Retail transactions done online afford customers, wholesalers, retailers and even the manufacturers, the luxury of conducting business anywhere at their own convenience. With speed and accuracy, operations can be carried out smoothly - one can therefore see the dilemma traditional independent grocers face. The concerns about falling traffic in your stores are very real as over 71% of consumers trust that they can find better prices online. 

So how do you as a traditional retailer survive and most importantly thrive amidst the disruption and turbulence caused by ecommerce?

The first key to survival is to retain and increase foot traffic in your store. The good news is that 94% of retail sales are still conducted in brick and mortar stores. Even with the ease of ecommerce, people still prefer a physical experience, a relationship, an interaction with the product or the retailer. This is what defines us as humans - our desire to interact.

One of the best strategies to boost number of customer visits in your stores is to leverage this human desire to interact and to discover new experiences. Try to re-imagine your store as an event space which your customers see as being a fun place to visit - not just the place they need to go for weekly provisioning. Promoting limited time price discounts (TPR) on popular and well known products only leads to erosion of margin.

“If consumers come to expect price cuts as the rule rather than the exception, then price promotions lose their ability to boost sales and become unprofitable. “       
                                                                    
Consequently, one of the major keys to survival in this volatile retail environment is the creation of exceptional customer experience in your stores. Retail leaders realize that customers now have a plethora of choices available to them. Surely, the store that provides the best experience is certainly where the customers will throng to. In essence, the traditional grocers have the advantage over ecommerce giants in providing quality customer experience through in store demo and other event based marketing strategies.     
According to a survey of 1,786 US grocery shoppers conducted by Food Marketing Institute.
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“Among all regular food shoppers, brick-and-mortar supermarkets continue to enjoy a clear edge over online grocery retail in perceived performance on key evaluation criteria, especially in providing fresher produce (a top store-selection driver) and better customer service,” ​

         
With the ever dynamic nature of retail today, there is no way you can talk about improving customer experience without including in store demos. This refined tactic helps to draw customers, boost sales of demonstrated products and also improve the sales of other products in that category. To withstand the barrage of online competitors, you have to think of an in-store demo as a network of events rather than one elaborate show. Knowing the right product to demo, duration of each demo and location for the demo are very crucial to your stores survival. In order to measure the impact of in store demos on your stores’ Sales Per Customer Transaction, you have to consider

• individual customers journey,
• their loyalty to each product and
• the Halo Effect - The Halo effect occurs when promoting one item influences us to purchase another item. It is well documented that successful demo often produces 300%-450% uplift in product sales, as well as measurable uplift in the product’s category.

Understanding return on investment for these promotional strategies can go a long way in attracting the sponsors for them. Analysis of data, collected effortlessly by your POS, holds the key to leveraging vendor’s promotional budgets for increasing foot traffic in your stores. Any quality in store demo agency or vendor’s field marketing organization collects valuable data specific to the demo events they conduct. Cross referencing POS with demo data can produce empirical evidence, that would entice vendors to demos in your stores all day long, and that will lift:

• Weekly sales per square foot of selling area
• Sales per customer transaction, and
• Median weekly sales per supermarket  

Ecommerce giants should not be the only ones benefiting from the opportunities technology gives us, traditional stores can explore those blessings too. There are tools that help you automate scheduling and coordination of promotional events in your stores without adding any payroll expenditures.
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In retrospect, arming yourself with the right information and tactics will give you sufficient leverage in the unstable 'waters' of retail. Reaching out to your customers, giving them the very best and improving on your operations are essential tips for relieving the pressure of online competitors.

​It is every business owner’s dream to have their brands which they have worked on tirelessly to be accepted byconsumers. In order to create brands that will be accepted and loved by consumers, you must know your consumers and know what they like. This can be achieved through surveys and polls.

As a brand owner, you can engage your customers in conversations whether face to face or via telephone or the internet. The more you speak with your customers, the more you get to know them and their preferences. The more you connect with a customer, the higher the chances of increasing the customer’s brand loyalty. 

Customer’s brand love increases when a brand is experience based and not product based. When a brand caters for the need of a customer, the customer is most likely to be satisfied and happy thereby, increasing the customer’s love for the brand. 

In addition, when a brand creates an emotional connection with consumers, it leads to a deeper sense of brand loyalty and advocacy.

It is no longer a new thing that discounts and special offers bring more sales and increase the likelihood of a brand getting more awareness and consumers. Some producers think that offering discounts and special offers devalue their products and this in turn makes their brands appear cheap. Discounts are a helpful tool that can increase brand awareness and increase sales if used in the correct manner. 

There are several clever ways to make people buy your products and many successful companies make use of discounts and promotions in a strategic manner to increase their revenue. Without discounts and special offers, many customers who might later become loyal customers might have never bought your brand.

Discounts and special offers, if properly and correctly run, can help increase long term profitability. Discounts, if used often, can become less effective and customers might wait till another time when your brand has a discount before they make purchase and this can lead to low profit rate.

In order to increase sales on your brand, your in store demonstrations must appeal to your customers. One quick way to start this is to change the job description of a salesperson to that of a consultant, an expert and a friendly person. Customers become more interested in your brands when they encounter a salesperson who is knowledgeable about the product and can answer questions effectively, giving necessary insight and details as at when needed. 

In store salespersons must have the ability to connect with customers in a friendly and memorable way that will make them feel satisfied and in turn increase their likelihood to return some other time. 

Also, you must figure out how to present your products in a very unique way that is different from your competitors’. Customers get fascinated by something new and just a little tweak can help boost sales and increase customers’ loyalty to a brand. One other important feature is the checkout. As much as possible, try to avoid keeping customers in long lines as this can discourage customers, resulting in many purchases getting abandoned. 

Create a sense of community for your customers. You can organize events that can bring your customers together and can help them learn new things and discuss about your common ground. 

In order to promote sales and gain customers’ loyalty, customer service is an important feature that cannot be overemphasized. Many consumers expect brands to provide help even before they buy a product and after they make purchase. Customer service is a form of customer support that occurs throughout the whole buying process. Every interaction with a customer offers the opportunity to impress and convince customers to buy your brand. Create social support for your customers by utilizing customer service effectively. 

Brands are important to customers because it helps them identify what they like and what they dislike. As a result of trust and consistency, customers are more likely to buy the brands they are familiar with than one they are not familiar with and this in turn increases their loyalty to the brand. It saves customers decision making time. For instance, when a customer goes to the mall to buy a household appliance, instead of getting acquainted with new brands, he simply does a quick job of picking out the brand he favors and saves himself a lot of stress and time. 

​When you have a brand that you need customers to buy, you have to make sure that the product is solution based. Customers will opt to buy a product that they know has the solution to their needs. Identify your client, think about what makes the person happy or relieved and make it available. Have a good knowledge of your industry and a firm understanding of your product. Customers will be interested if they know that you are knowledgeable in your field.

​ You must also know your customers. For instance, if your brand caters for the needs of the elderly more than the young adults, your target customers will be the elderly and not youths. 

​Retail is one business that entails a lot of effort to succeed; you can't just wake up one morning, cook up a marketing strategy and expect to flourish. Some retailers currently find themselves in a bit of a fix when it comes to marketing. There are strategies involved in making your product stand out from the rest of the pack, especially if you sell products that can be experienced by the shoppers, you will need something more than just some ads to impress.
Brand activation is the art of of driving consumer action through campaigns, brand interaction and experiences. As an upcoming or certified grocery store, in store demo offers are the most effective marketing strategies that help to promote a product. In retrospect, a successful in store demo makes for a strong brand activation.
Product demonstration literally allows the shopper experience every bit of the product and what better way of knowing the quality than tasting it. A bit of a statistics to water your taste buds - in store sampling is known to increase sales by as much as 2,000 percent. Invariably, majority of those shoppers that experience the product go on to make purchase - the very essence of business.
Therefore, it is not a function of how many ads you run - though still a viable marketing strategy, but the combination of in store demos would guarantee notable brand activation in the store, ultimately yielding to a spike in the store's revenue. Consequently, many retailers have adopted this form of field marketing and we will see why "one taste sells better than a 1000 ads". ​

These offers have a plethora of benefits to the retailer and the store. Not only does it help promote the product but an in store demo fosters connection. In store demo offers allow you to connect directly to the customer. Furthermore, interaction that spans within and outside the store can also emanate just from in store sampling. Consequently, with the relationship established with the shoppers, you can convert them into loyal customers, hence, the need for experienced brand ambassadors that will help push the right traffic for your product. In fact, the customer could even go about telling people about your product based on the rapport and experience at the product demonstration. The more your connection, the higher your sales. Also, in store demo offers afford customers the luxury of trying different varieties of your product. For example, if it is yoghurt you are trying to promote, you can bring different flavors some people have not heard, and let them try them. ​