Starting a brick-and-mortar business can be challenging as more and more consumers shift to online shopping. According to statistics on Orbelo, approximately 2.4 billion people purchased goods online in 2021. The key reasons people shop online include competitive prices, convenience, and having a variety of options. As e-commerce continues to gain popularity, brick-and-mortar businesses must work hard to survive.
As an entrepreneur, learning how to make your business competitive is the key to survival. This step involves adapting to the changing needs of consumers and developing a community that customers want to belong to. If you plan to start a physical store, below are tips on how to make your brick-and-mortar business stand out.
Know Your Target Customer
Understanding your target customers is crucial to designing marketing campaigns that align with their behaviors and values. To understand your target customers and win their loyalty, you need to identify their interests and shopping habits. Know where they live, their age and gender, incentives that appeal to them most, and how often they visit your business premise. It’s also wise to get a clear picture of how price conscious your target customers are and the aspects they like about your store.
Enhance In-store Buying Experience
Naturally, shoppers don’t want to waste time searching for a product or waiting in line to pay. With this in mind, consider creating an appealing layout in your store to improve the shopping experience. Remember, there’s no hard rule on how you should arrange or display products, so get creative with mannequins, lighting, music, and color themes. Also, place aisle signage to direct customers where you’ve placed products. Making your shop kid-friendly, offering personalized advice to customers, and adding a layer of service to products you sell are other ideal ways to improve in-store shopping experiences.
Store Aesthetic Matters
Today’s customers care about how they feel when shopping in-person. This is why its important to choose music, scents, and signage that match your brand’s identity and customer expectations. For example, let’s say you’re selling vintage products, like jewelry, furniture, and clothing. Cover your walls with retro-themed wall paper and install funky lighting. Doing so will make customers feel they are in the right place when shopping.
Maintaining clean business spaces is also vital, as it boosts credibility, thus increasing foot traffic to your store. Therefore, outsourcing services offered by professional commercial cleaners to enhance the appearance of your store inside-out. Experienced building cleaners offer janitorial services like mopping floors, disinfecting surfaces, cleaning windows, and cleaning exteriors. Besides removing dirt, oil, and grime on exterior walls, replace old awnings with new ones and install signage and lighting.
Leverage Technology
It’s important to understand that not all customers will be ready to shop in-person all the time. For this reason, you’ll need technology to meet their needs. Building an effective website is one way to ensure your business is visible online so customers can shop at their convenience. You’ll also want to leverage different digital marketing techniques to drive traffic to your store. For instance, create business pages on Facebook or Instagram and post updates on new products and services or even share links for easy purchase on social media.
Running a brick-and-mortar store in this digital age can be difficult. However, there’s still an opportunity to stand out in the competitive market if you implement the right tactics. To make your physical store stand out, understand your customers. Then, create an appealing store layout, improve aesthetics, and invest in the right technology to meet consumer demand.
