Retail Selling, Solo Style

Retailers will have a hard time making money this holiday season, so say the pundits who track consumer trends. Weather-related storms seem to have already put a damper on sales. If that’s true, then retailers will have to devise marketing strategies that makes customers feel they can’t live without buying something.

This is nothing new. Retailers have long complained about how larger retailers take the lion’s share of business. To stay solvent, they’ve had to market by creating monthly ideas to draw in customers.

How does the solo retailer fit into this equation? Plenty of them manage stores in large and small communities as well as online, which are more controllable because there’s no physical store to maintain.

The central ingredient never changes: 1. Know your customer. Then mix in the following:

2. Stock tried-and-true items that are proven sell no matter what the economy.
3. Create private and public events that draw people in, such as food fests and contests that bring in adults and children. Recruit high school and college students to help on a temporary basis. Youthful people attract more youthful people with expendable cash in hand.
4. Maintain an open and steady relationship with the local media to get free publicity that encourages new and veteran customers to keep coming back.
5. Add free gift coupons and other incentives on your Web site to increase your online traffic.

Marketing options will continue to twist and turn, just like weather patterns. Keep your customers updated, and make your environment fun and irresistible. Prove the pundits wrong all the way to the bank.