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More Customers…More Often

 

2009 will be a watershed year and being a retail survivor is going to take a lot more than hard work. 

 

Retail Survivors will grab more customers, and I talked about that in my last post.

 

That means more new visits and traffic to your stores and your website, with higher conversion to purchase actions, whether on the web or at the store or by attracting from the web to a store visit.

 

Now let’s talk about MORE OFTEN.

 

Once you have that increase in new feet, or eyeballs, you will need to engage and excite them  with the value of your offering and the full purchase experience.

 

MORE OFTEN.

 

Our experience with in-depth customer and potential customer engagement demonstrates that MORE OFTEN is a result of:

 

Value Perception

 

How does your customer and your non purchasing traffic perceive value?

 

Have you really asked yourself that, and how good is your understanding of their perception of value?

 

Value Perception consists of a lot more than price, it is a combination of factors, perceived and prioritized by your buying customers and your “almost buying” customers.  Almost Buying Customers were in your store or at your website, but then walked away.  In most environments, these “Browsers”  represent at least 80 percent of traffic.

 

What a lost opportunity for you, because most retailers have no idea who these people are and what they are thinking, and where did they end up buying and…

 

Why?

 

What can you do to change that?

 

You will never know until you take action with a  plan to find out more about these people.  We had one client that we helped to find a whole new group to market to in the stores that they had no idea about.  This group ended up accounting for 32% of profit, once they were identified and understood.

 

As our client said after taking effective action “It’s almost like free money”

 

Value might be price, everyone thinks that, but that is only the tip of the iceberg.

Value can be the packaging of related products

Value can be discounts on the right combinations of higher purchase values

Value can be better service with knowledgeable staff

Value can be better suggestions and solutions

Value can be better descriptions and value presentations of special features of products (in meaningful language to the prospect

 

Value sometimes means better trained or motivated staff

 

MORE OFTEN MEANS

 

Engagement and Excitement

 

In the changing retail environment, understanding Customers and “Browsers will help you move fast enough to take advantage of the new perceptions of your customers and prospects.  Fashion, excitement, value, and relevance will be changing fast.

 

As the marketplace wakes up to the changing economic climate in 2009, they are going to be different in the wants and desires from last year’s customers.  They will be more fearful, and they will need more in the way of hand holding to the sale.

 

Will your sales environment reflect the needs wants and desires of the new economic climate of 2009 or will you be retail road kill?

 

Getting to know much more about the customer and the market will make the difference in 2009