Modern Retail: 50 Retail Hacks for 2019

50 RETAIL HACKS FOR 2019

50 RETAIL HACKS FOR 2019 Competing as a small business in the world of retail is now harder than ever. Huge corporations can rely on economies of scale and massive marketing budgets to drive sales, while the average small retailer has to make do with their own wit and hard work — and maybe some help from employees.

Thankfully, there are some shortcuts to success. You don’t have to borrow huge sums in order to leverage key marketing and operational opportunities. Whether you own a small boutique or a jewellery shop, some of the best retail hacks are very cheap — and many are free.

Don’t let a lack of cash hold your business back. Why not implement a few tried-and-tested tricks of the trade to boost sales and drive profits?

This ebook contains 50 of the most effective retail hacks for small business owners today. We’ve split the hacks into four key sections, so you can use this rundown as a quick guide for your own business.

Not all of these hacks will be appropriate for you. But by implementing the ones that are relevant, you should be able to grow your customer base — along with your profits.

We hope you find this guide useful. Please be sure to browse modernretail.co.uk for more inspirational retail content!

Rob Gamage Managing Editor modernretail.co.uk @ModernRetailUK

VISUAL MERCHANDISING 1. Change your window regularly It only takes a week before a shop window becomes invisible to the passing public. Once a customer has checked it out, it’s very unlikely they’ll give it much attention afterwards. Keep your window fresh by changing the display as regularly as you can.

Showcase either your most unique products or your best special offers. And create something that is both eye-catching and engaging. Try to effectively re-brand your window displays once a month to keep passing consumers interested.

2. Take your store outside Display some of your key items outside your store. If you have a large doorway, you should be able to proceed without permission. However, if you’re going to be taking up some of the pavement outside, you’ll probably need permission from the local authority. Either way, taking your store outside can drastically increase the number of engaged customers you interact with on a daily basis.

3. Cross-merchandise There are usually complementary products for every item bought in-store. For example, if you’re selling shoes, people might want to buy socks at the same time. If you’re selling electrical toys, people will probably want to buy batteries too.

Think about these complementary purchases, and merchandise them together in a logical way.

If you’re not sure on cross-merchandising opportunities, a good ePOS system should help you. It’ll be able to tell you which

products tend to be bought as part of the same transaction.

4. Limit buying options It’s always good to give customers a range of product and buying options. But too many options can leave customers confused and hesitant. Create eye-catching, logical visual displays that include just a few options. If decision-making in your store is easy, you should find that conversion rates are relatively high.

Don’t overwhelm people with endless alternatives, or you run the risk of making the shopping experience stressful.

5. Keep displays fresh Regular customers can become blind to your special offers over time. This is why you should try to change your displays and point of sale at least once a month. However, don’t move products around too much, but concentrate on the visual aspect of your shelves. The last thing you want to do is force regular customers to spend time searching for the items they buy every week.

Tip: Keep product categories in more or less the same area of your store. Concentrate instead on making regular changes to point of sale.

6. Use interactive displays Merchandising displays need to really stand out in order to grab the attention of shoppers. One way to do this is to make the customer part of the display. You can do this with an iPad, or with some arts and crafts. Make the experience fun or rewarding, and your displays will attract a lot of attention.

7. Let there be light Whenever you’re unhappy about the appearance of your visual displays, reserve judgment until you’ve shone some light on the situation. Simply directing some existing lighting to one of your darker displays can breathe new life into it. If you’re still struggling, consider investing in some new lighting. After all, two or three new LEDs are going to be cheaper than buying new point of sale and display equipment.

8. Find out where your merchandising hotspot is Most retail stores have a merchandising hotspot. This is a place where customers are naturally drawn to, or where sales tend to be at their highest. You can use an ePOS system to track sales and identify where your store’s hotspots are. Once you find these important locations, use them to host your high-margin promotions.

It’s important not to stuff your merchandising hotspots with products, however. In fact, you might want to devote them entirely to point of sale and marketing messages.

9. Guide customers with signage While many customers like to browse and take their time, they still need some guidance on where to go. A lot of people will enter your premises knowing exactly what they want. If your store layout is random and without a logical flow, your customers will get frustrated pretty quickly.

Use in-store signage to label the different zones of your store.

These zones should be categorised, putting similar purchases together. Sketch out a rough floor plan, and make a list of the signage needed to make it work.

10. Leverage vertical space Most stores completely neglect the space that sits between the top of merchandising shelves and the ceiling. However, with the right displays, this space can be used to draw the customer into specific areas of your store. For example, if you’re selling health foods, you could hang topiary from the ceiling to create a special “health zone”. You can use this dead space for anything from art to marketing material.

11. Watch out for equipment sales Store closures and bankruptcies is a sad fact of retail life these days. But the sad demise of other retail businesses represents an opportunity for your own. Closing down sales often end with the sale of merchandising equipment such as sale bins, gondolas, shelving and point of sale. Pick up some bargains at these events, and use them to improve your own merchandising.

12. Locate high-margin products at the front If you own a large store, there’s a chance that a lot of customers will never make it to the opposite end. Some will browse near the store entrance for a while before leaving. The area around your front doors may be your most lucrative, so use it wisely.

This is a great place to display high-revenue and high-margin items. And don’t forget about those special impulse purchases too.

13. Locate demand products at the back of your store If you sell products that people make a specific trip for, you have a real opportunity to draw people into the bowels of your store. For example, if you sell newspapers, locate them in the middle or at the back of your premises. This way, people will have to walk past a number of products in order to get the

paper they came in for.

Some careful merchandising along the route may help you to encourage some impulse purchases you would otherwise have missed out on.

ECOMMERCE 14. Ensure all pages on your website load within two seconds Online shoppers are more impatient than ever. According to Google, 53 per cent of customers leave a site if the landing page takes more than two seconds to load. And a delay of just one second can lose you up to seven per cent.

Test your ecommerce website’s speed using the Google PageSpeed utility. This free service will tell you the improvements that will increase the page load speed. Many of the recommendations can be implemented with plugins and software packages.

15. Optimise product images Think of every page of your ecommerce website as a shelving unit in your brick-and-mortar store. It needs to be pristine, visually appealing and well planned. But there’s not a great deal you can do with the average ecommerce product page.

This is why quality photos are an absolute must.

Take photos using external photography lighting, and always against a white background. And when you upload them to the site, make sure they’re optimised to be as crisp and clear as possible. There are free and paid tools on the Internet that make this process as simple as clicking a mouse button.

16. Make the website SEO friendly Search engine optimisation (SEO) is done to drive traffic to your ecommerce website through search engines. It is a collection of principles and actions aimed at making your site more attractive to Google, Bing and the other main search engines around today.

Find out the keywords consumers use in their internet searches for finding the goods you sell. Once you have them, include them within the text of your site — but do so accurately and in context. Ensure your text is grammatically correct and without spelling errors. And try to offer value to customers.

Use lots of headings, subheadings, bold text and italics to make your pages easy to navigate and read. And pay attention to the user experience? Is your site easily navigable? Are your pages grouped together logically? Is there a clear call-to-action?

17. Be mobile friendly In actual fact, most large retail businesses are now designing their sites for mobile devices first. Why? Because the majority of online shoppers in developed countries now shop on tablets and smartphones.

If you have a standard ecommerce website, make sure it's responsive. This means the site should automatically adjust to smaller screens — making navigation, reading and purchasing as easy as possible for the consumer.

Going “mobile first” is now easier and cheaper than ever. This is because there are now simple software packages and online website builders that give you everything you need. All you need to do is populate the site with content and visual design effects.

18. Provide testimonials A greater degree of trust is required to win over online shoppers in comparison to in-store customers. After all, firsttime customers can’t see you, touch your products or browse your wares. This is why major ecommerce operators always use customer testimonials. Approach some of your happy customers and offer then discounts in return for a few kind words about your products and service. Place each testimonial on your homepage or dedicated testimonial page — along with the customer’s photo.

19. Make the checkout process seamless Make the process of buying products on your ecommerce website as simple as possible. For a start, you shouldn’t make registration compulsory. Customers should be able to buy as guests. You can always incentivise registration with discounts and free gifts. Offer secure payments, competitive shipping costs and the ability to return to shopping carts later.

Test the purchasing pathway yourself, and ask your colleagues to do the same. Wherever you find obstacles or bottlenecks, do your best to remove them.

20. Track abandoned shopping carts If you already own an ecommerce website, you’ll know all about the issue of abandoned shopping carts. Understanding why people leave their carts before completing the purchase is the key to maximizing conversions.

A lot of your abandoned carts are probably preventable — through a combination of better layouts, better navigation and an improved checkout process. Some of the major ecommerce website builders include tools for tracking abandoned carts.

You can also use tools and add-on software packages to do the job.

21. Provide secure shopping Hackers and fraudsters are always looking for new and innovative ways to steal from consumers. The problem has become so bad a lot of people have lost trust in ecommerce stores. But you can earn this trust back by demonstrating that the shopping experience you provide is safe.

Sign up to a reputable site security service. Also, make sure your site has an SSL certificate. You’ll know it has if your web address starts “HTTPS”. You should also ensure your site complies with the EU’s latest rules on privacy — as laid out by the GDPR. 22. Include a “sale” category There’s nothing wrong with having a sale throughout the year.

Just make sure you regularly change the products and categories featured. Display a link to your sale near the top of your homepage. Also, devote a section of the page to a few of the best deals you have in place right now.

According to First Insight, 45% of American women will only ever buy discounted items online. And you can be fairly certain that this number is very similar in Europe.

23. Include related or similar products with all listings A good ecommerce website makes the shopping experience quick and easy. But things also need to be fun. After all, most people enjoy buying things that make them happy. One way to enhance the experience is to list related or similar products near all of your listings. There are tools and software add-ons

that monitor what customers look at and automatically serve related products.

24. Make CTAs simple and striking A call to action (CTA) is an instruction to your customers. It tells them what to do next. And most of your ecommerce website’s pages will have at least one. Make sure there’s no confusion about what the shopper must do next — whether that’s making a purchase, signing up to a newsletter or checking out. Use a bold font and some eye-catching colours to make the CTA obvious.

25. Use scarcity and urgency to your advantage While you never want to run out of your best sellers, there’s a lot to be said about the threat of scarcity when it comes to ecommerce websites. By making special offers or one-off price reductions time-sensitive, you can create a buzz around your high-margin items. This is a psychological trick of the trade that gets people to act quickly. Use product counters and countdown timers to generate this way of thinking among your customers.

SALES 26. Hold product demonstrations Let’s face it, buying products on the Internet has never been easier. To tear people away from their phone screens, you need to offer a service — not just a selection of products. One such service is the in-store demonstration.

Show your products in context. For example, if you’re selling clothes, you could hold mini fashion shows. If you’re selling baked goods, schedule regular tastings. Make shopping an

experience for your customers, and you should earn their trust.

More importantly, you’ll grab some sales you otherwise would have missed.

27. Grab impulse sales Go to any supermarket or department store, and you’ll probably find a range of small, relatively inexpensive products by the cash registers. These items are there to appeal to the impulsive nature of shoppers. For example, in a clothing store, you might find socks or fashion accessories in the checkout area. In a coffee shop, you’ll find cookies, mints and other snacks.

Wherever possible, make sure you choose impulse items that are relevant and part of the “shopping story”. After all, many of us forget to buy essentials such as socks when we’re looking for more exciting garments.

28. Promote bulk buying Consumers don’t tend to stick around in a store for very long.

You usually have a tiny window of opportunity to sell. It’s therefore essential that you maximise the sales potential of every customer. One way to do this is to incentivise larger or bulk purchases. Offer a discount for multiple buys and multipacks. Communicate how much customers can save per item clearly in your store — preferably using marketing materials.

29. Train your staff to upsell There’s a fine art to upselling that requires confidence, product knowledge and common sense. A good retail worker knows when a customer might be receptive to a complementary purchase. He or she has the confidence to approach the customer with the opportunity. But in order for upselling to be successful, your staff have to know as much as possible about your products.

For example, if you’re selling jeans, a great item for upselling might be a belt. As well as making the suggestion, retail workers should be able to talk about sizes, colours and styles.

Hold regular training and coaching sessions on upselling and product knowledge.

30. Cut slow sellers Space is money in any brick-and-mortar store. If shelves aren’t delivering sales and margin, they’re being wasted. Track the sales of individual lines every day with a modern ePOS system.

Lines that aren’t shifting should be discontinued — regardless of how you feel about them. Use the space you free up for items that sell well, or products that deliver good margins.

Be ruthless in this regard, and never stop monitoring the situation. Last week’s top seller could become this week’s sales dud.

31. Check inventory levels daily Stock shortages cost small retail businesses a small fortune. If a customer can’t buy an item, that’s a lost sale. Not only that, you’ve lost some goodwill, and potentially some repeat custom. Make a daily inventory check a priority.

A good ePOS system should make this task very simple indeed.

As a matter of priority, identify your top sellers, and make sure you have around a week’s worth of stock in at any given moment. Again, a good ePOS system can track these items for you, and order them when inventory levels run low.

32. Make your store a destination There are several examples of how retail businesses are turning their premises into destinations. Some have a coffee shop, others have areas for reading or group activities. Others provide

entertainment, demonstrations and interactive shopping experiences. If you want to drag people away from ecommerce sites, you should strive to make your store a destination. It should be somewhere people can go to socialise or be entertained.

33. Go green and local There’s real value in goods with a low carbon footprint these days. People are very concerned about the environment and the future of the planet. So much so, they’re often prepared to pay a premium for green or locally-sourced items. Embrace this phenomenon wherever possible, and advertise the fact at every opportunity. You’ll not only be on trend, you’ll also be able to charge a hefty premium for many of your big sellers.

34. Offer free gifts with special purchases Whether you’re trying to shift old stock or you want to push high-margin items, offering freebies is a great way to inspire impulse purchases. You can either use some old items you have no hope of selling, or ask your suppliers for some free stuff. A lot of suppliers are desperate to keep the clients they have, and they’ll give away a range of goodies to keep them sweet. If you can persuade your suppliers to play ball, you can run these free gift promotions without spending a penny.

35. Streamline the purchasing journey The faster you serve customers, the more money per hour you can make during busy periods. Customers who are forced to wait in huge queues are highly likely to get fed up and go to one of your competitors. With this in mind, you need to be sure that you’re processing transactions as quickly as possible.

Design your queue systems to move freely. Train all your cashiers thoroughly before giving them the busier shifts on the rota. Switch to ePOS and card payment systems that work

together, rather than separately. You can now find some excellent wireless ePOS systems that use tablets. Just make sure you have a decent WiFi service.

Finally, assess the layout of your ePOS sales screen. Is everything categorised appropriately? Are complementary purchases located next to one another?

36. Hide higher prices in relatively hidden areas No store owner wants their customers to think of them as expensive. If you have highly-priced demand goods in your store (goods people have arrived in your store to purchase) keep them in the low-profile areas. The high-traffic areas, or the areas near the front of the store, should ideally be devoted to great prices, special offers and discounts. These are the deals that are going to turn casual browsers into buyers.

MARKETING 37. Use shelf talkers Shelf talkers are a cheap and effective way to “talk” to your customers about special offers. And they’re great for reaching out to people that simply want to browse undisturbed.

Ideally, your shelf talkers should be about special offers and discounts. However, you can also use them to talk about the benefits of buying higher-margin items. Customers want to know about how a purchase benefits them, so always communicate the upside of a product as succinctly as possible.

38. Embrace street marketing It goes without saying that your products and customer service have to be distinctive and appealing. The same goes for your store. After all, it’s probably sandwiched between several

different retailers — competing for the same consumers.

Draw attention to your store as much as possible. This might involve placing a few balloons around the shop frontage. Use an A-board to communicate the day’s special offers. Or simply have someone handing out incentive flyers at the door. Make your store hard to miss, and the customers will come.

39. Turn your staff into marketers You don’t need to hire an expensive marketing firm in order to spread the reach of your business. Make your existing staff part of your own, in-house marketing team. Get your employees to include details of your store on their social media profiles. Ask them to share special offers and promotions with their friends and followers. And tell your team to speak about the store at every opportunity.

To amplify the reach of your marketing efforts, incentivise your staff with discounts and free stuff. Or you can save some money with free incentives such as “create your own rota” or “employee of the week”.

40. Make your own viral videos Video marketing is bigger than ever. And there’s nothing stopping you from getting in on the act. Ask confident members of your team to talk about key products or services.

Get everything on video, and upload it to all your social media and online video accounts.

Of course, a retail worker talking about household hardware or coffee isn’t usually all that interesting. This is why you need to find an interesting angle. Bring humour into the video wherever possible. Or include a very special offer. Ask yourself what kind of video content your customers are most likely to share.

41. Make your special offers time sensitive There’s nothing wrong with putting your customers under a little pressure from time to time. Customers who are concerned that a special offer may not be available during their next visit are likely to make a purchase there and then. “For a limited time only” or “offer ends soon” messages focus the minds of customers. After all, no one wants to miss out on a great deal.

42. Partner with local social media stars Ordinary, everyday people can now amass huge social media followings. An engaging personality with lots to say can attract followers from around the country. This is your opportunity to get a captive audience for some of your most impressive products.

Approach people with large online followings, and ask them to demonstrate your products. In some cases, you can get social media stars to use or wear your products for a week. In return, you can offer discounts, free stuff or reciprocal video content.

43. Harvest email addresses at cash registers A lot of retail businesses in America collect email addresses of customers at the point of purchase. Cashiers are trained to ask every customer. A great way to persuade people to part with this information is to promise special offers and discounts. You can communicate these incentives, and talk about your latest products, by sending out a newsletter to all everyone in your email database.

44. Reach out to the community As the owner of a small retail business, you have a distinctive edge over your larger, corporate competitors. You’re an

intrinsic part of the community. And you can cultivate community spirit to your advantage.

For example, if you sell food, you could donate to the local food bank or homeless initiative. You could adopt a local charity, and hold regular events to raise cash for it. If you sell books, you could put on coffee mornings for parents while a member of staff reads to the children.

Try to make your store a part of the community. You’ll earn an enormous amount of trust and loyalty for doing so.

45. Team up with other businesses Go into a barber’s shop, and there’s a chance you’ll see ads for takeaways, taxi companies and every type of business in between. This type of reciprocal marketing between local businesses can be very powerful. Approach local businesses that don’t offer the same products or services, and offer to promote them in return for a mutual arrangement. This might involve placing a few flyers next to your cash registers. It might simply involve a brief conversation between your staff and your customers.

46. Be brand aware Your store has a brand of its own like any chain retail store — whether you know it or not. And it’s always best to control that brand, rather than having it control you. Create a logo that defines your business and your approach to customers. This, along with the fonts in your marketing materials, your style of service and your colour schemes will create an organic marketing machine through recognition and word of mouth.

47. Join local retail and business organisations You never know when opportunities to grow your customer

base are going to present themselves. A chance meeting with a fellow business owner might, one day, result in a new sales opportunity. Sign up to all your local business and enterprise organisations. Not only will you give your retail business muchneeded exposure, you’ll also meet highly influential people.

48. Shop with your competitors In order to compete with your nearest retail competitors, you need to know what they’re doing. Perhaps they have some great ideas you can copy. Or maybe they’re selling new products you’ve missed. Keeping a close eye on your competitors is essential if you’re going to persuade the customers you share that your proposition is superior.

49. Hold regular open evenings A lot of store owners pull the shutters up at 5 p.m. every night and forget about their business for the evening. However, the night opens up a whole new world of marketing opportunities.

People who would have otherwise been at work are able to visit your store and check out what you have to offer. Entice local people with conversation, drinks and nibbles — and widen your customer base overnight (quite literally).

50. Embrace the internet Even if you don’t have an ecommerce business, don’t neglect the Internet — it’s just too powerful. Create your own website with a free online builder, and update it with content regularly.

Advertise your web address in-store, on receipts and anywhere customers might see it. A good website can be used to attract customers to your business based on relevant keywords.

As a bare minimum, make sure your retail business has both a Facebook and a Twitter page. This not only gives you the opportunity to communicate with your customers, it’s also a great way to harvest useful feedback.

THANK YOU FOR READING!

50 RETAIL HACKS FOR 2019