Are your marketing strategy and in-store experience enough to keep your customers coming back for more? If you have read the recent news articles that Walmart is suffering when it comes to sales at many of its stores and is turning to a better online presence to fix the problem, you may start to worry about the future of your own business. Walmart is a company that changed the way people shopped. No one could ever imagine that such a big brand could lose support, yet it did. If it can be brought to its knees and forced to shut down 269 stores, it can happen to any business! What did Walmart do wrong? While Walmart might not have done anything wrong, perhaps they could have done a few things differently to keep their customers on board. It’s no secret that online mega-stores such as Amazon dominate the market – brick and mortar establishments need to offer their clients an in-store experience that’s exceptional as well as up their game and be more strategic when it comes to their online sales.
If in-store sales are dwindling, here’s what you can do:
- Start taking advantage of experiential marketing. Give your consumers the opportunity to experience products and brands and let them tell you what they think. Start giving the customer the opportunity to get exactly what they want. This type of marketing will drive more traffic to your store. Consumers love to participate and if they get a sample or a reward for their time – even better!
- Reward the consumer for their in-store support. Customers love coupons, discounts and loyalty rewards. Incorporate this into the in-store experience and it could make the world of difference to your sales.
We often encounter companies desperate to get their sales figures back up and puzzling about how to avoid the damage that online stores are doing to them. The fact of the matter is that any brick and mortar store can jump on the online bandwagon as long as they’re smart enough to tie both their in-store and online shopping experience in together. With the right marketing strategy and by truly engaging with your consumers, you can avoid store closures and get your customers keen and ready to do business with you, long term.
Tradeway specializes in experiential marketing, brand activations and promotions and field marketing. If you want to get more customers visiting your stores, just ask us how to go about it!