How to raise the number of customers on the trading floor

Almost none of the owners of retail stores can build a competent sales funnel. The overwhelming majority have no introductory goods / services (which attract a new public) and one in a thousand more or less correctly uses the customer database.

These two actions (creation of introductory products and work with the base) are no less important than work with the assortment, location, merchandising, training of sellers and advertising, about which at least almost everyone knows everything in retail.

But if you only do what everyone else does, you will have no advantage and richer competitors will furnish you. In desperation, you will begin to lower prices and position themselves “cheaper with us.” That will lead to the destruction of profits and your possible withdrawal from the market.

Dumping in retail is the worst possible strategy. Yes, temporarily you will get a “customer boom right now”, notifying people of price cuts. But then one of the market leaders will look at you and decide: “Aha, right now, so I gave you this position.” He will bring prices down, others will follow him. In response, you lower the price still, practically to the level of profitability. In this game, the one who has more money always wins, since dumping is like a siege of a fortress – the one who has more reserves and resources, including money, and who has a better supply line wins. However, after the victorious fanfare died down (the competitor broke, left the market, went bankrupt, sold you a part of the business, declined, etc.), you found that “you had enough shit for free,” since the total profit throughout the market has now decreased so that business has become much less interesting. And the prize in business is not a destroyed competitor, but a profit.

It makes sense to reduce prices only for locomotive goods (locomotive goods are goods that lead in sales, “pull” all other goods with them, new goods can be developed for income from them), while on the main part of the range you must and by crook to keep the margin interesting for you, by acting on the consumer by other methods.

A huge role in the detuning at prices is played by merchandising (the planning of the sales area and the placement of goods). This is really the most important marketing tool in retail. Not even a tool, but a mighty workshop that allows you to give the buyer a lot of arguments why you need to buy from you and precisely at such prices. But in order for the merchandising to work, you need to bring customers to the trading floor. To do this, in addition to the sign, point and pointer locations, you need to create and promote introductory products and work skillfully with a database of old buyers.

Introductory products and work with the base are not some gourmet delights from retail. These are the most standard actions. Embody them, and you immediately gain extra points in the rating that the buyer keeps in their head.

This is not easy, but the fact is that the whole trick of a good UTP: that which is not repeated with a swoop, very few people will want to copy.

Sales funnel starts with introductory products. Introductory means free, in exchange for which a person leaves their coordinates. In retail, introductory products attract people to the sales area, and they can start selling something right after they receive the introductory product.

At one webinar, a girl asked me, the owner of a network of retail clothing stores, what kind of introductory products could be in her stores. I was not ready to sit and think out before the eyes of the other participants, so I promised her to make a small list and send it. After I sat down and in 15 minutes I put on paper several ideas regarding free products in this type of stores. I will give this list here, just to start your imagination and show that there can be a lot of solutions. Of course, this list is not complete and cannot be complete – fantasies can be limitless.

For some of these ideas one could take money in the store. But the point is to create not just some kind of movement, but to make an introductory product as part of the sales funnel: a free service in exchange for coordinates, so that you can work with this person later, promoting products to him. This will increase the conversion and attendance.

Here is the list:

Photoshoot in clothing store. Or even just a professional photo session at the salon, you can select a special place, you can use specially created backgrounds and spaces.
Services stylist in the selection of clothing. Consultations for all comers in exchange for the address and telephone.
Services makeup artist. You can create a stir in the style of Tom Sawyer, who paints the fence, arrange a queue “only for those who are for the first time.”
Body art for children. For example, paint them faces faces of animals, or turn them into monsters or superheroes. The action is fairly standard and successful.
Treats (food, tea, coffee, alcohol). In “Nature Siberian” brewed herbal tea and treat all visitors. In the shoe store “Rendezvous” I was treated to coffee. My clients, the store of fur coats, poured a choice of boiled coffee or brandy.