Day: November 1, 2019

Learn how to increase footfall in your retail store

Posted on by shopkick

Learn how to increase footfall in your retail store

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Of all the challenges currently facing the retail industry, declining foot traffic seemed to be the first that emerged. Therefore, it’s one of the first challenges brands seek to overcome. Increased foot traffic leads to more repeat visits, higher customer satisfaction rates, and, most importantly, increased sales. 

The good news is, traffic numbers in CPG and other retail stores haven’t been falling as consistently as popular media sites report. Research shows that U.S. foot traffic actually maintained steady growth in the months since Q4 2017, and has only recently started to turn back down from its highest peak. 

This trend is clearly variable—which indicates that if you can figure out how to increase footfall in your retail store, you have the potential to make a big impact. The following strategies will help your brand to attract, retain, and grow the number of in-person visitors to your stores so you can experience all of the associated benefits.  

Invest in Location-Based Marketing 

Geofencing, personalized store greetings, and other location-based marketing strategies help retailers and brands harness the immense power of mobile location services. Location-based marketing technology draws customers into store locations and incentivizes them while they’re there—assuming you can overcome the big opt-in challenge.

Utilizing All of the Available Tools

According to a recent report, 84% of companies use location-based marketing to target ads or promotions, and 94% plan to do so in the future. To get the most bang for your buck, make sure you’re balancing your efforts between all the potential strategies available—including geofencing, geotargeting, and geoconquesting—and utilizing tools across all available channels.  

Seeing the Power of Greetings

Walmart may be phasing out its staff of blue-vested greeters, but that doesn’t mean at-the-door greetings aren’t valuable. Location-based marketing takes that concept into the future by sending shoppers personalized greetings when they enter retail stores. Customers get a personalized marketing experience, and brands get their products top-of-mind.

Getting Customers to Opt-In

The biggest challenge of location-based marketing is getting customers to turn on their notifications. Proximity messaging only reaches customers who opt-in, and a significant number of people restrict all notifications on principle. Shopkick offers one innovative solution—as a third party rewards app that offers rewards for store visits, we reward shoppers for opting in, in the ways that matter most to them.

Try Buy Online Pick Up In-Store

This strategy strikes the perfect balance between online convenience and in-person immediacy. Buy-online-pickup-in-store strategies are so effective, 68% of surveyed consumers say they made multiple such purchases in the past year.

BOPIS strategies tend to increase store-wide revenue beyond the value of the original online orders. That’s because 85% of surveyed customers make additional in-store purchases when picking up their online orders. To maximize your success with buy-online-pickup-in-store, consider the following best practices: 

  • Situate your BOPIS station at the front of the store. Customers are already going to make additional purchases while they’re inside—so don’t make it harder for them! Keep all of your BOPIS activity close to the door and minimize queuing to create a smoother customer experience. 
  • Optimize logistics for faster pick-up speeds. Work to streamline your notification system so customers are notified that their purchase is ready within three hours or less. And ensure that their orders are ready when you say they’re ready. The faster your pick-up speed, the greater your sales revenue.
  • Incentivize customers with future deals. BOPIS hasn’t yet reached full saturation in the marketplace, and certain customers may require a bit of coaxing to give the system a try. Forty-six percent said they’d be more likely to use BOPIS if they were offered future deals as a bonus.

Offer Rewards—Not Flash Sales

Markdowns may entice customers to get in the door, but they also eat heavily into profit margins. Certain rewards programs and apps offer customers even more satisfying rewards that actually have a positive impact on your bottom line.

The truth is, well-designed customer loyalty programs (and apps) have the potential to drive sales more than any other channel. Why? Because they encourage the most loyal, bought-in, bottom-of-the-funnel customers to visit your store more often and give you even more of their time. An app like Shopkick can help you educate customers about new products, greet them when they enter store locations, get them to interact with your products in the aisles, and reward them for their immediate and repeat purchases. Here’s how that process played out for the following brands: 

Kraft

Leading up to the holiday season, Kraft partnered with Shopkick to inspire consumers with in-app recipes and winter-themed content. This drove customers to Walmart stores. They were rewarded for physically interacting with the products and purchasing all three of the featured baking items. This campaign raked in 18M+ impressions and increased sales from 55% unplanned purchases.

Purina

Purina used Shopkick to deliver aspirational ad content to app users. Using proximity messaging and branded greetings, Shopkick reminded users of the product as they got closer to the store. With small incentives, Purina managed to stay top-of-mind during habitual shopping trips and inspired shoppers to try their new product—with 85% of shoppers indicating that their choice was motivated by Shopkick.

Rimmel London

Targeted ads in the Shopkick app helped paint Rimmel London as a top beauty brand to their most valuable customers. Proximity messaging reminded shoppers of their product line and incentivized customers to see past the clutter of the cosmetics aisle and choose Rimmel London for their next purchase. Thirty-eight percent of those shoppers had never used Rimmel London products before. 

Once you figure out how to increase footfall in your retail store, you’ll tap into all of the benefits explored above. For instance, a recent report found that 71% of in-store shoppers spent $50 or more, compared to only 54% of online shoppers. It’s clear that something about the in-person shopping experience drives more revenue per visit than other channels—and by investing in location-based marketing, BOPIS, and customer rewards strategies, you can make sure those traffic numbers keep climbing. 
Shopkick is the most innovative retail rewards app on the market. Through location-based strategies and powerful rewards, we help our partners increase foot traffic and drive sales. Contact us to learn more about what a partnership with Shopkick can do for your brand.