How retailers can increase sales in an economic slowdown?

It is of no use if you provide the same service as the same as your competitor is giving, try different things, make sure you are giving something special that is attracting your customers, make them feel different when they are in your store which they'll remember and comeback again to your store, so registering in the minds of consumers is very important during these times.

Loyal customers are the loyal for any retailer during the good times as well as in recession.A perfect database of loyal customers helps a retail outlet to bring in the business. During the cost cutting period when one is restricting from addvertisements and media promos its a mere remembering the loyal clientage helps to generate the business.Loyal customers when called upon - they feel  important,builts up your EQ with them, buys something in recession period also,pampering them would create a mouth publicity bringing in other customers.

Retailing today is more of builting relationships ,providing experiences rather than only selling or marketing.So emphasis on your database and stick to it .If you do not have one than start builting is right now.   

I think retailers should minimise the cost of the products by giving discounts, offers and promotional activity through different medias like print and electronic media and also through internet.

A very pertinent question and one that would perplex many a retailer. There is no sure formula for success in this scenario.

One has to innovate, tighten the purse and offer more to the customers. This offering can be by way of events, sale or promos or simply rejig the layout of the store.

Run offers on hot products of the week, have promotional posters on different items throughout the week and call them as Best buy or last peice sale etc.

One problem with many discounted and sale offers is the retention of your regular customer base. They wouldnt want to visit your outlet next time until and unless you are offering some freebies or discounts.

So one has to be wary at such times. The easiest thing is to do a complete analysis of your business model and cut out the frills where you are spending and which could be considered as frivolous expenditure

Recession usually is like V shaped or W shaped. We probably see the V shaped one where it happens due to many loosing their jobs. There is a lot of credit card default by those who lost their jobs. Moreover even the market crash has taken avwy some buying power of consumers.

If the inventories are up then even the manufacturers won't start producing till the inventories go down. So usual solution is to go for a sale giving discounts and once the inventories reach managable levels the manufacturers will start hirng again and the defaults can come down.

This the time when retailers can optimize the locations (closing down the unprofitable store, franchising to long standing partners), rejig the format (store format (hypermart for bulk deal, self service for economic segment, higher customer service/product assortment for high end) matching the location)and consolidate the warehousing / logistics.

Also the loyalty programs, shelf height, product assortment, bulk/package (via the hypermart format where many items are available - comes in pack of two or three and off-course are value priced) and off-course passing the margin to the end consumer via the SALE shall complete the receipe. By the way i hate buying vegetables from the supermarket.

Gratification for a consumer by way of WINNING something like a holiday, ek pe ek free offer, 250/- off on the NEXT purchse... are some common footstep driving schemes that retailers can use!

The idea is to get the consumer back to shop and spend!

In shop promotions, events which target children as indirect TG are a great hot nowadays as well. But the bottomline is that the spend has to rewarded satisfactorily. That is what will make the consumer happy and drive back to the shop for MORE!

increasing the sales or cutting down the expenses can be done only to a certain degree. the ideal way to make a business healthy is to keep the cost of sale very low. 1 % decrease in the COS can bring in multiple growth in net margins. have a good assortment of high selling goods with lower mrp and margins, and average selling goods with higher mrp and margins.

I have read so many problem in retails. But no body having a good solution. I have a unique idea for retention of customer and i am sure it would give new life to retail sector and would bring new revolution in india. contact naseerleo@yahoo.com

if we improve the inside format of the store through visual merchandising then the customers will be more attracted and that will create a zeal in the customers mind to buy that product..

customer relationship is another important part.. maintaining customer loyalty.customer retention,services provided.etc play an important role for better footfall.

In my view, the major effect of recession on retailing is due to the fact that most of the people either lost their job or worried about thier future. So obviously they are not ready to spend more than what is essentially required, unlike 1 year ago where they had disposable money,  and were willing to spend.

Now we retailers need to attract the customer to spend whatever he is willing to, in our store. For this we need to create a compelling offer to the customer, may be like  offering better discounts, scratch& win as one of our friend commeneted or may be giving better service.

We have to accept that only a few customers are going to come in and they may also spend less than what they generally used to spend. In order to support additional benefits that we've to offer we need to controll all our costs very carefully.

As some wiseman said sometime back  "A PEENY SAVED IS A PENNY EARNED". We need to closely monitor what ever we are spending and cotrol them properly. This recession may be a blessing in disguise. Coz' of ue to this in most places  rentals  have come down, better manpower is available at good CTC's, vendors are accepting better terms. We shoudl try all avenue and renegotiate better terms with all the associated partners. 

Any retailer who has the leverage to spend money now, has to spend that money wisely  and invest in adding new stores by geeting the advantage of better locations, better people and better terms.

Finally in my opinion the retailers who cannot control their cost will sooner or later have to face the problems. so inorder to be successful in these testing periods we need to spend less and make the customer spend more in our store. Who ever escapes this wrath will have a strong model with them which can give them benefits in all times. Specially when the upward trend starts, they will be the ones who will gain better dividends.

Thanks folks,

Kiran Koti

introducing many varities and giving the choice to the customer is one the best way to pull customer

like we know rice and dal is touchig the sky, but it is a need of every customer

instead giving the customer a shock with the price tag,

having 3 to 4 diffirent varity in same segment will provide the customer an ease to choose according to his pocket size

Offering a short-term credit (not more than 1 year time) or an Interest free EMI for a selected range of products can increase thr sales provided the retailer is ready to give. Even by putting a MINIMUM PURCHASE bill and then giving credit or EMI or discounts can work out. 

absolutely muthalaya....when u increase the merchandising,brand promotion and so called other things they suggest .........it increases the cost of furniture,making....the way we have increased our sales 3 times is by increasing the  range and try gvining personalised services by creating a personal contact.....

i think muthaliya is correct.  bringing ideas like better merchandising, systems etc would bring a lot of expenses.....insteadly you can increase the stock and range and improve sales effectively. Range and reasonable discunts are the only ways through which a retailer today can fight the big houses..

Hi Folks,

The subject seems to be very exciting and i cant keep my self away from placing few comments.

After reading many comments, i have understood that many people want to offer more to their customers.

According to me during the time of slowdown, giving away freebees and having unnecessary offers within the stores would further reduce the profit and add burden to the rescue during slowdown.

If you are into luxury retailing, you may have to innovate ways to come out of this slowdown.

All retailers have to work on micro management and look beyond their capabilities.

Few important areas that i would suggest.

Retain talent and not employees.

Imrove the effeciency within the employees, so that you get 120 % instead of their 100 %.

Manage cost effeciently, curtail all expenses which arent necessary.

Give everlasting experience to the retail store visitors and leave no stone unturned to close the deal during that one visit.

Increase conversion and ATV.

Train and motivate your employees to look beyond their capabilities.

Pleae note: All the above ideas are soft skills and would not require any additional cost to your daily oprations.

Always best bransds established with Quality Products only so as retailers also need to follw the same with Non branded products which will give lot of credibility to retailers . Any offer on any other Co the long term credit to that Co but a good quality his Own brands with a Decent pricing an excelent services will make the customers to come back to him .

With that he can create an enviornment to push all Co to give him a better offers.

This may turn as win win situations.