With online shopping becoming more dominant in the retail world, garden centres are having to work harder to make themselves a shopping destination of choice! We’re going to look at different ways a garden centre can increase footfall.
First impressions count!
Don’t be fooled, your store might look wonderfully exotic and pretty on the inside but if your exterior is lacking you could lose out on potential customers! How are the customers going to know what beauty lies within if they are turned away by the entrance? It’s important that your store welcomes customers in rather than fending them off.
Try giving your customers a little sneak peak of what you have to offer with a nice decorative entrance. You could choose some of your best-selling garden products or better looking plants to create that first positive impression. But make sure they’re always fresh! Even a little welcome mat could help your curb appeal! A little effort certainly goes a long way.
Customer satisfaction
If your garden centre is on the larger size, it can become a marathon walking round looking for the right products/plants. Do your customers a favour and help out with navigation… by this we mean grouping similar plants and products together to make it easier to find.
Increasing your footfall from the outside of the store is just as important on the inside, so how about investing in a place where customers can sit, relax and admire their surroundings… like a cafeteria perhaps!
Think about it, sometimes having to make a quick decision on something can deter a customer from the product. So if you’re supplying them with an area to sit, relax and maybe offer a bite to eat, you’re more likely to increase spending habits! It’s really a win-win investment for you and your customer!
Don’t forget advertising fresh deals is a great way that a garden centre can increase footfall… because who doesn’t love a bargain!
Trends and events
We think it’s so important to keep on top of trends… finding out what’s popular and IN right now can really attract customers.
Imagine putting on a little Easter display using the great variety of plant material grown in your store. You could come up with tonnes of ideas and create the material for them like a little Funfair or a Fairy-tale land, get creative! It’s also a great way for your team to work together, contributing in a unique way.
Events on site are also a great way to involve you staff and customers! They don’t even have to be large events, for example, you could hold a little Easter egg hunt to kick off the Easter holidays, or a Santa’s grotto event during Christmas! Even an Afternoon Tea, because who doesn’t love that?
Don’t forget, it’s always a great idea to host a family fun day in the summer… customers love it and you will too!
Here are a few ideas of what you could include on your family fun day!:
- Different stalls – food, products and fun
- A sale on all your products
- Something fun for the kids; like a pony/petting zoo, a drawing competition, party games
- Competitions – the best made animal habitat, most creative cake, scavenger hunts
- Live music – allowing local people to showcase their talents
You could even have a charitable fundraiser for various local community groups or local charities! That’ll be a great way to get extra folk involved – helping to set up the pop-up café or manning the stalls!
Remember, your staff are just as important as your customers! If your staff are enjoying themselves in their jobs then their attitude will reflect onto the customers. So get them involved in all the fun activities!
Finding ways to showcase your business can be as easy as offering field trips to primary schools to learn about different plants and habitats or even to community based institutes like the WI (Woman’s Institute) for example. The world is your oyster!
Garden Centre Event examples
We wanted to give you a couple examples of events that other Garden Centres host to give you inspiration on how YOUR garden centre can increase footfall!
On the first Sunday of every month Wyevale Garden Centres holds a Little Diggers – Learning to Grow party to teach children about planting seeds and vegetables and how to care for them! It also allows them to take them home after to continue their care. How cute!
The Dobbies Garden Centres all around the country are hosting their Easter Bunny Breakfast event for families with children this Easter! This includes a cooked breakfast, egg-citing Easter craft activities, a fancy dress competition, an Easter Bunny meet and greet and many offered treats to take home!
Frosts Garden Centre always holds a Christmas style event with a large ice skating rink, hot foods and drinks and festive decorations for a fun family day out!
REMEMBER! With all your hard work, you want your store to be seen… so putting a little effort into advertising could go a long way!
This could be as simple as designing a nice little door-drop leaflet to invite the locals to attend an event you’re hosting with a little offer inside to entice them to come. Or you could post out on your social media channels to let your followers know what’s new, what’s going on.
Offer something extra…
Sounds exciting doesn’t it? We all know that the customers satisfaction is the most important sale in retail, so how about offering them an additional service that you could both benefit from?
A cash machine can increase footfall to your store – it’s as simple as that. Here’s the facts… According to the ACS Local Shop Report 2018 62% of convenience stores now have cash machines because 76% of customers pay by cash so it’s a needed service!
What’s more is that these customers won’t just stop at cash. Impulse purchasing is a temptation that’s just too hard to resist, especially with cash in their hands… don’t miss out on those potential sales and customers, get yourself an ATM today!
One YourCash customer, Alistair Bradbury of Best-one in Manchester said, “I can easily and conservatively say that the ATM is driving 15-20% of the footfall into the shop.” – how can you argue with that? Get in touch today!
Let us know how you get on and if our “How a garden centre can increase footfall” tips helped you! Tweets us @YourCash!
