Operating a successful retail store will always require great products and friendly service — it’s what customers expect and keeps them coming back. But today, it also requires strategic planning, innovative thinking, and a willingness to roll with the punches of ever-changing consumer behaviors.
If you own or run a convenience store, discount store, supermarket, or other retail business, success hinges on your ability to grow your customer base while getting existing customers to return again and again. Strategies like hosting an ecoATM can help you reach your target market in different ways, attracting new customers who can fuel retail growth.
It can be difficult for business owners and operators to identify exactly which strategies and methods will help their store attract more customers, especially when some of those methods require major investments, like opening new locations. That said, there are also ways to increase your market share without a ton of heavy lifting. Let’s review some of the best methods to grow your retail business and determine which ones fit your current business model.
Understanding Today’s Retail Landscape and Modern Market Development
The rise of e-commerce has driven the evolution of consumer expectations and purchasing trends. Today’s retail landscape forces businesses to rethink how they attract new customers and retain current ones. Modern consumers value efficiency, convenience, and sustainability above all else, and they also often want personalized experiences and helpful customer support.
If you want to grow and expand your retail business, you need to evolve your strategies to meet these shifting demands. One way to do this is by combining the advantages of in-person shopping with digital solutions, providing multiple valuable services to open up additional revenue streams for your business.
Prioritize the In-Store Customer Experience
When shoppers feel valued and heard, they’re more likely to return to a business and tell their friends about their positive retail experience. Think about integrating these strategies to boost your company’s customer experience:
- Personalized Marketing Campaigns: Use loyalty programs and customer relationship management (CRM) software to keep track of your customer data and preferences. You can also use this information to set up targeted promotions, showing your customers that you understand their needs and are ready to satisfy those requirements.
- Store Layout: How you organize and arrange the products in your retail store can mean the difference between a successful business and one that needs to close up shop. Design an intuitive store layout with easy-to-read signs, transparent pricing, and simple navigation from aisle to aisle. The less your customers have to ask where to find certain items, the better!
- In-Store Amenities: Increasing the length of time customers spend in your store is a tried and true method for boosting profits. One way to do this is by providing amenities like charging stations, free internet access, and comfortable seating. This gives people somewhere to take a quick break during a long shopping trip, or a place for family members to wait while their loved ones shop.
- Touch-Free Payments and Self-Service Kiosks: Make the shopping experience as seamless as you can by offering modern, tech-savvy options at the checkout. However, make sure you don’t veer too far into the “self-checkouts only” territory, as there are still plenty of shoppers who strongly prefer a checkout stand staffed by a knowledgeable employee. This is especially true for older shoppers who may not care about the efficiency gains of self-service options.
Too many retail stores overlook these customer experience elements, but embracing them can drive increased retention rates for your existing customers, more referrals, and larger average purchase amounts at your checkout stands.
Use Digital Marketing Strategies to Generate Foot Traffic and Market Penetration
At the end of the day, if you want more customers, you need to make sure they know about your business. There are plenty of locally targeted digital marketing strategies that can help potential customers find your retail store and foster customer loyalty among your current base.
Local Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Every business owner is aware of SEO to some degree, but some don’t recognize how helpful local SEO can be. To leverage local SEO, keep your Google Business Profile updated with your current address, phone number, and hours of operation. You’ll also want to include high-quality photos of your store, both exterior and interior.
Also, make sure to read and respond to your online customer feedback. This feedback can both help you improve your operations and address any negative reviews before they gain too much traction. Finally, using key phrases that include your location, such as “supermarket in Cincinnati” or “electronics retailer in San Diego,” can help your business reach local customers.
Social Media
Leveraging social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok can help you showcase your business to potential new customers. You can use these platforms for things like…
- Advertising new products and services
- Spreading the word about upcoming sales and promos
- Sharing positive customer testimonials
- Discussing your store’s corporate social responsibility efforts and community involvement
Consumers often flock to businesses that they feel represent them and their local community. Posting on social media about the networking events, promotional opportunities, and pop-up store locations you’re bringing to their city can help you gain and retain customers.
Email Marketing Campaigns
Email marketing might not be the most exciting option, but it still works! And it’s also an inexpensive marketing technique. Build an email list of existing shoppers to send out personalized deals, event invitations, and loyalty rewards based on previous consumer purchases. It can also help to track clicks and conversions from your emails — keep pursuing the promotions that are working and quietly retire the ones that aren’t.
Paid Online Advertisements
Search engines, social media platforms, and more offer localized pay-per-click advertising options that connect your retail business’s advertisements with the people who are most likely to purchase your products or services. This can be an effective method for boosting traffic in your physical store and encouraging customers to make more purchases online.
Add Passive, Cross-Selling Revenue Streams
It can be all too easy to overlook passive growth strategies that diversify product offerings and encourage repeat business, such as hosting an ecoATM kiosk in your brick-and-mortar retail business. Adding an ecoATM kiosk to your store can help you profit in different sales channels than the ones you usually directly target. For instance, if someone visits your store to sell their old smartphone to ecoATM, they’re likely to use the instant cash from that transaction on purchases in your retail business.
What Is an ecoATM Kiosk?
ecoATM’s automated, self-service kiosks allow consumers to recycle their used smartphones, tablets, and MP3 players, exchanging them for instant cash payments. We fully manage and maintain our kiosks, so there’s no operational burden for your sales associates when you host an ecoATM kiosk in your retail business.
Benefits of ecoATM Hosting for Your Business
There are quite a few advantages for retail businesses hosting ecoATM kiosks, starting with increased foot traffic. Consider this: To date, ecoATM has already recycled over 50 million smartphones and tablets. That’s a lot of visits to our kiosks! In addition, we average 40,000+ customer interactions at our kiosks every day. It’s not hard to see how your business could experience retail growth when potential new customers enter your store every day to use our kiosk.
In addition, ecoATM pays you to host our kiosk. That’s right, even if no one ever uses the ecoATM kiosk in your store, you’ll still make money on hosting it. And, given the statistics we shared above, it’s pretty clear that people will use the kiosk. When they do, they’re overwhelmingly likely to spend the money they get from us right there in your store! The average payout at an ecoATM kiosk is $50, and 70% of our customers spend money from our kiosks in the same store.
It’s also important to consider how an ecoATM kiosk in your retail location can boost your company’s sustainability credentials. ecoATM is a well-known industry leader in the consumer electronics refurbishment industry. When customers see our kiosk in your store, they identify your business as an eco-conscious company that supports important recycling measures. This can help you attract tech-savvy, environmentally friendly customers you might not otherwise reach.
Embrace a Hybrid Retail Business Model to Reach New Markets
Today’s shoppers often don’t bother distinguishing between online and offline businesses — they expect the same, seamless experience no matter how they interact with your retail operation. This means that implementing a holistic approach to your business can help you increase sales and build customer loyalty. Here are a few tips to get started:
- Provide the option for customers to pick up their online orders in your brick-and-mortar store.
- Offer home delivery capabilities for your products, both offline and online.
- Track inventory levels in one synced format, so you and your customers both know exactly what’s in stock at all times, whether online or in-store.
- Use scannable codes in your store that direct customers to related online purchases.
- Provide a seamless customer support experience via multiple channels (web-based chat, social media, email, phone, etc.).
These “omnichannel” strategies can boost customer retention levels and help you reach your sales targets.
Use Actionable Data Insights to Retain Existing Customers and Attract New Ones
In the retail world, reliable data is as good as gold. The more detailed information you have about your customer base and sales channels, the more informed decisions you can make to grow your business.
If you aren’t already, you should absolutely be tracking all of these key metrics:
- Sales per square foot
- Inventory turnover rate
- Customer-specific statistics (who’s buying what?)
- Conversion rates (offline and online)
- Average transaction value
By tracking and utilizing data from every part of a customer’s journey, you can better tailor your marketing efforts to target profitable sales opportunities. Analyze your metrics frequently and adapt quickly — the world of retail waits for no one!
Grow Smarter, Not Just Bigger or Faster
Growing your company’s retail sales isn’t just about increasing your inventory or hiring more employees. Sustainable business growth is all about doing more with what you have, which means smarter strategies, stronger partnerships, and better data to gain insights and drive consistent success.
Whether you operate a relatively small business with a handful of retail locations or a corporate franchise with a few dozen stores in your portfolio, hosting an ecoATM kiosk in your store is a low-effort, high-upside decision. When you host an ecoATM, you can generate passive income, support eco-friendly business practices, and drive increased foot traffic to your store without making a big investment or upending your entire operations. Keep in mind that ecoATM handles all possible steps required for kiosk installation and maintenance. It truly could not be easier to host a kiosk, and the potential benefits to your business speak for themselves. For more information about hosting an ecoATM kiosk at your national retailer, discount store, grocery chain, convenience store, money center, mall, or wireless store, reach out to one of our expert team members today.
