Converting Pro Shop Traffic to Increased Sales Charles Hartley, Business Development Consultant North and Midlands, explains the importance of improving the consumer journey. The Car Park to Pro Shop Journey It’s a good idea to review your customer’s journey from the car park to pro shop. Is your shop easy to find? If not, is there signage offering clear directions to its location. Whilst on this journey try to identify any potential places where you could add further signs to reinforce messages of your services and value. Foremost members utilising EMP Premium receive a free A-Frame with regular deliveries of A1 posters. This is a fantastic way of keeping the signage fresh and give the impression that there is always something new in-store. Window vinyls are another excellent way to make your shop look professional whilst telling your potential new customers of the key services you provide. What Does Your Pro Shop Say About You? With one foot through the door, what does your pro shop say about you? If the shop looks cluttered, unclean and poorly organised, your potential new customers’ first impression will most certainly be ‘messy business’. This makes a huge difference in terms of trust which is integral to them making that first purchase with you. Is your counter chaotic? Again, initial impressions may be that you are ‘unorganised’ if it is. Look at what’s necessary to be on the counter and what’s not. Is your workshop or office on show? What does that visual say about your business? If it’s clean kept and with everything in its rightful home, it can say a lot about how efficient you are. EMP Premium members with Foremost are provided with a free PC stick for an in-store TV. This is ideally located at eye-line behind the counter. The Foremost team will then update the messages shown onscreen remotely (no need for you to access image banks or create signage yourself). This is a fantastic digital and animated way to communicate the services you offer, the new products you have in-store and the latest shop promotions that they can benefit from. Exciting Instore Displays Firstly, make sure the high traffic flow areas of the shop contain the classic ‘pick me up’ impulse buys. Balls, tees and gloves should be within easy reach when walking to the counter. During busy times, a shop set up for self-service will lead to more sales. Most of your suppliers now provide excellent shop-in-shop displays which can really make products pop-out and excite. By maintaining these displays in colour and size order, it creates an easy, logical way to shop, leading to a much higher chance of a customer making an impulsive buy. Ask your suppliers for education on how to make their display look at its best. Simply following a ‘champion shot’ of their shop-in-shop feature will make it easy for you and your team to follow. In 2022, Foremost introduced their ‘EMP Hot Spot’ display which is a brilliant way to highlight the latest promotions or alternatively a way to effectively display a product that you might be overstocked in and need to clear out. The Importance of Team With increased footfall of visitors to the pro shop there is an incredible amount of value in training your staff on buying signals and how they can prompt an impulse buy. Offering the golfer simple advice may trigger them to buy. “It’s hot out there today, have you got plenty of drinks in the bag?” “There are a large number of water hazards on our course, do you have enough golf balls?” Weather and conditions will always change the line of questioning! Do your staff see opportunities for linked purchases to help increase that average basket spend? “Would you like a shoe bag with those new shoes?” If you the customer is struggling to decide between two shirts that they particularly like, have your staff got the authority to offer a discount, so they buy both? Capturing Customer Data In today’s age, it’s often said that your business is only as big as your database. So make sure you are collecting as much data as you can from each new member and visitor this year. There are many ways to do this but the most simple and effective is confidently asking them for an email address or for a social media follow in-store. Really simple, make it part of the routine! Closing the Shop Finally, at the end of each day prepare your shop for the next one. Hoover the carpet, replenish stock, put your displays back in size order and front up all of your tickets. If it’s Ladies Day tomorrow, make sure you dress the shop accordingly. If it’s due to be a very cold day, make sure you create a cold weather wear area and locate it in a prominent position. These small changes can make a huge difference to sales. For more information on how Foremost can assist you and your business in 2022 simply email membership@foremostgolf.com or call 01753 218 890 June 20, 2022By David Muller General 0 Comment (0) Comments are closed.