9 Promotional Ideas for Retail Stores

Your best sales day could be right around the corner, and the only thing stopping your retail store from capitalizing on the opportunity is a weak promotional strategy. 

Your promotions and marketing get customers excited about shopping with you. New customers may not have ever walked into your store before. You’ve got to give them something extra to entice them. 

Here are some of the best promotional ideas for retail stores this year to elevate sales and reach those big days.

Create Engaging Product Displays

Just because a customer is in-store does not mean they’ll walk out with a purchase. Promotion has to be ongoing. Creative product displays are highly recommended. Give something to talk about concerning trends, seasons, and product lines. 

Stunning product displays are key to retail promotions, whether it’s a window display stirring shopper interest or cardboard builds inside the store. You can also use digital signage to emphasize a specific product or product category. Digital menu boards are particularly effective if your store sells food items.

Limited-Time Products or Pricing

Consider releasing seasonal deals or discounts on products or limited-time product bundles to highlight the value of shopping at your retail store. This may be a way to run some A/B marketing tests or experiment with your best-sellers to increase sales. 

Cater to your target audience with products and pricing that work for them. You may discover that this promotional idea requires some fine-tuning. Be sure to rely on past sales data to define your approach.

Re-Market Yourself with Each Season

Holidays and seasonal changes are big opportunities for retail stores to increase sales. so,re people are out shopping and have the money to spend, so take advantage of seasonal product displays, discounts, and more. 

Consider releasing a seasonal shopping guide featuring relevant products, which you can post on social media and your website or feature as an interactive guide through digital signage software.

Co-promote with Another Brand

Work with complementary retailers in your area to expand your reach and promote your brand in front of their already established audience. A partnership with another retailer can be used to co-promote events, offer joint discounts, and potentially co-brand products or specials. This can spur high growth for both brands and assist your business in non-promotional ways, such as providing a local business relationship that can pave the way for more local support.

Maximize Digital Marketing Outreach

Even if you do not sell online, don’t mistake digital channels for having no value. Search engine listings get you seen in local searches and let customers discover more about your retail store.

Social media is where large amounts of your target audience are. Optimize your social media presence across Instagram and Facebook, and have an active profile where you post, comment, and engage regularly.

Email marketing provides a direct route to your customers. Promote products, deals, high-value exclusives, and rewards through email in exchange for retaining a customer’s email address on your list.

Give Away Merchandise

Give away branded merchandise, such as reusable mugs, bottles, fridge magnets, pens, reusable shopping bags, and similar items. This gets your retail store brand into peoples’ homes. Branded merch is a marketing avenue that does not cause enough retail stores to go down but yields a return. 

While it’s a bit old-school, getting your logo and address info in front of interested customers is more valuable than having business cards floating around.

Offer Gifts with Every Purchase

When a customer buys a product from you, offer them something extra that reinforces the value of shopping with you. This could be a free promotional product, a free $5 coupon towards their next purchase, something eco-friendly such as seeds, a plant, or something entirely different. 

Be creative. Remember that to create repeat customers and gently encourage word-of-mouth marketing, you want to continue adding value even after the initial purchase.

Strategic Digital Signage

Most retailers do not realize how important signage is for a store. It’s an extremely effective way to get noticed. Digitize your signs inside and outside your store to catch the eye more and draw customers in. 

No matter how you customize with digital signage software, ensure your images, text, and video are simple, specific, and action-oriented. Highlight seasonal offers, special discounts, and more, always tagging a CTA where appropriate. You can use digital signage effectively to boost your marketing efforts.

Host a Contest

A contest gets people interested in you, especially when you host it on social media and encourage liking, sharing, and subscribing. Your numbers across the board get a boost, and so does your exposure. A contest can also leave you with user-generated content to use in digital signage or exciting marketing images you can reuse in-store or across your digital presence. Be sure you prepare something relevant and attractive to your target audience to want as a contest prize.