October 9, 2023
The Importance of In-Store Shopping: A Better Retail Adventure
Have you ever been shopping in a store and had a nice chat with the friendly store worker? You’re looking at something you like, but it’s not exactly the color you want. So, you mention this, hoping for some suggestions or options to make it work. But instead, they say, “You can find it online.” Awkward, right?
Let me tell you about a similar experience I had recently. I was in a store, having a great time checking out their stuff. The staff were nice and chatted with me. I saw something cool, but the color wasn’t perfect. So, I said, “I’m not sure about the color.” And they replied, “You can find it online.”
That made me cringe a little. I felt bad for the store because we don’t want to encourage people to shop online or at other places when they’re ready to buy something from our store today. We want them to have a great experience and buy right there.
Here’s the thing: We’re not against online shopping, but we should keep in-store shopping awesome too.
So, how can we make in-store shopping better? We need to make sure our store workers know how to help customers and make them feel welcome. They should be able to guide customers toward buying things in the store.
When a customer likes something but isn’t sure about it, our first step should be to explore what we have in the store. Maybe there’s a different color or some cool features they haven’t noticed yet. Let’s make sure they know we care about what they want.
Only if we don’t have exactly what they’re looking for in the store should we suggest looking online or at other stores. But remember, we want them to leave happy with their purchase from our store.
In short, let’s help our store workers get better at giving customers a great in-store experience via some ongoing coaching. This way, our customers will leave happy and buy from us today and in the future. That’s how we can keep our store successful and make our customers smile!
