In a fiercely competitive industry, convenience stores face many challenges, the least of which are generating a high volume of sales to become profitable. First, you must entice lots of customers to stop in to visit your store, then you have to offer the right products in the right places to encourage impulse buys from busy customers who want to get in and out as fast as possible. But there are strategies you can use to drive more foot traffic and increase sales for your convenience store. Convenience Store Convenience Store
Optimize Signage Convenience Store
The very first challenge you must overcome in order to increase sales is to get customers in the door. As customers are driving down the road, the most obvious way to get their attention and convince them to stop at your store is to display your fuel prices prominently (if your store offers fuel), especially if they are cheaper than competitors. After you fuel sign are in place, make sure you are clearly advertising your most popular and profitable products, whether it’s: Convenience Store
- At the pump
- Near the entrances
- On your windows
- On curbs near the street
- Within the store itself in high traffic areas
Bright and colorful signage is far better at attracting attention than their plain or black and white signage. One advantage of featuring a product like frozen carbonated beverages on your signage is the wide variety of eye-catching flavors and colors that these drinks come in.
Offer Unique Discounts and Promotions Convenience Store
Another effective way to generate higher foot traffic and sales is to incentivize customers with price discounts and special promotions on popular products.
Price Promotions:
A common promotion is “Buy 2 for $X”. If the original price of the product is $1.50, and customers can buy 2 for $2.50, they are spending $1 more than they originally planned in order to get the $0.50 discount. This strategy is a great way to increase the average value of each transaction and boost revenue quickly. Convenience Store
Food Parings:
Offering a discount on items that are often bought together is another great way to increase the value of each transaction and drive more sales. For example, many Convenience Stores offer promotions that pair a hot dog with a carbonated or frozen carbonated beverage. If you need to drive sales of a particular product that is currently underselling, consider bundling it at a discount with a popular product that customers are going to buy anyways.
Exclusive and Limited Time Promotions:
Another very effective way to increase sales is to offer a new, exciting, and exclusive product for a limited time only. This is even more effective if the promotion is associated with a popular trend, such as the release of a new Blockbuster movie that customers are already interested in and talking about. By offering frozen carbonated beverages, for example, you can generate demand and increase sales by offering exclusive flavors that are only available for a limited time, or only during a specific season. Convenience Store Convenience Store
Free Samples:
If you want customers to come in and try a new product, a surefire way to accomplish this is to offer a free sample. Make sure to advertise these free samples on your signage to get the attention of drivers and pedestrians passing by your store. Convenience Store
Member Only Discounts:
Also, consider offering special discounts and specials exclusively for members of your loyalty program, or for customers who sign up for your app. This encourages customers to sign up for the loyalty program or app, which gives you even more ways to market to them and incentivize them to make repeat purchases in the future. Convenience Store
Promotions to Drive Foot Traffic During Off-Peak Hours:
For many Convenience Stores, lagging sales during slow, off-peak hours or days of the week is a high-priority problem to solve. The key is to either entice existing customers to visit again at a different time of day, come in an additional day of the week, or to entice a whole new group of customers to visit. A few ideas for driving foot traffic during slow hours or days of the week: Convenience Store.
- Offer coupons to customers that can only be redeemed during slow hours or days of the week.
- Offer prepared food and drinks that are available only during slow hours or days of the week.
- Offer special promotions during slow hours or days of the week. Examples include Early Bird specials, Happy Hours, and Late-Night specials.
- Offer lighter, snack-sized prepared foods that customers can consume in-between normal mealtimes.
Offer a Loyalty Program Convenience Store
Loyalty programs are a great way to reward customers for their loyalty, make them feel appreciated, and also incentivize them to come back and purchase from you over and over. The keys to a successful loyalty program are:
Making customers sufficiently aware of your loyalty program in the first place Convenience Store
Signage is a good option for increasing awareness of your loyalty program. Consider mentioning your loyalty program in your existing advertising efforts, and also create additional advertising specifically to promote it to increase awareness and sign-ups. You will also need to train employees to inform customers of your new loyalty program and offer them the opportunity to sign up. Convenience Store
A good enough incentive for customers to take time to sign up Convenience Store
Convenience Store customers want to get in and out as fast as possible. After all, convenience is the main reason they are stopping into your store in the first place. If you want them to take the time to sign up for your loyalty program or app, you have to give them a very good incentive. Make sure that the discounts and promotions they will receive outweigh the inconvenience of signing up.
Sell a Variety of Popular Products Convenience Store
Every business knows that they must offer the products customers want to buy, but you also need to make sure you are giving customers enough variety to keep them engaged and interested. Don’t just offer limited-time products and drink flavors, but also considering rotating your most popular drink flavors and prepared food items. By regularly rotating these products, you can drive repeat purchases from customers looking to try something new, and from customers who are coming back because their favorite flavor is available again. Rotating also allows you to add new products and flavors into the rotation as a test to see how popular they are. This can help you make better decisions about what products and flavors to add permanently.
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