Make The Shopping Experience Your Ultimate Competitive Advantage
Competition is fierce and retailers are leaning heavily towards price discounts to capture their fair share of the market, believing that this is what the consumer wants and is looking for. It’s not what any business owner really wants to do, as it reduces profit even more. Since shoppers today are much more discriminating, the shopping experience becomes the alternative to discounts, yielding greater returns and more loyalty.
So, what exactly is this “shopping experience” all about and how is it accomplished? Of course, there are an infinite number of answers and approaches to this concept, but there are some guidelines to consider. The shopping experience is just as it sounds–how the consumer reacts to your presentation, how it feels, looks and satisfies the consumer’s need for information, entertainment and customer service. Ultimately, the better the experience is, it results in more sales, more repeat business, more customers shopping, looking and enjoying the experience that you’ve created. It supports higher prices and results in more profit and greater revenues. It is the difference between an upscale restaurant with live music and a corner diner.
Giving away samples is one way of creating a positive experience. Various forms of entertainment attract repeat business. Exceptionally well-informed salespeople who provide valuable information and support repeat business, works. Upscale decor and seating, comfortable dressing rooms, pleasant surroundings that are more than adequate, perhaps even luxurious, contribute to a positive shopping experience. Anything that gives the customer a positive experience makes them want to come back and shop again. Mostly because it is fun!!
A car dealership I visit has a huge repair business with a waiting room that verges on being an excellent restaurant and lounge. It’s all free and allows the customer to wait for their car and be totally comfortable. They have coffee, television, computers, Wi-Fi, pastries, sandwiches, videos and video games… frankly, it’s set up better than my living room and I do not mind waiting for my car. They are even open until midnight, allowing the convenience of after-work visits. I know of a motorcycle dealership with a few tracks that allow prospective purchasers the opportunity to try out a bike on various terrains. There’s also a furniture dealer with food and short skits every hour, perfect entertainment for husbands and kids! A golf shop which has installed the video equipment to record and then analyze a golfers swing, a great draw.
Make your business a destination location, a place where shoppers want to go. That is what the shopping experience offers, an attraction to entice customers to shop at your business that may have little to do with what they are actually shopping for, but one that upgrades their entire shopping experience. Figure out how to deliver this and reap the benefits.
