While brick-and-mortar retailers face growing competition from the world of eCommerce thanks to the widespread digital transformation push taking place in the 2020s, evidence suggests that there’s still plenty of room for retailers to thrive.
So, are your stagnant sales metrics a sign that you’re driving customers away?
According to House of Commons Library figures, the UK’s retail sector economic output of £110.4 billion in 2023 has grown by 2.2% compared to 2022 to represent 4.7% of the country’s total economic output.
Despite growing competition from online stores, 2023 saw retail sales in Great Britain amount to £510 billion, representing an increase of 3% on the year prior.
If your retail store is struggling to generate momentum, it could be time to review your processes and assess whether you can become more attractive to your leads. There can be many reasons that drive customers away from stores, so let’s dive into 10 possible causes of lost custom and how to remedy them:
1. You’re Failing to Utilise Customer Insights
In the past, online stores had an advantage over brick-and-mortar counterparts thanks to analytics. Website data can tell you who visited your store, how they interacted with your pages, and the products they’re likely to be interested in. However, the big data boom is fast becoming a driving force in brick-and-mortar lead generation.
Retailers who go through the best POS systems can track key customer data like purchase history and preferences, which can provide invaluable insights into delivering a more personalised experience for your customers.
Likewise, other metrics available through loyalty programs can drive insights into key demographics and identify customer segments.
EcommerceAge data suggests that 51% of UK consumers will leave a brand if it doesn’t personalise their customer experience (CX) through their needs, expectations, and preferences, so using data effectively is key for retailers.
2. Your Opening Hours are Too Inconsistent
One of the most essential aspects of brand recognition is delivering a CX that matches expectations. However, customer expectations can be shattered if you’re allowing inconsistencies to impact your operating hours.
If your store is listed as ‘open’ during specific hours on Google, but customers make the journey to see that you’re closed, it can lead to a fundamental level of mistrust that can damage your store’s credibility.
This is an easy fix. Try to ensure that you always stick to your specified hours. If this needs to change, make sure you change your online listings and store website well in advance.
3. You’re Ignoring the Power of Google
The digital transformation boom isn’t limited to online stores, and setting up a business profile on Google Maps is an essential way to make your brick-and-mortar store more discoverable and accessible for your leads.
McKinsey data suggests that between 60% and 70% of shoppers use both online and offline methods while researching products, while Shopify has shown that 59% of consumers browse items online before buying them in-store in a process known as ‘webrooming.’
Getting your business set up on Google can be a key step towards uniting online browsers with your physical store, and all you need to do is provide some basic information about your location, opening hours, and industry niche before verifying ownership to get started.
4. Queues May be Driving Customers Away
Long queues at the checkout may seem more encouraging than problematic to business owners, but you could risk driving customers away if they’re faced with a long wait to purchase their items.
There are a few ways to remedy this, and adding self-checkout options is always a great and increasingly cost-effective way to help ease queuing in-store.
Training staff to be more efficient with their time management can also be advantageous. For instance, ensuring that they change any promotional in-store signage during low-traffic hours and undergoing sufficient onboarding training with POS software can help to ensure a consistent, positive experience for customers.
5. Your Technology Isn’t Up to Scratch
It can be a challenge to modernise your in-store experience if budgeting is tight, but investing in more intelligent and responsive technology can pay dividends in preventing customer churn through negative experiences.
As much as 47% of CX managers have pointed to outdated technology as the biggest barrier to providing a sufficient customer experience, and the cost implications of upgrading your in-store hardware could be recovered by an uptick in foot traffic as a result of the stronger CX it provides.
6. Your Hard-Selling Strategy is Putting Customers Off
Overly aggressive or pushy sales tactics can drive 84% of your customers away, so try to avoid bombarding them with offers and limited-time deals if they’re simply wanting to browse your shelves.
Yes, you may feel like your latest 40% off sale on a product range is too good to risk your in-store visitors not noticing, but use signage to showcase the offer to them rather than chasing them down or waiting at the door to mention it as soon as they walk in.
7. Customer Complaints are Going in the Bin
We’ve all been on the receiving end of unreasonable customer complaints, but you should never disregard the things your customers say just because you’ve had some positive feedback that suggests the opposite.
All complaints offer you the opportunity to improve your processes and appeal to a broader audience. If a customer tells you that the music in your store is too loud, then they may represent the thoughts of 1,000 customers who weren’t bold enough to tell you the same thing.
Your CX program should offer closed-loop customer feedback to help resolve your inefficiencies proactively. If you receive conflicting feedback, it could be a cause for A/B testing to check for improvements in foot traffic.
8. You’re Too Difficult to Contact
We’ve already touched on the importance of setting up your Google business profile, but your online identity must make it as easy as possible for customers to get in touch with your store to ask key questions.
If you don’t have a contact number or a website FAQs section, you could be putting yourself at a disadvantage while customers fail to have their questions addressed and give up on your business before giving it a chance.
Always have a phone number visible. Sometimes customers will want to call to ask if you have an item in stock. Email addresses should also be clearly on show and regularly checked.
Adding chatbots has become a popular way of improving an online CX for store visitors before they even enter your shop floor. As much as 62% of consumers prefer using chatbots over speaking to humans, and adding this to your website can be great for improving the frequency of customer visits.
9. Your Store Isn’t Green Enough
Customers are becoming increasingly ESG-conscious in the 2020s, and this means that you can actively foster more store visits by taking some measures to improve your eco-friendly credentials.
Data compiled by Raconteur shows that 55% of UK consumers would be more likely to visit a store that offered a recycling point for used packaging or clothing. By taking measures to clean up your processes, you can openly appeal to environmentally-conscious customers at scale.
10. You’re Not Over-Delivering
It’s one thing to keep your CX promises, but if you’re not delivering a service that exceeds customer expectations consistently, they’re less likely to come back over time.
How can you over-deliver for customers? Develop a loyalty program that offers quality freebies in return for loyalty, or add free high-quality boxes or wrapping to make purchases that little bit more special.
There are many ways to over-deliver in a way that keeps customers coming back, and discovering the best way to make a lasting impression can be great for boosting customer loyalty and advocacy.
Driving Sustainable Value
As the owner of a brick-and-mortar store, you’ll want to facilitate more returning customers in a way that conforms to your budget constraints and cash flow. While some of these reasons are more expensive to manage than others, building a sustainable flow of customers can be achieved through incremental improvements.
By caring for your bottom line while continuously innovating your brick-and-mortar CX, you have the power to drive engagement and win new leads long into the future.
