It is no big secret that 2020 was a challenging year for the retail industry. Unfortunately, 12,200 stores closed their doors for the final time last year, including some big-name companies in the retail sector. However, during a difficult time for retailers, eCommerce seemed to thrive. During quarantine, online retail sales boomed as a result of people being unable to visit shops physically. As a result, the eCommerce sector saw the retail market share for online sales rise to 13.6 percent during the first quarter of 2021. Now, after an extended period of closure, many retailers have started welcoming customers back inside their shops.

If you have recently reopened your retail business, you are likely feeling a wide range of emotions. You may be feeling excited about seeing customers face-to-face and chatting to them as they make their purchases. However, many business owners feel a little anxious about what life post-pandemic will be like for retailers. Adapting to the 'new normal' and ensuring that your store is COVID-safe is a lot of work and can add to your running costs. You may also be concerned that your sales will be low due to people preferring to shop online. Putting all these worries to one side and having faith in your business is vital. You may find it helpful to go back to basics and remember why you started your business in the first place. You likely had a passion for the products you sell and love seeing people shop in your store and the buzz it brings. Bringing that same energy and enthusiasm back to your store is the best way to approach reopening positively and make it a success. Approaching your reopening as a fresh start enables you to bring your business back bigger and better than ever before. Here are just some of the ways you can inject your enthusiasm into your business and ensure customers will want to keep coming back to your store over and over again:

Host a Relaunch

After a challenging year, why not bring some fun and enjoyment to your customers, old and new? Hosting a relaunch event is the perfect way to attract existing customers back to your store and to create interest from new customers at the same time. In addition, there is nothing like a fun event to improve your foot traffic and to encourage people into your store to make a purchase or two.

Relaunching your business is the ideal way to freshen things up and re-introduce the world to your fantastic products. Hosting a relaunch event offers many benefits and is especially effective at strengthening your brand and attracting new customers.

Before you start planning your relaunch event, you need to think about what you want to achieve from the event to make it a success. For example, are you hoping to make sales at the event itself, do you want to sign customers up for a loyalty scheme, or do you want customers to sample your products? There are many fantastic options to consider when planning your relaunch event, so knowing what you want to gain from it is vital.

Hosting an Event

Keeping everyone entertained and having fun at the event is essential to make it a success. You may want to hire a Corporate Event Planning company to supply entertainment for the occasion to ensure everyone has a great time. The importance of event engagement is crucial to make sure the event goes as planned, to avoid any negative impact on your business’s reputation. Your event planning service should be able to supply some fun games and equipment to get everyone having the best time.

Enhance Your Shopping Experience

Giving your store a fresh new look will help to create the ultimate shopping experience for your customers when they return to your store. Before the pandemic, you were likely too busy to think about moving your store around and experimenting with different layouts. But, now you may have the time needed to perfect your store design and get it looking at its best. Making it as simple as possible for your customers to shop your store by setting out displays in a logical order is an excellent starting point. Pairing similar products together is a great way to encourage add-on purchases and increase your sales. Creating lifestyle displays of merchandise is also a great way to boost your sales and enables customers to buy the entire range.

As well as improving your shop's layout, it is also a good idea to show your window displays some care and attention. A great-looking window display is essential to capture passers-by's attention and encourage foot traffic into your store. In addition, merchandising your window displays to incorporate themes and to showcase your best new products is sure to bring your business to the attention of everyone that walks past.

Expand Your Product Range

After not browsing goods in-person for a while, your customers will be desperate to see your goods and enjoy an immersive shopping experience. To ensure your store lives up to expectations, it is an excellent idea to retain plenty of your current bestsellers so that customers can pop in for their ever-popular favorites. In addition to these, it also helps to keep your products fresh by buying in some new stock that your customers will love.

Expanding your product range is an excellent way to help your business to reach a wider audience and attract more people inside your store. Offering your customers more choice without diverting from your bestsellers can be a great way to keep customers coming back to find out what is new in-store.

Encourage Loyalty

Introducing a customer loyalty scheme can be a helpful addition to your promotional efforts. When you start a customer loyalty scheme, you will have many different ways you can use the scheme to benefit both you and your customers. For example, you could offer loyal customers a money-off code to redeem on their next purchase, or maybe a free gift when they have spent a certain amount in store. In addition, starting a loyalty scheme provides you with the opportunity to create an email list and notify your customers of exclusive offers and new product information to encourage them to visit your store. Finally, a loyalty scheme is a helpful way for you to build a relationship between your business and your customers to enable them to shop with you ahead of competing stores.

Shout About It

No matter how many fantastic changes you make to your business when you reopen, your efforts will all be in vain if no one knows anything about them. Letting everyone know that you are open for business and that you are back better than ever is an excellent way to welcome existing customers back and to attract new ones.

Posting regular updates on social media and keeping your followers up to date with news such as exciting new products that will be landing in store soon, money-saving vouchers, and details of clearance sales will nurture your relationship. Keeping in touch with both your customers and potential customers on social media is an effective way to keep them engaged and encourage loyalty to your brand. Social media is the place many people go to when looking for shopping inspiration and ideas, so it offers many valuable opportunities for marketing your products and bringing your retail business back stronger.