The customer checkout experience at a boutique is crucial to the success of your business. Not only is the checkout one of the last impressions your customers will have, but it’s an opportunity to make a sale. Read on for retail checkout counter ideas that will grab your customer’s attention.
Ever had a day in the boutique when every customer in the store decides to check out at the same time? They stand there, one behind the other, staring directly at you, some a little more intensely than others. Occasionally they may look around the store, like when you catch them giving you the evil eye.
There are many ways to keep customers happy and distracted while waiting in line at the checkout counter. Below are seven retail checkout counter ideas your customers will notice.
1. Fantastic Impulse Options
Studies reveal impulse buys account for 80% of purchases, with 87% of shoppers admitting to making buys on the fly. There are a few rules for choosing impulse items to display at your checkout counter if you want to increase your sales.
Products must catch the eye of your customers. Avoid boring displays like hanging packages on a plain board with hooks. Make the display fun and interactive. Customers should want to touch and engage with the product. Who can pass by a pop fidget sensory toy without popping and fidgeting?
Impulse products must make your customer feel like they are getting a great deal, align with your brand, and connect with the customer’s emotions.
2. Selfie Stations
What do we want? Social media followers. How do we get them? Give customers a small discount for taking a selfie in your store and posting it on their social media platforms. Facebook reports 350 million photos are uploaded daily. Wow!
You can purchase a selfie station or create your own. Put it near the checkout counter to give customers something fun to do while waiting in line. Make the selfie station has excellent lighting and props to help them showcase what they bought.
3. Inspirational Statements
You can change someone’s attitude with inspirational messages they can read at the checkout counter. Fashion boutiques can display fashion quotes. You can create a wall behind the counter and fill it with cool quotes or use a digital sign that rotates positive messages. You may want to take it one step further and create a space where your customers can add their own inspiring quotes.
4. Mini Bargain Bins
Some customers like to rummage to find a great product on sale. You can create this experience at your checkout counter. Using a few simple baskets, fill them with seasonal items, gifts, accessories, or beauty products your customers must have. Do not put leftover, cheap, or inappropriate products in the bins. Instead, look for unique, unusual, and fun products that make customers smile because they found a product they didn’t even know they needed.
For example, women have eyebrows, and most of them need tweezing at some point. Rather than give them ordinary tweezers, sell them Stella tweezer dolls. They are so cute they may make the pain of tweezing seem less.
5. Free Samples
Everybody enjoys getting something for free, even miniature samplings of products for sale in your boutique. Providing free samples should follow guidelines like the following:
- Limit the number of samples you offer each time
- Let customers know how to purchase the full-size version of the sample
- Set a budget and stick to it to avoid spending too much money
- Make sure the samples reflect your brand
A fashion boutique could offer sample lipsticks, perfumes, lotions, etc. You can also exchange a sample for an email address, giving you a new way to market to your customers. The goal is to appeal to a customer’s senses.
6. Gifts Giving Products
Some customers impulsively buy for themselves, while others buy for friends, family, and pets. Some of the best retail checkout counter ideas take advantage of this customer behavior by placing great gifts near the checkout counter. If your customers bring their kids along to shop, sell kid-friendly products. If they talk about their pets nonstop, offer products for their fur babies.
Scarves are great gift-giving items because one size fits everyone. People love to touch and feel them and try them on. Also, they make it easy for customers to wrap it and snap a selfie before they leave quickly.
A few tips for selling gifts for other people or pets include having them pre-packaged in a lovely gift box. This saves your customers time later; they feel like they are getting much more for their money. Use promos like “buy one for you, get one half off for your friend.” If the products aren’t in gift boxes, offer gift wrapping services or cute gift bags.
7. Creative Ways to Wow
It is easy for boutiques to fall into a rut. Before you know it, years have gone by, and your store looks the same. You don’t have to rearrange your entire boutique to wow your customers. Try cash wraps or covering your checkout counter with impulse buys, artwork, statement pieces, or oversized brand messaging.
Create a conversation piece that allows you to engage with the customer. Create an online order express pickup line for those who shop through your app or website. Add television screens or tablets.
Take advantage of all the open spaces you find around your retail checkout counter that can be used for displaying products or promoting your brand.
Final Retail Checkout Counter Ideas
These retail checkout counter ideas won’t be as effective if you forget to do the following:
- Staying within your budget
- Providing health and safety features, like sanitizer
- Keeping the area decluttered
- Branding
- Making the payment process quick and easy
- Avoiding hidden costs
- Upselling and cross-selling
Consider it now if you haven’t already started selling online and in your boutique. You can offer more clothes online than you do in your store. You can use a tablet to let your customers shop online for different versions of the products they love. Offer free shipping if they order while in your boutique.
Offer pre-ordering through your app or website, allowing customers to get new trends before they are offered to the public.
Finally, invest in great technology that makes the checkout process simple, speedy, reliable, and multi-functional.
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