Get your customers from their couch to your store

Customers have gotten a little too used to shopping online, and it can be difficult to know where to start when you want to convince them to come back to your physical store. I mean, how can you argue against the convenience of chilling on the couch, watching Netflix, and shopping at the same time?

However, we can see from this year’s Nets Nordic Payment Report that consumers still have lots of reasons to visit physical stores. While during the pandemic the consumers started to prefer online shopping, shopping in stores is not forgotten and there are aspects where physical stores are even preferred over web shops. Below we have listed 5 tips on how you can turn the trend back around and get your customers back in your store.

1. Offer them a physical-store-exclusive offer

To get the lazy shoppers up from the couch (no judgement, we have all been there), you need to offer them something they cannot get from staying at home scrolling through endless pages of whatever it is they are buying. If you have your own web shop as well, use this as a tool to attract them to you: advertise an offer that is only offered in-store.

If you do not have a web shop, you can use a social media platform or a newsletter to advertise your offer. Special and limited offers offered only to customers visiting in store can help getting your customers up and running towards your location.

2. Host an event

People love to join special events, because it makes them feel exclusive. We often see social media influencers and celebrities joining events like these, and we must admit – it looks quite fun and fancy. This is the same feeling consumers and especially your customers want as well: to feel special. People want to join events that pique their curiosity.

You don’t need to spend a fortune on arranging an event. Events with relaxed atmospheres are often less intimidating to join, especially if they are held on a weekday. You can, for example, create a contest, so that the attendees feel like they get something in return. You can also consider joining forces with other local businesses setting up the event, and benefit from introducing your business to new people.

3. Give a reason to visit

The fast-moving consumer culture has benefitted ecommerce, especially because of its convenience. However, physical store environments have some benefits that online cannot compete with. Buying online can be practical, but sometimes the consumer’s need is right now and not in 2 to 3 business days. In physical stores, you are also able to touch and feel the product, try it out or try it on – or even see how it smells. Those are not unfortunately possible to do online (yet), but that is even more a reason why you should use that to your advantage being in a physical store environment.

You can show the store environment and the available products to your customers through social media and open the discussion on product features and different options and encourage them to come to your store to check them out in person. You can also capture the unboxing process and show which new products are available at the store – and ready to be picked up before even being available online.

Read more on how you can utilize Instagram as a marketing tool here.

4. Make a contest

Contest? Prizes? Who wouldn’t love that! As we see on social media, contests usually pique interest in a wide audience of consumers, and even more so in existing customers. Introducing the thought of being at the store to the customer in connection with a desire to win the experience, can encourage consumers to visit the store themselves, regardless of if they win the competition or not.

Additionally, having a contest, the price of which would be connected to visiting the store in person, can activate the customer base to stop by at your store more often. Having the prize to be connected to the physical store, you’re able to make a closer connection with the winner and provide assistance in person, which can kickstart a new customer relationship and increase the word-of-mouth of your business.

5. Offer people an extraordinary experience

Make sure to create the shop environment to be something pleasant, exciting, and possibly unique. Enticing surroundings encourage the customers to post about your shop to their social media – being the modern channel for word-of-mouth. If you can offer something unique and special at the physical store which the potential customer cannot get just through the online store, it gives you something to stand out from the competition and get people to travel to your store even with longer distances away.

Another way to enhance the shopping or service experience is giving a small gift. This can be cup of coffee or tea, a small treat, or perhaps a small gift with purchase. You can also give extra value to your customers through service. Serving customers online can be convenient for both parties involved, however there is great value in personal connection and individual service, not to mention how that can impact the quality of your customer relationships.

These things do not have to be expensive by value or take too much of extra time, however small details like this enhance the customers’ experience, give them a positive view on your business and give them an intention to come back again.