Your customers are the lifeblood of your business. So, if you want to draw in customers and keep them coming back, you need to make sure your retail store is customer friendly. A customer-friendly retail store can help attract new customers and keep them coming back for more.
Here are 6 customer-friendly stores that will help you get started.
Know what products customers want
To start off, you must know what products your customers want to buy; otherwise, you won’t make it out of the starting block. This may seem like a rather simple, obvious statement, but it really is the most important thing you can know to make your store customer-friendly and successful. This is usually done through market research.
The products you choose should be based on what customers want, not what you think is a good seller. If a customer wants a product, but you don’t have it, they may just shop somewhere else next time. Let the customer decide what’s best for them.
Display your ‘best bets’ first
It’s obvious but often neglected. The front of your store is the most important space because it’s where 90% of your customers will be heading straight for. It’s also where they’ll make the decision to stay in the store or leave.
The average customer’s attention is fleeting – they have a very narrow window of focus, and if your product isn’t front and centre, you’ll lose them. Communicate a better value proposition from the first moment and display those products that are most likely to persuade customers to buy from you first.
Make it comfortable for shoppers
It’s important for a retail store to present a welcoming atmosphere. This is not only for your customers but also for their convenience.
Unlike an e-commerce website, if they are interested in a product, they can simply walk into your store, see the product, and place an order right away. However, if your store is too crowded or disorganised, you might miss their business.
So, make sure to keep the merchandise attractively displayed, base your store design around easy access to merchandise, make your front door easy to find, and use open space theory for open plan design
Keep the lighting bright
It is important to ensure enough lighting in the store. It should be bright enough for customers to view products in detail. The lighting should also be in sync with the time of day so that it can create the right mood when the store is busy. Choose shades and shades of light to best describe your product. Your retail store will look sophisticated when the lighting is done right.
Train your staff to be customer-friendly
The most important part of customer service is human interaction. The second most important part of customer service is training your staff to be customer-friendly. You may have the most convenient and fully automated retail store in the world, but if none of the staff members knows how to deal with customers, you can pretty much forget about attracting any people.
To make the shopping experience more enjoyable for your customers, you must first train your staff. The reason why many retail stores are facing empty shelves, slow service and low sales is that the employees are not well trained.
Make sure the store is well protected
When you’re running a shop, you need to make sure it’s well protected and that people are going to be safe shopping there. You also need to ensure that your products are safe and aren’t at risk of being stolen.
You can do this by purchasing comprehensive business insurance, including public liability insurance, to make sure that if something happens to a customer in your store, you’re well protected against a claim. You can’t be too careful about customer safety when it comes to your business.
Conclusion
Opening a retail store is an exciting prospect. You’ll get to make your own rules, set the tone for the business, and interact with customers every day. However, if your store isn’t customer-friendly, it will be really hard to keep your customers coming back. Follow these great tips to get started on turning your store into a place that’s easy to visit again and again.
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