Category: Advice

It’s human nature. In every purchase, we buy people before we buy products. In a shop, as much as online, trust is at the core of each transaction, trust in the advice provided and that what you buy is what you will get.

Today our advice for small business retailers, local retailers, is embrace the personal, leverage this as a point of difference.

Trust is nurtured by a smile, openness, how we present ourselves and the value of the information we share.

Investing in people matters. Retail is personal, after all. Think about it – if you sell what I can buy online, why would I go to your shop rather than shop online if the purchase is not urgently required and if the price online and yours are similar? For local retail, often it is the people interaction.

It starts with hiring well, by hiring people you trust. If you’re not sure about a candidate, don’t hire them, no matter how desperate your need.

Train well and often, regularly checking in with your team and how able they feel they can satisfy your customers. Offer training about the products you sell as well as from a broader professional development perspective for those keen to develop their skills.

Pay well, as it’s the most understood measure of value. Big retailers pay based on a regulated award or an enterprise-wide agreement and rarely based on one-on-one negotiation with an employee. You can pay reflecting how much you value an employee.

Welcome employees purchasing what you sell and make it easy for them to do this. If they have experience with your products, they will be able to speak to that when dealing with customers.

Look at each shopper touchpoint in your business to ensure they nurture trust: on the phone, as shoppers enter the business, on the shop floor, at the sales counter. It’s in each of these interactions that you can demonstrate a point of difference for your business.

If you have a competitor nearby, the people working in your business can be the differentiator shoppers prefer.

This differentiation is not just a ‘nice to have’; it is a tangible commercial asset.

A shopper who trusts your team is less price-sensitive, more receptive to upselling or new product recommendations, and fundamentally more loyal.

They return because of the experience, not just the product. The investment you pour into hiring, training, and valuing your people pays for itself by building a loyal customer base that online algorithms and impersonal competitors simply cannot steal.

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newsXpress is a marketing group that supports small local independent retailers to thrive. Find out more at help@newsxpress.com.au.

Talk about a win, win, win. This tip helps you win new customers for your local retail business. Your customers save money, and a local community group raises funds. Engagement is measurable, so you can assess the return on your investment.

This retail advice is all about supporting the local community, to encourage them to support your small business.

Find a locally loved and trusted community group in need of funds, a group that has a reasonable number of members who don’t currently shop with you.

Offer the community group a percentage from each purchase made by members of the group and their family members.

Offer each member a discount for each purchase.

The amounts offered need to be considered in the context of your business, your margin and the value of the anticipated additional purchases.

Consider a timeframe for the offer. For example, it may be useful to trial the offer for a limited period so you can assess engagement and then adjust as appropriate. It may also be an offer only open to certain days of the week, your quietest days.

Consider the products to be included in the campaign. It may be appropriate to exclude product categories where your margin is not enough to justify inclusion.

To manage the offer, see if your point-of-sale software can help. I know the software from my own software company can manage this. You give each community group member a card, which, when scanned, ensures they get the discounted price and that the donation to the community group is tracked.

The card becomes valuable itself, something talked about, something sought after.

The commercial goal of this campaign has to be to net new shopper traffic for the business and deliver revenue the business would otherwise not have achieved. If this is the case, a discount off the usual margin achieved is acceptable as it’s effectively a cost of acquiring the additional business.

Key to the success of this campaign is the active engagement of the community group in rallying members to visit the shop, to encourage them to support you so that you support the group they love.

Make an event of handing over the donation to the community group. Get photos. Talk on social media about being grateful for the local support that has enabled you to make the donation.

Share stories on social media about the activities of the group, as your support of them can encourage their support of you.

We love the campaign outlined here, as it represents the circular nature of the local community: people living locally, shopping locally, enabling local shops to thrive and supporting loved local community groups.

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newsXpress is a marketing group that supports small local independent retailers to thrive. Find out more at help@newsxpress.com.au.