We all know that a good way to improve and expand your business is to treat loyal customers with respect, and gather new customers with excitement. Yet the truth is that this is just one way of ensuring you’re bringing in the revenue. Often, another worthwhile metric is to raise the spend-per-head of each customer that visits your building.
For some, this might mean doing what you can to convince a hesitant customer to complete the sales funnel, and we can consider every step along the way regarding how this might be achieved. For others, it means ensuring that combination deals, promotions, and displays can be developed in order to make purchasing many items seem like the natural thing to do.
For instance, think of Uber Eat’s recent promotion which allows restaurants to offer two for one deals on select items. This might seem as though it’s losing these restaurants money, but they know that if you opt for a 2 4 1 pizza deal, you’re more likely to share that food with someone, and order accessories and drinks to go with it. As you can see, forecasting and prediction can be a great idea.
In this post, we’ll discuss how to achieve exactly that:
Proper, Worthwhile Displays
It’s good to consider worthwhile displays that may be of value to how you store items and retain their freshness. For instance, refrigeration cases can be a fantastic means of providing proper storage with easy handling, easy replacement, and easy stock rotation. Everything here can be carefully placed in accordance with grouped items, listed together coherently, so that a customer can easily identify what it is they want.
It may seem as though a good trick for store owners is to make whatever the most popular items are harder to find, so that a customer has to root through other items to find what they want to purchase, potentially putting more in their basket. This only increases frustration however, and it’s hardly easy to convince someone to spend more when they’re irritated.
Furthermore, these kinds of displays are easy to clean and keep proper control of, allowing all of your goods to be as fresh and presentable as possible. Investments of this nature can help you sustain your store design more easily, as they are designed to take up space in a legible manner, be that against the walls or standing within the middle of two aisles.
How does this increase spend per head? Well, when you ensure that your products are as well-placed and organized as possible, it means that it’s easy to see what other items are on display. It helps them look nicer, and for prices to be more clearly listed. In other words, you’re removing any barrier that a customer might have against purchasing goods or adding more to their basket on the way around.
Promotions & Deals
Of course, promotions and deals are always worth considering ahead of time, because without them, it might be that a good portion of your customer base will move to other businesses willing to offer them.
Two for one deals, percentage discount deals, or more recently ‘bundles’ have worked in the past. A ‘bundle’ might be a worthwhile grouping of select goods that work for a given event or holiday. For instance, offering a bundle discount on flowers and greetings cards for mother’s day can convince someone to come into your store and purchase with you instead of another. Or, if a huge sports game is about to be broadcast, perhaps a beer, pizza, nachos and dips deal can be put together and sold more quickly and easily.
Of course, you might not run a convenience store, supermarket or gifts store, but this principle can be applied to many other retail environments also. If you sell CBD products, for instance, then perhaps a ‘first time CBD user’ deal can be a great way of onboarding someone into your business and what you sell, at a promotional price that helps them feel as though they’ve been treated with respect. Ironically enough, the less that customers feel you’re trying to swindle them out of more money, the more money they’re likely to spend.
Displaying Like Items Together
Again, convenience is the name of the game here. You may find benefit in displaying like items together. If you run a clothing store, then placing the winter accessories such as scarves and gloves next to the winter coat section could help someone realize that they need to purchase new versions of these, too.
This can go right down to the other products you sell. Skincare products might be next to the medicines you sell for the bathroom cabinet of the customer you’re selling to. You get the principle.
Worthwhile Signposting
Some store owners believe that never signposting your aisles or areas will mean that your customers have to walk around in order to find what they want, and in the process, will be able to put more in their basket that they may not have walked in intending to buy.
In some cases, if your store is pretty small, this might be a totally acceptable option. But if you offer a mid to large-sized store, then it might be that just making the signposts more convenient is worthwhile. This can help avoid taking up the time of your retail staff who will no doubt be asked for directions, as well as lessening the frustrations felt.
After all, if you think about it, when more customers are able to find what they want, foot traffic is lowered, which means more customers can come in. Sure, this might not increase the spend per head, but it does mean that customers are more likely to return to your store knowing they can access what they want without huge queues or annoyances. Over time, the number of times they visit your store repeatedly could encourage them to broaden their horizons, particularly in line with the promotions and developments you’re offering. It’s worth thinking about.
Checkout Displays
A nice display near the checkout can be a good way for someone to pick up a few extras, even if they’re only worth a small amount of extra profit, it all adds up. Something as simple as offering lighters or chewing gum can work. Of course, this will depend on the kind of store you run. Selling cigarettes in a boutique fashion store is probably not the best idea.
In some cases, it might just be that housing a small charity donation box at your checkout can work, too. In a roundabout manner, this can help a customer get used to the idea of spending a little more in your store, but then again, charity is its own reward, and the fact that you increased spend per head in a contributing manner is also an achievement.
Outdoor Promotional Material
Offering promotions outside of your retail store can encourage walk-ins that you may not have achieved beforehand. Perhaps you’d rather not lose your dignity by hiring someone to stand outside in a hot dog costume spinning an comical arrow banner, but a nice freestanding sign, or window displays can work.
Just make sure these look presentable and that they work with the overall aesthetic of your front store. A nicely trimmed poster can work wonders. Of course, for restaurants, having a perfectly printed and legible menu on the outside can tempt some people in. If you run a salon, then listing your prices in an accessible manner can encourage walk-ins, as well as preventing the awkwardness that comes with quoting a price to a customer who may not have been prepared to pay it.
An Online Component
It’s important to recognize just how much online life dictates our awareness of our local environment and the businesses on offer. Updating your social media with the latest deals and new inventory you have can encourage customers to come in during the day and check out that which they may not have made time for otherwise. You can certainly call encouraging new customers to buy something from you ‘an increased spend per head,’ because before that, this figure was a straight ‘zero.’
Coupons & Vouchers
Redeemable coupons and vouchers can also work wonders in bringing people in through the door. If they save on one items, what’s to stop them from picking up another to gain more for their money, or purchasing another item to make use of the savings they’ll receive at checkout? All of this can work wonders.
Retail Workers
Finally, it’s important to remember that retail workers, given the freedom to make sales, may be able to convince your customers in an upselling capacity, pointing them to brands or products that may be a little more expensive but provide better values to those coming into your store. Couple this with a worthwhile commission scheme may have a positive effect too.
With this advice, you’re sure to increase spend per head within your retail store, in the best possible context.