BRING THE HEAT AT RETAIL THIS SUMMER

There’s not only warmer weather distracting potential customers to outdoor pursuits away from traditional retail for the photo trade to contend with in summer, but also changing consumer habits and evolving technologies. With this in mind we explore what the canny retailer can do to make their ideas pay while the sun shines

We might almost universally welcome warmer weather as a nation, but what typically happens at high street retail is while sales of shorts, flip flops and barbecue meats go up, sales of everything else dip down. The result is that retailers who don’t deal in such seasonal products need to work that much harder to bring in custom – and that applies whether they’re high street retailers, online shops or businesses that sensible straddle both to maximise sales opportunities.

With the market more challenging for those in the photo sector than in previous years anyway, due to a perfect storm, of global uncertainty, the cost of living crisis and a contraction of the market for dedicated digital cameras, we’re taking a look here at what can be done to keep a roof over our heads and avoid a summer dry spell, until the weather cooling again signals that the enhanced sales opportunities of Black Friday and Christmas aren’t far off.

Create A Warm Welcome

Fortunately there are some tried and tested summer themed ideas to help photo specialists boost their sales. People go into stores because they’re seeking to acquire a particular item, sure. But, equally, how welcoming your shop appears has a lot to do with how inviting it is to potential customers.

A slowdown this summer can be avoided, in part, by an attractive and engaging window display. Don’t be afraid to act like a magpie and creatively purloin some ideas from other retailers who are making a good show of themselves and the products they offer, using lighting, mirrors and glass to their best effect. Avoiding dead flies in your window display, a seasonal hazard given it is summer, is a must to avoid giving customers a mental image of a set-in-their-ways shop that we can all recognise from personal experience.

So it’s worthwhile taking the time to stand outside your store and evaluate it critically from a customer’s perspective. Yes, it’s about making sure signage is up to date, on brand and that any current offers and product details are well signposted, as well as getting the basics correct and avoiding a messy, cluttered and possibly confusing display.

If you can’t come up with a self-critical assessment of your own shop window, ask a third party to help in offering an opinion,

Got your own ideas about how the photo industry can counter the challenges arising from the cost of living crisis, because there will almost certainly always be room for improvement.

You may be additionally able to make use of the space immediately outside your shop, if the local council permits, by erecting an A-board that shouts about the exclusivity of your time-limited summer special offers. As regular BPI News readers will be aware, many photo brands traditionally have seasonal trade-in schemes, cash-back offers and accessory deals running, so if that’s the case then make use of them, while dovetailing them with your own promotion/s for maximum impact and return on investment.

An Experience Worth Paying For

One way in which bricks and mortar stores can battle the online retailers and win is by offering more of a touchy feely shopper ‘experience’ – explaining and demonstrating a product’s features for customers to truly understand its appeal, rather than just listing the spec as an online store will.

Retailers can here take advantage of the physical space they have, making their customers feel extra special by, to give one example, offering master classes linked in some way to the products they are promoting.

So, for example, if there are currently deals to be had on the latest mirrorless cameras and lenses, try organising a ‘photo walk’ or ‘photo safari’ that demonstrates the cameras’ and lenses’ capabilities and portability. Harsh sunlight often throws subjects into shadow so there could be an opportunity to demonstrate, and ultimately sell, the latest flash systems, reflectors and softboxes too.

While manufacturers will often send out photographer ambassadors and product experts to speak to your customers in store, perhaps be even more proactive and seek to make a link with the local camera club or photographic society, who may also be very happy to provide their own photographic experts. Maybe you could offer them an in-store exhibition space in return? They get new members and you get new customers exploring your shop – a win-win scenario for you both.

A note of warning though: you don’t want to inadvertently become a shop window for Amazon and its ilk. So, make sure you have plenty of stock of whatever it is that is on promotion and have it at a price that beats or is so close to the online retailers, which means that, once you’ve got them suitably enthused and in the mood to buy, the shopper has no desire to look elsewhere.

Speed Up Customer Spend

While time-limited offers from manufacturers can help focus customers’ minds, so too can your own deals –and, as long as they indeed are timelimited, these can help instil a sense of urgency to get them spending when your store might otherwise be quiet. They may also help shift stock that’s been sitting around for a while.

Consider using the customer contact details you’ll have obtained during previous transactions (while noting data protection law) to target existing purchasers and offer them a series of one-day, or even weekend, sales for specific items. You clearly will need a reasonable volume and varied selection of items to show customers that you’re not trying to reel them in with just one measly morsel. Weekend sales are good as they give customers a chance to act without being overly hasty; after all, if they buy in haste there is the possibility they’ll repent at leisure… the voucher transferable to friends and family of the original customer, it might bring other (new) shoppers.

Hurray For The Holidays

Play up to what makes summer special – for many that’s an annual holiday, industrial action permitting.

Those who offer ID photo services may well see a spike in demand for the updating of passport photos. When we eventually get to our destination, most of us will want a pictorial record of our actual holiday, too.

With airlines cutting down on ‘free’ baggage allowances, however – who wants to put camera gear in the hold so that it can be either thrown around or lost –here’s the perfect opportunity to buy in a range of cabin friendly camera bags that can be offered for sale. Consider also additional products that a holidaymaker may want – polarising and neutral density filters for their lenses, additional memory cards, universal travel adapters and chargers, plus spare batteries, on which there is typically a much better margin to be made than on cameras themselves.

and return their purchase. However timing is, as they say, everything. Extend such sales to a week and you risk customers being so leisurely with their purchase that they end up missing the offer / your sales window entirely.

Another ‘hook’ is to not just offer discounted items that inevitably eat into your profit margin, but also ‘exclusives’. This could be a free token gift to customers chosen randomly. This, of course, will only work if you can demonstrate to those who don’t turn out to be as lucky that there are genuine winners. Another tried-andtested scheme for high street stores is loyalty cards, or a loyalty scheme that identifies the customer as a ‘bronze’, ‘silver’ or ‘gold’ member, to reward (and encourage) regular spend.

A further tip is one that the major retailers do well with. Once a customer has made a purchase, provided along with the till receipt is a voucher (or series of vouchers) offering a future discount. The trick, as anyone who’s received them will have noticed, is to make vouchers apply to purchases made at a close-tohand but later date – in other words, providing a ‘hook’ that encourages customers to return. Plus, if you make or care to share what’s working for you (without giving away trade secrets)? Then do get in touch direct via info@bpinews.co.uk

Summer inevitably means sporting events and music festivals too – again, ideal scenarios for the capture of images, and video. There’s nothing like the tribalism of sporting events to get people out and in the mood to record what they’re about to witness. And, if results go our way, the much-discussed ‘feel-good factor’ will also help loosen purse strings. So how about offering extra promotional discounts each time a Brit or a home nation wins?

Sport aside the summer is also festival season, whether that be motor, farm or music related. Whether you’ve such an event happening near you or not, this is another opportunity to tweak your window display or promotions and capture attendees’ attention.

Away from the hard sell, do also use the summer weeks to promote not just product and sales, but, as suggested earlier, also the art of photography itself: give practical tips to help customers get the best out of their equipment. Outline how ‘bokeh’ can make a person stand out from a background and enhance portraits; explain how focal lengths are calculated; give detail on how different filters – say ND, UV and polarising –can help create the perfect shot; and instruct customers on how to properly frame their subject. Remember that we all can get weary of non-stop promotion, so the trick is to stand out by making the most of your inherent expertise.