Traffic is king for both online and offline retail stores.

Traffic – location, location, location.

OK – point well taken. Location is perhaps the most important factor, but you cannot deny that there are other ways to generate more traffic to your store – particularly if your store’s location is unexpectedly not that promising somehow, and relocation seems too distant in your mind.

Relocation is expensive and nobody can guarantee a relocation shall do your store better.

So, what will do good for your retail store? Low cost, high impact traffic generation campaign. Here’s 5 surefire and cheap ways to generate traffic to your retail store – my first-hand experience:

1. Offer something for FREE, with no obligation and no gimmick.
   Having interest in free stuffs is human. Free offers NEVER fails. I let my customers implicitly ‘know’ that on national holidays on the calendar, my store will offer something for free. In my experience, they will end up buying other things that is not free – eventually, this will compensate the free offer.
2. Make friend with ‘leaders’ of the community, and they will drive traffic to your store for free.
   Leaders are those people that either influential in the community or having a large network of peers. Some examples are a popular high school students with a large network of friends, or a network marketer with a lot of down lines.
3. Sponsor local activities not with money, but by joining the activities and provide ‘free love’ to visitors with fancy, low cost, products.
   A bazaar or a gathering is always fun to be in – then, don’t sponsor with money – in return, you will only get a banner or an announcement of your store, nothing more. By joining the show you can get more exposure and PR at lower cost – don’t forget to brand your stall and your fancy free love product with your store info.
4. Be socially responsible.
   Help local causes by combining in-store promotion with charities. People appreciate business with good cause. Oh, and don’t forget to brag about it in the local news – procrastination is necessary, on the right dose, to let people know what you are doing and why.
5. Inviting local organisations, including schools, for a visit to see your retail store in action.
   Seeing your employees in action and knowing them in a more personal way create a sense of belonging – some of the visitors will actually return to your store because they feel they have a certain bond with your employees and your store.

I’m sure that doing the tips above will guarantee you an increase in traffic to your store. Now it’s your job to retain them and convert them into loyal customers.

Ivan Widjaya
Loves all things free

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