SIGNS OF SUCCESS: Effective Strategic Visuals

Signage is not just about simple designs or wayguides because a simple sign can do a whole lot more such as increasing the revenues as well as drawing attention to your iinventory which maybe you’re hoping to offload. Simply put, each sign that you create is an opportunity to communicate with potential customers about your products and your company.

Every business should consider using a defined style guide for their brand story when creating both permanent and temporary signage design to keep everything consistent and on brand.

So, how do you master the art of signage design to tell your brand’s story and boost your sales in the process? Let’s examine the types of signage designs commonly used in retail stores, and further highlight their potential benefits.

Signage Designs

Signages can either be promotional, informational, or even entertaining. These different kinds of signs do different things. Here we will outline the types of signage you should be focusing on as a retail store:

#1. Outdoor Signage: Best for creating awareness of your store, and getting people interested enough to come inside.

#2. Informational Signage: Provide the customers with much needed information (i.e. directions to the restroom), but also make the overall experience smooth.

#3. Persuasive Signage: These are signs that drive the customers to make a purchase.

#4. Mats: Great in helping orient the customers within the store, and drive traffic to specific areas of interest.

A good signage drives customers into the store while gives passersby a glimpse of your products and your brand, while a great signage even increases sales. On the other hand, a well-designed sign has a clear message, an appealing look, and is placed in just the right location.

Also, effective signage can even save you significant amount of money by acting as your salesperson, directing customers to what they’re looking for and answering questions they may have. This in turn frees up more time for the team members you do have on the floor to do other tasks and help customers in other ways — saving your business time, effort, and money. Successful signs provide others benefits, including creating a path for customers to follow through your store that drives them towards inventory that you’re looking to offload.

So now, let’s take a look at what you can do to create the best signs that will help boost sales for your retail business. Here’s how to optimize signage design for your storefront

The Size

Every sign has an ideal size. Outdoor signage should be large enough that passersby notice it on foot or in their cars, billboards need to be big enough to see quickly from afar, tabletop signage should be small enough to fit on countertops but big enough for the average person to read. So, what’s the magic recipe for designing the message on these signs?

The Benefits

What’s the goal of this particular type of signage? Compared to informational or entertaining signs, those that attempt to drive a sale have the hardest job. There are certain kinds of signs that catch people’s attention, including clearance sales and massive discounts. But if the goal is to drive sales for a specific product, then you’ll want to focus on the features and benefits of that item.

It’s tempting to tell customers about the features and expect them to understand the benefits of the product, but it’s better to speak to the benefits of the product directly. Letting people know that this product solves a problem for them, makes their life easier, or fills a need for them or someone they love is the best way to pique their interest.

Obviously it’s all in the phrasing of your message — and it doesn’t hurt to include a clear call to action that explains how your potential customers should move forward to enjoy the benefits of your product.

Keeping  It Short and Simple

As for the message and images that you select, the simpler the better. In the world of retail, the industry standard is that most signs should not contain more than 15 words. If you need more than 15 words to convey your message, then try to edit it and get it under that mark. Anything longer and you risk losing the attention of your audience or overcomplicating your message.

If you have something like a complicated promotion that you just can’t explain on a sign, then boil the message down to one CTA to get customers interested enough to come inside and ask salespeople for more information.

Once you’ve decided on your message, identify the graphics/images (if any) that are needed on the sign. Again, be short and to the point — lose any images that aren’t absolutely necessary or don’t add intrigue to the sign.

Finally, select a font that is readable and ensure that there’s a sharp contrast between the font and background. You’ve done the work to write great copy and you want to make sure that it’s legible. Pick a font that isn’t ornate, has consistent spacing, and doesn’t distract from the message. When it comes fonts, Design Shack explains further: “Other typography considerations include the use of bold or italics. Bold lettering can help aid in readability from a distance. Just make sure letters are properly kerned so that there is no confusion from a distance. Italics are troublesome and can be difficult on the eye; avoid them on signs.”

Being Eye-Catchy

People are bombarded with signs everywhere they go. When they see the same thing all the time, they start to tune it out. Keep your signage interesting and unique to stand out from the crowd. Witty signs that make people laugh are a great way to break through the noise and be eye-catching.

There’s a design trend recently to move towards neutrals. The truth is that there’s a popular emotion response to every color. Companies have been using the psychology of color to help design their brand logos and signs. So, have you already thought what you want your brand to represent and what you want people to feel when they look at your signs? Do you want people to be excited about a new product? Or feel like they can trust your business and products? Ask yourself these questions during the design stage and align your signs with the emotional response you’re trying to elicit.

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High-Tech Tools to level up Customer’s Shopping Experience

When you ask people to think of a high-tech shopping experience, online shopping is what automatically pops up their mind. Not knowing that for years, the ecommerce shopping experience has already evolved to include personalized recommendations based on purchase history, up-to-the-minute inventory trackers, and more advancement that feel like we’re living in the future.

In contrast, much of the brick-and-mortar shopping landscape seems to have stayed pretty much the same. But, if you look more closely at a few stand-out retailers, in fact, high-tech shopping is driving customers back into stores for personalized shopping trips.

In this competitive field, retailers need to offer an exceptional experience to draw the crowd. Obviously nothing could do it more than by providing high-tech shopping. So, what kind of high-tech advancements are retailers currently using? Let’s take a look at some of the available technologies that your retail business could integrate to create a better shopping experience for your customers.

Enhanced Visual Tech

In a certain instance exploration of high-tech shopping, one customer at a high tech store was able to eye clothes on the rack like at a traditional store, but the difference is that he can also use touchscreens around the store and in fitting rooms to select the size and color for any item. This is where you provide them with a feeling and sight of the future. You can do a lot of things with today’s modern technology and augmented reality.

For some instance, minimalist aesthetic can be used so when customers walk in— it won’t overwhelm them instead it will allow them to interact with the clothing without having to flip through large racks looking for the correct size. Additionally, the intuitive, digital interface and clothes that arrive almost magically in the changing room help anyone overcome social anxiety that they may have speaking directly with a sales associate.

Augmented reality shopping isn’t limited to in-store installations either. As demonstrated,, augmented reality is a useful high-tech tool that allows shoppers to better envision how your products fit into their lives. The more clearly customers can see your products meeting their needs, the more likely they are to make a purchase.

Interaction

Without embracing technology, only time can tell when will the doors will close for you, especially if you are going into brick and mortar. Because as many shops close, it is being more obvious  that now is the time to embrace technology and figure it out.

One of the newest trends nowadays is the use of fitting rooms with interactive mirrors, which make personalized recommendations, allow customers to connect with sales associates to request new sizes and ask questions, and even make purchases. Whiles providing your customers with a customized, tailored shopping experience, these interactive mirrors also provide you with valuable customer data to help predict sales and order inventory accordingly.

High-Tech Data Collection and Storage System

Video displays showing product commercials, express coupon distributors, and digitized prices and product information are just some of the high-tech advancements that you’ve probably seen in aisles and shelves of retailers over the last few years.

“Smart shelves” are digitized and connected to retailer’s inventory management system. So, when an item runs out of stock, you’re notified to replenish your shelf. Retailers can also use these sensor-powered shelves to collect other engagement data like what products are and aren’t selling.

The future of smart shelves could include targeted recommendations based on customer data and accounts. With this kind of technology, retailers could make recommendations based on previous purchases, track what items customers remove from shelves, and collect invaluable customer data based on activity over time.

User Experience

A high-tech customer experience is today’s real deal.  If the sales associate helping you already knows your shoe size, and can accurately predict your problems and needs when they approach are you more likely to try on a pair of shoes to see if they’re correct? Are you more likely to make a purchase? Many of the big retailers are betting on this kind of high-tech personalization to help boost in-store foot traffic and sales.

However, remember that high tech shopping isn’t about fancy gizmos and gadgets. High-tech toys may certainly help, but the real thing is they just help retailers work toward a greater goal which is to provide an unparalleled retail experience for your customers and attracting new people your shop.

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Optimizing POP Areas for Higher Sales

Do you believe that marketing ends once a customer already sets foot in your store? That’s where you’re wrong because this is just the beginning of what you should accomplish. Marketing efforts aim to help a prospective buyer understand solutions to a problem, evaluate product or service options, and decide to make the purchase. However, every methodology varies between initially buying a consumer’s attention and earning it as part of a strategy to build a larger brand audience. But, primarily, your goals are the same: to EDUCATE, INFORM, and PERSUADE your buyers to go and make the purchase.

Point of purchase marketing, on the other hand, has a different kind of magic, along which the strategy is to market to shoppers who are already in the store and ready to make a purchase and provide a last-minute way for retailers to influence the details of that decision.

In deploying your point of purchase marketing strategy, placing small, inexpensive, and relevant items on the counter can also boost sales big time! So can using displays of these items to create an area where customers can queue while waiting to check out.

This point of purchase marketing technique works because customers have already made a decision to buy something, making them more likely to buy an additional product if it does not significantly add to the total price of their purchase. Point of purchase marketing does include your cash register and checkout counter, but you’re not limited to just these areas in your store. You can get creative with strategies in places like various places throughout your sales floor, or on specific displays or sections of products whereas customer’s smartphones can be used in their browsing.

Another effective strategy is to provide Samples, Demos, or Other Experiences on the Sales Floor. Setting up your own stations throughout your store will allow customers to actually try your product before you buy can influence buying decisions and increase sales. You don’t actually need to sell food items in order to allow customers to try before they buy. You can allow them to sample most consumable goods and you can even work with your suppliers to see if they’ll send sample-sized inventory to your store for free to support your efforts to increase sales.

Just be careful when setting out samples. Studies show when given too many choices, we simply make no choice as the solution to deal with the overload. That means shoppers may buy nothing at all if they need to make too many decisions. If you sell items that can’t be consumed, a demo could work in place of providing samples. Best Buy is constantly practicing point of purchase marketing with most of their products because customers can see, touch, and interact with them via sectioned displays.

This gives customers the same try-before-buying experience that can influence their decision. Adding salespeople to the mix, who can suggest additional items and demonstrate how those add-ons will provide more value to the initial purchase, can increase sales even more.

How Create a “Pop-Up Shop” for Your Own Inventory?

These Pop-up shops allow other brands to temporarily set up within another retailer’s store. But you can use this technique to showcase a particular line of products or segment of your own inventory.

Build an App for Customers to Use In-Store

Customers today are more motivated to seek out the absolute best prices and deals before they buy because almost 90% of millennial people use smartphones in stores to assist them in a purchasing decision.

So the best way is to meet them with a branded retail app they can use to shop with you. Along with the specific features of your app which will largely depend on your store and the products you sell, you can also audit other retailers’ apps to brainstorm ideas for your own.

 

 

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Getting POPPED UP: Starting with Retail Point-of-Purchase Display

POP or Point-of-Purchase display is a marketing material or advertising placed next to the actual merchandise. These items are usually located in the checkout area or other location where the purchase decision will be made. More commonly abbreviated to POP by retailers, this is one of the most under-utilised tools in retail.  Though this has become a staple strategy for manufacturers as most vendors will have some sort of POP material they can provide for free use in retail stores. These materials also highlight the product and draw the customers’ attention to it, which is important in a retail store crammed with similar merchandise.

POP displays are as simple as a sign or as elaborate as a display carton. For example, a retailer may use a  a sticker stuck to the end of the shelf to draw attention as the customer walks down the aisle of a grocery store which is a small visual item or they can even create a full display of where the vendor’s products are merchandised inside it. Think of a free-standing display with the vendor’s branding on it, with only its merchandise on display inside.

Not to be confused with other retailing terms, POPs have moved from its traditional location of the cash wrap to other hotspot locations in the store. In its earlier forms, POP displays and materials would only be found in the cash register area. But today, manufacturers and retailers have discovered that POP displays can be placed throughout a store with great success.

One of the most elaborated POP is a vendor shop. This is tagged as a “store within a store” idea where a particular vendor places a section in the retail store that sets its merchandise apart from the rest. Probably one of the most powerful forms of POP is a signage. In fact, one research study conducted found that displays with signs outperformed displays without signs by 20 percent. This just means that sales of each item with signs were 20 percent higher than the sales of the times without signs.

What’s even more incredible is the fact that regular priced merchandise which is not even on sale was able to outperform sale or clearance priced merchandise by 18% when it was signed and the sale items were not. In short, signs as part of a POP display draw attention to the items. So, when the customer takes notice, they tend to buy it. These signs can take the form of hanging displays and posters or they can be mounted on store shelves as long as the signage doesn’t interfere with or annoy your customer, it’s a great way to draw attention to a new product, or one that’s on sale, as well as seasonal items.

Signage can be thought of as a silent sales agent who can keep a customer in a store and interested when the store is busy and the salespeople cannot instantly get to them. So if you consider that some 70 percent of retail purchases aren’t decided until the customer actually is in the store, it’s clear what impact something as simple as a POP display can make a major difference and boost to your business.

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Retail Franchising Opportunities and How to Seize it

Franchising has been a model for expanding any business and distributing goods and services through a licensing relationship. When talking about entrepreneurship, it is basically the opportunity to work for yourself but not by yourself.

In franchising, there are two main forms identified. Along which one refers to product and trade name franchising, this is where a so-called ‘franchisor’ sells or licenses the right to use a particular company name or trademark. While the other type is the business format franchising, this is where the ‘franchisor’ will provide a full range of services and support to his/her franchisee.

Want to know what franchising can offer to the growth and development of your business? Read on.

Faster Opening

Launching and having a franchise is much faster than opening a sole proprietorship business. Through this you can start a business immediately and let the revenues come in!

Training and Support

The franchisee and the employees he/she hires can rely on tried-and-true training and ongoing support. This assures a high quality service and product that can be provided by the workers in your business.

Location Scouting

Scouting out a location for a business can be one of the trickiest parts of retail. Of course, as a competitive owner, you want an area that offers some healthy competition but isn’t over-saturated with similar businesses. This is more achievable through franchising.

Brand Recognition

You launch a new retail business and know you offer a great product, but how does the public know? It takes years for entrepreneurs to build up a reputation and a solid customer base, but a franchise business already has one. So you already saved yourself years needed to establish a brand name. All you have to do is to choose for the right brand that will help you achieve what you want.

Group Purchasing Power

This is another benefit that might not be as obvious to business owners but actually, with franchising, there are lower costs associated with group purchasing.

Perhaps one of the biggest benefit to opening a franchise is having a network of fellow franchisees that can provide advice and moral support to you. Having these kind of connections will help a lot in your growing business. Its good to feel that you’re not just by yourself because you have some people that are ready to back you up.

Many people doesn’t believe and cannot appreciate franchising and the opportunities that can be derived from it. But many small-time business owners achieved success by starting with franchising. Through the years they are able to achieve success and are now more capable of engaging into more bigger ventures in the retail industry.

This can be the best options especially for beginners in the business industry. If you dream of being a successful and big-time business owner, you should acknowledge that there is no ‘overnight success.’ Instead, you have to exert perseverance and hard work.

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Writing Persuasive Product Copy

Writing may be difficult especially when you’re on a business but it is indeed a critical skill in making sales and generating revenue from your products.

A ‘Copy,’ which is composed of written text appears in your product descriptions and on your website pages, in your social media posts and in your advertising — any place you use the written word for your business, you create copy. This plays a huge role in the overall package of your marketing.

People nowadays are not that easily compelled by pure rhetoric. They get easily bored with just your product alone. What they crave about are stories that you could offer. These stories serve them feelings something which your product alone won’t be able to provide.

So, what you need is to capture the attention of your audience.

Educate them and provide answers to their questions or solutions to their pains.

Inspire them: give them a feeling that they desire and paint a picture of what a better life (in one way or another, but usually through the purchase of your product somehow) could look like.

Knowing how to tell stories and evoke emotion anywhere your online store uses written words can increase conversion rates. It’s a far more persuasive approach than simply listing a bunch of product features.

Here are 3 tips that you can that can be useful to aim your goals and help your business

Tip 1: Turning the tip of the knife

Playing on a shopper’s emotions can be a really effective way to get them to take action — especially if you hone in on their pain points. It is actually not bad at all as long as you will be responsible. All you need to do is to have that marketing mindset, be a businessman and have the right strategies. Know what your customers think and use it to help you provide what they want and need.

Tip 2: A Picture of How Life Could Be

Sometimes customers need a little more handholding to really get why they need your product. This is where you can get creative and go all-in with your storytelling. Paint a picture in their mind as to what they can experience in availing your product. You aim to make them realize that they realize need your product and life could never be the same without it.

Tip 3: Mentioning the Cupholders and what They Mean

Consider an example of a van that a salesman wants to sell to a family. It’s easier for him to list out the countless functions, capabilities, and widgets included with the vehicle. But, if he just stuck to these facts, he wouldn’t be very persuasive.

But think just for example this salesman pointed out a few functions and not only explained what they did, but why they were there and what it meant for the parents considering buying the van, he might have a better chance of making the sale.

This is the correct strategy that you must follow. Just keep in mind that it’s not just about all the knowledge of skills but it is also how you handle the situation and effectively apply all that you know through the right strategies.

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