Even during the best of times, it’s true that owning a retail company is not an easy field to be in. With the current coronavirus in the United States, running a retail company has become even more complicated due to store fronts needing to close.
However, try to keep in mind that there is a bright light at the end of this tunnel. The challenges of today can provide you with innovation that can help your company in the future. One current method that many retail businesses are looking at are various avenues for how they can improve their digital presence.
This transition is currently being called Retail 4.0.
Table of Contents
What Is Retail 4.0?
If you’re not familiar with Retail 4.0, it what many industry insiders have begun to call the use and expansion of your company’s presence online. Many large retail companies are acknowledging that more and more people are beginning to do the majority of their shopping online. However, the expansion of a ditiagal presence is something that many small or medium sized retail companies can truly use to help them expand their business.
Previously, medium sized retail companies would struggle to find new customers because they would have to invest in extremely expensive methods of marketing, like television or Billboards. Now though, retail companies can more cheaply reach potential customers in a variety of different avenues online. This allows smaller companies to now compete with large enterprises in the advertising space. Retail 4.0 will also allow your business to more closely target the kinds of customers you want rather than attempting to cast a large net, but bring in a small amount of business.
Use Social Media To Gain A New Audience
An extremely crucial concept for Retail 4.0 is the ability to bring in new and different consumers through a reliable digital network that you can expand and build upon. Social media channels is one of the top ways that many brands are doing this.
Social media allows you to tell your brand’s story in a whole new way. Currently a lot of brands are connecting with a wide variety of customers through posting fun Instagram shots or inviting people to special content on their Facebook page. Creating a Facebook group is a fantastic way to connect with a new audience. If your brand posts a discount code in the group from time to time, then your customers will feel like they’re getting “exclusive” content. They’ll also be more likely to remain in the group.
Having followers on social media provides a chance for exponential growth. Encourage people to use a hashtag with a picture of the product that they’ve bought from your brand (possibly offer them 10% off their next purchase.) it’s important to not only keep your current customers engaged, but if they share a post that highlights your brand then you also receive “free” advertising.
Use Targeted Ads Online
In the online space you’ll also want to make sure that your ads are targeted to the group you want buying your products. If the majority of your buyers are mid-twenties women, then try to target them instead of having your ads also appear for men in their fifties.
As more and more people have begun to shop online, this means that there is more data that can now be collected about individual people and their buying habits. It allows for your ads to become even more targeted within a specific group. This can save you time and money.
While the concept of using people’s data to then send them ads of a similar might seem a little “creepy,” many marketing experts claim that a customer needs to interact with your brand at least 7 times before they’ll end up purchasing from you. Using targeting ads is just one way to ensure that they’ll continue to see your brand again and again.
Shape Your Inventory
It is also important that you use Retail 4.0 to help you shape your inventory in the future. Since you can see your customers are buying, you can decide what your customer may be interested in during future seasons.
Of course it’s important for you to remain true to your brand and continue to connect with customers that align with the atmosphere that your brand provides. However, consider shaping your inventory as a kind of collaboration project that involves your customers. What they buy is their way of providing you with feedback for what they want to see in your “closet” and what they don’t care for.
These are just a couple of tips for how you can run a better retail business in the digital space. Try to use Retail 4.0 to your advantage to reach new audiences and increase your sales when the economy starts to increase again.
About Carson Derrow
