How to Boost Business in the Summer - Flourish Tip for Retailers

Summer can be a tough season in retail. Your customers are out enjoying the sun, enjoying some travelling, enjoying summer activities with their families and friends.

Don’t panic! All is not lost. 

Craftily using displays, events, community involvement, and extra customer care are a few things you can do to promote  your business and boost those summer sales.

Use Displays

Pull together merchandise you already carry in-store to create a new comprehensive summer display. Think summer fashions, summer entertaining, summer gifts, summer scents …  Feature these items in a prominent area inside your store as well as in your window(s) to attract passers-by.

Host Events

Invite your customers your hosted outdoor or summer-oriented events. Any excuse to create an event will do, really! Perhaps pair up with a complementary business to help create new customers for both businesses. Offer some refreshments, an activity, a draw, specials, or promotions to boost traffic. Hosting a weekday evening event will promote sales on days other than those already busy summer weekends.

Clearance Sales

Summer is a great time to start clearing out old merchandise; start clearing out winter & spring merchandise before fall arrivals, which usually begin arriving in August, to stimulate otherwise slow July revenues. Be sure to group similar items or items within the same promotion and sign them properly so customers feel compelled to buy!

Make Some Phone Calls

Make a quick call to keep your best (and most profitable) customers up-to-date on what’s happening in-store. Keeping the call friendly, invite your trusted customers to your events, tell them about your sale, or update them on future arrivals. Let your customers know they are important to you. Enjoy the chat!

Keep Customers (and pets) Refreshed

Who wouldn’t enjoy a cool, refreshing beverage on a hot summer shopping day? Offer your customers a glass of cold water – perhaps infused with lemon, lime, or cucumber. Don’t forget a bowl of water for visiting pets! Comfortable, happy shoppers are more likely to stick around longer and spend a few extra dollars.

Team up with others

There’s a good chance others in your area are also feeling a lull in business. Chat them up and see what you can accomplish together! You could all chip in to take out an ad or get together for a large community event. Together, you can come up with ideas to take advantage of what might already be happening in the community, too. Business is easier when you’re working as a team.

Get Involved in the Community

What events might be taking place nearby this summer? Sponsor charity or non-profit events happening in your community that might appeal to your target market. Attend these same events armed with business cards or brochures for some good old-fashioned networking!

Although, summer time can be tough for any entrepreneur, don’t forget the resources at your fingertips and to make use of the extra time that a lull in business can provide. Use the time for getting ahead on blog posts (scheduling them to post according to your editorial schedule), tweaking your website, doing guest article posts, or adding to your social media reach. The sky is the limit!

Looking for more info, articles, and interaction? Follow us on facebook, twitter, and Pinterest, too! Not enough?  Get in touch with Flourish today to ensure your store is the most engaging it can be.

Flourishing Retailers Tip

Through my travels and Pinterest scanning this past week, my eye has been drawn how retailers are using their vertical space. Chances are your walls are tall enough that customers can’t reach everything; making use of this extra space can have quite an impact on your store’s overall look and feel.

          Your Flourish Tip:

Use the vertical space to deliver a brand message, through graphics, props, or merchandise displays reflecting what can be found nearby.

Empty, unused space above your fixtures can give your retail space the unfortunate appearance of looking empty, low in stock, or simply unfinished.  Sadly, customers can’t reach this space or any merchandise stored within it, so what do we do?

Use graphics driving your brand or image – specifically lifestyle-oriented images showing customers how happy they will be while using the product.  Take a look the next time you’re shopping in a mall to see how corporate retailers have used their graphics.

 

The area above your fixtures can also be used for additional merchandise displays, such as bust forms dressed in garments found below or a vignette containing interesting combinations of merchandise stored nearby.

Probably one of the most interesting uses of the high-up space I’ve seen is to display props that relate to the merchandise: This way you have an interesting display but aren’t using sellable inventory.

What can you do to make your vertical space more interesting? (I would love to see your opinions or ideas in the comments section below.)

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Looking for more info, articles, and interaction? Follow us on facebook, twitter, and Pinterest, too!  Not enough?  Get in touch with Flourish today to ensure your store is the most engaging it can be.

Tip of the Week + Bonus

Visual merchandising isn't just about selling more.  It’s about inspiring the customer, giving them ideas, making them feel good, and making their lives easier.

Cloud Nine Pajamas

Proper visual merchandising really is done for the customer and with the customer in mind and that’s the only way it can be truly effective. 

We create displays in order to show customers a whole look, show them trends, and to give them a feeling around the merchandise.  We’re making their time shopping so much easier by pulling everything together for them, so be sure to layer the look right up to give them options and make sure the merchandise is nearby and easy to pick up.

We’re inspiring customers to make their home an oasis, wardrobe beautiful, and gifts incredible.  Placing ad-on items nearby helps them to round out their purchase and pull together the perfect package.

Keep the customer in mind when you’re merchandising your store.  Remember how you’re helping them every time you set up a new display and you will be successful.  After all, they’re why you’re doing what you’re doing, right?

Bonus Tip:

  

It’s time to start formulating a plan to execute your holiday visual merchandising!  Don’t forget to book your helpers to make sure they’ll all be there.

Tip of the Week

Take the plastic off.  Customers really need to get their hands on a product in order to make their buying decision, so get at least one of each item out of its package and into their hands.

Elegant Expressions Table by Flourish

Engaging the customer’s senses is really important to making a sale, so appealing to sight and touch by allowing them to see the item up close and feel its texture will more often than not increase sales.

While many retailers prefer to keep items packaged in order to avoid damage, it can hinder sales.  Selling one item at a discount (which isn’t always necessary) is better than hanging on to product because it just won’t sell. 

The most important thing overall, is to remove barriers, physical or perceived, between the product and your customers.

Want more?  Click here to sign up and have the convenience of receiving the tip in your inbox as well as even more to learn about each tip! 

Looking for more info, articles, and interaction? Follow us on facebook, twitter, and Pinterest, too!  Not enough?  Get in touch with Flourish today to ensure your store is the most engaging it can be.

Happy Selling!

Tip of the Week

When communicating to your customers through signage, try to ensure that the wording is positive rather than negative.  Focus on the behaviour you want.

For example; instead of “Do not touch” you could have a sign that says “Please ask for assistance” or an even more fun “For your safety, we are happy to help you investigate this item further.”

Nobody likes being told what they can and can’t do and I can’t think of anyone that likes hearing the word NO.  So, you really should avoid using it with your customers. 

Happy selling!

Want more?  Click here to sign up and have the convenience of receiving the tip in your inbox as well as even more to learn about each tip!  This week's email will include the "fun wording" version of this sign.

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Tip of the Week and another Bonus!

Calculate your average dollars per transaction by dividing sales by the number of transactions.  This gives you an idea of how much each customer is buying and creates easy to understand goals.

For example: If your sales are $1000 (for simplicity's sake) and you had 20 customers that day, you would divide $1000 by 20. That means that the value of your average transaction was $50.00.

You can calculate your average transaction on a daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, or annual basis! Its entirely up to you.

Want to know what to do with the information?

There are tons of things you can do! You can monitor your average transaction for things that seem to affect it or use it as a motivational selling tool! 

Having easily measurable targets to reach makes it easy to celebrate reaching your goals and breaking down those goals into small, manageable chunks makes for more celebration and more fun!

Happy selling!

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Bonus Tip:

Whether in a display or in a store, customers need a focal point to look at first.

Tip of the Week

Take the plastic off!  Customers like to see, feel, and touch and plastic packaging or film impedes their instincts.

Have you ever watched someone browse a store, with their hands on everything?  Have you ever listened to a mom constantly try to remind their kids to "look with your eyes, not with your hands" to no avail?  That's because, instinctively, we need to feel an item before we buy it and that's not just limited to textiles!

The biggest objection I hear to removing packaging is damage.  Removing the plastic from an item can result in a lightly soiled or damaged item, but you are likely to sell far more of it and the items around it.  Selling your display model at a discount is a small price to pay.

Happy selling!

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Have you got questions for Melissa? Check us out on facebook, twitter,Pinterest, the flourish website, or send Melissa an email.

Tip of the Week

Shopping is all about perceived value.  The way you display and merchandise your product can have a large impact on how valuable the customer perceives it to be.  Does your store make your merchandise look valuable?

I'm sure you've heard the term perceived value a few times; it refers to the value a customer assigns to a product or service in their head.  How much do they deem that product to be worth?  When their perceived value is compared to the actual asking price, it can make or break their buying decision.

When items are merchandised or displayed in a way that makes them appear valuable or expensive, the price on the sticker can be less scary to look at and possibly even a relief. If the customer perceives the item of their desire to be a great value, they'll most often buy!


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Have you got questions for Melissa? Check us out on facebook, twitter,Pinterest, the flourish website, or send Melissa an email.

Tip of the Week

When displaying furniture for sale, be sure to leave your customer enough room to try it out.  Often times, people need to see things as they would use them at home.

This could mean allowing room to sit on a chair or sofa or space to see the finish on a table top.  It could also mean leaving room for customers to move in between pieces.

When considering sales per square foot, it can be tempting to fill every inch of available space, but that could actually impede sales both furniture and products alike.

Tip of the Week

One of the biggest mistakes a retailer can make is thinking they’re on an island where the general rules of shopper behaviour and other common human needs don’t apply.

Unless they have free wifi at the zoo, all of us reading this are human and that is a fact.  Humans have certain behaviours, certain ways we view a space, and certain ways we interact with that space.  This is due to our instincts and the way our brains work. 

While I'm always open to new points of view and new information, many retailers claim that "customers simply don't operate that way in my store."  Consider what could happen if you gave shoppers an opportunity to follow their instincs and natural methods of shopping...  Would your sales increase?  Are you willing to take a chance on that?

Consider how your store is set up and what you can do to help humans in it behave the way they like to behave, and hopefully purchase lots of merchandise!

Happy selling!

Have you got questions for Melissa? Check us out on facebook, twitter, Pinterest, the flourish website, or send Melissa an email.

Tip of the Week

That's right,

Now those of you that follow Flourishing Retailers can see the Flourish Design & Merchandising Tip of the Week as well!

This week's tip:

Remember to breathe and just focus on customer service this week. You'll have plenty of time to regroup and re-merchandise in the new year.

...Or next week... or any other time.  This week (especially Saturday and Sunday) is likely to be the busiest your store will get, so enjoy the chaos, forget about the day to day, and focus on amazing customer service!

Happy Holidays!

Interested in hearing more from Flourish?  Follow us on facebook, twitter, and Pinterest too!

Music and Your Store

An awesome collegue cohort, and client of mine recently emailed me this great question and I just had to share it with all of you!

 

Hi Melissa,

I've been wondering about the relationship between music and shopping for a bit and maybe you can help me. I'm trying to research the relationship between BPM (beats per minute) and retail sales. Whenever I go to the malls all I ever hear is high BPM dance and pop music but I find this irritating  I would assume that all these big chain stores are playing this music because it is proven to increase sales. Maybe it's a stimulant? The one research paper I came across online found that stores that played more relaxed music saw customers that lingered longer in stores and therefore were more likely to purchase more...What do you think?

 

The Answer:

 

I, myself, haven’t read a whole lot of research.  In fact, I don’t think there’s a ton out there.  But I do think that the study you read is among the most accurate.

 

If you choose music that your target market or core customer likes the best, they will linger longer.  It’s also important to have music that doesn’t drive you or your staff members nuts!  If you’re on edge, your customers will sense it. 

 

The truth is a happy customer and a customer who is in tune with the environment buys more, so don’t worry about what the malls are doing because your customers don’t shop there all that much.  The reason we see malls choosing the music they do is that they’re generally trying use top 40 type music to appeal to the masses.  There are also loads of stores in the malls that appeal to teens and young adults and that is the music that they like best.

 

If you really want to focus on choosing music that your customers like best; you could try creating a survey monkey survey (or use a similar software or system) and invite them to complete it or complete it with them at the till!  It could be fun and customers get to feel involved.  Also, I’m sure most branding gurus would say that the music you choose needs to fit with your brand.  If your brand isn’t a teeny bopper, high octane, brand... I wouldn’t worry about pushing the high speed music.

 

Last, but not least, we come to holiday music...  I know it's not everyone's favourite, but it’s an absolute must.  That’s where most of the retail studies pertaining to music have been done and it’s proven to drive sales up quite a bit!  Usually, the chain stores start weaving in the odd quiet holiday song about November first, then after Remembrance day, you’ll hear it every 2^nd or 3^rd song (you may have to make custom CD’s or playlists for your store).  As of December first, it should be all Holiday, all the time!  You will get the odd customer that may complain about it, but even they will be more likely to pick up a couple of Christmas gifts (should that be applicable) because it’ll be top of mind.

 

Here are some links to research I've found!

Association for Consumer Reasearch - Using Store Music for Retail Zoning

Michael Morrison, Monash University - The Power of Music and its Influence

Live Science - 7 Holiday Marketing Tricks Retailers Use

 

And here's a little bit on the Shoppers Drug Mart Holiday music "controversy"

Canadian Retailer Puts Christmas Music on Pause

Shoppers Drug Mart Hits Mute on Christmas Music

 

I gladly welcome all of your questions and comments!  Please add your comments!

Designing the Customer Experience - Capital Ideas

A little while ago, I was flattered to be invited as a panelist to the Capital Ideas event (for the Edmonton Journal) called "How Do I Design a Great Customer Experience?" along with Kirsten Proulx and Jason Suriano!  It was an awesome experience and so much fun, so I wanted to share some of the key takeaways with you!

What's the most important thing you've learned about designing a customer experience?

• The customer experience begins before the customer even enters the store. -Kirsten
• Ensure you greet the customer -Kirsten
• Anything you can do to make shopping easy and exciting for the customer will really enhance their experience -Melissa
• If the product isn't acceptable to my team, then I won't bring it to the end user. -Jason
• I play the role of customer for my team. -Jason
• Tweet: @ABCraftAlert: Customer service starts before your customer even comes in the door - displays, signage, making experience easy to navigate #capitalideas
• Tweet: @Randwulven: #capitalideas If you don't enjoy the experience, why would your customer? @jasonsuriano
• Tweet: @_SoleRevival: Make it easy and enjoyable for people: Put natural "go with" items together on the floor - you said it, Melissa! Great tip. #capitalideas

Examples of a great customer experience

• Teamwork, consistency, branding, and environment help to create a great customer experience.
• Tweet: @ABCraftAlert: Inspire the customer and get them excited about the product. Then mix that with the store owners passion for the product #capitalideas

Dealing with "problematic customers"

• When a customer comes to you with a problem, be grateful that they've provided you with the opportunity to fix that issue. -Melissa
• "I'll often ask my team; so what did we do wrong?" -Jason
• A customer complaint can hurt because it's something you want to do well and take pride in, but I'm glad that the customer acknowledged the problem -Kirsten
• Tweet: @RyanGJMcGregor: Upset clients are not an imposition... They are an opportunity! #capitalideasYEG
• Tweet: @ABCraftAlert: There is no such thing as a bad customer. It's an opportunity to be a problem solver #capitalideas It's bad when you don't hear from them

Applying lessons from past to present

• There are two types of customers in the restaurant industy; the kind that wants you there all the time as a part of the experience and the kind that wants you to be invisible.  That directly applies to what I do now. -Jason

How do you motivate your sales staff?

• Treat your employees the way you want them to treat your customers. -Melissa
• Personally tell your employees that they're doing a great job. -Melissa
• I wouldn't inflict straight commission on my employees. -Kirsten
• The customers generally always come back if you provide them with a great experience. -Kirsten

The "treasure hunt" method of shopping

• The "treasure hunt" method of shopping does not work for everyone. -Melissa
• We have a baby boom in Alberta right now, so be sure to accomodate strollers and busy moms! -Melissa

Measuring the effectiveness of your customer experience tactics

• We watch to see if product sales change when displays change. -Kirsten
• The more sales you can track, the better. What can your POS system do? -Melissa
• Measuring customer responses has gone even more high tech than A-B testing.  We're using the gaming piece as an analytics tool. -Jason

The takeaway - What others had to say

• A "bad" customer is your best customer -Terry
• Responding to complaints online shows that you care -Terry
• Accept who your customer is and go with it -Tema
• Don't make assumptions about your customer, find out what's important to them -Tema
• From a retail standpoint, subtle changes in how you merchandise your products made huge differences at the till -Kyle
• If you have go-with items with a product it makes the shopping experience easier and quick for people -Kyle

Want to see more?  Have a look at some event photos on the Capital Ideas flickr page!  You can also read all of the tweets associated with #CapitalIdeas on the Storify page!  Would you like to hear more from Capital ideas and the panelists on Twitter?  Follow @CapitalIdeasYEG @FlourishDesignM @Henrys_PFT and @jasonsuriano by clicking on their links!

Creating a Sense of Urgency

This week's tip of the week was about reminding your customers of important dates approaching in a relevant display.  This creates a sense of urgency and gets customers in a frame of mind where they will begin to consider everything that they'll need for that approaching date.

For example, a simple sign that reads "Mother's Day is May 13th" on a display of ideal Mother's Day gifts will get the customer thinking "What do I need for then?" and "What can I pick up here?"  It not only gets them looking through the gifts for the perfect one for Mom, but also has them consider other items that may be in-store that would apply!

Do ensure that the sign is professional, simple, easy to read, and attractive and that it is contained in a sign holder or a pretty frame (whichever is consistent with your usual signage).  Some might prefer to give customers a gentle reminder that a holiday is approaching by having the merchandise tell them, such as the photo below.  Just make sure everyone working at the store knows the date for inquiring customers!

Remember, by doing this you're not only increasing sales, but also doing a service to your customers!  Sometimes we need a reminder to not leave things until the last minute.  And... in the case of our example date, Moms probably appreciate it, too!


Questions or comments?  Contact Melissa Walker of Flourish Design & Merchandising today!

6 steps to Employee Engagement

II was fortunate enough to attend the WiRN (Women in Retailing Network) breakfast lecture yesterday morning with speaker Gemma Giovanazzo.  The topic was the customer experience and how do we inspire our staff to deliver the best in customer service every time?

Gemma is the customer experience manager for Ford of Canada and spoke with lots of experience on how big business develops and ensures the customer experience.

After the lecture was over, I and the two lovely women at my table discussed how employee engagement can translate to small business.  In my experience as a store manager, here is what I can share on employee engagement.

1. Treat your employees as equals.  Ask their opinions, get their feedback, and take what they have to say seriously.
2. Praise for good work.  Lots of employers offer incentives or prizes which is great when you can do it, but what many employees really want is just a simple “great job” or “thanks for your hard work today.”  Try it; it feels great!
3. Take an interest.  Try to remember fun personal details about your employees.  When I was a store manager for a big box retailer, I made a point of remembering everyone’s favourite colour, kids names, and any other personal details that I could.  We also had crayons and stickers as well as little treats stashed in my office for when they brought their kids or grandchildren by.  It was so much fun!
4. Communication.  Gemma said it right; it’s so important!  Keep your employees informed of what’s going on with your store.  Tell them what you’ve purchased, what’s coming in, new sales techniques, what’s happening in the store and in the neighbourhood, etc.  Structured meetings aren’t always necessary, but try to make sure everyone gets necessary messages.  Even consider a communication book in a place where everyone can find it!
5. Feedback.  Whether it’s simply telling them what they’re doing well or asking for improvement in certain areas, feedback is so necessary for an employee to feel engaged in their job.  Set regular intervals for feedback and make sure that if someone’s performance needs improvement in any area, you’re dealing with it right away.  Nobody likes to be doing something wrong and not be told about it for days, weeks, or months.  A simple, gentle conversation is all that’s necessary.  Tell them what they’re doing well and then what you would like them to improve and why.  Finish the conversation by reinforcing that they’re good at their job, but you would just like them to improve in this one area.
6. Education.  Get them out of the store and get them educated.  If you can, send them out to information sessions on customer service, sales, merchandising or anything specific to the products you carry.  Make it an event for them!  Ensure you’re also providing as much product knowledge as possible and passing on and sharing your passion for the product you sell.

There are lots of big expensive steps to employee engagement and lots of large companies invest millions of dollars into ensuring it happens.  That’s not always necessary.  As a store owner and manager, follow these six steps and the result will likely be happy employees who treat the customers as beautifully as you treat them.  

Big thanks for Kendall and Kristi for their great company and conversation yesterday!