Running a brick and mortar store comes with a unique set of challenges. Of course, it also comes with its own set of rewards. Luckily, there are things you can do to make your store look better to customers and run better for employees. Below are some simple changes you can make to help your business quickly.
Install a Sign
Investing in business signs, whether outside of your shop or inside, can help to attract customers to your business. After all, the only way to make sales at a brick and mortar business is to get customers in the door! Getting a large sign on the outside of your shop can make it easier for customers to find your business. Having smaller signs inside the shop is a great way to advertise sales, new products, or other special promotions. No matter what kind of sign you invest in, it is important that the text is easy to read and that the sign is designed by a professional.
Use Organized Shelves
If items are hard to find, customers aren’t likely to spend time looking forever if they could more easily find the product in another shop faster. For this reason, it is best to use organizational shelves and other containers to keep the shop looking clean and making products easy to find.
Depending on what kind of store you run, you will want to invest in different organizational tools and containers. For example, clothing stores would do well to have various clothing racks and bins. Office supply shops would do better to invest in shelving. Shops that sell foods would need to focus on specific shelving that mimicked kitchen furnishings.
Make Prices Clear
If there’s one thing that annoys customers more than anything else, it’s not knowing how much they are supposed to pay for something. For this reason, it’s important to make sure your prices are as clear as possible. Make sure to have signs or other labels by all your products that clearly state the price of each item. Many stores do not account for taxes, so that is not something you necessarily need to do.
If you want to make things even easier for your customers, put up extra signs whenever you have a sale or discounted pricing. Keep the original prices up, but also have a sign that shows the sale and what the new cost of the item will be. This makes it much easier for customers to know the actual price of the product.
Have Backups for Taking Payments
Whenever possible, it’s best to have more than one method of calculating and taking payments, just in case something goes wrong with whatever technology you usually use. In layman’s terms, make sure to always have a backup plan. Try to have more than one credit card reader, have a cash register that doesn’t rely on wifi, and in the worse case scenarios, keep a calculator nearby– just in case. After all, if customers can’t pay for their items, your business won’t make any money.
Keep the Store Clean
Last but not least, make sure to keep your shop as tidy as possible. The last place customers want to be is in a dirty shop. Make sure to clean your shop before or after each workday to ensure your store is in the best working order as possible. Of course, it’s important to note that cleaning your shop means much more than just remembering to mop and scrub the toilets. You also need to make sure that all of your products are as organized as possible. Even if the main room of the shop is squeaky clean, the shop will look messy if the items for sale are unorganized.
Keep these five tips in mind to improve your brick and mortar business. If you can do all these things, and keep up on the tasks that come with them, then you are sure to have customers coming back for more.
