How To Increase Walk-Ins In Your Retail Space

The customer walk-in experience is a vital part of every business because they are the backbone of a company, but this has been under-utilized and ignored by most companies. More visitors generally equates to more sales, so it’s vital to keep a steady flow of customers turning up at your doors since the most crucial aspect of any business is the customers.

What Does The Word Walk-In Mean?
It simply means the visitation of customers or potential customers into your physical business space to patronize your business.

Walk-ins represent a potential boost to your store revenue, provided you can convert them to paying customers. You can attract more walk-ins by running special promotions or events, but it is equally important to encourage shoppers to keep returning to your store because they remember the good service that they received.

To continue growing your business, you need a strategy to keep a steady flow of new and existing customers.

Here are some of the best ways to increase walk-ins in your retail space

1. Location
Your shop location and visibility are important factors in determining levels of walk-ins. A physical shop that is convenient for your target market or based in a prime retail location, such as a mall, benefits from high numbers of passing shoppers compared to other locations.

If you want to draw in new customers, you need to make sure it’s quick and easy for them to find your shop. Keep your website Store Locator up-to-date with all your shop information, including addresses, contact details and opening times.

Google research shows that 88% of people who run a local search on their smartphone visit a related store within a week, so make sure your Google My Business listings are regularly maintained.

Lastly, outside your stores, use a signage board or banners to capture the attention of those walking by.

2. Create A Positive First Impression
The first impression of a business is often made within seconds. Therefore, it’s necessary to ensure that customers feel welcome and appreciated during their initial encounter with your company, especially if they visit the office for the first time.

Customers should be welcomed with warm smiles on the faces of the staff and should be offered the best reception ever at the same time, customers will feel appreciated.

3. Encourage Social Shares And Location Tagging
Social media have become an integral part of our lives, so encourage customers to mention your store and the services you provide online. Organize a competition where participants need to tag themselves in your store to have a chance to win a prize. You can also create a special social media wall where customers can take photos of the items they tried or bought.

Use any opportunities you can to encourage customers to promote your stores online for you. It could be, posting shopping selfies on Instagram, using some particular hashtags to enter store competitions or simply tagging their location, this helps to raise awareness.

Also, note that inviting visitors to follow you on social media is very important. You might have a retail store, but internet presence is still crucial to attracting shoppers.

4. Promotions And Sales
Promotional events can attract potential customers to a store. Recent research has found that 80% of customers are actively looking for deals in stores, and 36% of shoppers state that sales influence their choice of in-store retailer.

Make sure your in-store promotions are boosted via your digital channels and highlighted in your window displays so you don’t miss online visitors or passing foot traffic.

Running promotions in conjunction with special offers on related products can boost sales as well as store traffic. Well-advertised sales and great promotions can really boost your walk-in customers, but be also mindful that overdoing discounts has the potential to devalue your brand.

5. Host Events In Your Retail Store
Let your shop sponsor an activity or event by being its host. If you are into clothing, you can invite a particular designer or brand to hold a fashion show in your shop. If you are into health supplements, you can invite some loyal customers to talk first-hand about their experience with your products. And how good it has been working for them.

Simply use them to raise awareness of your store and help build your brand in person. The familiarity and memorable experience will mean there’s a higher likelihood that attendees will want to stay up-to-date with your future events and visit your store when they’re next in the area.

6. Your Business Reputation
Your reputation can be an important factor in attracting more walk-in customers. A store with a reputation for low prices, a wide range of stock or good customer service has a strong advantage over other stores in a neighbourhood. Promote your reputation by advertising or getting press coverage for special achievements, such as a customer service award.

Use social media to spread the word about your reputation. Allowing customers to leave comments on your website enables other potential customers to get an independent opinion of your store. By building a strong reputation, you can ensure that your store name registers with passing shoppers and attracts more walk-ins.

7. Get Feedback From Customers And Your Shop Assistance
Ask your customers what would make them visit your retail shop. Also, get feedback from your store teams about what would work best in their stores.

These insights are vital in improving the store experience and getting more shoppers through your doors. This two-way communication between you and your shop assistants can ensure your marketing is always installed correctly in stores, and your teams can give you real-time feedback about your campaigns.

8. Mobile Users
Mobile technology can help you attract more walk-ins. Mobile phone users can sign up for a service that enables them to receive marketing messages on their cell phones when they are in the vicinity of a participating store. Sending a text message about a special offer or other promotion in a store is currently the most popular form of location-based marketing.

9. Measure
If the task of attracting more walk-ins is an important objective for your business, you must be able to measure the changes in store traffic that result from different campaigns. Understanding the reasons for changes in in-store traffic is a prerequisite for success in retail. You can measure the number of walk-ins by installing a traffic counting system that uses sensors or video cameras at the entrance to your store.

This can also be done by staff physically counting the customers entering the store using a manual clicker. Or, more accurately, by using people counting sensors in your entrances.

10. Provide A Great Experiences For Your Customers
Giving your employees thorough training to make sure they provide excellent customer service to minimizing queues at check out, your stores should be clean and tidy. In your in-store marketing, music, lighting and even the smell of your stores should be welcoming, make sure you can manage and maintain every detail to form an enjoyable shopping atmosphere.

If you want shoppers to stay a little longer, provide a comfortable seating area or a games corner for children (and grown-ups) to take a short shopping break. And offering free in-store WiFi is also guaranteed to keep your customers happy. You can use it to see if they want to sign up for your email newsletter before connecting. All these will offer a great all-around experience for your customers.

In Conclusion
To increase footfall in your stores, you need to ensure they are easily located (online and offline), utilize your digital marketing tools to promote them, provide incentives for repeat visits, offer helpful additional services, have enticing window displays and ensure great, memorable in-store experiences.