The time has come for your jewellery business to start thinking big!
There’s no need to wait for a special anniversary or the start of a new year to revise your in-store strategy and implement new ideas to make your business stand out.
People don't always shop at your store just because they like what you sell; many stores sell the same products.
Customers don't always choose a store because they happen to like the owner, although that helps.
People tend to return to stores because of how they feel in a particular location, and more often than not, how they feel about a store involves the people who work there.
Keep customers returning for more with these non-stop traffic-building, profit-producing, attention-grabbing, sales-generating, competition-miffing, customer-winning strategies every retailer should embrace.
Windows that wow
Keep it simple when it comes to window displays. People need to be able to take in the message of your windows in eight seconds or less.
Choose a theme for your monthly window displays. Each month, there are many national and fun holidays to choose from.
You can also invent your own occasion! Carry that theme throughout the store.
Select a backdrop that makes the merchandise pop.
A vertical backdrop — a photo poster, hanging lights, or unfurled bolt of fabric — will draw the eye up and down as well as forward, allowing shoppers to see more of your window display.
Add your telephone number and web address in 10–14-inch white reflective vinyl letters at the centre bottom of your main windows. Potential customers can quickly contact you or check your website even when your store is closed.
Light your window displays at night. This is especially important if your store is in an area where people tend to walk and in areas populated with restaurants and bars.
You can’t buy what you can’t see; lighting entices people to return when your store opens.
Create an instant display with window graphics. Use photos you own or have permission to use blown up to fit your window space. Perforated window graphics showing vibrant photos on the outside while allowing you to see clearly out of the windows from the inside.
On the sales floor
Work your decompression zone. Remember, its job is to transition customers from whatever they were doing outside your store and refocus them on shopping.
People don’t start thinking about merchandise until they are at least 5-10 feet inside the door.
This means that the baskets, signs, and samples that fall within the decompression zone will be missed.
Place these items just beyond the decompression zone where shoppers are more likely to see them.
Pay attention to your first 10-second impression. Stand just inside the front door and look around. In the first 10 seconds inside your door, shoppers make value judgements about what they see.
View your sales floor from just inside the door each day, checking to ensure you are giving shoppers the impression you intended.
Check your sight line. While you are still at the front of your store, check its sight line — you want shoppers to be able to see into and through the sales floor.
Get rid of tall fixtures near the front that block products housed behind them.
Make more displays visible by placing shorter fixtures near the front and taller fixtures towards the rear of the store. Remember, the more a shopper sees, the more they will buy.
Place speed bump displays just beyond the decompression zone. These important displays are the customer's first impression of the store upon entering. Use small fixtures or stacking tables to group irresistible products.
Cross merchandise everywhere. Consider additional products you could add to a display to save customers time and increase sales.
Around the store, look for places to add J-hooks, clip strips, power panels, and other inexpensive fixtures to help you sell more.
Implement the Pyramid Principle in displays by placing a tall item in the centre of two smaller items.
This causes the eye to unconsciously seek the tallest item before scanning the smaller items and the rest of the display. The more they see, the more they buy!
Sign your displays. Most independent retail stores are undersigned, yet it’s a fact that displays that are signed outperform displays that are not by 20 per cent.
The message should be simple, indicating important features and price. Use both upper- and lower-case letters. Don’t use a font smaller than 30 points.
Customers who wear reading glasses should be able to read your signs without them easily.
In the next issue of Jeweller, the marketing overhaul continues with part two.
READ EMAG