How to improve sales in retail stores [10 tips]

A busy retail store with a bustling crowd shopping for items with excitement, staff overwhelmed with the demand, and cash counters overflowing with cash: This is the dream of every retailer, as they push to increase revenue and maintain good business. Their minds are constantly occupied with the question, How can I boost sales in my retail store? While the dream is commonly shared, how you turn this dream into a reality is what differentiates and advances your business growth compared to other retailers.

It is not enough to open your doors and wait for customers to walk in simply because that is what your competitors do. You have to influence customers to make a purchase from your store and get them to come back repeatedly. This blog delves into a few effective strategies on how to increase retail sales and thrive in the competitive world of retail.

Table of contents

• Common challenges to increase retail sales
• 10 ways to increase sales in retail store
• How Gofrugal can boost retail sales?

Common challenges to increase retail sales

Evolving technological advancements

A new technology is introduced quickly, even before the last one could be fully adopted. You need to be up to date on technology and implement smart solutions to remain active in the competitive retail race.

Changing consumer demand

The needs of customers keep changing and are difficult to predict. They have a lot of choices and have become more demanding because of that. You have to be able to identify varying trends and stock the required items at the right time to improve sales and keep up with demands.

Lack of transparency in the process

Unrecorded purchases and inventory result in last minute stockouts, leading to a loss of sales. It also leaves room for easy pilferage, which is difficult to detect. For recorded transactions, business data inaccessible to the right person at the right time complicates business decisions.

Supply chain disruptions

Retailers can't ensure on-time stock availability if deliveries are delayed or cancelled due to supplier unavailability, strikes by trade or transport unions, extended holidays, emergencies, or other outside circumstances.

Lesser brand visibility

A retail store, although popular, being limited to a small perimeter is a sign of worry for its sales not being able to increase. With today's entire business come into size of a hand, you should make your store popular not only in your region but also in the maximum possible distance till which you can service your customers, in order to take advantage over your competitors.

10 ways to increase sales in retail store

Tip 1: Pay attention to the store environment

Create an inviting store atmosphere with bright lighting, soothing music, warm colors, and a pleasant scent that makes the shopping journey memorable for your customers.

Craft an appealing store environment with creative visual merchandising, eye-catching window displays, captivating signage, and organized product placements to attract customers and increase retail sales.

Tip 2: Focus on your store layout

Ensure clear signage on racks, group similar items together, and have wide aisles for customers to navigate and pick up items easily. Design racks with minimum height and wider length, so items can be arranged at arm's reach.

Influence customers to make impulse buys even when they are waiting on the queue by placing attractive and low-priced items near the billing counters. Place popular top-selling items in a visible area and items that attract children on bottom shelves so they are at their eye level.

Tip 3: Understand customer preferences

Hear what customers say attentively, resonate with the mood in which they speak, and make them feel comfortable with polite and patient conversation. Provide them with a touch-and-feel experience before they purchase to build trust. Observe customers' movements, gather feedback, and work continuously to provide the best shopping experience.

Observe the movement of customers in the store, ask relevant questions to understand their needs, and recommend different products based on availability. Try to remember purchase history and provide personalized recommendations based on what they bought previously.

Tip 4: Provide offers, discounts, and loyalty

Provide offers, discounts, and gift vouchers to entice customers to purchase from your store. Offer surprise rewards or coupons to make customers excited to shop with you and provide referral incentives to encourage them to refer your store.

Retain loyal customers by issuing loyalty points as retaining customers is the most cost-effective way (source: Harvard Business Review) to increase sales with minimum spending on marketing. Bring back lost customers by sending personalized marketing messages, campaigns, and wishes.

Tip 5: Harness the power of social media

Leverage social media to promote key business happenings like offers, special deals, new product launches, and a new outlet opening. Post consistent, relevant, and persuasive content with powerful calls to action to engage with the audience and build brand awareness. Create marketing about offers and business updates through email, WhatsApp, SMS, and social media.

Run targeted ads and campaigns based on region, interest, and behavior to increase sales and brand awareness. Try influencer marketing through an influencer with a good fan following to increase reach and add credibility. Conduct A/B testing, measure performances continuously, and adopt best practices that yield good results.

Tip 6: Offer a smooth buying process

Enable customers to complete their shopping easily with self-checkout aisles and mobile POS without the need to stand in queues for billing and purchase returns. It also allows you to complete transactions faster and focus on other customers to increase retail sales. Provide a simple buying, returns, and exchange process with clear signage of counters.

Provide flexible payment methods with various choices such as cash, credit and debit cards, UPI, and digital wallets. Have QR codes pasted across multiple places for product catalogs and making payments. Arrange amenities like sufficient seating arrangements, charging sockets, and free lockers so customers can confidently stay in your shop for longer and make more purchases.

Tip 7: Expand your business online

Build online ecommerce sites for your store with product catalogs, relevant descriptions, real-time inventory, actionable calls to action, multiple payment options, and delivery options to enable customers to shop with you anywhere and anytime. Provide the least possible fields before checkout with auto-fill and guest shopping capabilities.

Ensure your site is optimized for mobile and tab responsive with a quick loading time for a hassle-free shopping experience. Design a visually appealing website for your business with SEO content and easy to navigate menus and  tabs. Add an About page or section, current business hours, customer reviews, contact details, photos, directions to the store, and your shipping and return policies.

Tip 8: Manage your inventory properly

Ensure efficient inventory control with regular stock audits and restricting negative inventory. Analyze sale patterns, plan your purchases in advance, and refill the racks promptly to ensure in-demand products are available.

Prioritize top-selling items or item variants and keep them well stocked to increase retail sales. Move out slow and non-moving products by selling them in offers, discounts, as mystery gifts, or strategic product bundling.

Tip 9: Provide adequate employee training

Retail businesses that invest in employee training are 57% more effective (source: eduMe) than their competitors. Train your staff and enable them to take up their roles quickly. Facilitate training to staff on counters to quickly and easily handle hardware and software so they can complete processes without keeping the customers waiting.

Sales staff should be trained enough to communicate product benefits, recommend products, upsell, and cross sell products. Train them on soft skills to be neatly dressed, wear a friendly smile, patiently listen, be polite, and make engaging conversations with customers. Employ experienced sales representatives in busy counters during peak hours to increase retail sales.

Tip 10: Ensure hassle-free deliveries and returns

Always be attentive in the store, attend customer inquiries, and engage with customers if you feel they are looking for help. Arrange for quick home delivery to customers with your staff or partnering with logistics partners. If the bill value is large, arrange free home delivery.

If delivery is not viable, offer convenient curbside pickup to provide some convenience to customers, reduce wait time, and reduce the cost of shipping. A transparent return or exchange policy with a smooth and flexible experience for customers can build customer trust and encourage customers to shop with you again.

How Gofrugal can boost retail sales?

Ensure reduced waiting times

Perform fast billing even during peak business hours and festive seasons with express checkout counters. Enjoy uninterrupted billing even during power outages with offline billing in GoBill. Enable customers to check the price before they purchase with GoCheck and encourage them to do self-checkout, reducing the waiting time in long queues.

Embrace omnichannel solutions

Create your own online ordering app and delivery management app so customers can place orders to your store from the comfort of their home. Expand your online business presence by integrating your store with ecommerce platforms and marketplaces. Transform the shopping experience by allowing flexible options for customers to make purchases, make payments, and receive deliveries.

Make business decisions from anywhere

Get instant access to your business data from anywhere with cloud-native applications. Analyze your business and make informed business decisions with real-time actionable smart reports. Find out about real-time business happenings from the palm of your hand and make informed business decisions with your pocket business assistant, WhatsNow.

Ensure complete inventory control

Raise accurate purchase orders with the AI-based autonomous reordering solution, The Eye. Do perpetual stock audits without closing the store with the stock-taking app. Ensure accurate material inwards and stock picking with mobile-based GRN and stock picking apps. Ensure racks are always filled with to-selling items with smart stock refill.

Attract and retain customers

Attract customers by sending customized offers from 75+ offer families and handle loyalty, and CRM such as gift vouchers and discount coupons to increase retail sales. Send personalized transactional messages, promotional messages, anniversary, and birthday greetings via WhatsApp or SMS through an integrated CRM.

With this information in your arsenal you have more information about how to grow sales in retail and elevate your business to the next level. Are you still dreaming of how to increase sales in a retail store? It is time for you to put these strategies into use in your business so your dream does not become a nightmare. Want more tips or a personalized consultation to increase your retail sales? Get in touch with our experts today!