Underlines Magazine welcomes guest writer, Erica Wolfe-Murray, who is a leading business and innovation expert. She is the author of business book ‘Simple Tips Smart Ideas’ and the founder of Lola Media. She works across the creative, cultural and tech sector helping companies to innovate through imaginative use of their intellectual assets/IP.
As all retail outlets open their doors welcoming customers through the door for the first time in three months, everyone will be feeling a bit heady with excitement, looking forward to getting on with trading once more. But the future is still uncertain. So it’s imperative for each store owner to consider how to build their business to face all eventualities.
Are there ways to build new revenues, to further develop any online engagement you have, to plan ahead for new Covid spikes leading to repeated lockdowns? Encouraging shoppers in today is just the top point on the ‘to do’ list – what else should you be considering?
Ensure your mailing list is a priority
Most business owners will have built an e-mailing list. This is a ‘must have’. A creative, thoughtfully put together newsletter can generate greater engagement than any other marketing communication. Your customer is inviting you to talk to them one-to-one, to send them ideas and promotions straight to their inbox when they give you their email address. Don’t abuse it, use it to grow your business inventively. Ensure every team member knows the importance of building that list. Encourage them to invite every customer or browser to leave their details. Make it an attractive, imaginative proposition, an exclusive club rather than allowing them to think they are just being sold to. Nurture and regularly attend to your mailing list as you would your book-keeping and accounts.
Nail that CRM software
The more closely you can target your customers’ likes/dislikes, sizes, brands, linked to past purchases, events attended etc, the more they will feel cared for preferring to spend their hard-earned cash with you. There is lots of good customer relationship management software available so find the one that suits your business and learn how to use it. Keep client records really up to date, so you can harness this with digital offerings during any new lockdown. Integrate what you learn about them through visits, through newsletter responses, to attendance at events.
‘Borrow’ ideas from big brands
Big brands spend a lot on their marketing engagement with you – what can you learn/borrow from them? What are they doing now to encourage purchasing in new and different ways? Are they adapting store layouts? Have they developed new revenue streams in ways you haven’t seen before. How can you re-imagine that for your retail outlet? It’s about continually keeping your radar switched on.
Local to global thinking
Store retailers largely serve a local, walk-in audience. It was this that was impacted so severely by lock-down. Whilst this trade will start to build once again, there may be groups of local customers who are nervous about resuming shopping in person, have underlying conditions or are shielding. How can you support and welcome them back as customers? Could you take a leaf out of Deliveroo’s book offering to drop of an appropriate selection of items to their door, collecting those they don’t want 4 or 24 hours later? Could you arrange a personalised video showroom? How can you use all we’ve learned during lock-down to adapt your ways of trading to suit them?
And if you haven’t developed an online business already to maximise on the global customer potential – now is the time to really get this sorted. Don’t follow everyone else – really consider how and why what you offer is unique. And if you think it doesn’t have stand-out, how can you develop this? Consider what attracts you to brands you follow across social media. How can you build engagement through advice, ideas as well as a great product offer.
Drive those marginal gains
When trading conditions are uncertain, one of the smartest things you can do is to focus on marginal gains across your business. These are small efficiency, budget/cost or sale tweaks in every single part of your operation. As you implement them across the board, they add together to bring real benefits.
So consider whether you can get your rent reduction continued for a bit longer, can you ask your business rates to be re-evaluated, change electricity supplier to cheaper provider? Can you rethink your supplier contract, perhaps extending terms or getting an improved price? Look to up every in-store and online basket customer spend, just by a small amount per transaction. By focusing closely on each minute aspect of the business, you can bake in gains in ways you never anticipated.
Now is the time to be really bold with ideas to grow and ensure you offer customers interesting and personal service, whether they walk into your store or shop online. Be inventive and pro-active because none of us know what the future holds.
