Expanding the reach of your store can be incredibly exciting. When you’ve hit a point where your store’s popularity has grown and you’re ready to branch out, it is an amazing thing. But it also requires some careful thought and planning.
Adding more sales channels to your business operation is a big risk, but it carries the potential for great reward. As someone who started off as a store owner (and still remains a store owner) more than 45 years ago, I have a few ideas to expand the reach of your store.
Consider direct online sales—Adding online sales associated with your store does mean more tracking, shipping and work overall. You’ll know if your business has the sales to justify the efforts, but it is a good thing to offer on your store’s website. After all, if your business is already a destination store, you may be drawing loyal customers from quite a distance. Customers who can’t always make it to your brick and mortar location, but would like to still do business with you can visit you on your website. Sometimes these arrangements come about organically—you may have regular shoppers who call the store with an order and ask you to ship it to them—after a while, it simply snowballs into a regular part of doing business.
Be certain to back up your online sales with personal service—while this will take some work, it may not be as intensive as it sounds. The online aspect of your sales will probably only be a smaller one, at least at first. But who knows? Maybe it’ll become a major sales channel, and you’ll need to hire more people to keep up with the pace. But that is a good problem to have.
Partner with other local businesses—Partnering with local businesses can make a lot of sense. For instance, if you have your own “house brand” supplements, you may see if other local stores and specialty shops would stock them—especially if you reciprocate by stocking some of their own unique merchandise, providing it’s a good fit for your store, of course. There is also a lot of opportunity out there to partner with organic farms, integrative veterinarians, natural therapists and other small businesses.
Inviting other groups into your store may be an option as well. If you frequently host store events and have a dedicated space for educational seminars or other community outreach opportunity, you may want to check around and see if any book clubs, special interest groups (volunteer committees, veterans association, health-specific support groups), or fitness classes are looking for a space. You’d be surprised at how many of these organizations need a place to have their weekly or monthly get-togethers. Do you have a local author you could ask to come and do a book reading? Is there a talented musician in the area? If you have the room, bring them in!
Cultivate those relationships and see where they lead. It is very often worth the effort.
Take part in local commerce events—Every year, the Saturday following Thanksgiving is promoted as being “Small Business Saturday.” Gravitate toward events like that. Plan on doing something truly different for any special day that your town may be celebrating, whether it’s a holiday, a founding anniversary or hosting a special market. Discover the calendar of local events from your Chamber of Commerce or tourism department.
Develop a monthly health column—While not technically another sales channel, this is a great way to become recognized as a local health expert. Getting the word out there about natural health, and becoming a locally recognized expert in the process, is going to drive sales to your store. It’s also going to help a lot of people discover better answers for their lives.
Take advantage of social media—Unless you are already a social media expert on your own, this relates to previous advice I’ve given about letting the expertise of your own store’s experts really shine. If you’re lucky enough to have somebody on your staff who is savvy with social media, be grateful and let them promote the business by making the right connections. For instance, they can develop online quizzes (with prizes being free products available to pick up at your store), reach out to like-minded fans of your business, and craft responses to health-related questions or perspectives on current health headlines.
Be a sponsor for local health-related events—By helping sponsor a fundraising 10K run, a bike race or even a health expo and having a booth presence there, if that’s a possibility, you have a great way to display some of your store’s most popular products, and potentially develop further leads for even more sales channels. You just never know how much of an impact even a smaller event may have. Developing connections is never time wasted.
If you take part in an event at a larger venue, you should consider giving your customers a coupon for a percent off on their next visit to your store. Or, on a slightly larger scale, consider a raffle for a gift basket or care package. It’s pretty easy to do: everyone who attends your event receives a ticket, or writes down their name to be entered in a drawing. You might be surprised at how much excitement these contests generate. And remember to promote all of this beforehand on your store’s website and newsletter. The more enthusiasm and anticipation you create prior to the event, the more likely you are to keep customers engaged with an incentive to visit your store after the event is over. In a sense, each local event becomes its own sales channel, or at the very least, an excellent way to connect with a larger community.
Host your own events frequently—This isn’t so much adding a sales channel as it is taking advantage of the one you have. Making your store a destination means that you need to create additional reasons for people to seek out your business. Frequent events can do that.
No matter what type of event you’re having, hold the event in your store to help captivate your audience. You want to provide them with a setting that is the most conducive to learning about natural ingredients or services, and then be able to find those same products after the event. Inviting people that are known and beloved in your community is a form of free advertising in itself. Reach out to local chiropractors, nurses, integrative doctors, veterinarians—and listen to your customer’s personal recommendations. Let your customers help spread awareness for the event by having someone they identify with and respect.
Add the sales channels that make the most sense—If your store’s success is at a point where you are ready to expand its reach, but aren’t sure where to start, it’s okay to begin with small steps first. Three of the biggest aspects of expanding the reach of your store and additional sales channels are inventory, time and staffing. If you’re confident that you have a good mix of all three, plus the funds necessary for the investment, then it may be the right time to branch out. VR
A highly regarded leader in the natural products industry, Terry Lemerond is founder and president of EuroPharma, Inc. He also founded Enzymatic Therapy, Inc. and PhytoPharmica, Inc. and is currently co-owner of the Terry Naturally Health Food Store in Green Bay, WI, which recently won its sixth consecutive consumer choice award as “Best of the Bay.” With more than 40 years in the natural products industry, Lemerond has researched and developed more than 400 nutritional and botanical formulations that continue to be top-selling products in the market. Lemerond shares his wealth of experience and knowledge in health and nutrition through his educational programs, including the Terry Talks Nutrition website, newsletters, podcasts, webinars and personal speaking engagements. He is the author of two books: Seven Keys to Vibrant Health and the recently updated Seven Keys to Unlimited Personal Achievement.
