Monday 14 December 2015

CHRISTMAS COUNTDOWN 2 - SHOPPABILITY


Over the last few weeks we’ve been looking at what you can do to increase sales during the Christmas season and we’ve covered quite a bid of ground, Christmas windows, shop layout, merchandising, customer communication, promotion and so on.

As we enter the final Christmas shopping frenzy this is the time to make shopping your shop easy and enjoyable for your customers.  Here are a few reminders...

  • Smile - keep the welcome warm and remember to make eye contact.
  • Customers - keep your customers to the forefront of your Christmas retail operation; make them feel special, you want them back in 2016.
  • Walkways – keep circulation routes clear, especially entrances and exits, don’t clog them with deliveries or excess stock.
  • Merchandising – it’s important to adjust your merchandising at this time of year to suit your customers’ shopping habits. As products run down rearrange your stock to make your shelves look full and exciting, keep merchandise tight and don't spread products too thinly.
  • Empty shelves – this is a no no. It’s better to remove a shelf or shop fitting than be left with a few products spaced out on a shelf, unless you’re in the luxury market.
  • Accessibility - make sure every product in your shop is accessible. If customers can’t reach a product or easily pick it up the chances are they won’t buy. The majority of customers don’t like asking for help, especially men, so don’t give them a reason to do so.
  • Hot spots – keep your best selling areas full of products, overflowing, brightly illuminated and with space for customers to browse and pick up.
  • Baskets – Once a customer has picked up two products it’s quite challenging to continue shopping in comfort so always offer them a basket. Alternatively, offer to put their shopping behind your cash and wrap counter while they continue to shop.
  • Last of all - keep going

I appreciate this is a busy time of year for everyone but if you’re dealing with stressed out shoppers desperate to finish their Christmas shopping then you need to remove every potential obstacle out of their way.  Make the shopping process as smooth as you possibly can and make it easy for customers to shop your shop, every minute, of every hour, of every day...

All the best

Peter
#retail   -consultant  -designer  -communicator  -mentor
tel      07907 691711


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