Vic Smith, owner of independent beds retailer Vic Smith Beds, talks about the importance of knowing your local and national diary.
By the time you read this, we should all hopefully be back in the swing of things after the summer holidays and trade picking back up. But have you noticed how the events that happen in the year that can impact on retail and take longer to bounce back from these days?
For example, the first couple of weeks after the school summer holidays seems to drag on longer, parents aren’t interested in sorting the household needs, they are savouring that cup of hot uninterrupted coffee in the local coffee shops. Never mind the extra length half terms, or inset days!
So, we talk to our customers – do you? Do you know the 5 – 10 nearest schools around you (depending if you’re rural or city based)? It’s not just about their shopping requirements, but also current local news or what’s going on – it’s like an extra ear to the ground. This helps us with planning and where to target. The country has seen a few big national events this year, and all of us must have been impacted – for example the World Cup followed by the General Election – it all puts a handbrake on things.
My kids are all grown up so we aren’t as familiar with the school diary, but talking to customers has helped us realise that some schools now do a two week half term in October, and even the reception year has an easing in period of 2 – 3 weeks of very small induction times. So, again, retail shopping takes a back burner.
Do yourself a favour – create a ‘diary’ for the year. Look at what’s coming up both locally and nationally – then tailor your promotions to work around the people that won’t be affected by these. For example, at the end of August, our promotional marketing was based around back to school – you’ve bought the shoes, bought the new phone, but what about recharging your child?
In September, we’ve been asking people if they found they slept better on holiday, or how can we help recreate that hotel feel or look they admired on holiday.
In these times, we have to use every available avenue to get those sales, even though you may not necessarily be able to sell your merchandise via social media, you can still use it as a tool to remind people that you exist – even if it’s a funny meme relating to the product you sell.
Try it yourself. It’s amazing what Google will come up with for you, or even something as simple as posting up customer testimonials. But get people to engage with you via the current events. It humanises your retail outlet – and may even help customers align with you!
People need to remember you when they are buying your goods – after all, you want them to come to you and not your competition. Keep political opinions out of it – you don’t want it to be a ‘negative’ or people to form a bad opinion.
So, you should be looking at your calendar and planning out what you are doing for Halloween and dare we even say it – Christmas! We are!
