Tag: Store

Does Your Storefront Need Updating?

Two focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. If you’re running a brick and mortar store, you always need to be conscious if your store’s appearance. The following contributed post is entitled, Does Your Storefront Need Updating?

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Storefronts need to be regularly maintained and updated to keep them looking attractive. Fail to update your storefront and you could find that you lose customers. Below are just some of the signs that your storefront needs updating.

Non-inclusive entrance

Can wheelchair users or people with mobility issues easily use your entrance? If not, this could be the first thing to consider rectifying. An inclusive entrance should not have stairs unless there is also a ramp or a lift. The door should also not be too heavy to push open (alternatively you could place a button that allows people to open the door or call for assistance).

Cheap/damaged signage

Your signage needs to be high quality and kept in good condition. Consider how old your sign is and whether it needs to be updated. Some old signs may just need cleaning or repainting to rejuvenate them. Others may benefit from being completely replaced. Explore different types of signage including plastic signage and illuminated signage to find the best option for your store.

Faded paintwork

Exterior paint can start to peel and fade after time. This could result in your store looking worn and tired. Consider hiring an exterior painter to add a new coat of paint so that your storefront looks brand new again. You could even consider taking the opportunity to change your storefront’s color – a change in color is certain to make people notice your store.

Poor lighting

Exterior lighting can help to make your store look more attractive early in the morning or in the evening (especially in the winter months when daylight hours are shorter). It can also be a useful security feature – burglars are less likely to target a store that is illuminated at night as they’re more likely to be seen while doing it. Consider comparing different forms of exterior lighting. If you don’t want to pay for permanent lighting, consider motion sensing lighting.

An uninviting window display

Your window display needs to grab people’s attention. If it doesn’t, you could lose out on customers (particularly during busy shopping periods such as the leadup to xmas when people are looking for inspiration). There are a few different ways in which you can create an inviting window display. First, consider what are your most eye-catching products. These could be your most popular products or your most unusual ones. Second, make sure to advertise your best deals with large window signage. Incredible discounts and prices can help to lure customers in. Thirdly, make sure that you’re constantly changing things up every season. After a few months, people will get used to seeing the same window display, so make sure to regularly change it in order to hold people’s attention.

What You Can Do To Increase Growth At Your Store

Two focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. When you own a store, you want to constantly think about how you can boost and maintain sales and profits. The following contributed post is entitled, What You Can Do To Increase Growth At Your Store.

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Running your own store can be very challenging and it can seem that you get to a point of success and growth but then everything seems to trail off and you start to go nowhere. It can be hard to know what changes you can make to really improve the store and make it carry on growing or start growing and gaining more success, you need to know what changes you can make and then implement them but this isn’t always as straightforward as it may seem.

If you are running your own store and you are unsure what you could do to help it grow and see more success then hopefully, these few tips should give you an understanding of what changes you can make to help your business grow further.

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Customer experience

Businesses have always tried to pride themselves on customer service but this is now outdated, you need to be focusing on the whole customer experience from start to finish. It is easy to make sure they get good service once they ask for something in store or call up but making sure their experience from the outset is great can be tougher to achieve. This means making sure everyone is working in sync to help the customer experience this is sales, customer service, and even the overall cleanliness of the place.

Keep on top of your inventory

A major issue for some stores is making sure they manage their inventory properly. It can be a killer for your store if a customer is coming in and the product they are looking for is out of stock, so making sure you keep checking stock and ordering more in is really important for retaining your customers. Also make sure you are restocking shelves you can lose money because someone is popping in looking to just grab something quick and it is not on the shelf, they then have to wait for your staff to check out back and so on, this is not a good experience for your customer and can lead them to not want to shop there again and rescue your growth as a result.

Expand your store

Sometimes your success outgrows the store itself, maybe you do not have the shelf space to keep enough stock or you need more shelving to add new stock lines and expand you business. If you want your store to grow you need to open to growing the actually store itself with it, if you do not have the parking sayt for the amount of customers you want then you are going to end up losing customers so try extending you parking spaces, you can get in contractors like cjj services who can do new lines for your car park and help to extend it for you and in more spaces.

If you are looking to help grow your store and see more success but you are unsure where to start or what you can do then these few tips should help you to understand what changes can be made and help you get started.

Easy Ways To Lose Customers From Your Online Store

Three focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money, Business/Entrepreneurship and Technology. Many businesses have online store today and they are a necessity. If you don’t know what you’re doing though, you can actually lose customers. The following contributed post is entitled, Easy Ways To Lose Customers From Your Online Store.

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Running an online store is often mistaken for being an easier task just because you don’t have as much to take care of in the way of physical premises. It’s true that some aspects aren’t going to be as demanding, but it can be just as easy to lose your customer’s attention in an online world where there are often plenty of competitors. As such, here are a few mistakes that you need to ensure you’re not making.

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Neglecting to make it more visible
The online world is full of other shops, brands, and websites each vying for the attention of your customer. As such, you need to make sure that you’re focusing on marketing with them in mind, even after they have already made a purchase. Digital marketing mistakes such as neglecting to retarget those who have already been to the website can cost you. You might be focusing on targeting new customers first and foremost, but it’s often cheaper to convince one to repeat their business.

Letting them get lost
The layout of your store itself makes a huge difference, as well. Investing in sensible navigation, such as effective and useful categories for your products, as well as search functions that allow them to narrow their results down to only the most relevant ones to them. Similarly, pay attention to the checkout section of the site, since that’s where it is quite easy to lose customers. If you’re experiencing shopping cart abandonment, try making some changes like shortening the process or adding breadcrumb navigation so they’re more likely to stick with it to the end.

Deliver on what you promise
The delivery process can be one of the trickiest to get right. You can’t always control whether deliveries get there on time. But you can make sure that you work with the right fulfilment providers or delivery drivers if your current choice is letting you down more often than it should. Similarly, you can use tools like Antzman distribution software to make sure that you’re able to stay informed and, as a result, keep customers informed about any changes. No one likes bad news, but late deliveries with no word at all are infinitely worse.

Be there to help
With the changes above, you can make it a lot easier for customers to find the products they want, get through the checkout process smoothly, and track their own deliveries. However, even if you create the perfect online shopping experience, there are going to be those who need a little help. As such, you should consider using tools like Tidio live chat software so that you can hop in to offer customer support as soon as it is needed. The sooner you can remove any barriers between your customer and their purchase, the better the chance of a conversion.

If you want to keep customers coming back to your online store, you need to make sure it’s easy to find, easy to use, and that their goods get to them easily. If you can’t do that, you may be in trouble.

Can Your Small Store Get Noticed on a Busy High Street

Two of the focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. With all the businesses out it can be tough to be noticed particularly if you have a small store. A key to your success will be getting it noticed and what helps is to situate your operations on a highly trafficked street. The following contributed post is entitled, Can Your Small Store Get Noticed on a Busy High Street.

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Small independent shops are a crucial element of our economy and culture. Small stores give consumers options away from global brands. They often offer unique items of high quality, ideal for those of us that don’t want to be exactly the same as everyone else. They are able to provide excellent customer service, something which unfortunately often gets overlooked by larger brands focused on driving sales. These small businesses build relationships with their customers and give people a reason to shop in person, instead of sitting at home and ordering their purchases online. Small stores have many advantages over large chains, and many people love shopping in them.

But, despite knowing all of this, and knowing that your community is keen to support local business, if you own a small store of your own, something that you may worry about is getting noticed. You might have considered moving into out of town locations, where competition is lower, and property is cheaper. But, doing this is a risk, there’s less passing footfall, and your store has to try harder to give customers a reason to travel. On the high street, people are already there. You just need to give them a reason to come inside. If you can get noticed.

Build a Reputation

One of the best ways to get people into your store, instead of through the doors of bigger businesses nearby is by building a great reputation. Use your interactions in store, but also your engagement online, to get to know your customers. Become known as a business that goes the extra mile for their customers, and even do some charity work to boost your reputation in the wider community. Make it so people want to come to the high street for your shop.

Stand Out from the Crowd

Just like everything else, store styles and layouts have trends and fashions. Things become popular and trendy, so every store jumps on the bandwagon. They all look the same. If you want your store to get noticed, be the one that doesn’t follow trends. Be the one that has a strong look, and rocks it. Look at awnings installation, and other colorful ideas to make a statement. Don’t be afraid to try new things and to take risks with your designs. You can always make further changes and tone things down if you need to.

Put Effort into Your Window Displays

Some shops, say Apple, don’t need to worry about what is in their windows. They might not even have window displays. Customers see their logo, and they know enough to decide whether they want to go inside or not. You don’t have this luxury. Your window displays speak for your business. Display your best products and key brand messages, but don’t overcrowd and overwhelm. Keep things simple and show off what is important.

Get Outdoors

There’s nothing to stop you pulling people in from outside. Send staff out to speak to people and give away free samples, set up a stall in your carpark or on the street, print adverts and flyers to let people know where you are. Don’t wait for people to come to you, go out and get them.

How To Make Your Online Store a Success

Three of the focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money, Business/Entrepreneurship and Technology. Setting up an online store is much different than setting up a traditional bricks and mortar store. For an online store, you must become savvy in terms of technology in addition to marketing. The following contributed post is thus entitled, How To Make Your Online Store a Success.

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If you love retail and decided to create an online store instead of investing in a brick-and-mortar shop, you are up against a huge competition. It is important that you are able to make the most out of your reach, engagement, and productivity, and automate processes that would take you too long to complete. There are several things to pay attention to before you launch your store, such as market positioning, competition, and customer behavior. Find out more below.

Market Research

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It is important that you pay attention to your market research and get to know your target market. This doesn’t only apply to your potential clients, but also your competition. It is crucial that you find out about the best methods to penetrate the market and find the gap you can fill. Look for profitable underserved markets and position yourself in a smart way in the marketplace. There are so many free market research tools you can utilize, such as Google Surveys or downloadable industry reports.

Name

Your business name has to be memorable and catchy, also give out the right message about what you stand for. It might be a good idea to create a mission, vision, and values statement before you would create a logo and brand name, so you can fully align it with your target market’s. After you have created your market research file, you will be able to identify your ideal client, and choose your brand name based on their characteristics. Be careful when choosing a brand name, as it can lower the value of your brand.

Brand Image

Once you have your brand name, you can start working on your brand image, too. You should be consistent when it comes to your social media accounts, your logo, and your website, but most importantly – develop your unique brand voice. Listen to your audience and their feedback, find out what they are looking for when searching for similar products and how they choose who to buy from.

Website

Of course, if you want to launch an online store, you will need to pay attention to your web development and design. You have to make it user friendly and engaging. You need to communicate the benefits of your products, not only the features. This is where many startup online store owners make a mistake. You need to gain people’s trust as well before you can convince them to give your products a try.

Shopping Cart Software

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While the design and functionality of your website is important, you will need to ensure that your infrastructure is easy to use and tailored to your customers’ needs. If you don’t know where to start, you will need to talk to seo agencies that optimize Shopify stores so you can get enough traffic and conversion. You want your visitors to quickly find what they are looking for, add them to their basket, but you might even design a system that recommends similar or complementary products so you can maximize your sales opportunities.

Social Media

You might have already heard about Pinterest success for online stores, but you will have to make the most out of your social media reach and use different platforms. It might be challenging to keep on top of all your posts and monitor the performance of all your accounts, especially if you are busy running your own business. You might want to automate your social media so you can make the most out of your reach and get a snapshot of your statistics, to find out what type of content your audience engages with.

Review Sites

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If you want your website visitors to trust you, it is important that you get listed and featured in online directories and on review sites. People want to know that you are keeping your promises and they can get a good service. They are more likely to listen to other people’s recommendations and reviews than your own marketing messages, so it is crucial that you implement these features in your social media and your website, too. After all, your shop’s reputation is one of the most valuable assets in your business.

Starting an online store is hard work, and there is no guarantee of success. However, you can do your research and get to know the industry, your competition, and the available technology to scale up your operation and make continuous improvements that will improve your traffic, engagement, and sales conversions at the same time.

Old School And New Approaches: Essentials For Running A Store In The Modern World

Some of the key focuses of my blog are: Financial Literacy, Wealth Building, Business and Entrepreneurship. Doing business has changed significantly in today’s digital/information age. Many ‘brick and mortar’ retail stores have folded altogether, while others have had to rethink their business models in order to survive. What are the keys to running store in the modern world? The following contributed post is entitled; Old School And New Approaches: Essentials For Running A Store In The Modern World.

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Pixabay

There are two schools of thought when it comes to setting up a retail store in the modern world. Firstly, you may find that your target audience doesn’t physically go shopping, but prefer to go online. But, conversely, the demand for a physical store in recent years has seen a rise. And if you are selling products of various types, the temptation could be to go via an online marketplace, but you could find that you are neglecting certain parts of your target market. But, are there things we can do to harness the online capabilities with the offline capabilities in a physical setting?

Implementing The Quick Checkout Service
The best way to marry the fast checkout service of an online store with the personal approach to the modern retail store is to have online payment services inside the store. The vast majority of stores have self-service methods to pay now, as well as various ways in which to provide payment, such as through your cell phone. But in addition to this, you need to still implement a personal approach to your customers, and this can be quite tricky to get right because it depends on each individual customer. At the end of the day, the customers come into a physical store because they want ease of access to a product, and they want to see it themselves. So, as soon as they find that the product suits their needs, they want to be able to pay for it without lengthy queues. On the other hand, others still prefer that old school approach. Implementing both covers all bases.

Taking Responsibility For Your Customers
And as the physical setting requires a lot more consideration in relation to health and safety, this means that you have a few more things to consider in comparison to an online store. Whether this is employers liability insurance just in case of accidents in your store, or ensuring there’s enough space for your customers to walk around, this is a deft combination of legal compliance with common sense. Taking responsibility for your customers isn’t just relating to the safety side of things, but also ensuring they have a good experience in your store, and this boils down to how your employees interact with the customers.

Looking After Your Workers
A very easy thing to overlook nowadays is the impact that your workers can have on the customers. Because personal interaction is at an all-time low, with the reliance of the internet to do the vast majority of our work for us, the personal touch is a very difficult thing to achieve. This is why you have to work with your employees to ensure that they are not just representing your store properly, but they have the common courtesy that we demand as customers. But in addition to this, the retail industry is notoriously underpaid and overworked, which this is something else you have to think about when it comes to making your employees work effectively for you, but that they’re also happy in the position.

The best retail store is a component of the old school personal methods, with the modern technological approaches. It’s a tricky balance, but they are both essential in the modern retail store.

5 Secrets For “Cute Store” Success

Two of the focuses of my blog are Business and Entrepreneurship. The following contributed post was written by Becky Meredith. It discusses 5 Secrets For “Cute Store” Success.

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If you’ve been around any upmarket town or tourist destination, you’ll have seen those “cute stores,” the ones that sell carefully selected items related to clothing, home, or paper products. They’re nice to be in, and it’s rare that you don’t walk away without one purchase that lifts your spirits a little bit. If you’ve got an ambition to own your own type of “cute store,” then the first thing to know is that its hard work! But it’s not impossible. Below, we take a look at five ideas for helping you make your store a success.

Source: Pexels.com

Get Inspired

The look of the store is one of the strongest features of this type of business. It is not your typically “rows and rows of shelves” business; the items are scattered around in a more general way, as if they’re not really for sale at all, but rather been left there by a forgetful owner. You should set the tone with your entranceway. This should tell your visitors that they’re not walking into any old and ordinary type of business, but that they’re entering a more luxurious world. Work with a designer to get the look of your store just right, or, if you don’t have the budget, take a look at Pinterest instead.

A Calming Environment

The look is important, but it’s absolutely essential that you have a calming environment. You’re trying to show your customer that this is no ordinary business. When you walk into most shops, the stress levels begin to spike. In your store, they’ll drop; it’ll be more like walking into a spa! But how do you do this? You can engage in a little scent marketing by installing a cold air diffuser from www.aromatechsystems.com. You can set atmospheric mood lighting, the opposite of the “high and bright” lighting of other stores. You can play soft music. Essentially, think about all the things you do to help you relax in your living room, and add them to your store.

We’re All Equal

Your store is going to be the well-dressed, good-looking store on the street. Your customers might not be the same. But remember, in business – and actually, in life – there’s no room for a sense of superiority. Whoever comes through your door must be given the full experience of your shop. This means that you can’t get away with setting your prices too high just because you’ve done things a little differently.

Original Goods

Aside from the look and feel of your store, your main selling point will be your products, which will be different from what you normally find in shops. So take the time to think carefully about the products you’re selling. The shopping experience in your store is to feel “exclusive,” and that won’t happen if you’re stocking the same items as everyone else. When it comes to picking your items, remember that it’s better to have fewer items that are high-quality rather than stacking the shelves high!