While brick-and-mortar retail establishments have not gone the way of the dinosaur, you can’t ignore the power and popularity of online shopping. Aided by mobile devices, we now can purchase items anytime/anywhere from a cornucopia of goods available from retailers around the globe. Products that we didn’t even know existed pop up when we searched for even the simplest of items to help us get through the day.
While shoppers haven’t abandoned traditional retailers, e-tailing has delivered a new world of shopping, and today’s “shoppers aren’t going back.” Some things may need to change for traditional retail establishments, including the retail sections of spas or massage therapist practices.
Most notable among today’s shoppers is the desire for a personal and seamless experience, similar to what they experience online. After all, think about the last time you shopped online at a favorite e-commerce provider. Did the site recommend complementary products? Did it offer to hold items in a wish list, which you can revisit when you are ready to make a purchase? Did it include reviews of the product you wanted? And when it came time to make the purchase, were you able to complete the transaction in just a few keystrokes. No matter waiting in line to checkout!
Make sure your retail experience stacks up
To make the retail section of your spa or massage practice more in line with shopper’s expectations; consider making these changes:
- Arm your team with tablets and apps that provide them with a purchase history on each customer. When they are assisting clients, they can provide a more personalized experience by recommending other products. The apps should also provide more in-depth information on each of your retail offerings to answer any questions clients may have.
- Leverage social media for top-performing retail products. Blog about products and feature them on your social media sites. In this way, you can keep clients engaged in retail offerings.
- Make sure to have plenty of inventories on hand of your top-selling products. Nothing is more discouraging to a shopper than finding that they can’t purchase the product they seek.
- Provide a coupon that is personalized to a client’s visit. If the client just had a massage, provide a coupon for a retail product discount for the next visit.
- Provide retail customers with a special deal that uniquely serves their needs and makes them feel positive about the purchase. Combine two or three retail products and offer them at a discounted price.
- Consider making some of your retail inventory available online for delivery or pickup in your establishment. In doing so, you integrate the online and retail experience.
- If clients can book online, recommend retail products during their online booking.
- Email or text clients when you run a retail promotion.
These are just some of the changes you can make so that shopping in your spa or massage practice becomes as satisfying as making a purchase online today. Brick and mortar shopping are still in. Just make sure it’s “in your establishment.”