Four tips for enhancing in-store customer experience

Marketing can only go so far as to get people to visit your physical store, but it’s another challenge altogether to get them to stay or encourage them to visit again. With this in mind, it’s important to invest in improvements that will get people to enjoy the time they spend browsing the shelves and shopping around for the products they need.

Whether you’re running a supermarket or a hardware store, you need to think about how you can enhance the in-store experience of your customers, especially those who have just discovered your business.

First impressions matter, and having a poor one will determine just how well your business attracts visitors and converts them into happy customers. Here are practical tips to walk you through it:

1. Know what your customers want

You need to have a thorough understanding of what your customers expect from their experiences navigating the aisles and searching for the products that catch their attention.

Zeroing in on the needs of your customers provides you with valuable insights on how you can better decorate and lay out your store that brings them the most convenience. This alone can help you spend the proper amount of time and money on improvements that generate actual results.  

The best way you can get this done is by looking at your store from their perspective. Try to walk around and take note of the things that might encourage customers to keep browsing or discourage them from venturing further.

You should also look at your closest competitors and check for best practices in interior design you may want to adopt. Keep an eye out for trends you might also want your business to follow through. In any case, it pays to match these improvements with the type of audience that you have.

2. Provide sensory stimulation

The secret to improving in-store experiences lies in how the interior looks and feels to the customer. No one will want to visit a shop that’s not only dimly lit but also congested with too many decorations.

At the same time, you wouldn’t want to overstimulate shoppers by using a strong colour palette and loud music. To keep them engaged throughout their visit, you just have to hit the right notes in offering sensory stimulation. 

Depending on your brand identity, you will want to paint the interior with warm hues that correspond to your brand colours. Make sure the space is well lit, especially if you’re running an apparel store. Bright neutral lights should be enough to get shoppers to keep browsing with ambient lighting to guide their eyes to your latest offers or flagship products.

You can also opt to brighten up the interior space by installing a commercial roof light from vendors like Addlite. Complete the layout by choosing an audio playlist that matches the theme of your store as well as your target audience.

3. Train and motivate your employees

The quality of your store’s interior is not the only defining factor influencing customer experiences.

It’s the interactions they have with your staff that will either make or break any chance of a return visit. Quality customer service is even more crucial in-store, so it’s important to orient your employees on everything, from answering simple questions to processing refunds.

 Make it a part of your establishment’s culture to treat customers with utmost respect. It all starts by hiring clerks and attendants who are not only experienced in the retail industry who have the personality to match your business’s customer first policy.

Aside from recruiting the right people, you should also provide employees with an incentive to work more efficiently. You can raise morale by ensuring that they’re treated just as well. It also matters to offer mentoring opportunities so they’ll know how to deal with even the most complicated issues that they will be facing.

4. Put personalisation at the centre

Customers respond well to businesses that go the extra mile in terms of offering personalized experiences.

Not only does it enhance customer satisfaction but it also creates an opportunity to develop a deeper relationship with customers who may end up recommending your brand to people they know. What’s more, personalised experiences allow for greater loyalty as such customers couldn’t imagine getting the same level of attention elsewhere. 

The best way you can offer personalised service is by learning about your customers’ first names and asking them about their preferences. Don’t use this as an opportunity to upsell a product in the hopes of getting them to buy a pricier offer. Instead, pay attention to how much they’re willing to spend and the kind of lifestyle they lead.

You can also offer them discount vouchers and special birthday deals. They can also be a good source of insights that will help improve your physical store further, so take the time to ask for their feedback via survey forms and interviews that focus on the things they want to see and experience on their next visit.

Endnote

For your physical store to prosper, it matters to double down on the things that keep customers engaged and happy while they’re there. Consider these tips as the starting point of your project.