Retail sales are integral to most local retail businesses that follow conventional sales models. Generating higher sales while gaining customers’ loyalty and trust is crucial for sustaining healthy growth for these companies.
The relationship between your revenue and your customer’s trust in your brand is intricately linked, where one cannot survive without the other.
In this article, we will look at how you can boost your sales and build a strong relationship with your customers.
How to Gain your Customer’s Trust
Your customers keep your business growing, so building a good relationship
based on trust and loyalty is imperative. Here are some ways you can do just that.
Tell your unique story.
People like brands and companies that they can relate to or connect to. When you share your story, your customers look beyond the products you offer and understand where you are coming from, making supporting local businesses easier.
Be real
Modern consumers don’t fall for gimmicks and exaggerated claims. So the best way forward is to be honest, and transparent about your products and what customers can expect from you as a company.
Personalize customer experience
It is now more important than ever to do proper market research on what your customers want and offer a personalized customer experience. The one-size-fits-all approach is outdated and might cause you to lose your customer’s trust than gain it.
Share customer reviews
Nothing builds confidence in a brand better than customer reviews. While you cannot expect customers to blindly have faith in your claims, reviews help them build an immediate and strong impression of your products and services.
Use testimonials
People trust unbiased opinions more than corporate messaging, and video testimonials are a great way to demonstrate the value of your products. An honest and organic brand advocacy provides an essential narrative for building trust among new customers.
Give your brand a face.
While it isn’t possible for you to meet all your customers, you can build a comprehensive “meet the team” page. When customers see the people working behind the curtains, they feel connected to your brand and feel that they are dealing with real people rather than just a brand name.
A good customer service
There’s no doubt that a customer would not return if they had a bad experience with the staff. Therefore, it is crucial to hire people who can present your business well since your staff is your customers’ only point of contact. Where you spend considerable resources on local advertising for small businesses, it’s equally important to invest in representatives that your local customers can trust and appreciate.
Build trust through a solid reputation
While it takes years to build a good reputation, it takes seconds to ruin it. This is not a cliché but a reality. We have seen massive companies like Nike and Facebook dip because of scandal, so your business is no different. Build a persona around your brand that customers can trust and remain loyal to. This includes providing great products, maintaining impeccable customer service, and supporting the local community.
How to Boost Sales in Store
The purpose of a business is to earn profit through sales; therefore, a company must constantly strive for improved sales in order to sustain. Here are a few ways you can increase your sales.
Make Customers Feel Safe
In the current situation of the Covid-19 pandemic, many people have switched to local online businesses instead of shopping in-store. However, if you want to increase your store sales, you can make them feel safe by displaying the health and safety measures that you and your staff adhere to. This will encourage more people to shop from your store.
Offer Coupons
Offering coupons have time and again proved to be an effective marketing strategy. You can offer coupons to new customers encouraging them to make a purchase. Or you can use them to amp up excitement around specific seasons by displaying coupon offers in the store. Another great way of enticing customers with coupons is to offer minimum-price coupons encouraging customers to make a certain amount of purchase to enjoy the discount.
Make your Store Visible in Online Searches
Many people search ‘local businesses in my area’ before going out to shop. It helps to make your store visible in online searches so customers can find your store and products easily. When looking at nearby businesses, customers always prefer one that has sufficient information regarding their location and services. Therefore, it is wise to add helpful information and pictures of your products to invite online customers to your store.
Adopt Click and Collect
Although click-and-collect has been around for a while now, the Covid-19 pandemic has significantly increased its importance for customers. You can boost your sales by offering this service because when people come to your store to pick up their purchases, it’s likely they will end up buying something else on their trip.
Build a Good Corporate Image
According to research, customers prefer to buy from companies that support a more significant cause. Giving back to the local community and being more responsible socially and environmentally can help build a corporate image that your customers can trust. Ultimately, this trust and loyalty translate into higher sales.
Increase the Store’s Visual Appeal
Nobody wants to buy unappealing products, which makes your store’s visual appeal an important point to consider. You can make your displays multidimensional or make them more interactive to attract attention. This doesn’t mean that you clutter the space with enormous signs, instead keep your floor space neat and tidy so customers can easily find what they are looking for.
Wrapping it Up!
The challenges of the retail business have increased in recent times, but there are many ways you can increase your in-store sales while maintaining the trust of your customers. We hope this article helped you in some way to realize the strengths and weaknesses of your current business model and how you can use the tricks above to achieve better results.