9 Effective Ways to Increase Customer Traffic to Your Retail Business

9 Effective Ways to Increase Customer Traffic to Your Retail Business

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9 Effective Ways to Increase Customer Traffic to Your Retail Business
Is your retail store seeing fewer and fewer customers? Do you want to see more people visit and buy from your store? If you want to increase foot traffic to your business, keep reading. 
Below, we’ve got a list of nine effective ways you can use to get customers back into your store. Keep reading to find out what they are. We included tips that use offline and online steps to increase your customer traffic. 
1. Give Your Store a Unique Offline Experience 
One of the best things you can do in your store to increase customer traffic is to make it unique. You want your customers to feel like they can get a unique experience in only your store. There are various ways you can do this. 
An example is what Warby Parker did when it opened its 50th store in 2017 in Melrose, California. The store had a green room where customers could create 15-second videos while trying on glasses. The customers could then keep and share their videos, which attracted more to come and try it. 
Another great way to do this is to offer top-tier customer service. You can decorate it well and make it look presentable. However, excellent customer service will always trump presentation. 
Don’t forget to add a unique twist to the way your employees give service. One of Dairy Queen’s top-selling points is the way customers receive their Blizzards. This upside-down ice cream idea served with a smile can attract any crowd. 
2. Customer Traffic Increases With Better Retail Analytics 
Before you can attract more customers to your store, you need to know how you can measure your traffic. Having numbers, tables, or graphs to back up your campaigns is also more reliable. They can help you learn and understand your store and your customers better. 
Use retail analytics to track your customer demographics and in-store behavior. These things can help you learn how to target groups of consumers. This way, you can create marketing campaigns that can attract different consumer groups. 
Use retail marketing and traffic generation tools to help you out with this step. For example, you can install beacons that track the way shoppers move around the store. These beacons will let you know which products are more popular. 
You’ll also learn the paths customers often take when they’re in your retail store. From this, you can see how you can change the way customers flow in and out of the store. Use the data you collect to change the layout of the products in the store to give exposure to less popular products. 
3. Hire the Right People 
A secret to growing customer traffic to your store is to invest in the right employees. Employees are your first line of defense against customer complaints. They’re also in the store to offer excellent customer service. 
Remember, employees have a big impact on customers’ experiences in your store. 
If you hire employees who are irresponsible, unqualified, and ill-mannered, you put your business at risk. Look for employees who are fun, charismatic, helpful, and knowledgeable in the products. 
Getting the right people is one of the most basic yet overlooked methods. One reason behind it is that it’s hard to find the right employees. You may have a high turnover rate because you attract potential employees who are unfit for the job. 
If this is the case, then reconsider the qualifications you want for the job. If you have the right people already, make sure you keep them around and motivated. Be a strict boss when the situation calls for it, as well. 
4. Make It Convenient for Customers 
What is one of the most important things to the masses today? Here’s a clue: it’s intangible, and it rhymes with hi-fi. People today can’t imagine what it’s like to live without connecting to the internet. 
This means that it’s a good thing if your retail store offers free Wi-Fi. Your customers can use it to look up and compare the prices of the items in your store. If you sell food, calorie-conscious customers can use it to look up their calorie content. 
Convenience is the key to making your customers rely on and feel comfortable in your store. Another great way to offer convenience is to buy an ATM machine . Keep it close to the entrance/exit or by the cashier. 
5. Create a Picture-Perfect Spot 
A picture is worth a thousand words, and one taken from your store can be worth more. A photo that features the beautiful ambiance in your store can attract more visitors. If you offer a stunning photo opportunity, it can even make you famous in your locality. 
89% of marketers say that Instagram is vital to their marketing strategy. Even if you don’t have an Instagram or social media marketing campaign, it’s still important to you. (Also, if you don’t have a social media marketing campaign, you’re missing out so use one now.) 
If you have an Instagrammable spot in your store, you can attract a lot of customers. This will work even if you don’t have an active Instagram marketing campaign. When your guests share or post photos in your store, you increase your online visibility. 
6. Have an Influencer Vouch for You 
Influencers have the power to open your doors to success and opportunities. They don’t offer their services to only e-commerce stores but also brick-and-mortar stores. All it takes is to find the right influencer or influencers to help you out. 
Step one is to look for an influencer or micro-influencer who vibes well with your brand. For example, if you have a makeup and wellness retail store, look for an influencer in the same industry. There’s a high likelihood that you have similar target markets. 
Next, invite them to your shop and show them around. Offer them service or product samples. Let them do their thing, which is to take a lot of photos or videos of your store. 
7. Expand Your Customer Demographic 
One of the top ideas to bring customers into your store is to add a target customer demographic. For example, your business targets moms. A lot of moms are busy with taking care of their kids and may not have the time to visit your store. 
One way to get them to come to you is to create a kid’s play zone where they can leave their kids. This opens up a chance for your target customers to come to your store and buy what they need. Also, they’ll feel secure that their kids are in safe hands. 
If you don’t have enough space to reuse into a kid’s play area, why not offer services that kids will love? For example, you can hire an artist to offer face-painting on kids. 
This strategy applies to other demographics, as well. 
If your retail store sells products and services targeted to women, think about their male partners. You can find hilarious photos of these “miserable men” online. Often, they feature men sitting and waiting for their partners to finish shopping. 
Why not create a men’s section where the guy peruse items and shop? If you’ve got a sitting area prepared, offer services to keep them entertained. If you can, offer food or other products they might enjoy while waiting. 
8. Use a Buy Online, Pick Up In-Store (BOPIS) Strategy 
The BOPIS or Buy Online Pick Up In-Store strategy became a top trend during the pandemic. Most consumers didn’t want to go out and wander around the stores in fear of contracting COVID-19. Instead, they looked for and ordered the items they needed online and picked them up in-store. 
Yet, BOPIS isn’t at all a new style of shopping and selling. Even before COVID-19, people used it to grab things they were too busy to look for in-store. 
Did you know 85% of shoppers who went to a store to pick up an online order also say they bought an item in-store? 
Before you can attract customers to your physical store, make sure you have an online store. Post an inventory of the items that are available in your store online. This will help customers know that you have the things they’re looking for. 
Don’t forget to allow online transactions. You can also offer an in-store payment when the customer comes to pick up their order. 
9. Sell Food to Attract Hungry Consumers 
The last and final solution we offer to increase your foot traffic is to grow your food traffic. See what we did there? Anyway, since it’s a basic necessity for living, people will always look for food. 
The types of food you’d want to sell are those that people can chew on while they’re going around the store. This includes energy bars, cookies, breakfast bread rolls, and more. You can’t go wrong with it, but it can be tricky for retail stores that already sell food products. 
You can get around this by leasing a bit of your space to a food franchise. You can also put up a small sitting space outside of the main store where tired shoppers can sit, eat, and rest. Place your on-site food stalls near this sitting area. 
Keep Your Customers Coming 
That ends our guide on growing customer traffic into your retail store. We hope you enjoyed reading and learning these strategies and tips. We also hope you found several ways to increase foot traffic into your store. 
Did you like this post and want to read more about boosting customer traffic to your retail shop ? Check out our other posts today to pick up even more business and marketing tips and tricks! Visit the Retail section of the Bootstrap Business Blog right now to learn more!

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