Mizzi Kurt Marketing

You’re a shop owner. You know marketing works. You want to make the most out of it… BUT you don’t know from where to start. Does this sound familiar? Then perhaps you might want to continue reading Kurt Mizzi’s take on marketing tips and good practice for retail shops.

Know the Trends

In the retail industry, it is crucial to understand what buyers want. It is also important to know what is presently trending and keep up with what’s popular. Read retail publications, network with other retail shop owners and get involved in your industry, locally and internationally. Ultimately, such tips will help you understand which products sell more because they are currently popular or will be a future trend.

Make shopping an experience

Make sure your retail shop is always nicely designed to current trends. Customers are more likely to visit retail shops because they are attracted to the brand image. Any retail shop has to be well-organised with products neatly placed and obviously having helpful friendly staff to assist any shop visitors.

Loyalty Programs

Reward your customers and encourage them to shop again from your shop. A retail shop can introduce loyalty programs and schemes by giving points per purchase or free products when spending more than certain amounts. Who doesn’t like free stuff?

The Perfect Mix: In-store and online

In today’s world, many retail shops are shifting to e-commerce to reach more customers. Having an e-commerce website, retail shops can attract new clients in more cost-effective ways. Although setting a ecommerce website may not be cheap, the benefits and advantages are countless with some listed below:

• Open 24/7

• Grows with you

• No rent

• No staff required

• More reach

• Use of digital marketing which is cheaper

It is also important to have in-store offers that are also reflected in your e-commerce website, using centralised POS solutions such as LS Retail, to track real-time sales and inventory, wherever your shop is.

Use Social Media Wisely

We are still living in the social media era. Not only social media platforms are free to use but also a great way to communicate and reach your target audience. But it is not as easy as it may sound… social media is a beast. It is very important to understand the different ways to approach the right audience.

Use Instagram to post pictures that best describe the purpose of your retail shop. If you have a restaurant, post nice professional pictures of your plates and the restaurant, always tag the place, and use the right hashtags which maximise organic impressions. Creating content is not an easy and cheap task, and not always adequate for all social media platforms. Thus, it is important to understand where your audience is, to create content with the correct required dimensions.

Effective social media marketing will enhance your online presence, help develop a relationship with your audience and reach your overall objectives.

Customer Feedback is under-rated

There is always room for improvement. Customer feedback is often ignored or sometimes interpreted as comments to harm the reputation of the shop. Always listen to feedback and react. Communicating with your customers to seek feedback will not only improve your products and services as a retail shop, but also lead to better customer experience, more sales and a better image for your business in the long run.