Newsagents in regional and rural situations can be surprised when a new customer shops with them and it turns out the person is a local.
If you are in a regional our rural situation and have been surprised to discover a local who didn’t know about your shop, think how you can reach more like them.
It could be that with some carefully targeted marketing in your area you can reach new shoppers who could conveniently shop with you but don’t. Maybe they have an assumption about what you sell when your product and service offering is more diverse that their expectation.
With local letter box drops in rural and regional situations often more cost effective than in the city, consider engaging in a campaign to educate locals about your business and the products and services you offer which they most likely would not expect to find in your business.
Invite locals in for an experience beyond what they may assume and, hopefully, you unlock a bunch of new customers.
The alternative is to stand behind the counter waiting for people to walk through your doors based on their assumption of what your type of business sells.