5 Bad Habits Retailers Should Break
Posted: Sun Dec 22, 2024 10:45 am
Let’s face it: we all have our little bad habits. Whether it’s skipping gym sessions or always showing up late to meetings, no one’s perfect and it’s not that bad. What can be more serious for retailers, however, is letting your bad habits compromise the health of your business.
Most of the time, bad habits that can be detrimental to your business growth can be easily avoided and corrected. That’s why we teamed up with Nicole Leinbach Reyhle, founder of RetailMinded.com , to highlight five common bad habits among retailers and how to fix them.
Bad Habit #1: Not Knowing Who Your Customers Are
Think you know your customers? Think again. Between Gen Z, Millennials, Baby Boomers , and everyone else in between, there are many demographic, psychographic, and behavioral nuances that can influence what your customers buy and the channels they use.
How to better understand your customers?
Rather than relying on your gut, study your customers’ profiles and purchase history to gain a clearer understanding of who they are, what they buy, and how they buy it. Knowing who your customers really are allows you to offer them personalized offers via email. A customer who is offered a promotion for a product or service that is directly related to their previous purchases will be more likely to buy it.
Knowing your customers better pays off. A study by executive consulting japan whatsapp number firm Bain & Company found that building customer loyalty through personalized offers can increase your profits by up to 25% . To help you achieve this growth, you can use your customers’ purchase history, combined with the marketing tools of a loyalty program.
loyalty
Bad habit #2: Not accepting different payment options
To show your customers that you really care, let them pay the way they want…not the way you want. Offer multiple payment methods, whether that’s by typing in a code, swiping a card, or inserting it.
Payment processing is often frustrating for many merchants, and understandably so. Third-party payment processors typically charge fluctuating fees, impose long deposit times, and have agreements that are often difficult to understand. These barriers make it difficult for merchants to offer multiple payment options right from the start.
How to offer more payment options to customers?
You are looking for fast, secure and affordable payment processing systems that suit your customers and yourself. More and more POS system solution providers offer integrated and PCI-compliant payment processing systems at transparent pricing. This allows you to avoid complex third-party payment processing agreements and centralize your business operations with a single company.
This gives you the added benefit of having full visibility into your POS system of where your money is, from the moment a transaction is completed to when it is paid into your bank account. Of course, customers also benefit from the added convenience of being able to pay however they like.
5 Bad Habits Retailers Should Break
Bad habit #3: Not getting the essence of the data collected
One of the most common mistakes retailers make is avoiding data because it’s intimidating, hard to understand, and hard to extract useful insights from. Using data to your advantage—whether it comes from your customers, sales, marketing, inventory, or employees—can dramatically improve your short- and long-term decision-making processes and help your business grow.
Most of the time, bad habits that can be detrimental to your business growth can be easily avoided and corrected. That’s why we teamed up with Nicole Leinbach Reyhle, founder of RetailMinded.com , to highlight five common bad habits among retailers and how to fix them.
Bad Habit #1: Not Knowing Who Your Customers Are
Think you know your customers? Think again. Between Gen Z, Millennials, Baby Boomers , and everyone else in between, there are many demographic, psychographic, and behavioral nuances that can influence what your customers buy and the channels they use.
How to better understand your customers?
Rather than relying on your gut, study your customers’ profiles and purchase history to gain a clearer understanding of who they are, what they buy, and how they buy it. Knowing who your customers really are allows you to offer them personalized offers via email. A customer who is offered a promotion for a product or service that is directly related to their previous purchases will be more likely to buy it.
Knowing your customers better pays off. A study by executive consulting japan whatsapp number firm Bain & Company found that building customer loyalty through personalized offers can increase your profits by up to 25% . To help you achieve this growth, you can use your customers’ purchase history, combined with the marketing tools of a loyalty program.
loyalty
Bad habit #2: Not accepting different payment options
To show your customers that you really care, let them pay the way they want…not the way you want. Offer multiple payment methods, whether that’s by typing in a code, swiping a card, or inserting it.
Payment processing is often frustrating for many merchants, and understandably so. Third-party payment processors typically charge fluctuating fees, impose long deposit times, and have agreements that are often difficult to understand. These barriers make it difficult for merchants to offer multiple payment options right from the start.
How to offer more payment options to customers?
You are looking for fast, secure and affordable payment processing systems that suit your customers and yourself. More and more POS system solution providers offer integrated and PCI-compliant payment processing systems at transparent pricing. This allows you to avoid complex third-party payment processing agreements and centralize your business operations with a single company.
This gives you the added benefit of having full visibility into your POS system of where your money is, from the moment a transaction is completed to when it is paid into your bank account. Of course, customers also benefit from the added convenience of being able to pay however they like.
5 Bad Habits Retailers Should Break
Bad habit #3: Not getting the essence of the data collected
One of the most common mistakes retailers make is avoiding data because it’s intimidating, hard to understand, and hard to extract useful insights from. Using data to your advantage—whether it comes from your customers, sales, marketing, inventory, or employees—can dramatically improve your short- and long-term decision-making processes and help your business grow.