Starting a retail business, creating a good display, and opening shop is not enough to build a thriving business. A lot goes into successfully creating awareness for your brand, and expecting your ideal customers to walk into your store, whisk products off your shelves, and make massive profits rarely happens. As a retailer, you should invest in retail marketing best practices to build your brand and achieve your goals.

This is especially true in the current competitive market where brands have to do more to stand out and survive.

In this article, we will examine aspects of retail marketing essential for retail businesses looking to scale. We will discuss the concept of retail marketing, explain its relevance, highlight best practices, and share examples of companies that have successfully implemented retail marketing to boost growth. 

What is Retail Marketing?

Retail marketing refers to the techniques employed by businesses to attract new customers, keep existing customers coming back, and drive sales. 

Retail marketing is essential for the growth of B2C businesses, especially brands that run brick-and-mortar stores. It creates awareness about the availability of certain products and helps to increase walk-in customers.

The marketing techniques we will discuss in this article are also important for e-commerce businesses without a physical retail store. 

What Is the Importance of Retail Marketing?

As stated earlier, the main goals of retail marketing are to create awareness about products, attract new customers, keep existing customers, and increase sales.

If you effectively execute your marketing strategy, some of the key benefits for your business will include:

1. Reaching a wider audience. Some strategies could help to reach a potentially bigger audience for your products. Examples include advertising on television and radio, employing social media marketing techniques, and publishing in newspapers, both online and in print. 
2. Educating your target audience about your products. The technique you choose should educate your target audience about your products, including information about features, benefits, how to use the product, the ingredients used if your product is a food item, how to take care of the product, etc. 
3. Increasing sales volume. When you reach a wider audience, you increase the probability of making more sales. More people learn about your product and its benefits, increasing the likelihood of selling to more people. 
4. Increasing profits. Similar to the above point, an increase in sales leads to an increase in profits because you sell more products. 
5. Acquiring new customers. Retail marketing will help you land new customers, and you can promote other products to them. For instance, if your primary product is body oil and you advertise it to the masses, you can promote a related product like perfume or shaving cream to sell more.
6. Maintaining your existing customers and increasing brand loyalty. High customer retention means that customers will back to your business for repeat purchases. This helps to increase customer lifetime value. 

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Retail Marketing Strategies

To create a successful retail marketing strategy, identify your customer persona and understand their preferences and behavior.

Also, keep up with current market trends and understand your competition. 

Due to high competition in the retail sector, brands have to leverage the power of retail marketing to promote their businesses. 

There are many strategies retailers can use to achieve their marketing goals. These include:

Advertising

Retailers can run ads on websites, local newspapers, magazines, newsletters, print out flyers, or through paid search like Google ads. 

Product displays

This involves leveraging visual merchandising to display your products instore to attract potential customers.

Work with influencers

These could include celebrities like movie stars, singers, and TV personalities, or engage the services of content creators with a massive following. 

Digital marketing

Invest in digital marketing practices like social media marketing, email marketing, and search engine optimization to promote your products to a wide audience. 

Host events

Organize regular events like product launches, sweepstakes, charities, sales promotions, contests/competitions, and fashion shows to drive engagement for your business. 

SMS marketing

If you have contact phone details for existing customers, leverage the power of SMS marketing to promote new products, offer discounts, and educate them on product features. 

Loyalty programs

You can start a loyalty program for your business to help drive repeat sales and boost customer retention rates. Offer rewards, discounts, and exclusive offers to this group of loyal supporters and spread the word to entice more people to join your program.

Word-of-mouth marketing

This is one of the oldest and most effective retail marketing strategies to implement. People often ask for referrals or recommendations from friends, family, and colleagues and trust their suggestions. If you provide excellent products and impeccable customer service, your customers are more likely to recommend your brand to others and speak highly of you. 

Finally, let us examine a company that has successfully implemented retail marketing strategies to boost growth. 

Carrefour

Carrefour is one of the leading retailers globally, with stores in various countries including France, Brazil, Dubai, Kenya, and the European region.

The company’s retail marketing strategies include digital marketing, audio-visual advertising, social media marketing, influencer marketing, a loyalty program, and SMS marketing.