In-Store Sales Strategy Checklist – Make Sure Your Brand is Set Up to Succeed in Brick-and-Mortar
Brands are leaving money on the table with in-store sales, plain and simple. With the push to ecommerce over the last decade, many brands are forgetting that in-store sales still accounted for 84% of overall retail sales in 2023 in the United States. Significantly more if you’re a global brand. But too many of us are putting all our eggs in the ecommerce basket and letting that in-store revenue slip away. This is especially true with sports and active outdoor brands, whose customers happen to prefer to buy in-store.
But, the flip side of that coin is, retail sales come at a higher cost in terms of time and effort: you need brand reps to go out there to educate sales associates on their products and convince store managers to get the displays in the right place. They need to plan and roll out incentive programs and contests. But the returns are worth it.
In 2022, the U.S. Census Bureau reported $7.1 trillion in retail sales… the majority of which took place in-store. And that was still coming out of the pandemic.
So, if the money’s there, how do we make sure your brand is bringing it in?
First things first: you should download our 2024 In-Store Retail Strategy Checklist. In it, you’ll find simple and effective methods to ensure your brand maximizes brick-and-mortar sales.
Here are a few examples:
Digital Education Strategies: We know that sales associates (SAs) who have more information on a product or brand tend to recommend it to customers far more than low-information brands. Making sure SAs are as well-versed as possible in your products leads to greater sales. Traditionally this has been the realm of brand reps. The problem is brand reps can’t be everywhere all the time. If they come in for an education session on a Wednesday and the store’s top salesperson misses it because they only come in on Saturday, they won’t be pushing your product. Now we can make brand reps’ jobs a bit easier by outfitting them with a digital assistant like Endvr. They can make sure all the educational materials are in Endvr which means sales associates can get the info they need before, during, and after every shift.
Data-Supported Sales Solutions: Data is king nowadays. The brands that have access to data faster can make adaptations quicker than their competition. Agility and data-driven strategies are essential for brands these days. It’s vital to quickly adapt to market shifts and consumer trends. Having the right tools for insights into store performance, real-time sales, and inventory management is key for enhancing customer experiences. Adopting a service like Endvr means you have all your in-store data at your fingertips 24/7.
In-Store Experience Enhancement: That’s a bit of a mouthful, isn’t it? But it just means making sure you have the most effective visual merchandising and customer engagement possible. The National Retail Federation suggests that up to $104 billion is wasted annually due to poor in-store visual execution. That’s not something you or your brand can afford. By using Endvr, you can communicate effectively with Store Managers instantaneously, getting visual feedback from them on your visual merchandising.
These are just a few of the things we talk about in our 2024 In-Store Retail Strategy Checklist, so if you want to make sure you and your brand are set up to make the most out of your in-store sales, get that checklist downloaded now and see how prepared your brand is to send their in-store sales through the roof!
For further insights on how ENDVR can enhance your brand and success stories from similar brands, visit endvr.io and talk with one of our sales experts.