This week, I sat down with Karen Wong, the CEO and Founder of both ACE POS solutions Ltd. and TAKU Canada Ltd. She stresses that while the retail industry is going through many changes, the reality is that, physical retail is far from dead.
About Our Founder
Before co-founding TAKU Canada, Karen has been a part of several ventures – from being a small retail business owner herself, to working in marketing,manufacturing, and wholesale. Her passion lies in helping retailers sell more by building solutions that drive store growth.
The goal of this video series is to share Karen’s broad knowledge of retail and marketing with fellow store owners.
This talk will dive deeper into the importance of physical retail and the pros and cons of physical retail vs. e-commerce.
Enjoy!
Do You Think Physical Retail is Going to Die?
Everybody has probably heard of the “retail apocalypse” – meaning physical stores are dying. The headlines are all about how the big chains are closing down. But in my opinion, it’s heavily overblown. The reality is that 85% of retail is still physical!
It’s not just about one channel. Increasingly, it’s all about being accessible to customers wherever they are. Because customers don’t just want to engage through shopping – they want to engage through discovery.
What is Shopping and What is Consumption?
There is a difference between shopping and consumption.
Shopping means that there is a discovery process. It means you are looking for something but you need more information.
Consumption means you that you are just refilling the pantry. You buy the same brand every time so you just need to find a place to buy it from. In this case, people may just go online.
Why do you Push Physical Retail so Much?
A lot of our customers are established businesses. That means that they are already profitable businesses with fixed costs. But these fixed costs are covered by the fact that they have ongoing business that covers those costs.
Retailers should be leveraging their business while trying to grow their physical and digital channels.
Right now, many of our customers have those established doors and there’s so many reasons you want to push physical retail vs. only e-commerce.
When people say that “I have to go digital, I need to open an e-commerce store”, my first question to them is: have you optimized everything you are doing in your physical store?
You already pay those fixed costs. Everything you sell, you make a higher margin because your fixed costs are already covered.
What are the Pros and Cons of E-commerce vs. Physical Retail?
There are so many pros and cons to e-commerce.
Pros: everybody wants to be found immediately and they want their catalog up there – because shoppers like to see that information. But at the same time, there are huge costs associated with e-commerce.
Cons:
People are much more price conscious online vs. in-store.
Free shipping is a massive cost.
People are more inclined to return items online. The return rates are proven to be more than double than what they are in-store. People are more likely to return online because there isn’t that interaction where people have guilt involved – when you are returning something to the store and you know it shouldn’t be returned.
So you have to think about these additional costs of going digital. Even though there are supposedly no overhead associated with those sales.
What are the Benefits of Leveraging Physical Retail?
Other things you want to think about is that if you don’t leverage physical retail, you are missing out on things such as impulse buys. When a person comes into the store looking for one thing, they often leave with multiple things. It happens to me and still happens to me all the time!
You should also consider thinking about cross-selling and up-selling. You have people in the store and you yourself (if you are in the store) are probably the best person to tell people “that item that you’re looking at really goes well with this”. Or maybe even get them to buy something even better than what they were originally considering.
The Future of Physical Retail
All of these things and moments are part of the reasons why I don’t think physical retail is going to die. It’s just going to be a major core or focus of retail as we move forward.
I mean after all, you are seeing more and more pure e-commerce businesses are opening physical stores because they’ve realized they can make more money in physical stores than they can online.
It means more engaged customers that come back with repeat business.
Data Analytics in Retail
Another thing that you want to note is data analytics in retail(this is where I talk a lot to customers about using technology). Those stores are famous for using data and using the data well to make sure that everything they are doing in that physical store is being driven by some type of statistic or analytics.
This is kind of my reason for encouraging customers to really reconsider re-vamping or reviewing the operations of their physical store first.
Are you looking for the right images to use in your Father’s Day marketing campaign?
You’ve come to the right place!
As a Father’s Day gift, we have put together some free stock images for our retailers. Feel free to use these images as you would like. Whether you’re in need of photos for your website, online store, or your social media – we’ve got you covered!
Father’s Day is just a few days away! And although the holiday is not as big as Mother’s Day, retailers can still take advantage of the special day to increase their store sales.
So keep reading to find out how you can take advantage of shopper spending habits.
Offer a Free Father’s Day Gift With Every Purchase
“Gift with purchase” promotions are a great way to increase your store’s average order value. This type of promotion offers every shopper who spends a certain amount in-store, a free item (a gift-box, gift-card, store merchandise etc.).
I mean what shopper doesn’t like free items?
Uniqlo is a great example of a retailer that successfully implemented this strategy. For every $50 spent in-store, Uniqlo shoppers received a free Father’s Day gift box.
“Gift with purchase” promotions can increase your store sales because:
1) It makes it easy to up-sell. Say for instance, a shopper is checking out and they are $5 dollars away from receiving a free item. This promotion strategy will encourage them to go back and purchase additional merchandise – increasing your store’s average order value!
2) It drives traffic to your store. Offering limited time, in-store promotions will create a sense of urgency in shoppers. “Gift with purchase” promotions make it seem like shoppers are getting a higher value for a lower cost. Simply put, shoppers will feel that they are getting more than what they paid for – making it harder for them to walk away.
Use Father’s Day related keywords so you can appear higher up in search results. Promote your in-store offers and Father’s Day related sales/discounts. Feature a gift guide that includes all of your Father’s Day merchandise.
Promote your in-store offers,discounts, and events. It’s important that you make your e-mail time sensitive by including dates (for ex: offer only valid from June 1st – June 16th.). This way, you’re creating a sense of urgency among shoppers!
Buy one get one free (BOGO) deals. Shoppers have a hard time staying away from these deals! This is because they feel that they are getting more bang for their buck. It also encourages them to buy higher priced merchandise.
Discounted Merchandise. Reducing prices on all or select merchandise can be extremely effective in increasing store sales. When backed by a great marketing campaign, it helps 1) increase traffic to your store 2) sell overstocked or slow moving merchandise and 3) produce brand awareness for your store.
Hosting an event is a great way to drive new and existing shoppers to your store. There are different ways to provide a fun and memorable experience for local shoppers. Some great ideas include:
Hosting a “Kid’s Craft for Dad” event where children are invited to create art for their fathers.
Hosting a Father’s Day photo session. Make sure to set up a nice backdrop in your store. You can also create an incentive for shoppers to share their pictures on social media – by running a contest! For example, shoppers who share the post on social media and tag your store can be eligible for a $100 gift card.
Hosting a BBQ or block party. Think about holding Father’s Day themed games so fathers can compete with their children!
Selling gift basket bundles is a great way to increase sales while offering shoppers a convenient and special gift. It’s important that you bundle your best selling merchandise with slow sellers. This way, you can get rid of slow moving stock – freeing up your shelf space for new inventory.
Creating a point-of-purchase display with all of your Father’s Day merchandise is a good idea. This makes it easy for shoppers to find a gift of interest – rather than walking through multiple aisles to search for one.
As mentioned above, it is also a good idea to create a separate page on your website for Father’s Day. To make things even more convenient, display your Father’s Day gift guide or give your shoppers product recommendations.
Other ways to provide convenience include offering:
Gift wrapping services.
Father’s Day cards as add-on’s to every purchase.
Smaller gift baskets at checkout so shoppers can easily and affordably add to their orders.
We hope you found these tips helpful. Happy Father’s Day and happy selling!
We know how busy store owners can get (we’ve been there) and we want to help you save time! So as a gift to our retailers, we’ve put together a collection of free stock images for Mother’s Day!
Feel free to use these images for your Mother’s Day marketing campaigns. Happy Mother’s Day!
It’s no secret that Google is the most powerful search engine in the world.
So if you’re looking to drive traffic to your online store, why not start with Google shopping?
What is Google Shopping?
Google shopping (also known as Product Listing Ads or PLAs) is an advertising service offered by Google. It allows shoppers to view and compare products they are interested in purchasing.
The ads appear above search results with a product image, product rating, price, and store information.
For example, if you use Google to search for “gym shoes”, a section will appear on the upper part of the page with images of different products.
They are effective because they stand out, making shoppers more likely to click on them. This means increased visibility for your online store.
Attract Better Store Traffic
With Google Shopping, products are displayed based on the keywords used by a shopper in your area. This means your merchandise will be shown to local shoppers who are already interested in your products! So your advertising dollars will be spent on the right shoppers. Simply put, if a shopper isn’t interested in your products, your ads won’t be displayed.
This is why Google Shopping will help you drive more relevant traffic to your online store in comparison to other ad platforms. Google Shopping ads also have a 11% lower average order value compared to text ads, offering a higher return on investment.
Have Multiple Ads Appear for a Single Search
Multiple products offered by your store can be shown during a single search with Google Shopping. For example, if you searched for “women’s running shoes”, multiple products from Lululemon appear. This can help increase awareness of the different product lines that your store carries.
You may also notice that your products will appear under related keywords. Ultimately, this helps you reach a greater number of local shoppers.
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By offering limited time promotions, you can sell more by:
1) Driving more traffic to your store. Shoppers will hurry to your store to see what deals they can find. So egg-cite shoppers with discounts on their favourite items!
2) Upselling by offering products in Easter packages. Package discounted items with regular price items to encourage shoppers to spend more.
Running an Easter contest on social media is an easy way to engage younger consumers. Make it fun and interactive!
Some good ideas include having your followers guess how many Easter eggs are in a basket. Or have them upload their funniest Easter pictures and tag your store.
So why not hold an Easter egg hunt for adults? Place Easter eggs around your store holding promotions, gift cards, or special prizes. Use signage to remind shoppers to look out for Easter eggs and to redeem their prizes at check-out.
Other good ideas include tagging all discounted merchandise with an Easter bunny and using bunny feet to lead shoppers to your sale items.
We hope you found these tips helpful. Happy Easter!
