Member Article

Tough times on the UK high street – how can retailers continue to grow when the Christmas lights are turned off?

With approximately 287,000 retail outlets hiring more than three million employees in the UK, competition for business has never been higher. While UK consumers are feeling the pinch, there is a large opportunity for retailers to take advantage as the market is currently valued at more than £4billion.

Despite a record low rate of unemployment, a lack of wage growth has meant that consumers have had to rein in their spending. Brexit negotiations are also dampening consumer confidence and with news of a rise in interest rates, consumers could be watching their pennies closer than usual. While this all sounds negative for retailers that are banking on Christmas to boost their sales, looking strategically at their offering can reap rewards.

Retailers need to look at the bigger picture of their offering and adjust their sales and marketing strategy accordingly. With reports showing it costs five times as much to acquire a new customer than to retain an existing one, keeping hold of existing customers is key to success. Marketing plays a big role in this, ensuring that regular communication is valuable and timely.

At Duologi, we believe in working with our retailers to support their sales strategies and their long-term growth. We’ve put together our tips on how retailers can make the most of the festive season and reap the rewards as we look ahead to the New Year.

Reward retention

With only 18% of retailers focussing on customer retention, it’s clear that more can be done to keep hold of these customers and gain their repeat business. Rewarding your customers is a great way to implement this and can be easily managed by creating and sending an email campaign to your existing database.

Emailing them with a discount or free delivery code will encourage them to make those purchases they’ve been thinking about and shop with you again.

If your business is Google Adwords and Facebook savvy, you could also look to create a re-marketing campaign that will promote specific products that customers have previously looked at. This tends to provide a higher conversion rate too, reminding people about a specific product as well as your business and they may be ready to follow through with that purchase.

Promote premium products with spending support

For those selling big-ticket items, you need to put strategies in place to manage customers’ financial concerns. A big barrier with high-value items is spending a lump sum in one go. By offering finance to consumers in the form of monthly instalments, you’re instantly removing that worry, giving customers peace of mind that they can manage the payments over a longer period of time. At Duologi, we offer a range of products including 0% interest free finance that can support your offering to today’s cash-savvy shoppers.

Tap into consumers’ thinking that if you buy once, you buy well. This is an easy win for customers wanting to invest in a quality product that will last longer rather than replacing cheaper items multiple times. If your products offer long guarantees, use this as part of your marketing strategy.

Utilise storytelling to maximise sales

As the Christmas adverts roll onto our screens, savvy marketers will note that the big retailers are focussing more on telling a story than selling specific products. A strategy first used by John Lewis, Marks & Spencer is now looking at getting their brand positioning right, focussing on ‘Spend It Well’ to celebrate the lives of its customers in a “new and innovative way”. Moving away from focussing on products, the narrative taps into research that shows people are looking to spend more money with brands that enable good life experiences.

While you may think this is only attainable for the big players among us, SMEs and smaller retailers can look at making adjustments to their marketing and store layout. Visual merchandising is fast becoming as important to shoppers as prices and so looking at the customer’s journey through your store will help you identify areas of opportunity to match products together and boost sales.

After spending significant sums in the months leading up to Christmas, Blue Monday comes around quickly with shoppers feeling the pinch when credit card bills arrive. While January and February are some of the lowest spending months of the year, building personalised customer journeys that ensure you keep in touch with your audience will help your brand stay front of mind to new and existing customers.

It’s easy to let your marketing strategy drop off the radar come January but don’t forget about new customers that you can focus on retaining ready for next year.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Duologi .