Five creative ways to increase your retail earnings
If there is one thing that any business owner wants to do, it is make as many sales as possible. However, this is a lot easier said than done.
With that being said, we have put together a collection of tips that you can use to supercharge your retail earnings.
1. Understand what products are in-demand
There is only one place to begin, and this is by making sure that you sell the products that people actually want to purchase. To do this, you need to carry out a product demand analysis.
There are five steps you need to follow to determine what sort of products are in high demand. These are as follows:
Define your market
The first thing you need to do is define who you are selling your products to. You need to understand how much money they have to spend, and who they are currently giving this money to.
You should not simply use a few words to define your target market. You need to develop and explain your personas.
Evaluate the maturity of the market and business cycle
Some products seem to have a life cycle that never ends. However, others are limited. The business and market life cycle are critical, as you need to understand how steady the market is.
Is the market stable at the moment? Is it in a period of growth? You also need to consider this from a business perspective as well, i.e. how mature is your business? This will help you to understand your position in the market at the moment.
Determine your market niche
Next, you need to figure out your niche, which is your sweet spot whereby there is potential for you to enter the market and deliver a solution that people need.
Not only do you need to consider this from the perspective of the services and products you provide, but also your USPs and values.
Calculate the potential for the market to grow
Now that you have data regarding your current situation, it is time to think about what could lie ahead.
You need to consider the division of market share amongst your competition. What products, services or events impacted any changes in the market share division?
Assess the competition
The final piece of the puzzle is to take a look at what your competition is doing. Take a look at their approach to product launches in the past so you can determine the areas whereby you could make improvements.
2. Track demand generation metrics
The next piece of advice that we have for you is to make sure you track demand gen metrics. After all, you are never going to be able to move your business forward if you are not tracking your performance at present.
There are a lot of different types of demand generation metrics that you can track, so we will take a look at some of them to give you a better understanding.
Marketing qualified leads
This is an essential KPI that you should be measuring to make sure you are on track with meeting your revenue targets.
A market qualified lead is a person you believe is very likely to make a sale. It is a person who knows about your product and your business, yet needs to learn a little bit more in order to make a sale, i.e. requires some further nurturing.
You need to use lead intelligence to identify a marketing qualified lead. Some signs include the likes of signing up to your newsletter, spending a certain amount of time on your website, and clicking on key pages on your website.
Sales qualified lead
Another type of metric you should be measuring is the number of sales qualified leads (SQLs) your business has.
This is a person your sales department has qualified to receive sales material and purchase your item. They are often called a “hot” lead.
Some of the indications that someone is an SQL includes certain keywords being mentioned within your chatbot, having items in their cart, trialing a freemium version of your product, or contacting sales.
Other generation metrics to consider
The two examples above should help you to get started, but there are plenty of other generation metrics to track. This includes activations & signups, cost per acquisition, payback period, customer lifetime value, average deal size, and marketing sourced pipeline.
3. Use creative techniques to motivate your sales team
Your efforts are going to be effective if they go outside of the box. In terms of motivation, a lot of business owners assume that more money and bonuses are the only way to get their salespeople to do more. This is not the case.
After all, rewards do not always have to be about money. Why not have a bit of fun with your team and find different ways to recognise them instead?
For example, if your team excels, you could reward them by doing a task that they hate, for instance, cold calling or prospecting.
Not only will this motivate them because they will get out of doing something they do not enjoy, but it has the benefit of endearing you to the sales team and showing them that you appreciate their efforts and recognize how difficult some of the work is that they do.
Plus, this is a good way to set your business apart, and so it can assist with branding as well. After all, word quickly spreads when businesses have a different way of doing things and they treat their employees in a respectful way.
4. Create a culture of recognition
In addition to the points mentioned, another way to push your team to achieve more is by simply recognising all of the hard work that they do.
You may think you do not need to do this because their commission is enough for them to know they have done well. However, it is all about doing something that is not expected.
A commission is expected, so for your salesmen and women to really feel recognised for the efforts put in, you need to acknowledge them and let them know that their hard work and achievements have not gone unnoticed.
5. Showcase your local inventory in Google Search and Maps
The final piece of advice we have for you is to enhance your listing on Google by displaying your inventory in Google Search and Maps.
You can use a solution like Pointy that gives you the power to showcase the products that you have in-store on Google without needing to input your inventory data manually.
An increasing number of shoppers are using the Internet to locate what they require in their local shops. In fact, Google has revealed that search terms including “shopping near me” have increased by three times the amount within the past two years.
One of the best ways to reach these local customers is by using local inventory adverts on Google so that shoppers can discover what you have in stock. This will help to drive further sales to your physical store.
Let’s take a look at some of the different things you can do with local inventory ads:
Measure performance
You can keey an eye on the performance of your shop both offline and online.
Use robust analytics to help you understand the impact that your digital adverts are having on the sales that you make inside of your store. Thisis agreat way of bridging your offline and online presence.
Bring your local store online
Another benefit is that you can generate a virtual storefront that can pair seamlessly with your physical one.
Offer details such as directions to your store, product availability, and store hours.
Promote your in-store inventory
Another benefit is that you can promote the stock that you have in your physical store. In fact, almost half of the shoppers around the world have stated that they confirm that what they want to purchase is in stock before they make the trip to the store in question.
When you make the most of local inventory adverts, you are letting these prospective consumers know that you have the exact items they are looking for, exactly when they want to purchase them.
At present, Google states that they have more than 2,000,000 offers mapped to physical store locations around the globe. That’s a big number! So, if you do not make the most of local inventory ads, it is safe to say that you are likely to be missing out to the competition.
Final words on creative ways to increase your retail earnings
So there you have it: some of the different approaches that you can use to give your retail earnings a boost. We hope that this has helped you to come up with some fresh ideas that can take your earnings to the next level.
From using local inventory ads to making the most of demand generation metrics, implement the tips above and we are sure you will notice a difference.
