Tips and Tricks to Grow Your Retail Merchandising Business

1. Tips and Tricks to Grow Your Retail Merchandising Business What is the first thing that comes to mind when you think of retail merchandising? Is it holiday promotions, cross-merchandising or eye-catching window displays? These things do contribute to a successful strategy, but beyond these things, there are a few tricks that many may overlook. For instance, using retail merchandising analytics and visual merchandising you will be able to optimize your product displays to drive maximum revenue. Here are a few tips and tricks of growing your retail merchandising business using an analytics-driven approach: ●Recognize your target customer and be clear on what your brand stands for: First, you must start with your brand, the story you are trying to tell, your values, and the message you are trying to get across. Also, the ideal buyer must be at the center of all your retail merchandising decisions. You must understand the kind of experience they are looking for and do your best to create it. ●Combine offline and online data: When you analyze offline and online data together, you will get the complete picture of customers’ shopping journeys. As modern customers go through various channels on their way to purchase, evaluating their information in silos will not work as you are likely to get fragmented shopper profiles and you might miss out on key opportunities. ●Implement foot traffic analytics: With tools such as beacons and people counters, you will be able to gather data such as customer dwell times and counts. With that data, you can gather more information on the parts of your store getting the least and most visitors, how much traffic you are getting, and more. ●Use timing to anticipate what customers will purchase next: The question of when someone looked at a product or purchased something can offer insights into what they could purchase next and when. For example, based on what a mother of a 3-year old purchased, a company can anticipate what she will need in a year and can make appropriate product recommendations. ●Combine data with human insights: While algorithms are powerful enough to give you a robust understanding of your business, it is imperative to identify the value of human insights. While your reporting programs and retail analytics can give you vital figures but do not forget to consider the experience and feedback of your team. ●Email marketing software: If you are in touch with your customers through email, do not forget to track times of engagement and open rates. You can get this information with an email marketing software. Open rate data offers insights on the kind of subject lines that works, letting you optimize them going forward. Also, when you find out when people are reading your messages, you will be able to time your campaigns effectively.

2. ●Mix and match your reports: To take maximum advantage of the data you are accumulating, you must consider how the metrics are related to each other. Instead of taking a look at each report independently, see if you can mix it up for better insights. ●Use POS solutions: Today modern POS solutions come with reporting features that can offer useful insights on metrics such as basket sizes, profit margins, sales trends, customer counts, and more. For example, when you look at your sales reports, you will get to know the products that are driving revenue based on which you can plan your stock orders. Retailers who wish to grow cannot afford to miss out on incorporating key data into their decisions. Learning how to collect intelligence and setting up the right systems will be difficult initially, but once you have mastered it, the insights and knowledge you gain will make it worthwhile. Merchandising in retail will continue to evolve, especially with the integration of analytics and merchants must become nimbler and equipped to fulfill customer needs.