One-percenters are small things, easy things you can do for a win.
They are often things others forget.
Today I share nine of what I think are the best one-percenters for any local indie retail business.
I’ve experienced the value of on-percenters like these.
This is free advice. You don’t have to buy anything to access it. I love seeing local indie retailers thrive.
- Place 2 or 3 products at the counter for impulse purchase. Change weekly, unless they are selling well.
- If you have a front window, change it weekly. The goal is to stop passers-by and have them notice you.
- Never be out of stock of popular products. Use your software to predict sales and order so you don’t sell out.
- Price new stock on the shop floor, located to disrupt shopper traffic, so they notice. People don’t buy from the back room.
- Use social media to share knowledge and have fun rather than promoting products. Entertain.
- Have a staff product of the week in a good position with a handwritten note from the staff member explaining the why.
- Write the value of dead stock somewhere where all staff see it. Update it weekly for a whole of business focus on reducing this.
- Offer genuine loyalty rewards that don’t cost you the farm and are easy for shoppers to understand and access.
- Colour block in a prime position. This gives products rarely in prime position to be seen. It shows off your range diversity.
What you do with this is 100% top to you. The thing is, I know these tips work. Combine them and you compound the value you achieve. It’s simple – a small time investment for a terrific return.
I like engaging with small steps. They are manageable, safe, certain. It means you’re not relying on one or two big moves, often costly moves, for your success. By spreading the risk, the load, you strengthen the foundations of the business and position it for more certain results.
Here’s the colour block tip in action. It took half an hour to do, and shoppers noticed while it was being created, they added suggestions too. The result speaks not only to red, but also diversity and to fun we have in the shop by being different.
What you do about the 9 tips is up to you of course, but let me ask you this: are you happy with the performance of your business? If you say yes, great! If you say no, you know you have to make some changes because doing the same things will give you the same results.
The advice in this post originated from newsXpress advice to its newsagency marketing group members years ago. The one-percenters list has evolved considerably, as it should.