IN-STORE EXPERIENCES

An inviting, well-curated in-store experience can turn a first-time visitor into a loyal customer. From a welcoming storefront and thoughtfully arranged stock to attentive customer service, every detail counts, says Jonny Carter.

I remember as a child being pretty nervous to go into the gun shop to buy things, sales Jonny Carter. This feeling was rooted in a fear that I was out of my depth in that space and by the lack of a welcome on offer for a boy and his hard-earned beater’s packet. I appreciate that I was probably an inconvenience with my questions, but in-store experiences can really shape how a shop builds its relationship with clients.

I feel like it’s not just kids who experience this mixture of emotions when walking into gun shops across the country. Although you can’t give every potential customer a pep talk before they enter your shop, you can certainly set your shop up to be as welcoming as possible and offer the best in-store experience you can.

The journey of an in-store experience starts the moment your customer is standing outside your premises. Is it tidy, or are there pallets leaned up next to the door? Is the light visibly on inside, or is there an open sign making it clear you are ready for their arrival? If you have a window, what does it say about what’s inside the store? People are quick to judge, and first impressions are everything – the outside of your store should be the perfect first step on the journey to sales and repeat business.

Once they walk through that door, it’s time to go above and beyond to keep that customer happy and build up some loyalty.

If the outside needed to look nice, the inside needs to look even better. Curating a memorable atmosphere inside is key. Not to sound too “woke,” but the shop should have good sensory appeal (that means it should be nice on the senses). This one is easy to get wrong: get rid of awkward silences and fluorescent lighting. It’s an easy win to put on some soothing music, invest in some comfortable lighting, and make sure that “new gun smell” is in the air. You want the customer to think, “Hmm, this is a nice place,” not, “Hmm, I can’t wait to get out of here.”

Once you’ve set the scene with the senses, it’s important to display your stock in a pleasing and effective way too. There are full tutorials on YouTube for this kind of thing, and it doesn’t hurt to delve into the world of retail science occasionally and learn why successful retail giants dress their stores the way they do. On top of well-laid-out products, it’s also important to have consistent branding and theming throughout the shop. Disorganised branding is less than optimal, although not quite as important in-store as it is in your marketing.

Remember that gun shops don’t need to be completely “old-worldy.” You could have a TV showing some product videos (or just the TGS Outdoors YouTube channel), or an interactive display, perhaps (think of an iPad with a questionnaire or something similar).

At this point, the customer has walked into your attractive store, is browsing, and feels at ease in the space (I can feel the purse strings loosening now.). Now it’s time for perhaps the biggest variable of in-store experiences – the customer service part.

It should be no surprise that people buy from people, and having the wrong staffto-client interaction can make or break how a client feels about your business forever. It’s important to have great staff, treat them well, and keep them enthused for the next great encounter with a customer. Employees empowered with training and knowledge, incentivised by a great boss and good remuneration, will give you a much better chance of successful encounters with customers than a grumpy, underpaid, bitter dunce.

Once the client has had this pleasant encounter, the sale should be efficient and professional. Having a clean and tidy till area and clear till procedures is an important part of the customer journey. Selling guns takes time, and doing the paperwork can slow the whole process down. Counter this dead time by offering a place to sit in your sensory delight of a room, perhaps with a coffee machine to improve the experience further. Back this up with some loyalty points, as we discussed last time, and bam – you’ve just guaranteed a repeat customer and, more importantly, an ambassador who will sing the praises of their experience the next time anyone asks about which gun shop to visit.

If you want to take the retail experience into 2024, it’s obviously not all about the physical in-store experience. You can leverage technology to help you in your pursuit of retail perfection! A great website will help with the journey before and after in-store sales, as will excellent social media accounts that showcase what you and your brand are all about. Heck, you could even have a basic app made if you were so inclined.

A customer, like any relationship, cannot be left untended, so it’s important to keep things fresh with new stock and slight in-store changes. Offering workshops, evening events, or product demo events are great ways to re-engage with customers, which is why taking their details for a mailing list is essential in this day and age. Ideally, you could even integrate their details into a database linked to your e -POS system that can make custom recommendations and allow you to view their customer history with ease. This is all high-cost stuff though, unlike making your shop aesthetically pleasing, which can be done on a much more controlled budget.

My last note is this – the devil is in the detail. It’s a lot of work to stay on top of all these things, but keeping a shop clean and having all your ducks in a row will pay dividends with your reputation among local customers.

We’d love to hear your thoughts on the topics discussed in Jonny’s article. Please send your thoughts to editorial@twsgroup.com.