Can we use subliminal gestures in our business to make more sales? To remain competitive, companies need to use all of the tricks in the book. And nowhere is this truer than in the case of retail stores.
Retail stores face severe competition, both from other stores and the growing online market. It’s vital, therefore, that they understand how to convert every customer that walks through their doors.
While pricing is important, research suggests that the subliminal gestures that you send your customers are even more critical. But how exactly do you influence your customers on a fundamental level? What precisely should you be doing?
Let’s take a look.
Include A Free Gift With Every Purchase
For a long time, retailers have included gifts with their purchases, but why?
The main reason has to do with the notion of “reciprocity.”
Reciprocity is a powerful force in human civilization. When somebody does something for us, we feel obliged to do something for them in return. It’s why we trade with each other in the first place, exchanging goods and services for money.
Retailers, however, can tap into this fundamental human trait as a customer buys a product. Instead of just exchanging the good for money, many stores now include some kind of freebie with each purchase.
It’s important to note that the gift doesn’t have to be expensive. What matters most is that you give it free of charge. The offering helps to generate a sense of obligation and loyalty in the customer, encouraging them to choose your store over your competitors in the future.
What could a free gift be? Try including samples of products that the customer might want to buy in the future, or gift cards encouraging them to return to your store and spend.
Funnel Customers Towards High-Value Items
Image by Free-Photos from Pixabay
If left to their own devices, most customers wind up buying low-margin products that don’t really add a great deal to your bottom line. That’s why many companies attempt to funnel customers towards their high-margin items physically, leaving other options a little less conspicuous.
Many firms, for instance, buy stanchions and railings to guide customers to specific displays or areas of the store. While customers can eventually explore all items, it’s a way of ensuring that they pass-by the most lucrative first, increasing the opportunities for an impulse purchase.
If you have a lot of products in your store, you can also try placing your most profitable items at head height. Putting them about five and a half feet off the ground makes it much more likely that customers will select those items, instead of the bargain basement products above and below.
Be More Relatable
It’s easy for a retail store to slip into the traditions of the past. After all, these worked wonders for many of the largest brick-and-mortar retailers in the world.
But the world of the 2020s is likely to be a very different place from that of the 1990s. Today, peoples’ tastes and ethics have morphed considerably, and it’s unlikely that the same marketing tactics will work.
If you operate a clothing store, it’s more important than ever to use relatable models. People want to see manakins and models who look like them wearing your clothing. It’s why we’ve seen an explosion in plus-size fashion in recent years. People want to feel confident and look good in clothing, no matter what their size and the new plus-size movement is making this possible.
The more you can show your customers that you’re just like them, the more that they’ll trust you and, hopefully, spend in your store.
Be More Authoritative
People are naturally attracted to those who appear authoritative. For the majority of individuals, certainty is an attractive feature. It gives them a sense that the company understands what is good and what is bad – at least in terms of products.
Many artisanal businesses take this approach. They portray themselves as expert craftsmen, diligently churning out products of the highest quality, owing to their expertise.
You can take a similar tack too. Just showing customers why you’re the best at what you do can be enough to convince them that there’s actually no point going anywhere else. Savvy companies, therefore, include stories about their methods and expertise and expose them to their customers whenever they possibly can.
Finally, while telling your customers that your expertise can help, social proof is by far the most influential factor. Social proof is where your customers tell each other about the quality of your products. Thus, you can use advertising like “best sellers” to inform your customers about the products that are popular among their peers.
- This post has been written by an outside source – See Disclosure Policy
