Key things retailers can do to ramp up sales
South Africa’s retail sector has continued navigating its way through the uncertain COVID-19 circumstances.
The crisis has impacted employment numbers, investment and incomes, and put pressure on consumer spending. While the sector has experienced declines in consumer spending in physical stores, this has provided room for growth in other areas.
A key impact of the crisis has been a huge increase in e-commerce adoption among businesses and consumers who otherwise may not have entered the online market for some time.
The biggest task for many retailers now is finding ways to ramp up sales and regain or increase profit margins.
What are the key things retailers can do to ramp up sales?
Keep sourcing new inventory
Complacency can be the downfall of any retail business. While there may come a time that you are doing well with the products you are selling, you can’t adopt the attitude that it will stay that way.
You have to continue looking for new products that will be appealing to your customers to stay relevant and profitable.
Advertise more
Just when you may think it's time to cut back the marketing budget, you should probably be advertising more. It is wise to increase marketing efforts during slower sales periods because there are more competition and fewer consumers ready to spend.
Consider newspaper ads, magazines, speciality publications and other forms of marketing. Guzzle allows retailers to
reach a broad clientele and caters for diverse demographics through a galore of catalogues where consumers can search for products, compare prices and make a purchasing decision.
Make customers feel safe in your store
In the age of COVID-19, one of the best things you can do to drive traffic and sales is to instil confidence in your customers. Because of the pandemic, many of your customers are worried about their health and safety. To win them over, start by clearly communicating your health and safety measures.
Explain all that you’re doing to keep people safe in your store, then use multiple channels to get the word out.
Ensure that your store shows up in online search results
Now more than ever, consumers are turning to Google to find stores and products. Make sure that you’re showing up whenever they conduct a search relevant to your business.
If you sell baby clothes, for example, then you want nearby customers to find your business whenever they run a search for “baby clothing store near me.”
You can do this by setting up business listings on Google, Facebook and other platforms. Retailers can rely on a reputable internet
shopping site like Guzzle to reach a broader market across the country. Guzzle is an aggregation portal hosting catalogues from a myriad of retailers in South Africa.
Make it easy to pay Online
The best piece of advice you must consider the increasing online sales being done by consumers is to make it easy for people to pay. Retail research shows that 69% of shopping carts are abandoned online due to payment complications.
To help avoid this, make the payment process as simple as possible and communicate consistently. For example, set up an automatic email receipt once someone pays and consider offering a pop up on the screen when the transaction clears.
Examine your pricing strategy
When purchasing and pricing products, be sure you have considered the cost of goods and how your retail shop is able to make a profit at that price point. Your product price should be competitive, but still profitable. Ultimately, the right price is the price the customer is willing to pay for the product.
Make data your #1 Planning Tool
If you’re not using data to drive decision making, your decisions aren’t as strategic as they could be. Performance data provides a wealth of knowledge that is crucial for designing strategic sales plans, driving the right behaviours and reaching company goals. Data should be at the core for each part of the sales performance management and planning process.
It should inform and drive the strategy for everything from sales capacity and quota planning, territory alignment, incentive design and performance analysis. That way, every aspect of your sales plan is aligned from the start, and each decision is informed and backed by data.
Improve company culture and morale
Believe it or not, the culture and morale your organization fosters have a considerable impact on the success of sales. When culture is negative especially in the retail environment, and morale is low, performance suffers.
It’s crucial for leadership to instil a positive work environment from the top down. The goal is to make the retail space a place where all
employees are motivated to work hard, believe in their work and offer the best customer service, achieve company goals together and retain clientele.
The guidelines provided above if well implemented with the help of Guzzle will see you move to record sales.
Guzzle Media
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