Retailers work hard to get customers to come into their stores. They invest in properties with high visibility, carefully craft ads to get customers’ attention, plan special events to draw them in, and cultivate email lists and social media followings to get their name out there. All these efforts aim to get more customers through their doors.
But they’re not truly making the most of all of that time and energy unless they’re also working to maximize average transaction values.
Encouraging customers who are already making a purchase to buy more is one of the simplest and best ways to boost revenue. When done right, efforts to boost transaction values can actually improve customer satisfaction as well as profits.
Here are some of the best ways to increase purchase values in your store.
Leverage Upsell and Cross-Sell Tactics
Convincing customers to buy more doesn’t mean being disingenuous, and it doesn’t have to come across as sleazy.
The best upsells and cross-sells are all about anticipating what your customers actually need and getting to the bottom of why they came into your store. It’s about making customers’ lives easier and adding value to their experience.
As you probably already know, upselling is the act of recommending upgrades or higher-quality versions of a certain product, and cross-selling is the act of selling products that are related to the others in a purchase.
Here are a few ways that upsells and cross-sells could play out in your store:
- Comparing product quality or life expectancy – Perhaps a certain product is more expensive upfront than its alternatives, but it won’t wear out as quickly, which makes it less expensive in the long-run. Similarly, the purchase of a more expensive product whose brand offers warranties can provide a much bigger payoff if repairs or a replacement is required (and also offers more peace of mind for the buyer).
- Highlighting valuable or money-saving features of comparatively expensive products – For example, a more expensive light bulb or appliance might use less energy, which decreases a customer’s energy bills over time. Similarly, one product that’s less expensive upfront might require more expensive complementary products, such as refills or batteries, making it much more expensive over time.
- Focusing on customer end goals – If you see that a customer is purchasing something for a certain purpose, you can suggest other, complementary products to make sure that they have everything they need. For example, if they’re coming in to buy hiking boots for an upcoming trip, you might be able to suggest hiking socks or even other related items, such as camping supplies. If you run a boutique, you can suggest accessories such as jewelry or other clothes that will make their purchase a complete outfit. At a hardware store, asking the customer what project they’re working on can give your employees a chance to suggest the other tools they need to complete the job.
Offer Employees Tools and Training
Although clever displays and store design can help promote higher quality and complementary products, upsells and cross-sells are difficult to pull off without the help of knowledgeable employees.
Ideally, you’ll have hired people who have personal experience using the products you sell, or who have a personal interest in how the brands and products work. However, even if they don’t have personal experience with products, they can gain in-depth knowledge with enough training and education. That’s a responsibility that falls to a store owner or manager.
Keep all of your sales floor employees in the loop on any new products that you’re adding to the shelves, and make sure they understand how the new products work and compare to other products — both the ones in the store and others available elsewhere.
Modern POS systems for retailers can help in this regard. These programs can suggest related products as employees are helping customers on the sales floor. They can also remind employees to ask certain questions or make certain offers during the checkout process.
Display Products Thoughtfully
As you probably already know, the way you position and display products in your store can make a big difference in customers’ buying behavior.
First of all, your store’s products should be arranged and displayed in an appealing and clear way so that customers can easily see what you have to offer and find what they’re looking for quickly.
However, as we’ve mentioned, positioning complementary items next to each other in the store can also boost sales. For example, you could position party supplies, small gifts, or holiday-themed items near the greeting cards. Or, you could stock facial tissues next to the cold and flu remedies. This kind of positioning can encourage people to buy more, but it can also help customers find what they need and enjoy their shopping experience.
If you use a cloud-based POS system, you can use your reporting system to analyze which types of product tend to be purchased together.
Another simple and very effective sales-boosting tactic is to keep small, universally useful impulse buys near the checkout counter so that customers can grab one as they’re checking out.
Offer Well-Timed Promotions
You can also encourage customers to purchase more by occasionally offering classic promotions such as buy-one-get-one-free, or percentage discounts that increase with the number of products purchased.
These discounts may convince them that they can indeed afford to spend a little more or encourage your customers to stock up now and save themselves an extra trip later.
With the right POS software, you can experiment with different promotions and track which ones performed the best, controlling for factors like the time of the week or year.
Promote Your Loyalty Program
When customers know that they’ll earn loyalty points with each purchase they make at your store, they’ll feel more comfortable spending more each time they come in. After all, with a compelling rewards program, spending money means that they can expect to save money later.
This is especially true when you use a modern POS program that makes it easy for customers to see how many points they’ve earned and reach out to them with chances to earn more points that are customized to their interests.
Join this recorded masterclass where we talk about how to leverage loyalty with Vend.
Encourage In-Store Pickup
If you sell your products online in addition to your physical store, make sure you give customers the option to avoid shipping costs by picking up their purchases in the store for free.
Then, when your customers come into the store, they may pick up a few other products for the sake of convenience (and thanks to your keen merchandising skills), which results in a larger overall purchase.
Any modern POS system with omnichannel selling features should be able to handle this task easily.
The Importance of POS Software
It’s tough to know whether or not your in-store-transaction-value-boosting tactics are working if you aren’t using the right software.
Not only do modern, cloud-based POS tools make it easy to run promotions and loyalty programs and sell both in-store and online, they also give retailers unprecedented access to sales data.
Because cloud-based software runs via the internet, multiple registers from multiple store locations across the world can sync up in real-time. This data is displayed on user-friendly dashboards that show sales, profitability, and KPIs like average transaction value.
If you’re interested in switching to cloud-based software for your retail store, please reach out to us at Cloudscape Technologies. Cloudscape was built with love in Dubai by tech geeks and retail veterans on a mission: helping retail store and restaurant owners do more with modern technology.
We can help you find the right combination of cloud-based software programs for your store, and then we can help you implement those programs and train your staff on them.
