Three strategies for physical clothing stores to rebound after resuming work ...

Recently, I encountered many retail clothing store owners in WeChat groups complaining: "My store has been open for several weeks now, but customer traffic is pitifully low. I feel like I can't sustain it. What should I do?" I believe this is also the worry of many brick-and-mortar retail clothing store owners right now.

Look at the current situation: the epidemic has accelerated the closure of countless stores. On the one hand, market competition is becoming increasingly fierce; on the other hand, customers are developing a "revenge saving" mentality, making them more cautious about spending.

Speaking of this, everyone is discussing several questions:

How long can your store last?

Do you know how to adjust your business after resuming work?

Do you know how to grab as many customers as possible when there is little customer flow?

If you can't think of the answer for the moment, why not listen to the editor of Xintu Mannequin Hanger:

1. Improve visual effects and grab eyeballs

After resuming work, if you want customers to enter the store quickly, the editor believes that the most important thing is to learn how to catch the customer's attention. Why?

It's a very realistic problem: everyone's income has dropped significantly during the long holiday, leading to a decrease in overall spending power. "If you can't make money, you can only save."

But in reality, customers' desire to spend is only temporarily "suppressed," not "eliminated." As long as customers still want to buy, opportunities for physical store owners will always exist.

How to capture customers' attention? Both the store and the products are essential.

Let’s talk about shops first. Take retail clothing stores as an example:

1. The mannequin props on the door head should be eye-catching to increase the rate of entering the store

The door head must be eye-catching enough, whether it is lighting or window mannequin props, try your best to attract customers. After all, the time passing by the store is only a few seconds.

Secondly, it's all about taking advantage of price.

Even though people don't have much spare cash these days, if they see the retail clothing store downstairs offering "30% off" or "buy one get one free," they're still tempted to check it out. No one dislikes a good deal.

After attracting customers into the store, it is important to retain them as much as possible.

Before the pandemic, many store owners ignored the use of mannequin props, believing that customers were simply there to buy things and that as long as their products were good, they would pay for them.

Little do they know that cramming mannequin prop displays, messy traffic flow design, and uncoordinated color combinations can make even the most beautiful items appear cheap, significantly dampening the desire of shoppers to spend.

3. Strict product selection to improve transaction rate

The store must be well run, and the products in the store must also stand the test.

In the past, many people would buy almost all the clothes they liked as a set when they went shopping. But now they might be thinking: This top is a great deal, but these pants are similar in style to the ones I have at home. Why not just buy the top and save some money? Are customers unwilling to spend? No, it's probably because your product selection and the matching of your mannequin props aren't appropriate, and haven't yet convinced customers to part with their money. Therefore, retail clothing store owners who have resumed work may need to be more thoughtful when choosing their products. How much should I stock for basic styles? How much for trendy and experimental styles should I stock? These are all things that need to be carefully considered.

Second, extended services to improve shopping experience

The improvement of visual experience is one aspect, and the extension of in-store services is another.

The reason why many customers like to go to physical stores is that physical stores can show them a real shopping environment and a more surprising human mannequin prop scene experience. Why are people willing to travel thousands of miles to IKEA for something as daunting as buying furniture? Or wait in long lines for hours for a hot pot meal? It's because these stores offer a level of experience and service unavailable elsewhere. Similarly, when customers walk into a retail clothing store, they want a professional stylist who can offer advice on their outfits. Clothes designed for mannequins aren't always suitable for everyone. While everyone may like them, they may appear beautiful from a general perspective, but not every body type will be suited to them. Therefore, staff members are required to improvise outfits. Ask yourself: How many employees working in retail clothing stores still think of themselves as just a “shopping guide”? How many people blindly recommend and praise products to customers, regardless of whether they are suitable or not?

When a customer walks in, can you immediately identify their body shape and style?

Can you immediately provide them with the best matching plan?

In the future, traditional "salesmen" will be eliminated, replaced by consultants who know how to match clothes.

If stores that reopen want to attract more customers than the ones next door, improving service is essential.

Third, provide training and empower employees

If you want to quickly improve your performance, in addition to serving customers well, you must also manage your employees well.

In the post-epidemic era, it is very important to cultivate an "all-round" employee. After all, with cash flow tight now, few store owners should choose to recruit a large number of talents.

What's more, many employees already feel that balancing online and offline work is tiring and that they feel like they are just working for their boss.

A smart boss should learn to help employees correct these misconceptions.

Therefore, the first thing to do is to provide existing employees with professional training as much as possible.

For online businesses, how can we conduct live streaming, tap into private domain traffic, and quickly acquire customers?

For offline businesses, how can we optimize the conversion of online traffic, how can we make the transition from "shopping guide" to "styling consultant," and how can we provide customers with the best matching solutions?

This will not only improve store performance, but more importantly, it will significantly enhance the skills of our employees.

Secondly, it is about stabilizing our existing staff.

The store's mannequin prop display, experience, and product selection are not something that the boss can do alone.

If the boss is the helmsman, then the employees are the driving force that drives the ship forward.

Running a business is about managing people.

How do you make employees understand that they are not working for the boss, but for themselves?

How do you develop the best plan to make employees feel that they have "earned"?

These are the "internal skills" that a physical store owner must cultivate.