It’s becoming increasingly crucial for brick-and-mortar businesses to do more than provide great products and services if they want to attract customers. They also need to provide exceptional in-store experiences if they want to bring in customers and keep them coming back again and again.
As customers move online to both make purchases and search for the best or most affordable local businesses, a brand must give good reasons for prospects to visit their store. Of course, they can do this by providing great prices, options, and offerings.
But, one of the best ways a business can stand out from competitors and draw in prospects is by offering an in-store experience that customers can’t get anywhere else.
By giving customers a reason to visit your store and get something they can’t get anywhere else, you can attract more foot-traffic, increase your revenue, build brand loyalty, and get customers to come back again and again.
Here are a few ways you can reap these rewards and benefits by offering something special inside of your store.
Integrate Digital and In-Person Experiences
Even if you have a brick-and-mortar business, it’s likely that most of your customer’s brand engagement happens online. They search for your website to find your hours, they browse your website to review your menu, and they get your emails to learn about your deals and discounts. So don’t isolate your online brand experience or separate it from your in-store customer experience. Instead, add elements to your brick-and-mortar business that connect the two.
- Give free WiFi access to customers in your store. WiFi marketing provides an online connection for customers in your store, and it also gives your business an opportunity to collect valuable customer data and insights. From the moment your customers log on, you can show marketing messages and offer ways to engage with your brand (such as browsing your shop, following you on social media, downloading coupon, etc.).
- For large brick-and-mortar locations, you can offer customers a way to navigate through your store via freestanding digital wayfinding kiosks or by adding a feature to your WiFI or website that allows shoppers to search for and find items and departments in your store.
- Another way to use digital screens to provide amazing in-store experiences for customers is by providing interactive touchscreens that allow customers to search through catalogs, select entertaining content, or even process their purchases.
Personalize The In-store Environment
You can upgrade your in-store environment by using tactics and tools that personalize the customer experience and make it feel built for each individual shopper. Online experiences often consider customer habits and history and change the on-site content and information to better match shopper interest and need. You can do the same in your store.
- When users are logged into your free customer WiFi, you can create profiles for them and track their habits in your store. With this technology, you can change what content is on digital screens near them (and match the content to what you think they may be interested in) as they move around your store.
- Using loyalty programs, you can also use what you know about customers to provide more personalized experiences. You can add kiosks that allow shoppers to log in, be greeted by name, review their account, and receive coupons relevant to their past purchases.
- You can even allow customers to use digital signage to control their experience in your store. Touchscreens can put the power in shoppers hands to change content and adjust in-store overhead music.
Turn Your Store Into a Destination
One way to lead more customers to your business is to make it look more like an existing entertainment or educational destination than a store or shop. You can get more customers to visit your location and stay longer when they do by offering in-store experiences that provide more than just your products and services.
- Host featured in-store events, trainings, and open houses at your location. Give away prizes, hold special programs, offer entertainment, host meet-and-greets, and give exclusive access to your store as an incentive to draw shoppers or clients to your location.
- Offer interactive entertainment. You don’t have to host large, live events to draw in shoppers. You can create a consistent stream of entertainment and educational material by setting up screens that customers can interact with to select videos, games, and exclusive content.
- Create an “Instagram worthy” photo opportunity. People crave novelty and want unique experiences, and they like to share those moments when they have them. So set up an interesting or outstanding display in your store that customers will want to snap a photo of and share with their online friends. (This comes with the added bonus of getting more social media exposure.)
Upgrade Every Customer Touch-point
If you’re having trouble looking at your location and identifying ways to improve your store and upgrade the customer experience, take some time to outline every customer touchpoint in your brick-and-mortar location.
- To create a touchpoint map for your business, start by listing each place where your customer interacts with your business from the moment they walk in the door.
- Consider how you can make each touchpoint more simple, appropriate, relevant, or meaningful. What can you add to make every moment feel like a VIP experience?
- Focus on the five senses. What can you add to each touchpoint to make it more appealing to sight, touch, smell, taste, or hearing?
As you work to create amazing in-store experiences, put yourself in your customer’s shoes. Imagine what you would like to have or experience to create a lasting impression and great brand memory.
Draw In Customers Through Amazing In-store Experiences
Now more than ever before, customers want experiences. They don’t want to simply make a purchase or buy an item, they want to have a moment that is unique, valuable, and shareworthy.
Give customers what they want by upgrading the environment at your store and providing amazing in-store experiences. Use the ideas in this post and then, get even more inspiration by downloading our free ebook.