Retail In-Store Event Ideas

So, everyone with cabin fever is looking for something interesting to do. Why not hold an in-store event? They will have something to do and you will have potential customers walking through your door. It’s a win-win! Now, let’s start tossing around some ideas.

Invite people in. How about an open house or after-hours event? Provide some beverages and little snacks and invite folks to take a look around. Put on a fashion show if you own a clothing or jewelry store. Give a demonstration or presentation about services you offer or merchandise you sell. If you’d like to liven things up a little, recruit a musician or two from the local college or music school to provide some entertainment or background music. You could have a door prize raffle, the prize being an item from your store or gift certificate for a service you offer. When participants fill out the raffle ticket, ask for email addresses so you can inform them about upcoming events and promotions.

Play nice with others. Contact a local non-competing business and create a reciprocal program. If you own a clothing store you can put a coupon to the local dry cleaner in your customers’ bags and the dry cleaner can return the favor by providing a coupon for your store. If you own a pet supply store you can work in cahoots with a hotdog stand. (Ha!) Although working with a business in the same sphere would be ideal, the businesses do not necessarily have to complement each other. Everybody has a wide variety of needs so a hardware store could very well work out a program with a restaurant, for example. You can easily print up coupons on your printer but remember to keep the font and text simple. Be sure to specify any restrictions, such as expiration date and maximum discount amount. Make sure the coupons make it into the customers’ bags and are not just sitting on the counter; otherwise people may not see them.

Spread the love. People like to get a good deal and they like to feel good about themselves. Helping others makes us all feel good and there are plenty of organizations that can use help. For instance, a local animal shelter will certainly need food, towels, kitty litter, bleach, toys and other items. You can let the shelter know you’d like to help, ask them what they need and work your promotion around that. Ask people to bring items for the shelter to your business and in exchange they will receive a coupon for a certain percentage off their purchase or a free little give-away item. When promoting this event, state the benefiting organization, the date(s), items needed and what people will receive in return (a discount on their purchase and a smile in their heart!). Ask the shelter to post information about this event on their website and to spread the word to their volunteers. This is also an excellent idea to benefit food pantries, veteran’s services, homeless shelters and battered women’s shelters. Not only will you get people in your door, you will also be creating a sense of good will and caring in the community that people will remember and appreciate.

Get the word out. Start publicising your event weeks in advance if possible. People will not show up to your event if you do not tell them about it so send out your emails, print up those flyers, put up your signs and, if it’s a charitable event, your local newspaper will likely put the event info in their calendar of events for free. Post the info on your sidewalk sign a few days in advance and especially on the day of the event.

Please let me know about any events that you have and how it went. Good luck and have fun!

Holding In-Store Events to Drive Traffic to Your Store

I was talking to a customer, she owns a woman’s clothing store, the other day and I was asking her how she was holding up during the last half of this year, especially with all the bad news about retail stores and the decline in sales. She said she is actually having a great year. I asked her why? I figure that she must be massivly discounting prices on her merchandise. “No”, she said, “What I have been doing is holding events, such as fashion shows or wine tasting nights in my store to get people in the door.”

I have been thinking about the in-store special event and what a great idea it is. I even mention this customer’s success with my business partner and he said that he goes to special wine tastings a his local wine shop and almost always buys what he had tasted during that event. I think there are two things going on here: people like a free event, people are looking for something to do that does not require any extra money and people like to feel special and unique, they want to be “invited” to a special, exclusive event.

Try it, hold a special event at your store. Invite a local celebrity and see happens. Team up with a local liquor store and host a wine a cheese night and display your new merchandise. Who knows who will show up?

Visit http://www.specialtystoreservices.com/ and see how we can help you promote your special event. If you have an event we would love to hear how it went. Send pictures if you have them.