How Can I Boost My Store's Visibility When It's Hidden by an Escalator?

Hi folks, I run a home furnishing store in the heart of the city. My store is located in a popular complex surrounded by three of the most popular fabric showrooms that sell readymade clothing for men and women. These stores generally experience high foot traffic every day. However, one disadvantage of my store's location is that its visibility is hindered by an escalator, and the store is tucked away at the end. Many customers have mentioned that the store goes unnoticed.

Seeking Assistance to Improve Store Visibility

I am seeking assistance in improving the visibility of my store to attract more walk-ins. I look forward to your prompt reply.

Best regards,
Sheetal Dugar Bafna

The Importance of Location for Retail Stores

There is a reason why stores of a kind congregate at one location. For example, you would see many medical stores in one location. The same goes for furniture. People are usually in a particular buying mode and will only browse other kinds of stores in the locality out of curiosity. That's why your best bet is to relocate to a place where there are many furniture stores.

Advantages of Strategic Location

Location has its advantages - buy or rent a smaller area just to get better located - it'll bring you more business. Always collect contact details like email and phone numbers to market new products and sales.

Regards,
Sid

This is in addition to what Sid has said. You mention that the retail stores surrounding you have better footfalls than yours. One reason for the high number of footfalls is the type of merchandise they sell. Your product has a far longer longevity because it is a consumer durable. Youngsters buy clothing more often, hence the higher footfalls in the adjoining stores. Therefore, comparing their stores to yours is unfair.

Suggestion for Increasing Foot Traffic

I have a suggestion. Why not offer a discount coupon to customers who buy from your neighboring stores? For instance, if you shop from those stores, you could receive a discount of 1% or 2%. The coupon could be valid for 2-3 months. This is one way to increase foot traffic. However, the challenge lies in converting footfalls into actual sales. There is no guarantee that this coupon strategy will improve conversion rates.

Another suggestion is to put up signboards with arrows pointing towards your store.

Regards,
Dinesh V Divekar

Understanding Indian Consumer Behavior

In India, the most observed consumer behavior is looking for choices and eye-catchers. If yours is the single room that sells such products, I am sure not just the footfalls but also those who enter your room, most of them go without buying anything from you. The reasons are many, but it is the Indian consumer tendency; most of us look for more choices and go for cross-verifications.

I may suggest you bifurcate your room into parts according to the products so that the customer can spend more time inside your room. This way, you will have more time to convince them, also creating one sort of eye attraction.

Secondly, put up small attractive banners outside the store/near your stores and try to spread the word through your customers about the advantage of the store being hidden, which avoids dust and other unwanted particles. Customers will have more space to look/walk around because there won’t be other people aside from the customers of your particular store.

Thirdly, as Mr. Sid has clearly said, location matters a lot. Unless you either expand there itself, making it look like more than one shop, or change the location...