Before positioning a retail store, one must have a deep understanding of their target customer psychological mindset, their decision-making patterns & factors which are influencing their buying decisions now of purchase.
Requirements for Positioning a Brand
A salesman must be smart and quick enough to figure out “Customer’s need, requirements, and the major triggering factors affecting the customer buying decisions. By just communicating with that customer & observing physical as well as mental behavior.”
There is a huge list of factors which may influence purchasing decision, in the article we will discuss some major factors which influence them the most and will also present possible solutions for each one.
Factors which may influence customer purchase decisions
- Income (financial capacity)
- Prestige
- Price
- Environment
- Likes & dislikes
- Personal
- Psychological
- Social or cultural
- Lifestyle
15 key points of designing a retail store positioning strategy
- Design the brand/store in a way that customer forget about outer world till be stays in that store or using that brands.
- Motivating background music in store.
- Ambience must be according to customer physiological mindset (cleanliness, smells good (fragrance selection).
- Design in a way customer don’t feel bored or tired.
- Make sections which will help them to easily find their desired siting area.
- Be careful about their privacy.
- Provide a communicating device in each section like a calling bell or chatting or calling device to communicate with service personnel.
- Offer plenty of payment options.
- Fix the prices so no need to negotiation price.
- Flexibility in product serving (customization)
- Accessibility to everywhere. (home or office delivery service)
- Provide luxurious entertainment even to middle class customers.
- Compare your store with the right competitor & take care of pros and cons against your competitors else they will.
- Give proper importance to your customers, stay engage & don’t let them get bored.
- Sell them their desires not the product or service.
Note;
A store must have all possible alternatives for a product or service. If can’t then just be honest and don’t lie, it may damage the brand value. This honest behavior will make them believe in your brand and loyal as well.
Right now, they may not purchase but when they need the right product your brand offers; they won’t look for any alternates. They will come straight to your store and purchase the product without any second thoughts and conflicts.
Addressing the retail store environmental issues
creating and maintaining an ethical environment in the retail shop is mandatory for its brand value and positioning.
Assurance has a major role in positioning the physical store. It helps build customer’s trust which will results in boosting the purchases. Because now they will sure that if anything in the purchase is as promised and described then they can come back to return and claim for refunds anytime.
Following ways, a store can offer product/service assurance
- Full refund
- Free product offers
But be sure to avoid and take care of false customer claims. There are many ways to face false customer claims. That’s why a business must have detailed transaction record for each purchase customers have made.
Each customer needs to be treated differently accordance with their psychological mind set and their buying decision patterns. A purchase record for existing customers may help to understand their purchasing decision strategy as well as their needs for acquiring a product or service.
Emotional vs Practical Purchasing Needs
If someone is purchasing under the influence of emotional reasons, then share the stories of those customers who purchased the same product with the same emotional needs. Then show them the proofs how their emotional needs were satisfied with your products or services.
Explore the customers’ behavior and assume if they are coming with a practical reason to purchase specific products. Now if you tracked them well via social media photographs or events, they attended using your product or services.
Keep their satisfaction record and advertise it to your new customers. Show them how this benefits them and exceeded their expectations with the service/product you offered. This will stimulate them to make a purchase from you.
Keeping customers for longer time in store
The most important aspect of positioning a brand is customer engagement in this busy routine life. Mostly they don’t have much time to stay for long in a single store. They enter a store, ask for their desired product, price and check its specification then just go without saying anything.
Now a days it’s just too difficult to keep a customer stay for little longer, so a salesperson must act fast to understand his needs and respond accordingly. Storekeepers should provide them with something of their interest instantly which will encourage them to stay little longer.
Here are few advices for storekeepers
- Ask something of their interest right the moment they enter the store.
- Handover a tablet to them which has list of all the products with their specifications and prices mentioned.
- Offer them a seat in a non-commotion area of store where they can peacefully check your products list within the tab.
- If they found any product of their interest, they will ask you to bring it in real so they can compare it with the features described in the tablet.
- Providing customers with something to eat or drink is also a good strategy to keep them in the store and engaged.
Addressing smart customers
But these days customers are smart, they do not accept your offers to eat or drink free in retail stores. There are various reasons for that like self-respect, shyness, trust issues, strange factor, food might be unhealthy, or doubts on increased prices on making the purchase.
So, food customization is a good way to offer something to eat or drink. Making a separate and free section for coffee, snacks, etc. is also a good option. But remember do not make a sitting area for eating or drinking. Customers will pick them and will return to their seats in the store where they were searching and examining the products to purchase.
That’s all from my side, if you have good suggestions feel free to share with the world.