How to survive during the Coronavirus as a retailer?
We are in troubling times for businesses especially if you are like a lot of our customers, a retailer. You may be having a cash flow crunch, supply chain issues, employee layoff issues and amongst it all, you are wondering how to keep up with sales and people either going to your website or coming to your store (if they can, some states have put a ban on this as of now).
We want to keep this article light and action-oriented on some strategies we have implemented with our customers but you must understand this one thing.
“There are more people on social media now than in the history of the world.”
This is by no means a proven statement. But, think about it. There have never been more people on social media and off of work than right now. This is your moment. Are you taking the necessary actions to set your business up?
Here are our tips:
Facebook Live Videos - Many of our customers are shoe retailers. So, they have dozens of different brands, styles, colors, etc to be able to show. In my opinion, every business needs to constantly have a Facebook ad running that is them going around their store for 2-3 minutes showing people all of their inventory. Essentially, allowing them to “Shop” virtually. If you haven’t done something like this, do it. It will pay off big time!
Action Item - Create a 2-3 minute video on your iPhone and turn this into a Facebook ad. Run it to everyone in the community.
Have Strong Call-To-Actions - What do we mean by this? what do you want people to do? Do you want them to call you for an order? Pick-up curbside? Purchase online? Again, everyone is on social media right now. But, being direct with potential customers is key.
Action Item - Include your store’s number, website, email, etc in all of your posts over the next couple weeks.
Existing customers - People who have bought from you are the easiest people to either get back into the store or repeat purchase. Facebook gives you the ability to upload either an email list or POS customer list to “retarget” or display ads in front of them.
Action Item - Go to your companies POS system, download to an excel and watch the following YouTube video on how to do the upload and begin creating ads to these people. If you don’t know how to do it, call us and we will do it for free. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2PZIK8Sm8AI
Break-even - While this is not a great business strategy it could be what you need to acquire customers at this time. Think about it. If you could acquire 300 new customers and make $0 but then when this all blows over to get 100 of them to instantly shop with you again with the strategy above, that would pay off huge for your business. It is all about knowing the LTV or lifetime value of your customer.
Action Item - Now would be a great time to do some customer data work. What are the top 500 customers worth to your business? Top 25%? Top 100? Etc. Slice and dice this. Do you know out of EVERY single customer, what the average value is to your business?
Website Visitors - Going back after your website visitors for gift card purchases or whatever else you are selling at this time if it is not the physical product can help with cash flow during this time. Ever had a companies ad on Facebook or Instagram pop up 10 seconds after you were just on their website? This is what the company is doing to you.
Action Item - Create a “Website custom audience” on Facebook and begin displaying ads in front of these people who visit your website. This will get you new business. Why? Because these people took the time and searched for your company or something like it on Google more than likely and landed on your website.
Truly, we want to help. We are offering our services for FREE over the next 60 days to anyone that needs it. Preferably a retailer but we truly want to help anyone. Call us and let us walk you through our top 8 strategies and how we can help your business.
