When you’re looking for ways to improve your in-store revenues, it can be tempting to try and have it all - to reach as many people as possible and to widen your audience at every opportunity. This strategy may feel like a surefire way to increase profits, however, you need to take things back to basics and ask yourself, “Who is the customer and why do they shop here?”
This question will help to narrow your focus to your target customers so you can improve their sales experience by creating a vibrant niche for your store, thereby increasing your profits.
This is one way of improving revenue but there are many more strategies you can incorporate into your business that will see you succeed in the global retail market.
Once you’ve started focussing on your target customers, it’s essential that you have a strategy in place to maintain their interest in your business. This means investing in quality advertising to keep your brand recognition high.
In order to reach and maintain the global retail market, you need to invest in your online presence, including your website, blog and social platforms,
Website - Does your website offer a premium experience for your customers? Your website is your chance to portray to your international audience the high-quality experience they can expect from your business. Ensure the look and feel matches the impression you want to give out. You can check what impression your customer base is getting by conducting surveys and asking how the experience could be improved. These insights are invaluable and you will often discover that different regions will be looking for different things, so finding out which improvements will increase your appeal in various areas will help to increase your brand and your in-store revenues for the global retail market.
Blog - Shout about your products to the people who want to hear about them. Your blog is your chance to reach your wider international audience and inform an engaged prospects about your store improvements, new products you have in stock and any company news that will help to build a positive relationship with your customers.
Social platforms - Create a compelling strategy for your social media platforms, including Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Instagram etc. This is an instant way of reaching your audience, answering their questions, building trust and showcasing your products via image-driven posts to draw people into your website or storefront.
Some retailers aim to hire people who already have experience and have received training from previous employers as they believe this will limit the training they have to do. However, these employees have been trained for working in a different store, for a different company; they may have picked up ways of doing things that are at odds with the way you want to work. Eventually, this will adversely affect the ethos of your company, so if you want to avoid this, make sure you are offering your own training opportunities for employees.
According to corporate education provider, Lorman, “74% of workers are willing to learn new skills or re-train in order to remain employable” this, together with the fact that “87% of millennials believe learning and development in the workplace is important”, you have a huge amount of potential employees who are looking to learn new skills.
One such skill that is paramount for reaching and maintaining a global customer base is language training. If you want to build an international audience, you need to be able to communicate effectively with as many of your customers as possible. With your messaging reaching more people, this will, of course, have a positive effect on your revenue, but it will also mean that you are building your brand’s recognition and trust by showing that you’re for everyone. Your employees speaking and understanding additional languages will ensure that diversity and inclusion remain key focal points for your business.
Being able to speak another language not only upskills employees, but it also helps them to understand the wider market across different regions, allowing for more targeted marketing campaigns. Not to mention the fact that customer service teams will be able to better communicate with customers and problem solve their issues quicker, thereby providing a better customer experience.
Trust has been mentioned a lot but it’s an essential part of running a successful business, one that improves its revenue, especially with an international audience who aren’t able to visit your store in person. It may come as a surprise, but there are even design elements that can reduce trust and loyalty from some of your customers, so it’s important to know what they’re looking for and what’s important to them. In essence, make sure your information is easy to find and provides detailed product descriptions, this goes for pricing information too - this needs to be transparent and clear. Make sure you also share your brand and customer satisfaction stories, preferably with proof that can be shared on social media.
Building trust benefits your brand but is essential for building your first-time shopper audience by encouraging them to buy with you, increasing your profit margins globally.
These programs can be a great way of boosting revenue by retaining the loyal buyers you have already attracted, as opposed to always spending time and money on trying to attract more.
The most popular and, therefore, effective loyalty programs focus on your customers and offer real value, highlighting how important you consider their custom to be. This doesn’t have to be large discounts, which may not be sustainable for a small business, as you can still add value by offering a way for people to build points, for example. The more they shop with you, the more they can save or you could offer them an additional service after so many purchases. This helps to encourage brand loyalty and repeat purchases from a base you’ve already worked hard to build up.
Directing focus to your particular customers will attract those who are motivated to buy and not just to browse. Using strategies such as these will help to improve net in-store revenues for the global market, taking your business to the next level.
Image source - Busuu