New shopper traffic is vital to every retail business for if all you see is the same shoppers then necessary growth will not be achieved and growth is necessary with rent, wages and overheads increasing every year.
The big question is how to attract new shoppers?
There is no easy answer. In fact, it is hard work. It is also work that is not unique to our channel. All retailers have to do this work, every day.
In my own businesses, the question we ask every day is what are we doing today to attract new shoppers to our shop. This question is not posed to distract us from maintaining what we do and remaining also focussed on the valuable core of the business.
All of this is a preamble to one example of attracting new shoppers. This is what we are doing in one of my shops right now. This shop is in a big Westfield centre. we have a big Harry Potter display;ay with products from multiple suppliers.
We chose Harry Potter because we know that Australians do hundreds of thousands of Google searches every month for Harry Potter products, information and other reasons.
So, on the lease line, facing into the mall, we established this display. Right away it was a hit. People walking across, and shopping. Here is that display, from Saturday morning:
Video: May 19, 2018.
Now, for those who look for any reason to nit-pick: I am not saying this is a destination idea. Nor am I saying you must do this. Nor am I saying that this display is all you do. Nor am I saying this will work everywhere.
This Harry Potter display is an example of an approach, an approach that is working in my business and plenty ours, an approach whereby we leverage a popular brand to attract new shoppers.
Some brand, character and licence focussed ideas work better than others. The key is trying new things, every few weeks. Constant motion is a core message here. Acting based on real and current data about what people are looking for is also key.
I am fortunate to have access to search data thanks to a commercial service I pay to access.
Now, some will wonder – what does Harry Potter have to do with being a newsagency business. Nothing really, but that does not matter. The channel the business identifies with is not as relevant today to what we choose to sell compared to a new years ago.
The new traffic attracted is valuable as these shoppers browse the business and purchase in addition to the category that attracted them to the shop.
The model of acting to attract new shoppers is the key message here. In the newsagency channel especially I see it as mission critical.
Mark.
We should look at the traffic generator at industry level, not just individual store level.
Yesterday, a TV program on Chemist Warehouse has some interesting facts on its model. It has 80% market share in Pharmacy industry, and suppliers pay all advertisement for Chemist Warehouse. It happy with 10% margin on loss leader categories, and the layout of stores are not very customer friendly, but well organized for maximum sales.
The cheap pricing is the best traffic generator, and customers has feeling free to browser the stores as they has assumption that all stock in stores are best prices.
It is a great example on mass retailing to attract traffic. Another example is 7-11 chain, they develop a fuel app, and can lock the cheapest petrol pricing of any 7-11 stores in one week, buy petrol at this price in any 7-11 store. The head office of 7-11 pay for the price difference. Someone in tech forum develop a way to mock the location, so that they can use the best price of one store 500 KM away to purchase in their local 7-11 stores. 7-11 store owners are quite happy with the app, as they can enjoy the traffic generated by it, and of course, the normal customers still pay for full price without the apps. The apps also give away free pies, free confectioner etc, thus give a reason for customers stop and walk into their shops.
Both Chemist warehouse and 7-11 don’t do a great display on unique products to create a wow impression, they embrace their overall impression on customer’s mindset for all their member stores and generate traffic.
Sunny newsagencies can’t be compared to these two businesses. 7-Eleven and Chemist warehouse are disciplined businesses with consequences four failure to be disciplined at the store level. There is no such discipline in the newsagency channel.
Also, I have no interest in a price based patch. that is a red, bloody, ocean.