Retail is often on the chopping block. Everyone has been saying, finally, now that the pandemic has forced us to shop online only, people will see the futility of retail. Well not everyone. Mostly just the ‘experts’ who think that eCommerce has killed retail. They are half true. And that should worry you.
This is a contributed post. Please refer to my disclosure for more information.
Retail is on the back foot. It has been for the past decade. With technology ramping up and online shopping becoming so much easier and more enjoyable, what does retail have to offer? We think that retail can come back, but it will need to reinvent itself. It will need to copy some of the things that online shopping has but create some new reasons for getting customers walking through the door.
Faster and easier payment
The most boring part of shopping in-person, is lining up to make payment for the products you want. This is by far the thing that puts people off the most. You are fighting against something that doesn’t look threatening at all, but it can wipe out your store.
It’s the customer in their pajamas, eating chips and watching their favorite new show on Amazon Prime and shopping at the same time. He doesn’t look like a big deal but he is. He’s shopping in his own time, with his feet up, enjoying a snack and instead of whiny babies in his ear, he’s listening to two key characters duke it out.
You can prevent this by getting a credit card reader for your phone available here. This service can be integrated into your brand’s app, which customers can then use to scan themselves in and out of your store without ever needing to reach for their wallet.
Be more joyful
When people go out to shop, they want to be excited, they want to be part of the show and they want an experience. Retail can give customers something online shopping could only hope to. You can excite every sense.
You can make your store smell a certain way, you can decorate it to excite the eyes, you can offer samples of foods to excite the tastes, and you can give out prizes to customers who enter in-store competitions. You could make your store experience all the more exciting by adding depth, interactive items and things that get people talking.
Off only in-store sales
Most businesses in retail have online stores as well. It’s common for clothing brands to have a large online presence but also, a few spots in the real world, here and there. To get customers through the door you should concentrate on building a series of in-store only sales. Only if customers actually walk into the store, can they have a chance at getting the items they want for a more affordable price.
Retail is on their back foot but that’s nothing new. We know that retail will never die, but it can shrink into nothing but a pastime. So get thinking about ways to prevent this being a landslide defeat to online shopping.