After 2020 and 2021 took the entire world by storm, from many points of view, everybody is looking forward to seeing things getting back to normal this year. However, it’s the moment to face the truth: it will probably take longer than expected to see that happening. But hey, this doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t remain optimistic and try to get the most out of everything, no matter how hard it will be.
On the other hand, many economic sectors took some serious hits following the coronavirus pandemic and 2022 will surely be a challenging year for them. Retail – brick and mortar shops, to be more specific – is still trying to figure out what the following months have in store (pun intended) and, at least for the moment, the best approach is simple: step up their game.
If they want to stay on top of the competition, that is.
What if we told you that we understand the situation? And, even more, we have some recommendations which you can put into practice and see immediate results?
In the following minutes, we’re going to discuss what we consider the most effective strategies which have big chances at revamping brick and mortar retail in 2022 and how you can implement them right away!
Brick and mortar retail strategies
1. Consider loyalty campaigns
Remember when everybody was saying back in 2020 that you should show some loyalty towards some of your favorite local brands when shopping? Well, as a brick and mortar retailer, you should think about those who supported you and show them your gratitude.
We’re talking about loyalty campaigns, of course, designed to offer shoppers incentives, in an attempt to encourage them to keep buying from you. Obviously, sky is the limit, as you can tailor some cool, app-based programs, focused around member-only benefits, discounts, or points, which can be redeemed against other products. This is a great shopper marketing strategy that will help you engage customers.
Why is this a useful retail strategy? It’s simple: loyal customers will always spend more. Actually, 36% of consumers shop frequently in stores where they can receive rewards.
2. Embrace click and collect
Ok, so this is just a presumption but hey, who’s going to stop us from saying it? “Click and collect” was, most likely, one of the most used keywords last year. Because, you know, there was a pandemic that made it kind of hard to shop as we were used to…
And it is this keyword that helped many brick and mortar shops survive 2020!
The concept was dead simple: people were able to place their orders online and then get the items from the nearest store. Yes, simple, but also ridiculously efficient, because it was also proven to increase sales.
In a lot of cases, those who came to a store to collect their items were highly tempted to buy something else as well. Combine this…instinct with some effective merchandising and it’s not that difficult to understand why click and collect can be the winning formula for the following months!
3. Adopt new in-store technologies
Of course, we’re going to talk about how technology can help brick and mortar retail in 2022. Because now it’s pretty much one of the best moments to take advantage of everything it can do and help the physical move into the virtual.
Sure, there are many technologies able to help a retailer shake things up a bit. However, for us, the top of the list is shared between augmented reality, due to its ability to give clients a “behind the scenes” look when it comes to products and the overall shopping experience, and what we like to call tech-oriented shopping.
The latter is picking up nicely lately and customers interacting with it seem delighted. So why not trying to….implement it into your brick and mortar business?
Tokinomo is one of the best examples of how technology can help retailers step up their game, by making the same-old in-store marketing and visual merchandising technique forgotten, through an innovative robotic in-store advertising solution that makes products the absolute stars of their shelves.
Yeah, that’s technology at its finest for you, able to give brick and mortar retailers a serious boost!
2022 is going to be a challenging year for many businesses as, if everything goes well, the recovery should slowly start. We know, from a point of view it’s not a good moment to experiment with new strategies, but trust us with one thing: the above-discussed ideas are far from being some random what-ifs.
When developing your strategy for this year, take them into consideration, at least. Something is telling us you’ll thank us later.
Are you a brick and mortar store owner who’s already seeing better results after adapting to the current times? Let us know what worked for you, by dropping a few lines below, in the comments section!
