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Soak up the ambience

In a series of articles addressing how retailers can help make their businesses more profitable, former retailer and ex-president of retailers’ association Retra, Malcolm Marshall, offers some advice on how to create a good in-store ambience

When retail is going through tough times, as is happening at present, the customer becomes more particular where they shop and will gravitate to the stores where they feel they will participate in a more enjoyable shopping experience.

This experience can take more than one form. One, of course, is customer service as provided by the sales person, another is the ambience of the shop itself. Then there is the cleanliness of the store and the display of product, which, if not up to scratch, can turn a prospective customer off in a second.

Ideally, of course, all the component parts that make up the enjoyable shopping experience need to be in place, and if they are, you will at least have a chance of grabbing a share of the potential sales. If not, you are swimming upstream against a very fast current and can expect a bumpy ride over the next 12 months or so.

The ambience of the shop seems to be forgotten by many in our industry and I feel that is a shame. If you asked your wife, husband, partner, or even your parents, what it is they like about John Lewis stores, I am sure a majority would say that the ambience is one, which makes you want to spend.

Whether you create the correct ambience by having the right lighting or by playing the right music is up to you.

INAPPROPRIATE MUSIC

Ideally, you would do both, however, if funds are tight, I suggest the music option is the cheapest and easiest. I lose count of how many stores I go into where they have inappropriate music at unbelievable levels blasting out so the customer cannot hear themselves think, let alone have an intelligent conversation.

The music should be in the background and in my opinion soft and easy to listen to, so as to create an ambience that relaxes the customer and puts them at their ease.

Avoid using the radio, no matter what station, and even worse are the pop TV channels that are so numerous these days. They definitely do not give out the right vibes and are not conducive to relaxing the prospective purchaser.

Another part of creating the right ambience as well as background music and lighting is the cleanliness of the whole shop along with the product on display.

It is essential you give off the right image to the customer as soon as they enter the shop and a pristine display that is clean and dust-free is an essential element of achieving this.

If you have old product on display, which is scratched because of the time it has been on the shelves, if you have cabinets that have a layer of dust lying on them as they have not been cleaned in days, or if you have damaged stock lying around or boxes, you are not creating an image of efficiency and professionalism. That lack of professionalism will put off customers.

There is nothing better than a good clean display, without clutter, to send out the right message and it is not rocket science either – just get staff into a routine of cleaning each morning and making sure items that are not required are not left lying around.
Old scratched products with a layer of dust on them do not create an image of professionalism

To finish your shop off, so as to create the best atmosphere you can for prospective customers, do not forget ticketing.

This is so important and, in this day and age, there is no excuse for not having price tickets that are as good if not better than any of the large organisations.

Software packages are easily available, do not cost the earth plus are easy to learn and use. Once you have good professional ticketing which, by the way, should be held in perspex holders to protect them, make sure you keep them up to date.

There is nothing worse than price tickets that are stuck on product with sellotape and curling up at the edges with out-of-date information printed on them.

If you follow these fairly simple steps to create the right shop environment, you will at least have a chance of attracting the customers who are in the market to purchase equipment, who may I add in difficult times are more demanding regarding who they deal with.

Not instigating these steps will mean less footfall and fewer sales, which means less profit.