Marketing -in-store

In the age of increasing retail competition and trouble-free internet purchasing, retailers need to make every effort to attract shoppers and their families and keep them in the store for hours. With this in mind, retailers are reforming in-store experience by targeting shoppers’ wits through in-store entertainment. Visualise an in-store experience noticed in some stores internationally - a Dick's Sporting Goods prototype store lets you practise your golf swing while, say, your daughter perfects her archery technique. Geoffrey, new mega store chain from the Toys ‘R’ Us family, has children's hair stylists and photographers for family snapshots. Mazda provides espresso and play-stations. That's entertainment in retail style.

 

Need for retail entertainment

Today, people are no longer happy in just going to a functional edifice to shop because shopping in India has graduated from a mundane routine activity to a great outing experience. This excitement needs to be matched by an equally exciting retail environment. While it’s unproven that in-store entertainment can make a bad store good, it can certainly make a good store great. A retail store, which is a place of excitement and fun gives its customers a reason to come back again and again.

Another reason for store owners’ losing business is that the curiosity element about them has vanished. While organised retailing has made Indian retail scene aglow, there is still only a handful of brands in India and all their stores are identical to each other. Therefore, the customer does not get a brand new expereince at these stores. Hence, footfalls at shopping malls may be increasing but the conversion rate in the stores is not more than 10 per cent and bulk of prople merely windowshop with the result that sales at stores are dropping by around 20 per cent.

 

Retail entertainment ideas

People's ideas of fun can be very diverse; therefore, each entertainment experience has to be different. Those putting a stake into retail entertainment have to create a clearly executable idea with market demographics to back it up. Retail entertainment is not all hype and dynamic displays. Retail entertainment doesn’t even have to be an expensive venture.  The more creative you are, the more inexpensive and you can come up with unique promotions. Retail entertainment, used in promotional marketing, can create a more dynamic business image that will continually entice customers and increase sales.

Retail stores can plan unique promotions like charity fund-raisers, themed promotions, VIP party events, drawings and fun contests. While such events are good idea during the lean months when sales of stores drastically come down, retail experts like Debbie Allen feel that a retailer does not need to wait until business slows down to decide what they need.

 

Marketing retail event

A retailer needs to decide on how he plans to advertise each event. For example, one could send out a direct mail postcard, advertise in local newspapers or radio station, and/or promote it through the media with a press release. For individual stores, close TV circuits (CCTV) can inform consumers about the forthcoming programmes. Projector screens in malls can also be used to tap the incoming traffic in the mall.  

Advance planning of in-store entertainment is a must so as to decide on when and how the events are to be organised. Budget allocation is made for the entire year. “We fix certain percentage of total revenue for retail entertainment but it varies from business to business.” informs B.S. Nagesh, MD, Shoppers Stop.  

 

Retail entertainment purpose

Retail entertainment is about creating an exciting moment for the customer. When they walk into a store, you want them to say ‘wow’ to the products.

Mr Nagesh says, “If retailers to make their relationship with customers ‘loyal’, they should organise in-store extraordinary activities and sales promotion for their customers. Such activities not only pull the crowd to their stores but also push the sales up by 5 – 10 per cent.”  Though regular events during festival, off-season or wedding season are part of the retail entertainment, special events are organised during the lean period of the year. Such events increase footfall by 15 to 20 per cent and sales go up to 10 per cent, reveals Nagesh. In jewellery retailing where, perhaps, customer loyalty is anyway higher than in fashion or footwear retail, retailers ( jewelers) feel that, without organising any retail entertainment either in-store or any other place, it is not possible to reach one’s loyal customers. During festival and wedding seasons, sales go up to around 25 to 30 per cent while in lean seasons like monsoon, sales go up to 10 to 15 per cent by organising retail entertainment. Such events attract ‘real’ customers towards the brands. Smeeta Neogi, Marketing Head - Westside, adds, “Westside is the pioneer in organising fashion show and other entertainment activities for their sales promotion and crowd-pulling during lean seasons. We organise mega events at our stores across the country and invite celebrities from Bollywood and other fields.  For young consumers of tier-II cities, we also organise fashion shows. We also organise special fashion shows and events for college students. Organising fashion shows and inviting popular celebrities are proving to be a big crowd-pullers and this gives boost to our sales.” In this regard, Crossword’s store manager at Select Citywalk mall, divulges, “Footfalls at the Crossword went up by around 15 per cent whenever any new title of book was unveiled in the presence of author.”

Today, Indian retail chains are beefing up their marketing activities to recharge their brands. Retailers like Pantaloons, Ebony, Shoppers Stop and Westside plan to step up marketing spends for more in-store activities which include, among others, shows for women and kids.

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