Once you’ve started and are running a retail business successfully, you might have reached a stagnant stage and you would ask yourself “How to grow my retail business faster”?
There’s no single answer to this question and you need to have multiple strategies in place to grow your business.
This article will go through practical tips to grow your retail business in a faster but more sustainable way.
9 Strategies to Grow Your Retail Business Faster
1. Expand into New Locations
Expanding your business into a new location is the natural first step towards growing your business if your existing stores are already performing well.
This allows you to tap into entirely new markets where the demand for your product is high or where the demand is still unmet.
But retail expansion shouldn’t be based on gut feel. You require a cohesive approach in hand to ensure you avoid locations where your store would underperform.
Data-backed Retail Expansion Strategy to Grow Your Retail Business:
As the retail space continues to grow, it is important that you pick a location backed by data and not by guesswork.
There are several deciding factors that affect a retail store’s location selection process and below are the major factors that a retail business should consider when they’re looking to grow their business.
i) Demographics
Every location’s demographics differ drastically from one another. To ensure your store’s success, the location you target should have a high concentration of your ideal customer profile, making it more likely to attract and retain shoppers.
Our location intelligence platform lets you analyze a location’s crucial demographics that decide a retail business’ success such as the average income of the household, spending capacity, age, gender, and more.
Being informed about these demographics beforehand lets you,
- Target the right audience
- Tailor your product offerings and marketing strategies
- Reduce business risk and
- Choose optimal locations.
| GeoIQ helped Lenskart optimize its retail expansion, enabling the brand to grow from 20 to 80 stores in just two years. By leveraging location-based intelligence, Lenskart was able to predict revenue ranges for new locations, minimize risks, improve decision-making, and drive a successful expansion strategy backed by data!
ii) Foot Traffic
Foot traffic is the most critical factor that influences your ability to grow your retail business.
It’s not just about the quantity of traffic but the quality–ensuring that the people passing by align with your target customer profile.
Our location intelligence platform enables you to analyze foot traffic patterns around potential store locations, including peak hours, pedestrian density, and the types of customers frequenting the area.
With the foot traffic data available for hourly, daily, and weekly, you can choose a perfect location that aligns with your target profile, and ensure profitability and sustained growth.
iii) Competing and Complimentary Businesses
The surrounding businesses in your target location can significantly impact your business both positively and negatively.
Opening your business next to competitors can help your business drive relevant foot traffic if the location has ideal customer density.
But opening your business next to competing businesses in a location where it lacks customer density or reached a saturation point, would make your store hard to make desired sales and for sustainable growth.
Complementary business refers to businesses that attract similar customers that you target. An ideal location should balance these two to ensure your business grows sustainably for a longer period of time.
iv) Accessibility
Your store should be easily accessible in order to attract as many ideal customers as possible. Also, a store that’s easy to reach ensures convenience for customers, increasing the likelihood of repeat visits and positive word-of-mouth.
Here are some of the major accessibility features a location should have:
- Proximity to Public Transportation,
- Parking Availability,
- Nearby ATMs.
These are just some of the factors that affect a store’s location and these factors can be analyzed easily through a location intelligence platform.
2. Explore Different Sales Channels
Diversifying your sales channels is another powerful way to grow your retail business exponentially as this will expand your reach to customers of all types.
Consider Growing Your Retail Business With These Channels:
i) E-commerce Platforms
Build a professional, user-friendly website where customers can browse and shop easily. Include features like product filters, secure payment options, and fast checkout to improve the overall user experience.
ii) Social Media Platforms
Platforms like Instagram and Facebook now allow businesses to sell directly through their pages. Leverage these platforms to showcase your products and enable instant purchases.
iii) Third-Party Marketplaces
List your products on Amazon, Flipkart, or other e-commerce platforms to benefit from their existing traffic.
3. Add a New Product Lineup
Introducing a new product lineup can be beneficial to grow your business by attracting new customers and selling the new product to existing ones if the product is relevant.
When this is done strategically, it improves customer loyalty and increases overall revenue and spending per visit.
Effective Ways To Approach Product Expansion:
i) Market Research
Before launching a new product line, thoroughly research market trends, customer preferences, and competitor offerings. Focus on filling gaps in the market or offering a solution to an unmet need.
Here, location intelligence can be utilized to understand the existing market’s spending power and characteristics to come up with a product that best sells in your existing store.
| GeoIQ helped a big eyewear brand in India to curate a product mix for their new location for their premium product lineup using location data!
ii) Pilot Launch
If needed, you can start with a limited product launch to test customer interest and how well it performs in sales and customer interest. Once launched, collect feedback on pricing, quality, and demand to curate the lineup further.
iii) Marketing Campaigns
Use targeted campaigns to create excitement around the new lineup. This could include pre-launch promotions, influencer partnerships, or exclusive previews for loyal customers.
4. Partner with Local Businesses
Forming partnerships with local businesses is an effective way to expand your reach and grow your retail business faster.
Consider collaborating with complementary brands to leverage their local presence and customer base for mutual benefit.
i) Identify Complementary Brands
Look for businesses that share your target demographic but don’t directly compete with your offerings. For instance, if you run a fitness apparel brand, you could partner with a local gym or fitness center.
You can sign up for free and analyze your existing location to know how many complementary businesses are there nearby with whom you can consider partnering!
ii) Offer Co-Branded Promotions
Joint promotions, such as discounts or bundle offers, allow both businesses to cross-promote and expand their reach.
iii) Host Community Events
Partnering with local businesses for events, like pop-up shops, workshops, or charity drives, can increase foot traffic and foster goodwill within the community.
5. Franchise Your Business
Franchising offers a scalable path to grow your business without taking on the entire financial burden of expansion yourself. By licensing your business model to franchisees, you can accelerate your footprint to multiple locations.
How?
i) Create a Replicable Business Model
Your business model must be standardized and easily replicable. This includes clear processes for customer service, inventory management, marketing, and employee training.
ii) Support Your Franchisees
Provide training and ongoing support to franchisees to ensure brand consistency and operational efficiency.
iii) Choose the Right Franchise Partners
Evaluate potential franchisees based on their business understanding, local market knowledge, and passion for your brand.
6. Focus on Customer Retention
It’s natural for retail businesses to focus too much on customer acquisition and forget customer retention.
However it costs far less to keep existing customers than to acquire new ones, and loyal customers can significantly contribute to the growth of your business.
Moreover, repeat customers tend to spend more over time, creating a steady stream of revenue.
How To Retain Customers To Grow Your Retail Business?
i) Personalized Experiences
Have your sales representatives build solid and meaningful interactions based on each customer’s preference and purchase history. You can further offer personalized offers and promotions too.
ii) Loyalty Programs
To make customers repeat purchases, you can implement loyalty programs that reward customers for each purchase. Consider offering incentives like discounts, exclusive access to new products, or early bird promotions.
iii) Customer Support
Make it easy for customers to reach you with questions or issues, and ensure that any problems are resolved quickly and to their satisfaction.
7. Networking
Building strong relationships with other business owners, suppliers, industry experts, and potential partners can create opportunities that might not be available otherwise.
i) Attend Industry Events
Participate in events that are directly and closely related to your business. You can meet potential partners to grow your retail business.
ii) Join Professional Associations
Become a member of industry-specific organizations to connect with like-minded professionals to look for partnership opportunities.
8. Invest in Marketing
Marketing is an essential investment for any retail business looking to grow.
By reaching more potential customers and keeping your brand visible, you can boost awareness, increase sales, and strengthen your position in the market.
How to Invest in Marketing Effectively?
i) Geo-targeted advertisements:
For immediate results, you can consider running advertisements, both online and offline.
For online you can run Google ads, social media ads, and email campaigns whereas in offline channels, out-of-home ads, flyers, signages, etc can be effective.
Be it any type of ads – online or offline – can be fueled with location data to make sure you target the right audience. This enables you to reduce your ad spending on irrelevant audiences and boost your marketing ROI.
| A major jewelry brand in India saw 30% more conversion in its digital ads after utilizing our location data!
ii) SEO
Invest in local SEO activities to attract nearby customers. While doing so, a Google My Business (GMB) can come in handy where you can post your retail store’s photos, update your store timings, your offerings, etc.
ii) Influencer Marketing
Partner with influencers or industry figures who can promote your products to their followers. Make sure their moral values align well with your audience since they could become your brand ambassador.
9. Measure What Works and Refine
To make sure your retail business grows faster and steadily, you need to measure the effectiveness of your efforts and refine your business and marketing strategies accordingly.
Regularly tracking your efforts allows you to identify what’s driving results and optimize your actions for better outcomes.
How to Measure and Refine?
i) Set Clear Goals
Establish specific, measurable goals that align with your business objectives. These could include increasing sales, boosting foot traffic, or growing your social media following.
ii) Track Key Metrics
Use tools like Google Analytics, CRM systems, and social media insights to monitor customer behavior, conversion rates, sales trends, and other key performance indicators (KPIs).
To track sales, you can monitor metrics such as spend per visit, conversion rate, customer acquisition cost, average order value, etc.
iii) Customer Feedback
Collect feedback through surveys, reviews, or social media to understand customer needs and pain points. Use this information to tweak your product offerings, customer service, and marketing strategies.
Conclusion
Growing a retail business is a gradual and multifaceted process that takes time and effort. Implement the said tips and constantly A/B tests to figure out what works and what can be changed.
If it ever comes down to retail expansion or understanding your location and its characteristics better, ensure to sign up and analyze your site for free.
