Retail & VM

There are many ways to attract new retail customers. Whether you are a high street retailer or a destination retailer, there are a few simple things you can do to help you attract new customers. These 3 quick-read tips are designed to be applicable to a range of different retail types.

Our peg letter board beauties are taking the world by storm. Shops, cinemas, cafes, bars & restaurants are all falling in love, and so are their customers.

Here are 10 quick fire reasons why retailers and business owners are falling in love with letter boards:

1. No Artistic Skills Required

The days of having to re-write your chalkboard are gone. No more smudging of chalk, or powdery clothes; pick the letters you want and pop them in. No fine artistry is required when these bad boys are on the scene.

2. Those Retro Feels

Retailers and business owners are drawn to these letter boards because they make adding some extra style to your space absolutely effortless. In addition, they attract a lot of customer attention.

3. Perfectionist Friendly

It’s the end! We are always reading that high street shops dying and that only online stores can survive. There is no doubt that online stores have had a huge impact on brick and mortar, and that they have forever changed the retail landscape. But it isn’t all doom and gloom and there is no need for retailers to run to the hills. Times are not as dark as our sensationalised media friends sometimes like to portray. For example, TimeTrade found that 85% of consumers prefer physical stores to online shopping. Customers like to feel and see what they are buying. Particularly if it’s something exciting and they want it now.

It is undeniable that the high street landscape has changed. During the recession, retail took a huge hit and many units were abandoned. The high street began to look quite barren and caused a lot of professionals some concern. But, the rise in the number of empty units created a fantastic opportunity for pop up shops. Before long pop up stores began to fill the empty units and helped to breathe life back into empty units. They have created an exciting and interesting shopping environment for customers again.

Shop design can make the difference between a great sales day and a bad sales day. A shop design that is going to drive your sales requires planning, maintenance and an understanding of your customers’ pains and desires. At the end of the day, your customers are your target and if they aren’t falling in love with your store and purchasing, there is a problem.

Here are 3 quick-read tips to help you optimise your shop design:

Stores are changing and adapting to new consumer expectations. They’re being propelled by the internet of all things towards an era where the customer’s power is greater than that of the brand. Customers are choosing their stores according to their experience and the product is becoming less relevant. To add to this,consumers now view products an average of 8 times before making a purchase.The internet of all things brings some shiny, brilliant, scary and daunting prospects.

What does this mean for the highstreet? Millenials have a short attention span and little patience. Gone are the days where shoppers were forced to find items on the high-street. Now retailers are haunted by the phrase “I’ll just look online”.

What do we do about this? We invent.

Visual merchandising is often called “the silent salesperson”, it is the subliminal factor that increases store traffic and sales (Mathew). The current retail environment is making it progressively more important for retailers to establish how their visual merchandising is being perceived by customers. If it strikes the wrong note, it can detract from the store and leave customers feeling overwhelmed or severely irritated (Cant & Hefer).
The Display Centre have composed 5 tips to help keep your consumers engaged and increase your sales:

You may not have heard of the new kid on the block, experiential marketing. The advent of the internet has brought with it increased consumer power. Customers are no longer vessels on which brands can push continuous messages. They’re now part of the conversation. Consumers expect to be a part of the brand, they expect to be engaged emotionally and more than anything they need you to love them back. If your store isn’t including your customers in the experience and feel of your store, you’re seriously missing a trick. This is where a few leaves from the experiential marketers’ book can help you.