During the holiday shopping season, consumers are on the hunt for retail bargains and special in-store promotions to fulfill their shopping goals. In order to meet this challenge, retail stores create special deals or programs to encourage increased traffic to their locations. But implementing an in-store promotion strategy that is both successful and profitable can often be a challenge for business operators. Knowing which product or service to showcase, how much to invest, and what your anticipated return on investment (ROI) should be, is vital to determining success.
Success Starts with a Plan
Lacking a clear objective for an in-store promotion often leads to little or no significant change in the revenue stream. Having a blueprint ahead of time that specifies your goals is the key to ROI and increased foot traffic.
Decide which products are most likely to move during the promotion, perhaps depending on the time of year. New arrivals may be the key to engaging your customers, or maybe they respond better to end-of-season discounts. You may also want to tie the promotion into your loyalty rewards program. Base your decisions on sales data from your point of sale (POS) system, but also on data from your people counter that will show whether foot traffic increased during past promotions.
It’s imperative to monitor results of promotions, measure their success, and make adjustments to future promotions based on this information. Knowing what works and what doesn’t work is crucial to the continued success of your retail business.
Here are four metrics to monitor to make sure your in-store promotions are on point:
- Revenue: Measure the financial investment against actual sales around the promotion to help determine ROI. If ROI is there and profit margin is high, then you know the in-store promotion was successful.
- Volume: Determine if the amount of inventory moved by the promotion met or exceeded anticipated projections. The more you sell means increased ROI.
- People: By using a people counter, you can measure how many people visit your promotional display. If the results show increased foot traffic or dwelling by consumers, you can bet promotional signage and displays caught their attention.
- Marketing: Measure the effectiveness of your direct mail, coupons, email marketing or social marketing. The number redemptions or engagements through these efforts will help you determine the best ways to reach your unique customer base.
When you combine and analyze these results, you can determine if your promotion was successful and make adjustments to future tactics to help increase revenue.
These four helpful tips, along with proper planning and clear, attainable goals, will make your in-store promotions successful and even help build customer loyalty that can give you an ROI that continues far beyond the latest “can’t miss” sale.