Sales in 08? Traffic harder to get...

Getting people to your transaction area is harder than last year and won't get easier... but wait, there's help!

Fred Schebesta (online) and Dennis Price (offline) are experts on TRAFFIC. Let's hear their advice:

FRED: Traffic prices are increasing! Budgets are tighter and traffic harder to come by... that's just the beginning of the crisis.
Download your Free copy of Fred's report on:

"The Crisis in Website Traffic in Australia."

DENNIS: Storefront Statements

An entrance is an important aspect of store design and the primary rule is that an entrance should be inviting and not present a barrier to a prospective customer. This is achieved by:
1. no steps
2. good lighting,
3. wide enough,
4. no merchandise/fixtures,
5. easy access for pregnant/handicapped.
Because the front of the store is the most productive, many retailers crowd this area (aka 'trading out') to display specials, and create a 'discount' image.
Entry statements should be changed at least monthly. Retailers should not wheel out the same bins week after week after week.
The colours that are best suited for the in-store experience are not the same colours that are most attractive and visible or attention-getting at the entrance.
Entry statements must be designed with the context of adjacent tenants in mind - and this means achieving sufficient contrast to clearly delineate the retail store from its neighbour.
Entry statements should be co-ordinated with the window display. It creates a much better impact.
Designers have to do the important things right:
1. Repetition/ Rhythm
2. Framing
3. Contrast
4. Colour-blocking
5. Creating focal points
6. Clever iconography
7. Functionality (security, durability of materials etc.)
8. Layout, design and visual merchandising are the most effective, most productive, 24/7 sales tools available to a retailer - and the RetailSmart ones know it.
Dennis PriceIs a retail expert and lectures at Macquarie Graduate School of Management

Create your own league ladder and top it

Law #17of Human Nature: Lists Bring Order & Security
We have a culture based on ranking things and people. Letterman's "Top 10 Reasons Why Top 10 Lists Work" People love to have things ordered for them. Do it. You can make the lists up out of your head. The have authority, nonetheless. So, publish lists of the top 10 most successful customers in their fields. Or the top 20 most frequently complained about things in your industry. Or the 20 most amazing/stupidest things a customer ever did with your product. Look through your industry stats. There must be something you are first on the ladder about do your clients have more revenue that the other guys, even though the other guys have bigger turnover than you? Can you cut a whole bunch of competitors out of league ladder contention by making it a list of independent or "Australian owned" companies. Or don't even call it a ladder. Mitsubishi called itself "Carmaker of the Year" 3 years in a row. It ever gave a reference. I like their style. Sincerely deceptive. Authentically full of it. So pick a title:

Customer Service Bank of the Year
Agency of the Decade
News Source of the Century
Autralia's Favourite Mobile Phone
The Breakfast Cereal More Mothers Approve
The World's Most Enjoyable Beer

My wife is a finalist in the Rural Women's Award for NSW. She is one of two finalists. The organisers say they don't want the award to focus on one winner but on all the women who entered and who were finalists. But there will be only one winner... and how much media will the runner up get?