Increase retail sales during bad economy

Whilst most people thinks economy dictates their business performance, we still see many businesses continue to thrive during bad times. Sales can still increase during bad economy, provided retailers do things with the right knowledge and business strategies.

There are some practical ways to improve and maintain your business, and they certainly does not look like rocket science.

Review Your Location

Retailers has this utmost important factor, you have to be at place where your target customers can easily find you. It means a shop is best located conveniently, but if it\’s a challenge then draw people there by setting up signs and posters. Also it is best to adopt Visual Merchandising when placing products on display (remember \’eye level is buy level\’?)

Keeping eye on trends

Popular or seasonal products can be a great traffic generator where target customers can purposely make their way to your shop, and you will have the chance to upsell and increase revenue. Though trends can be risky at same time as it can fade as quickly as it started, an inventory software can be useful to help in analyzing movements to avoid overstocking.

Create uniqueness

We often heard enough about USP (Unique Selling Point) and it does not have to be products. If you are selling an item that can be bought in many places, you need extra effort to be different that more people are willing to buy from you, an example would be in-store experience and services.

Stay on top of inventory

A way to increase earnings is to reduce losses, many retail shops are facing random losses from shoplifting, theft or fraud. The arrangement of products is crucial and most people already know how to keep valuable items behind counters. For the added security, owners should track inventory more closely against frauds which are internal and challenging to prevent, where POS with CCTV can offer a good job here.

 Discounts and promotions

For business to sustain you need buyers and not shoppers. Conversion is important and the effective way to raise their desire to buy is to offer good deals, especially during an economic depression. Setting up regular promotions not only get more people in the door but also helps in clearing slow moving products. Furthermore, there is also huge benefits of upselling with the customer traffic, and with POS membership system in place, you get to convert them into repeat customers too.

Staff quality matters

Shoppers love to be treated as VIPs but not to be felt under surveillance. The correct type of indoor sales people will often be helpful to customers and leave a good impression. One important fact is employers should not overpressure staff for numbers so that sales people don\’t behave pushy and irritate shoppers.

Go online

Last but not least, retailers must not forget about internet shoppers. The general impression now often suggests better deals are available online, which is important to treat it as an extra sales and distribution channel. There are so much of marketplace to sell including portals like Lazada, Lelong, 11Street, Taobao and more, or by using the help from POS with eCommerce Integration, retailers can establish their own online store without much difficulties.