Non essential retail is opening following many months of enforced closure. For those food retailers who’ve been able to trade during the lockdown this might be a threat to your existing customers and their spend with you, particularly as a stand-alone site.
Despite being classed as non-essential retail, some of these outlets are now more essential (hairdressers as an example) and customers have been eagerly waiting for them to open and are expected to flock to them.
Inevitably, this may break your customers (up-to now) normal lockdown shopping patterns and open up more opportunities to them.
Have you considered how might this affect you?
Visiting these newly opened outlets may take customers further away from you, making a visit to you less convenient – or worse take them closer to a competitor outlet, making them more convenient.
With more opportunity to spend now open, after months of enforced abstinence, will your customers choose to pamper themselves with something other than food?
Indeed might they be keen to eat out? Certainly from May – The last supper out, was over 6 months ago!
Lastly, the retailers that are opening are going to be keen to attract trade (using all means and incentives at their disposal) and whilst many don’t directly compete with food, your non food sales may well be hit.
For these reasons, it’s crucial for Farm Shops to defend their trade, now. Not to stop your customers from letting their hair down, but to keep you in mind as many more shops open and there’s more to distract them from you.
How can you keep yourself front and centre in the buzz of these new shopping opportunities emerging?
The simple answer is promotion (in it’s widest sense).
It may be as simple as a well timed, relevant message (e-mail) to your customers reminding them of what makes you so special – your USPs. With these messages re-iterated around the shop where appropriate – this is after all about retaining your existing customers
But a powerful tool to keep you in your customers minds, in the face of fierce competition for customer spend, will be offers.
- A good offer is not a sign of desperation. Nor does it cheapen your brand, if intelligently designed. It needn’t decrease your revenue either.
- A good offer makes a customer positively re-evaluate the value of shopping with you
- A good offer should help the customer to spend more with you
- A good offer makes a customer more happy than a low price.
- A good offer will help retain your customer base
If you want to talk about how you might seek to retain your current trade in the light of non essential retail opening and what would make a good offer for your customers, then please get in touch.
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