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A long time ago when merchants were plying their wares in remote areas to people with few options, it didn't matter how they were displayed. It didn't matter how the store looked. It didn't matter if the owner was polite. Just having goods available pretty much guaranteed a sale.
Today, however, competition is fierce. Your potential customer is most likely a savvy shopper with a keen eye for price, service and convenience. She expects a lot from a merchant. If you fail to meet her expectations, today's customer will shut her wallet and take her business elsewhere.
As a retailer, you already know that it costs more to get new customers than to keep the ones you have. You probably also know that the longer you can keep a customer, the more valuable that customer becomes. The amazing thing is that even though many other retailers know these things, they continue business practices that are sure to lose customers!
Why do retailers who work hard trying to get traffic in their stores make it impossible for their customers to shop? And more importantly, are you one of those retailers?
If you said, no, think about this. Paco Underhill's new book, Why We Buy, reveals just how wrong retailers can be about their stores. Underhill discusses a very knowledgeable senior executive in a multi-billion dollar chain who believed that nearly everyone who walked into one of his stores made a purchase. After all, he reasoned, that's why they came. It may have been why they came, but that doesn't mean they will buy. The actual percent of customers who purchased was only forty-eight.
Take a look around your store as if you were a customer. Are the aisles blocked with cartons that stock clerks haven't gotten around to yet? How is the lighting? Is your store too hot or too cold? Does the music intrude instead of enhance the shopping experience?
When you set plan-o-grams are you blocking customer's access to nearby products? On one visit last week a store had a whopping eight aisles impassible and it was the height of the weekend.
How is your customer service? A retailer can call its shoppers "guests," but if they aren't treated that way it can really backfire. If your customer feels like a guest, but that guest is the unwanted in law who won't stay away, you have a problem.
Retailers with employees who smile and are actively engaged with their customers send the right message. Even if customers never need help, they feel sure that if they do want it, help will be available.
It seems like common sense retailing, clean and easy to shop stores with courteous and knowledgeable employees. Yet in the urge to increase profits, many stores are cutting costs. Sometimes to their determent.
If you aren't supporting your customer's ability to shop and purchase, then cutting corners to save money won't be necessary anymore -- you will be out of business.