In this article, we provided you with 10 sure-fire strategies to help your brick-and-mortar stores survive and thrive in today’s digitally-driven era. With some proper planning and a little creativity, you will be able to launch some promotions and strategies to help increase brand awareness, foot traffic, and sales—and also boost your bottom line.
As the corporate sector is changing its attention towards digitization, an increasing number of organizations are switching to an online presence. Amid the pandemic, most of the businesses moved their offerings online. Some brick-and-mortar stores, on the other hand, were compelled to close.
However, the truth is consumers are gonna continue shopping from physical stores. Their buying habits will alter, as will their decisions about which companies to buy from and their shopping experiences.
So, we have come up with ways how physical retail businesses can improve and thrive in this technological era.
Strategies to Help Brick-and-Mortar Store Survive in the Digital Age
Host In-Store Events
Keeping the foot traffic flowing is the key to success for any physical shop. However, it is also the biggest challenge of all. Here, to drive increased customer inflow, retailers need to count on delivering an outstanding in-store experience that customers can not find shopping online.
Thus, become innovative and host live in-store events that are both personal and engaging. How to do so? Whenever planning for promotional activities, ensure keeping customer preferences and interests in mind. Consider whom you are trying to attract and what this potential audience expects from your brand?
For instance, you can offer refreshments, giveaways, and cash prizes. These are all great ways to boost foot traffic and raise brand awareness.
Build Store’s Online Presence
Building a strong social media presence is vital. The reason is it helps the business stay in the race when the in-person services do not work well.
All the brick-and-mortar stores must understand the importance of keeping the audience informed about the offerings. Here, the best you can do is invest in emails, SMS marketing, and social media activities. This will help depict that you are still available to serve the customers.
Of course, it is challenging to compete with eCommerce. However, knowing the audience’s needs better helps to determine what steps to perform the next.
Deliver Friction-less Experience
You can expect seamless and interactive in-store experiences. The sources to build interactions can be multiple like art, music, advanced tech, or just a cup of coffee. The physical locations can focus more on hospitality than the traditional retail experiences. The need for hard efforts to sell will reduce. Furthermore, convincing people to browse, talk, or simply laugh will become easier.
Of course, having a successful and customer’s preferred store is going to make you feel comfortable and relaxed. In addition, investing in technology like a customer queuing system can cut down the wait times.
The queue management system allows customers to plan their appointments remotely. Furthermore, it will assist you in tracking purchases, collecting consumer inflow statistics, and reducing physical line difficulties. Also, consumers can pay online at the time of checkout lowering the wait hassles once again.
Connect Via Social Media
Running brick-and-mortar stores does not mean you can not have a social media presence. Keep this in mind and make your customers and target audiences follow you on social media platforms such as Facebook and others.
Convince all the fans following with promotional events and discounts. How? For instance, if you are planning to host an event in your store, post all the updates regarding it on social media. Notify fans that anyone can attend the event and ask them to share the post to get a chance to win a premium price or store product of their choice.
Leverage BOPIS
BOPIS or Buy online and pick-up in-store option is the one that makes customers feel appreciated. It encourages the buyers to shop more when they visit the store to pick up their ordered items.
People are constantly relying on digital platforms to shop as these are the channels where shopping never ends. Hence, the brick-and-mortar stores need to design a robust strategy to attract and engage shoppers online. Furthermore, integrate the physical locations into amazing shopping experiences.
In addition, physical stores can be created as venues to examine things before purchasing them and to pick up products bought online Besides, additional services, any consultation, or product returns must be offered.
The surge in BOPIS purchases has already been seen by larger retail businesses. As a result, self-service kiosks, in-store pickups, and other conveniences have already been implemented to streamline the shopping experience.
Count on Dedicated Staff
The skilled and dedicated staff who are motivated to deliver customers excellent in-store experiences is vital to achieving successful stores.
For example, you can consider a formal clothing store. The workforce here represents various brand aspirational qualities through their appearance, body language, and warm interactions with visitors.
Overall, it will result in building a feeling of community and will solely and exclusively represent high-quality customer service.
Summing Up
The retail future entirely depends on social interactions and experiences. Customers expect engagement and entertainment. Therefore, physical stores need to deliver customers positive experiences with the help of retail queue software. All this is easy to achieve by creating surprise elements for customers, in-store events, or embracing tech.
All of these innovative ideas and techniques focus on helping your physical retail store survive and prosper in this digital age. Having a little bit of creativity in place can help boost sales, brand engagement, and foot traffic. Thus, increasing the bottom line.
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