JA New York’s education conference began the morning with keynote speaker Nicole Leinbach Reyhle, founder of Retail Minded, a publication providing news, education and support to retailers. The seminar educated retailers on enhancing the in-store experience and customer relations.

“Returning customers are always the key to consistent sales,” she told the audience during her presentation.

The seminar’s key points included tips and tricks to improve customers’ retail experience:

• Use data from a free software like Watson Trend to track internet search trends. Use popular trends to plan in-store events for customers. For example, if yoga is trending, host a yoga session in the store to attract new buyers.
• Use store signage to speak to customers. One-third of all consumers don’t want to speak to store staff. Use signage in the windows, doors, awnings, counters and floors to communicate the brand.

• Incorporate wifi into the retail space. A wifi sponsoring site like cloud4wi.com can provide free wifi to customers once they give their contact information or answer a brief survey, giving data to store staff so they can personalize their experience.

• Pay attention to the weather. Weather directly impacts sales. Offer specials, sales or promotions directly related to the weather. Have them ready for when bad weather hits and send them via social media or through email marketing.

• Stock the space with staples and statements. Staple pieces are necessity pieces that get customers in stores, statement pieces are trendy pieces that keep customers in stores. Evaluate inventory and classify it into these two categories. Put the statement pieces in the front of the store and the staple pieces in the back of the store, so the customers have to walk and see all the other pieces in order to get their staple piece.

• Use events to converge entertainment and retail. Events provide opportunities to connect with customers, share store news, increase sales and keep customers loyal.