How to give your shop a high-street advantage

A busy street, while offering high foot traffic and pass by customers, can be difficult for your business if you aren’t noticed. The busyness and hustle and bustle might mean that you can go unnoticed or overlooked, especially if the shop two doors down across the road is the go-to destination and not yours. In line with that thought, you also want to find a way to keep your customers coming back otherwise the value that could be gained through paying higher rent in more popular areas will be lost. You want to have your business stand out and feel welcoming. There are several ways to improve your shop’s ability to stand out. Here are some tips that touch on different aspects of building a positive association with your bricks and mortar store.

But people do judge a book by its cover

It starts with the exterior, if your storefront is drab and boring, people won’t pay you any attention. Look for signage Melbourne suppliers and invest in attractive signage. It’s the first thing people look at. Don’t make your shop too over the top and have too much signage or colours. It is also worth putting your office hours and maybe a slogan that succinctly says what you do for after-hours when people might be window shopping and are perhaps intrigued and are interested in coming back. 

Put a smile on the dial

Once people walk through the doors, the next moment of capturing loyalty and return customers is in your customer service. Have friendly staff welcoming people into your shop. They need to be people who are gregarious and are easy to engage with, someone who is positive and always upbeat as it can be quite a relentless job. Always have people who know your products well that can either be asked at random or called upon to answer specific questions.

Shop to the beat

The music that plays while you peruse the contents of the shop very quickly sets the tone for the kind of atmosphere you want to create. While it might seem quite abstract and insignificant, don’t underestimate how much good tunes can attract or detract a customer. Try to find a way to have it match what you are selling together with who you want to sell too. For example, a shop selling older women’s summer clothing could have songs by Abba or the Bee Gees which makes them nostalgic and reminiscent. If you are unsure what would be good music, play the local popular radio station, that is always a safe bet.

Parking and accessibility

These are very boring yet very influential parts of the shopping experience. You don’t want to be that amazing Italian restaurant that everybody loves, but people avoid going to because there’s no parking or it is difficult to access business. The ease of parking is an integral consideration when choosing where to set up or situate your shop.