that were not the best, free samples given to us by our companies, hot chocolate packets, teas, all little items that we had sitting around.  For $1.00 customers could pick a gift bag and in 50 of the bags we hid plastic gift cards with random amounts ranging from $1 to $10 with one $50.  We also filled a retro bubble gumball machine with fun prizes and free samples for 50 cents a chance to win a $25 gift card.

The bubble gum machine brought in $325 and the Grab Bags brought in over $500.  We made our cost back of all the items given away, covered the cost of the table, staff, and gift cards.  We passed out hundreds of little $5 gift certs as well and the store which had a history of being quiet on festival days, ended up having a banner day with all the new customers that were coming in with the gift cards and mystery gift certificates.  The winners had to physically bring in the card for us to run it on the machine to see what dollar amount they won!  It was so fun and our table was the busiest one at the fair.  People were jumping when they got a card in their bag as well as with all the freebies they got.

Thanks so much for all of your great ideas, we are having such fun with your e-blasts!”

– Shari Aussant  http://www.oldcompanystore.com/



Please let me know how this promotion idea works out for you! Sounds like fun!

Events Ideas and Free Publicity

Posted onAuthorericw@specialtystoreservices.com

Effective business owners and store managers are always looking more ways to obtain more attention while keeping costs down. Enter in-store events, press releases and word-of-mouth publicity! I know we’ve lightly touched on this before but it bears repeating in more detail.  Here are some event ideas that involve a small or minimal monetary investment but can garner a lot of attention.

Give and you shall receive. Donate your products or services to a local non-profit or other worthy organization. How does giving away your merchandise or knowledge benefit your store or company? Two words: free publicity. Newspapers will print or post online news about events benefiting the community and non-profits for free.  
  • If you own a beauty salon, offer a day of pampering to the residents of a local assisted living home, senior center or women’s shelter. Contact the activity director, pack up your gear and go give free hair trims, comb-outs or mini-manis to people who would like a little pick-me-up.
  • Own a restaurant? Choose a day to offer military veterans free dessert and coffee or have a little 3-hour reception with finger foods, beverages and desserts for the vets.
  • Owners of pet grooming salons can offer free nail trims and ear cleanings for dogs and/or cats and ask for donations which will benefit a local animal shelter. Give it a party-like atmosphere by setting up a tent outside where you can work on the less skittish visitors and do face painting for the kids.
  • Owners of clothing stores can contact a local homeless shelter or women’s shelter to offer some people in need nice new clothes for job interviews or clothing for their children.
Put on your thinking cap and think about what events you can hold at your location or what services you can offer off-site. What can you do to make the events fun and newsworthy? The event will be more effective if your heart is in it – the sincerity will show through and speak for itself. In turn, people will talk about it in a positive way and spread the word about your company. And there you go – more publicity. 
Make sure you spend extra time cleaning your store and organizing everything! After all, there will be potential customers coming to your place for these events, so give them a great first impression. Be sure to have business cards or flyers with your company’s information to give to visitors, especially if your event is off-site.
Spread the news. Write an effective press release to let the local news outlets know what you’re doing. Make sure you get the press release to the Events Editor at least 2-3 weeks before your event and take pictures at the event so they can print a follow-up story (which you will also provide in a press release format). Press releases need to have a title that both grabs attention and gives info of the event. Be sure to give all pertinent information in a summary paragraph at the beginning of the press release before delving into details. If you don’t, you may not grab the attention of the editor – no attention from the editor, no free publicity. Check out this article on how to write an effective press release for some helpful hints. Don’t forget to advertise your event with posters in your store, on your website/social media page and via email to your mailing list.

So, you’ve got some new fun and profitable event ideas to generate interest and get publicity. Please let me know what events you’re planning and how they go!

Visit the Specialty Store Services website for products to help you promote your events and for links to more tools to help you run your business effectively.

Retail Sales – A Positive Attitude Yields Positive Results

Posted onAuthorericw@specialtystoreservices.com

So, the busy retail holiday shopping season is really, truly, officially here! Woo-hoo! All the hustle and bustle and money changing hands…it can be so fun and energizing. It can also be very draining. It is hard to be upbeat and cheerful when you’re really just feeling tired, annoyed, hungry because there’s no time for a break and then there’s that cold you’re afraid may be around the corner. So, what’s a busy, stressed out retailer to do? Simple! Fake it til you make it!

Just do it. That’s right. Smile when you’d rather roll your eyes. Say “Have a great day!” when you’d rather say “Don’t let the door hit you on the way out!” Smooth the ruffled feathers of an unreasonable customer; remember, they may be feeling as stressed and headachy as you are. I can tell you from personal experience that blasting people with a winning smile and forcing a cheerful attitude really does bring about a good mood! It’s hard to stay surly when you put effort into a smile. If you can talk yourself into a bad mood, you can talk yourself into a good one! I’ve done it many a time.

Take on the Grinch. I’ve worked the register at a popular toy store during the holiday season and, believe me, it is not for sissies. A lot of customers are worried about the money they’re spending, irritated with the long lines and they have somewhere else they need to be “right now“. Not everyone is feeling the holiday cheer so I make it a personal challenge to get people to smile and feel just a little bit better than they did before they interacted with me. Make cheerful small talk such as “Good for you, more items crossed off your shopping list!” Compliment them on their cute hat or pretty earrings. Thank them for their patience with the wait. It’s been over 10 years but I still remember one particular instance when I was feeling down while shopping and the friendliness of the sales clerk gave me a boost I really needed. A kind word and a smile can make a world of difference.

Smiles = Sales. Your positive attitude can bring about more retail sales. Really! Think about it. Someone walks into your store feeling grumpy, you turn their frown upside down and make their shopping experience more enjoyable. People are more likely to shop longer and purchase more if they feel comfortable and happy in their shopping environment…and people will remember your store as the one with the cheerful, helpful staff and will likely return on future shopping trips!
Feelin’ groovy. Optimism can help boost your immune system, especially when dealing with viral infections, as found in a 2007 study performed by the Department of Psychology at the University of Kentucky. So keep that internal (and external) dialog positive! Also, make sure you get enough rest and healthy foods to keep illness at bay.
Now, go give that winning smile to some frazzled customers! Please feel free to share your shopping experiences with me, from both sides of the counter.

Small Business Saturday – Retail Event Idea

Posted onAuthorericw@specialtystoreservices.com

Small Business Saturday is November 26, 2011! The 2nd annual Small Business Saturday is a day dedicated to supporting small businesses on one of the busiest shopping weekends of the year. This day is a shout-out to the mom-and-pop shops that make up the bulk of the business in this country.Started last Thanksgiving by American Express, Small Business Saturday falls on November 26th, between Black Friday and Cyber Monday. This is your chance to show shoppers that bigger isn’t necessarily better and that shopping in-store can be more compelling than buying online. Here are some things that you can do to call attention to this dynamic day and to bring some of the big-box business through your door.

    • Put in more than your 2 cents. 68 cents of every dollar spent at a neighborhood store stays in the community. Did you know that? The money spent online gets dispersed elsewhere and that doesn’t benefit your neighborhood. Celebrate the local shoppers by giving a prize to the 68th person who walks through your door on November 26th. Make an event of it, take photos, pop some sparkling cider!

 

  • Get the word out! Hang posters promoting Small Business Saturday in your window. Post about it on your Facebook page, Tweet about it, send out emails and invitations to your customers. Let them know that shopping locally helps the community by keeping the money local. Check out the Small Business Saturday page for window signage, e-marketing material, free ads and information about American Express’ $25 statement credit offer (for registered Card members and stores that accept AmEx).

 

 

  • Be there or be square. Make your hours super accommodating on Small Business Saturday. Open a little early, stay a little late or both. Offer early bird specials or small gifts to the first 10 or so customers.

 

 

  • Party like it’s…um, 2011. Lend a fun, festive atmosphere to this day! Offer little snacks like brownie bites, veggie sticks and punch. Get your decorations up and put on your party hat! Smile! It’s contagious!

 

After the event, make sure you post pictures online and in the store, and send out an email “thank you” with photos and highlights of the day. Let everyone know that you appreciate their business not only on Small Business Saturday, but every day of the year. And make sure they save the date for next year’s Small Business Saturday because now that you’ve got one under your belt, you’ll know how to make it even better next year!