Owning a retail business, one that has a place upon the high street, is to have a relationship with the local area and community. The very nature of a shop appearing on the high street and offering products to residents means that consideration of public perception is important. Those that do endeavour to earn good favour with the local community are far more likely to find themselves with a greater custom, more demand, and higher profits overall.
There are a number of ways to better connect a shop with a local area. To show you how, we’re sharing five of the most inventive and provenly effective ways of building a better presence within a community and how to creatively earn positive support from local customers.
Special Offers
A great way to entice those that live locally into a retail space is to offer them discounts. This could be a small cost of a regularly purchased item, such as coffee, as a way of encouraging a regular attendance, building up an association with a specific shop while also ensuring that customers are brought inside to browse other products regularly too.
Offers designed for those that live locally can also promote a better retail image, with businesses being perceived as demonstrably caring about their local customers.
Sell Local Products
Filling shop shelving with local products, those that are manufactured in the area or by local designers, is a great way to promote local culture and artisans while also adding a unique element to a business. Regional products, especially those produced in small quantities, are not available everywhere and will draw those visiting the area to specific shops.
Even small items, such as the well-wishes on greeting card units, can be a product designed by a local artist. In addition to you helping to promote their business, they will use their following to promote yours.
Host Events
By welcoming customers into a shop space for more than buying products, a shop can assert itself as a cultural and social venue as much as it is a retail one. Bookshops, for example, can integrate extremely well with their local area by hosting book talks and groups regularly, drawing in customers, promoting writers, and increasing sales too.
Employ Local Design
The interior design of a shop space can very easily celebrate local aesthetics or even showcase local designers. Some retailers might feel content to host framed artworks by regional designers while others employ artists to create more significant murals.
Materials used to create shop furniture and structure can even, usefully, be crafted from local materials or with an area’s colours. The city of Bath, for example, maintains a handsome and uniform high street with retailers using ‘Bath stone’ to construct their facades.
Adapt To Demand
A local area is likely to make it very clear the types of products and services they would like to see. If these desires, such as home delivery or an increased variety of products, are honoured by a retailer, they will be celebrated and cherished by the area as residents feel they are being heard by local businesses.
