We moved our social stationery recently and in the course of undertaking this work customers noticed items and purchased them on impulse. Every retailer has stories like this. Experiencing it is a reminder of the value of moving stock regularly, or working with stock on the shop floor – being more accessible to customers who want to ask questions but who will not ask over the counter.
The new location for our social stationery is working well, sales lifted immediately. Customers buying a newspaper easily see this range as do many of our magazine customers – leveraging this circulation traffic is a key goal of the move.
By moving the social stationery, we have been able to create a better retail story in our cards and gifts department.
This has been key in my business recently…I have now implemented a ‘clear counter’ policy, (I am an in-conjunction licensed Post Office) so that customers have the room they need when filling out forms etc. From this, I have moved any counter stock to shelves behind the counter and as I only sell a few newspapers a day, I have one of each of the newspapers hanging from clips behind me. This strategy has been excellent in driving growth of my newspaper sales and has also drawn comments about the fresh, uncluttered feel of the counter.
I shift my store around every few days, just moving one or two things to allow for customers to notice that something is always different.