By Samantha Rosario
The primary goal of every supermarket is to maximize profits. To improve retail sales takes time and persistence. But, good planning and sticking to a sales strategy is only half of the work.
Studies show that customers tend to shop multiple retail supermarkets. Particularly in this digital age, consumer loyalty to just one store is dead. Yet even without that focused brand of customer loyalty, you still need to have loyal customers. Why? Loyal customers remain more profitable than non-loyal, even if they are harder to come by. This is why it is paramount to improve supermarket retail sales with proven strategies.
Let’s look at some steps that can help you increase retail sales and boost customer loyalty.
1. Advertising
Whether if it’s a flyer or catalog, always run several advertising campaigns at the same time. Ads should be clear and concise, and avoid putting too much focus on price or competition.
Key to any advertising campaign is the ability to track results. You need to compare and analyze campaign results in order to repeat similar campaigns or discard unfruitful tactics. Harness the power of digital marketing. It’s both cheap and very effective.
2. Loyalty Programs
A loyalty program may give a customer access to coupons, gifts, exclusive deals and discounts for frequent purchases.
Keep in mind that people love exclusivity. Loyalty programs let customers feel important and like they are a part of something special.
Loyalty programs like a membership card program, gift card or loyalty card can be a very effective way to boost sales. But in general, solutions that reward customer loyalty lead to customers rewarding you with more visits to the store.
3. Data Gathering and Analysis
Using loyalty cards or feedback forms, supermarkets can build a demographic profile of the customer which includes the number of purchases made, specific items purchased and amount spent on each purchase.
Understanding customer shopping habits will help you get a better grasp of who your customers are. It’s this information that will be most beneficial to you when making marketing decisions and developing promotional strategies.
With thorough data gathering and analysis, you can target campaigns or promotions to specific demographics – increasing your odds of success.
4. Technology
Supermarket chains have increasingly implemented different technology-based solutions to improve customer store experience. What’s the takeaway? You need to have a digital presence. To improve your customer experience, take advantage of technology that allows customer data collection. This will have a positive impact on sales performance.
Technological solutions can also improve employee satisfaction and productivity. You’ve probably heard the saying, “Happy wife, happy life.” The same concept applies to retail: Happy employees lead to happier customers. Think about how you can run innovative employee rewards programs that recognize achievement and work anniversaries.
Use technology to open up communication between employees and management with easy-to-use tools like FreeConferenceCall.com. This free service supports high-definition audio, screen sharing and video conferencing for up to 1,000 participants. You can invite employees to collaborate in deeper ways, build stronger teams and allow management to disseminate important information quickly and uniformly.
Other popular and effective innovative technology-driven solutions include:
- Touchscreen computer on the shopping cart
- Digital shelves
- Self-service checkouts
- Supermarket mobile applications
- Mobile scan and pay technology
5. Customer Experience and Service
These days, customer experience means more than the product itself! A great customer experience will be etched in the customer’s memory – bringing them back for more in the future.
Try instituting a customer service assistant to provide information and assistance, answer to problems, and resolve customer disputes. Sure, catalogs and brochures are informative and helpful; human help, however, is more appreciated and convincing.
6. Keep Up to Date
Recently, UK supermarkets have been criticized over misleading prices. Circulating incorrect or outdated information can confuse customers, having a negative effect on a store’s reputation. And, unfortunately, negative publicity isn’t easily repaired.
7. Supermarket Psychology
Our minds can be manipulated through a variety of tricks and tactics. The goal is to get people to stay in the store and buy more. You can boost sales by applying supermarket psychology and knowledge of human behavior.
Stores frequently rely on lightning and music, color and design, department location, path to purchase, eye-catching discounts and promotions and/or basket size to trigger certain actions and achieve persuasion.
8. Product Placement
Did you know there’s an entire scientific field dedicated to product placement?
Finding the right product placement requires many changes that take time to test and assess. So it’s important to implement several placement strategies at once. Endeavor to change product placement either on a monthly or quarterly basis.
Make sure to closely group related goods and/or products that go well together, such as beer and snacks.
9. Promotional Pricing
The most efficient strategy is probably promotional pricing. Whether if it’s two for the price of one, limited time scale price or cash rebate, always give the promotional pricing strategy a try.
I mean, everyone loves a good deal, right?
10. Plan Ahead and Track Results
The final step is the most important. Plan, track results, and make an effort to include store employees and managers. They have first-hand insight.
Track results daily, weekly, monthly or by campaign. Evaluate results and make conclusions. Then present results to your team and discuss changes you need to make.
We’ve reviewed 10 ways to improve retail sales at your supermarket, and hopefully you will find these techniques useful! If you have a different approach that wasn’t discussed, please share in the comments!
For any questions regarding using free conferencing and collaboration technology to communicate with your supermarket staff, reach out to our award-winning Customer Care team at (844) 844-1322 or visit our Support Center.
