How to Increase Retail Sales: 15 Pro Tips to Expand Business

If you are a retailer, sales are inevitably going to be a challenging aspect of the business. 

Even if you are content with the sales you are achieving, there’s always scope to increase the sales of your retail store. 

You can improve the foot traffic to your retail store or improve your online business performance or use various strategies to Increase sales. 

But amongst tons of sales strategies out there, here we lined up 15 simplest yet pro tip to increase sales in your retail store. 

tips to boost retail store sales

Tips To Increase Retail Sales

Make Sure Your Retail Store Shows Up On Online Search Pages 

Everyone is looking up Google to find stores or products they need. And it is becoming more predominant among target consumers. 

So, you need to ensure that you are leveraging the maximum consumer flow from web search results. 

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Well, for that, you need to see whether your store is showing up on Google search results or not. 

For Example, if you sell sportswear, you would want if anyone nearby searches “ best sportswear store near me” on Google, your business profile should show up. 

For that, you need to set up your retail store on all the business listing platforms such as Google, Facebook, Yelp, etc. 

Try to put as many details of your retail store or business as possible. 

Pro Tips for entering details for your business 

  • Try to put the category in your business name, such as  “Ultra fit Sportswear & Gym wear store.” 
  • Contact details are essential to mention. 
  • Enter your precise location
  • Enter the exact business hours for your retail store or business 
  • Make sure you put a lot of store images, product images, and other related media.
  •  If possible, add a virtual tour of your store. 
  • Encourage your customers to review your store and products on business listings, preferably positive. 

Offering Relevant Upsell To Your Online Customers 

Upselling is about convincing, persuading, or influencing customers to upgrade their products. 

The product can even be what they bought sometime earlier from your store only. 

Upselling does not only help in increasing average cart value but also customer lifetime value as well. 

Image Source: Instapage

It promotes customer retention for a longer time, increasing the probability of their potential purchases with your store in the future. 

Here are some quick tips for upselling to your customers : 

  • Select the right to upsell products depending on what potential customers might need or be relevant to buy.
  • Focus on providing multiple upselling products such as extended service period, version upgrades,  product protection, extended warranty, customization, etc.
  • You can also upsell bundle products as well, where it will also be a cross-selling of the products, increasing average cart value and overall sales.
  • Offer your upselling products where it makes more sense and customers are more likely to buy.  For e.g., place it on the cart page as a suggestion.
  • Don’t be pushy or “saley-sy” about it. Make it like an offer that profits customers or offers discounts or some other benefit. 

Pro Tip:  You can use “free shipping” as an upselling strategy. Suggest them more relevant products to add so they can qualify for free shipping.  

Offering Free Shipping To Your Online Retail Customers 

 90% of consumers mentioned free shipping as their primary motivation for the purchase.

It is amongst the most powerful sales or marketing strategies to Increase online retail sales. 

Free shipping makes people save a lot of money on products, especially medium-priced items.  

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A lot of products where one has to charge heavy transportation or shipping charges make the customer reluctant to buy. 

Free shipping will simply save a lot of bucks on the product they are inclined to buy, so it makes a great offer for them. 

You can also offer free shipping on multiple items sold as a set, which will further increase your average cart value. 

Make Your Salespeople To Upsell and Cross-sell At The Store 

Who is, after all responsible for all the sales at your store? 

Definitely, your salespeople at the store convince potential customers to buy products at your store. 

The better they will be at their job, the more you will sell! 

So, it becomes necessary to encourage, train and motivate your salespeople to upsell and cross-sell products. 

The idea is to increase the sales per transaction per customer, Increasing the overall sales for the store as well. 

You need to educate your salespeople to – 

  1. Understand the needs and wants of the customer 
  2. Don’t encourage them to be ‘pushy.’ 
  3. Make sure they focus on providing value to customers rather than focusing on earning more money for the store ( it’s more sustainable) 
  4. They must suggest to customers the right and relevant products for them. 
  5. The goal here is to make happy, loyal, and long-term customers. 

There are indeed ethical ways to upsell and cross-sell products to your customers. 

For example, Your salespeople can suggest a customer upgrade their television with a new one by laying out all the benefits customers get out of it. 

They can tell the customer how upgrading is better than buying a new one, so instead of buying a new one sometime in the future, they can save some bucks and upgrade now. 

With cross-selling, they are supposed to do the same by suggesting more relevant products that might suit the customer preference or benefit them. 

Putting Your Local Inventory On Google Maps 

This is the second best thing you can do after putting your retail store in the business listing. 

Make sure your local inventory gets displayed in Google searches and Google Maps as well. 

Image Source: Search Engine Land

When you list your local inventory, your in-store products will automatically show up on Google business listing and Maps. 

You don’t have to manually include your products; it just gets displayed in the business listing, attracting customers to dig right in. 

Your products will be getting more exposure as getting displayed right on the search page results of the business listing. 

If you have an e-commerce website for direct buying, this will also get you more website traffic, generating sales. 

Engage With Your Customers 

The key to successful and great brands is how much they engage with their customers.  

Look at customer experience with Apple stores, where they greet every single visitor and give plenty of time dedicated to listening to their customers. 

And it’s not even about how you treat them before sales; it is about how you do them after sales. 

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The difference between successful businesses and great brands is right there! You need to engage with your customers, listen to them, and resolve their issues. 

It is very important for small businesses to guide and train their employees on how to interact and engage with customers. 

This is what retains and gives the reputation to the brand that precedes it, giving them long-term benefits. 

Hiring Staff Who Can Promise Exceptional Customer Experience 

Not just the salespeople but everyone staff member accounts for the exceptional customer experience that every customer expects. 

So they are the reason for the sales of your product at the retail store. So, it becomes essential to invest in hiring the right people. 

Here are a few tips on hiring the best staff to ensure more sales : 

  • Hire passionate employees who want to be there and know about the products.
  • Make sure hired staff is passionate and knowledgeable about their product, so they have more conviction in their selling.
  • Train your staff to deliver a great customer experience.
  • Make them understand the significance of communication, behavior, store and shelf cleanliness, and management.
  • Train them to identify what customers want and need and provide accordingly. 

You need to keep educating and training your employees, staff, and salespeople to sharpen their skills. 

Establishing the Practical Sales Target 

There is nothing wrong with being optimistic and ambitious, but with your sales target, you need to be more practical and smart. 

Unreasonable sales targets might overwhelm you and your team, also discourage them as well. 

Whereas the right target helps in improving the overall sales strategy, teamwork, and other aspects of your business as well. 

You need to set goals that could be achieved at least the 70% of the time you mark. Otherwise, it has the potential to demotivate your staff. 

So, your sales targets shouldn’t be too high and must not be too low.  Choose a way that your team completes the target in 90% of the given time. 

This will encourage them, give them space to grow, and motivate them to do even better next time.  

There is no point in creating sales pressure on your staff where it can be exhausting and overbearing. It also affects the happy quotient of your store.

So, it is essential to communicate with your staff regarding the goals you set. Get feedback and work in a team to meet the target. 

You can also assign daily sales targets for your salespeople and other staff members as well. 

Make Your In-Store Visuals Captivating & Engaging 

People tend to be attracted to things that have more visual appeal to them. The same goes for products and stores as well. 

Customers want to buy visually captivating and appealing products. And that’s why you need to make sure your store is visually engaging and has an appeal to it. 

People can identify your products depending on their relevance. Also, it should be branded to be recognized. 

Image Source: Insider

Here are a few tips on making your retail store visually appealing : 

  • Add various visual elements to your store, making your display more multi-dimensional. Try to add more color, height, depth, and variation to your store in different ways possible.
  • Keep your store clean, neat, and tidy.
  • Utilize the visual elements for certain purposes. Make it more than just a visual element. For example:  Create additional creative branded racks or shelves to present the products.
  • Make sure everything in your store is well-organized. All patterns and orders in your store. It helps customers to find things easily and faster.
  • Create focus points in your store where a particular section will be highlighted, maybe with your best products or a certain new item. 

Utilize Cross-Selling To Increase Average Cart Value & Overall Sales 

Cross-selling is about when you recommend or suggest to your potential customers or customers more products in addition to their original purchase. 

To apply the best cross-selling strategies, you need to know the inventory very well. It is all about what products align together perfectly. 

Also, if a customer buys a certain product, what possibly more does he/she needs or might want to have? 

upselling vs cross selling

Cross-selling is about understanding your inventory, the products, and the customer as well. 

It is also about the timing. Your salesperson should only start cross-selling when a customer has committed to buying a particular product. 

After their buying decision which subtly or non-subtly includes : 

  • What kind of product are they interested in? 
  • Were they negotiating the price or just buying it? 
  • Are they still looking around? 
  • How much time did they spend buying that product? 
  • What ideas are they giving out in their conversation about their needs and wants? 
  • Have they inquired about more products or any related products?
  • How much do they know about the product, or are they aware of their purchasing decision? 

And, so much more. 

Now, you or the salesperson can just interpret in their head easily with some keen observation and then cross-selling accordingly. 

Remember, for cross-selling, they do have to buy something first or make up their mind to buy one; then, only you can recommend more add-on items. 

Every time you cross-sell, increase the average cart value or sales per transaction per customer. 

Consistency in cross-selling can easily Increase your daily average sales insignificant percentage. 

Always Have Quick Access To Your  Inventory 

One of the most common reasons for losing a customer for a retail store is not having the product the customer intends to buy. 

Not just at the moment, but you also lose a potential customer who, is probably loyal for a long time. 

You need to manage your inventory to maximize your sales. It is essential to ensure that you always have access to your inventory to pull any product when needed. 

More than that, you need a robust and efficient inventory management system in place to implement practices like regular stock count. 

There are different metrics you need to track to ensure accuracy in inventory management. 

The idea is to track, monitor, manage and regulate, and even automate the inventory management system to save time and energy. 

You get various data metrics that will tell you which products are selling the most, and which are not. 

It also helps you develop your marketing and pricing strategy for your retail store as well. 

Taking Customer Appreciating Into The Account 

A lot of small businesses and large enterprises either ignore or undermine the importance of customer appreciation

One of the best ways to stand out in the sales-driven market is to become more customer-centric. 

Focus on the customer experience; that’s all matters when it comes to increasing sales for your business.  

Image Source: Pinterest

It’s the customer, after all, who buys from you. So why not serve them well so they keep coming back and spreading good about it as well? 

And, customer experience isn’t just limited to the end of the transaction. 

Apart from listening to your customers, providing them with what they need or want, and elevating their buying experience, you can still do more. 

The idea is to develop a bond, a relationship with customers so they become loyal to you. 

It can be done by showing their appreciation for their transaction with you. 

Further, for all the loyal customers, maybe even from your customer loyalty program, send them a “thank you” note for their support. 

Image Source: Shoplo

You can send handwritten branded notes to your loyal customers or even people who regularly purchase from you.  

Make sure it is personalized and very well-detailed, so it feels like given to them and genuinely appreciated. 

Redirecting The Positioning Of Your Brand 

Customers are a lot more aware today; they know about your competitors as their alternatives, product, and a lot more. 

So, it’s not marketing gimmicks that take you very much further in this journey but what kind of stance, the position you are taking as a brand. 

People connect to brands through what they represent. Potential customers are going to trust more those brands that are providing value or resolving an issue. 

If something is not working, it might be the position of your brand that doesn’t really give much trust and reliability to your customers. 

tips increase retail sales

11 Best Expansion Ideas For Your Retail Store

Starting a small business and establishing a running retail store is the hardest part. There are so many risks and unknown factors that come with this territory. 

That’s why around 50% of businesses fail in their 5 years. Not just the process includes lots of work but being an owner, you need to take tons of things on your plate. 

Well, if successfully passed the stage and running your retail business successfully, now it’s time for expanding it. 

Growth keeps your business in the race and also you can improve along with better success. Also when your business is settled, and you plan to expand the retail. Well before you do, here are some ideas to go with. 

retail store expansion ideas

Ideas For Your Retail Business Expansion To Considering 

Once you get your business steady and ready for expansion. There are lots of questions that might be bugging you. 

No doubt, expanding your business gives you more opportunity for success but with this, you get more customers to target.  

Growth in retail also allows you to bring more ideas to life as you have a platform ready for the launch and customers to sell. 

signs business need expansion

When you are expanding your retail store, here are some ideas that you can consider : 

1. Add More Channels For Selling 

One of the ways that can help you in getting to expand your retail business without needing the locations. You can choose different selling channels since there are lots of options it gives a range to sell. 

Some of the options that you can consider : 

Start Online Store 

You can consider starting your online store. Take your retail business to online platforms to target more customers. Depending on the range where you can deliver the services, you can limit your business or expand as per your liking. 

Similar to Bundle Boutique in Christchurch, NZ as they started their business targeting the moms and children.

They kept their business running for six years before they took it to the online platform. Offering childrenswear and maternity clothes to more people. 

Bundle boutique used the opportunity by targeting the wider audience and growing the business, as result they received more customers over the night. 

According to Eneka Burroughs, the owner of Bundle Boutique said that within 72 hours after launching the store, they received around 46 orders which are 80% of their new customers

Switch To Mobile 

People are looking for a more convincing way to do shopping and today, mobile is playing the biggest role in that. Expanding your business to mobile can give you more access and connectivity with your audience. 

If you have an online store, you can simply switch to your website for the mobile. And there are lots of eCommerce platforms that offer the mobile capabilities to sell your items on go. 

Also when you are switching to mobile, it’s important to keep your website light and accessible to support the multi-devices. 

Online Marketplace 

Using online marketplaces such as Etsy, Amazon and eBay can help your business to add more streamline to the revenue system.

Consider the example of Carrot Tomato who is selling giftware and home stores. They are selling their products in their retail store but also added the business on the eCommerce site. 

Carrot Tomato also sells its products on eBay. The founder of the store, Mai Wog said that they selected eBay as it was the most preferred platform by their customers.

With this, they are having more sales and driving traffic for their store. Also, they added the business cards along with their eBay order when they do the shipping. 

Social  Media 

Expanding your business to social media gives you an even larger audience and along with that, you can explore more opportunities. 

Most of the platforms like Facebook, Instagram, And Pinterest have direct purchase options. It gives the right options so the buyers can do shopping as well as follow your page. 

2. Increase Your Product Line 

One of the effective ways and ideas you can consider is expanding what you are selling. It can help you increase the opportunities for the business.

Also, it boosts the brand image and you can use this for introducing a new line for the products as well as services. 

reasons increase product lines

You can consider options in products that relate to what you are offering. Also, you can add the ‘ extra’ so the shoppers can purchase when they are about to do their shopping. 

For example, adding last-minute items targeting kids can increase the purchase especially when they are with their parents. 

It also encourages impulse purchases. 

Along with this, you can add something that can benefit your main product. For example, if you are selling outdoor equipment or products, you can sell environmentally friendly products. products too.

When you do the expanding of your product line here are few things to check : 

  • Make sure you check the new items and test so it adds more value to an existing product 
  • Add the POS system to keep the products to make this easier. 
  • Keep the product detailed and have a performance report for checking the overall results. 

Do a survey and ask for feedback from your customer to understand how it’s affecting them. 

3. Add More Locations 

The most obvious idea to go with expanding your business by adding a new location. You can expand by taking your business to another area, block, or even a different state. 

However the idea includes tons of work, it requires the same amount of effort like you did with your main retail store along with a good amount of investment. 

It’s not simple like copying your business to another location. But also it gives you a new location and a new base of customers. 

Keep your procedure, policies, and other services on point. Along with that, you are going to make new strategies, ideas, and plans as you consider the new environment. 

benefits starting new locations

There is no doubt, adding location can increase your business, and it’s an ideal example of expanding the retail store too. But it’s important to keep it in the right way. 

4. Set Your Pop Up Shops 

Pop-ups are one of the ideas you can choose if you are looking for fun and keep your customer excited. 

reasons pop up shops are beneficials

Also, it’s affordable and relatively much easier to start right away for expanding the retail business. Apart from these benefits, there are lots of reasons why you can choose this. 

With the help of pop-ups, you can help in getting better interaction with your audience. 

  • Pop-ups are a simple and easier option to get the attention of local media, influencers, and outlets. 
  • If you are planning to start a new product, pop-ups are ideal for trying out how the people will respond to it. 
  • With this, you can move slowly and use inventory to clear as much as space you require from the warehouse. 

However, the pop-up is not considered as the growth but you can consider this as the first step that you can take towards better success and expanding the business. 

5. Partner With Different Business 

To introduce your product in a much safer way, you can consider the partnership with different businesses.  You can consider it for expanding the market, services, and starting with the new establishment. 

Partnership with different businesses allows you to bypass the majority of parts that includes investment. Also, you get more resources, infrastructure, and reach to target the audience. 

You can find some other local business but make sure you are not in competition with them. 

Also do not choose a business that is doing a totally different thing or have an audience. 

You can use the partnership for establishing your brand in a new environment or locals. Also, you can pair it with other strategies so you can save the hassle and investment risks. 

6. Focus On How You Are Selling 

It’s almost impossible to find a product that is nowhere else. So what if you are selling something that no buyers are looking for? Focus on what you are offering first and how you are pitching the customers. 

Make sure to differentiate how your brand is not similar to the competitors? And keep your services top-notch.

There are always more people who are coming to the market and offering new substitutes. However, still, no one can replace the great good and services. 

You always get the space if you are looking for offering customer services and quality products. 

7. Work On Shopping Experience Improvement 

Well in a market where customers have tons of options and they can switch to any other options anytime they want. It’s important to improve their experience when they are doing business with you. 

Creating a smooth shopping experience can help your customers will keep your business in the right direction. 

For that, you can consider these points too : 

  • Offer samples if you are launching new items in the form of products and services. People are more comfortable trying the samples before committing to purchase.  
  • Using eCommerce for selling the product but also make sure to optimize efficiency and speed.
  • Focus on improving the first impression of your product 
  • Start by offering a training program to help the business to learn team about product

8. Invest In Modern Way Of Marketing 

There are a lot of ways that retailers have to market their business. Also apart from traditional options. You can consider a lot more options expanding for the business. 

  • Start with building the website and go with boosting the organic search
  • Set your google business account to find more about the business and also it’s free of cost.
  • Start with an email campaign to understand more about the contact related to promotional stuff.
  • You can do the advertising online, and use it or google bing, and more social media stuff. 

9. Keep Your Research On Point 

For a small business, it’s crucial to keep the research on point. No matter where you are starting your business, you are going to need to do the research before. 

Also with this, you are going to research how your competitors are working and what other options are there for the market to expand your business. 

The strategy you can adopt is to keep your research going so you know where you have the opportunity and grab the points where you successfully grow your retail business. 

Also, keep your focus on going trends and consider all the possibilities that can help the business. It’s important to understand the area before you search to expand. 

Frequently Asked Questions ( FAQs)

Why do small businesses need expansion?

The business expansion helps your store to get more options for having opportunities and having a broader audience. Apart from this, you can increase your revenue and sales to grow your retail business. 

Why do you need to expand the business?

The business should expand if you think you have more to handle. Also, there are chances you are running out of space and you want more to grow.  More customers want your services and maybe your current business is putting limitations on that. 

What business should know before expanding?

The important point that includes here is understanding the new environment and educating your team according to that.

It’s not possible that your strategy and plans give you the same results, so you have to start with the beginning. 

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