When you’ve managed to get past the initial hurdles and you’ve kept your business alive, sometimes it’s easy to let things slide a bit. You know the format works and everything’s staying afloat nicely, so no need to do anything radical.
But what if there were ways you could not just stay afloat but soar into the sky? With these steps, you can turn your business from a steady tugboat into a sleek supersonic jet.
1. Get online
OK, the chances are you already have an online store presence. If you haven’t got one already, it’s never too late to start. Why online? The basic truth is that people expect it. And you’re in the business of giving customers what they require. Online means you can satisfy customer needs 24/7, as well as being able to cater for those for whom the trip into town is, for whatever reason, beyond them.
Internet shopping is more popular in the UK than in any other country. 30% of retail activity (up from 20% in 2020) is now conducted through eCommerce. You can’t afford to ignore this.
2. Mind your language
So, now you’ve got your website, you can appeal to the entire world. But, to do so, you need to speak the right language. So, when it comes to working out the faces of your website that customers will see depending on where they are, make sure that you’ve used good translation services, so that it doesn’t come out laughably unintelligible to your target audience. Try to use native speakers’ input. They’ll talk sense.
3. Host events
You can use that website to organise and promote events. Next product launch, do it virtually. Sure, do an actual launch if you want to do something in front of a shop full of people, say, but film it and stick it online. People will love feeling involved in something exciting like this, and now geography’s no barrier.
4. Stay in touch
There are more ways than ever for customers to contact your business. You want to be able to exploit all of these in an easy to use and productive fashion. For this, you need to get on board with unified communications (UC) with a company like Gamma. UC’s a way of putting all the different modes of communication on the same platform, so that your customer service staff can easily stay on top of interactions with customers, no matter which comms method they decide to use that day.
UC also transforms your team communication, enabling greater collaboration than ever before, no matter where they’re based. Because UC loves remote working.
5. Don’t forget to research
Just because you’re doing well, it doesn’t mean further success is guaranteed. In a fast changing world, you need to stay on top of developments and consumer trends (such as knowing what the best selling products are in the market) in order to stay current. And when matters dictate, don’t be afraid to mix things up a bit. Omelettes and eggs.
Take off
The global retail market reached over $26 trillion in 2021. You deserve a bigger share of this. By trying some or all of these steps, your retail business will accelerate into a whole new