A $50 sale is great. But what if you could get that same $50 sale to come back four times in the next few months? Here are some ideas how to achieve that.
1) On your receipts, you should have an option to include a message. In that message, you can offer a discount toward a future purchase when a customer spends a certain amount. For example, when you spend $100 here at Déjà vu, you receive a discount on your next purchase. This gives your sales staff the opportunity to offer an incentive to the customers so they reach $100. We often see people back that were introduced to an item that was just not in their budget but willing to buy the product because they can save $50-$70 with the coupon.
Whether it be 5 percent off every purchase or a point system for every dollar spent as cash towards their future purchases, create some sort of rewards program for your loyal customers!
2) Whether it be 5 percent off every purchase or a point system for every dollar spent as cash towards their future purchases, create some sort of rewards program for your loyal customers! This also allows you to data-mine for emails and phone numbers. That way you can send out emails and phone numbers. That way you can send out your weekly or monthly specials. Places like Sephora also contact you during your birthday month to come in and get a free gift (which is obviously supplied by their vendors at no cost to the store) and get increased foot traffic. This also allows you to track where most of your business is coming from. For example, if you are a boutique that also sells lingerie and dance wear, you can track where the entertainers are coming from. We like to see where the entertainers are coming from here in Las Vegas. If we find that we are not seeing many girls from specific clubs in our area we will bring donuts to the managers and ask them to hand out our business cards. Food is easily the best thing to win a person over, so picking up a pizza or cookies is a $10 investment that could go a long way for your store.
Another program we are looking into is offering a customer the ability to purchase 10 theater tickets at one time. This shows that we’re giving them added value in an area that can be tricky to offer guest incentives. Also, if they had credit with us, why would they want to go somewhere else? So this ensures us we will see them back at least nine more times and probably sooner than later. This is what is done in nightclubs that give them a packed floor. Busy theaters mean more customers. Only after you have volume will your customer base begin to build up. We are in the beginning stages of integrating our rewards program and this is one of the kinks that we are currently working out. I will follow up in a future article and let you know how it works.
3) Punch cards are always a great way to get customers to return. We offer a punch card for buying seven DVDs at full price and receiving 30 percent off the eighth one. Chances are people are not going to buy eight DVDs in one shot but they will likely come back over in the next few weeks and build their collection with us and not the competition down the road. Another sale that we often offer is a buy one get one half off. The most you will be giving off is 25 percent off each item and that is only if the items are the exact same price. Otherwise you get the discount on the lesser item bringing your discount lower than 25 percent off per item. If a customer is committed to just buying a lubrication at full price, we would rather take the sale of a lubrication plus cleaner at 25 percent off each. It is also an easy way to upsell an additional item that will prolong the life of their toy.
4) Create an entity that is not something you currently offer. A great start for adult boutiques is adding a full smoke shop. The next untapped market for us that we are currently beginning to explore is offering pole classes for our guest. These are classes you will be able to pay for but they are also classes that we will be able to award guests for free when they purchase a certain dollar mount. Spend $150 and receive one free class. Spend $200 and you can bring a friend and so on and so forth. Not only will the classes generate money but it also will generate foot traffic through our store, which increases sales. If you have the space to do something such as this and you work in an area that’s heavy with entertainers, I would recommend giving it a try. It’s rather costly but it should pay itself off just as a theater and arcade would in a short amount of time.
5) Another area where you can get repeat business is to officially claim your business on Yelp. When you receive a review, whether it’s positive or negative, offer the guest a “Thank You” discount to come back for their positive review or offer an “Apology” discount for their less than exceptional experience. Either way, they feel like you care enough to reach out to them and it will bring them back to the store if they have an incentive to come in.
With more than 10 years working with Deja Vu’s various branches, Megan Swartz — Deja Vu’s general manager and buyer — has made a name for herself as a dedicated and savvy, merchandising and operations-managing dynamo.
