It’s 2022, and there’s no time like the present to start looking at creative ways to drive foot traffic to your store.
Here are five ideas you can deploy right now to attract more traffic to your store, courtesy of the book “Come Back to Bed.”
- Offer discounts and feed the homeless.
In the U.S. there are over half a million people who experience homelessness each night. With the ever-increasing homelessness and food security problems facing families, you can offer a discount of one percent or a specific dollar amount off for each non-perishable item brought into the store.
For example, give one percent off per item, up to 20 percent. You could also consider becoming a community drop-off location. Want to repurpose some hard-to-sell or slow-moving inventory? Create your own food pantry!
- B1G1 Free Promotion
It may seem simple, but sometimes you don’t have to reinvent the wheel. Do you have excess merchandise you need to offload? Host a buy one get one free sale to clean out your warehouse or just to drive traffic into the store. Go beyond the typical thought of “buy one lamp, get a second free” and spice it up.
– Buy one couch, get a rug for free.
– Buy a refrigerator, get a microwave for free.
– Buy a mattress, get a box spring for free.
Create a limited stock of the higher-priced items and tell people only the first five (or however many) people to purchase get to take advantage of the incentive. - Hoverboards and Rollerblades, anyone?
You pull into the Sonic car stall and after placing your order, a carhop skates out with your order on a pair of rollerblades. It’s a fun experience that is synonymous with America’s drive-in!
Create the same excitement and experience in your store. As you tour the store with the customer, be on roller skates or ride up on a hoverboard. Give customers a scooter to follow along. Create an environment filled with energy. - Host a Wine & Recline Event
Finding enjoyable events to attend that aren’t dependent on weather can be difficult. So, host a wine and recline event that can be hosted in-store!
If you’re fortunate enough to have a local winery nearby, partner with them to provide the alcohol at a discounted rate in exchange for advertising. Up the ante and offer to give away a recliner to one lucky attendee. Show them how enjoyable sipping and sitting can be! - Next Day Delivery, 7 Days a Week.
How often do you browse a website and click “add-to-cart” only to realize the shipping time is too long and abandon the purchase? If you’re like us, it happens all of the time. In our culture, no one has time to waste. It’s how Amazon has created a successful service in its Amazon Prime subscription with their two-day shipping.
In today’s retail furniture environment, we know that the average customer has researched their purchase online before ever coming into the store. By the time they arrive, chances are high they know what they want and if you have it in-store, they want it immediately. Promote that you offer next-day or same-day delivery seven days a week. Create a brand known for in-stock inventory and quick delivery!
You’ll likely need some time to set up these ideas and make them work for your store, so start now and drive more customers to your store this year.
