What is an In-Store Promotion and How to Make the Most of It

In-store promotions are a highly effective marketing tactic designed to attract customers to physical stores and build brand or product awareness. This type of in-store marketing increases in-store influx and helps people become familiar with a particular product at the point of sale. In-store promotions are not just about reducing prices, but rather a marketing tool that helps brands promote their products within physical stores, directly at the point of sale. Consumer goods brands invest more than 20% of their total revenue in in-store promotions, and the incremental rate during this promotion can be negative (-7) or positive depending on the number of token bags sold.

In-store promotions are an easy way to get customers to buy more products. For example, if customers receive 10 coupons, they can get a 50% discount on a certain product line from the store. People will end up buying more products just to get a better deal. The percentage of discount depends on the type of product being sold; for high-end products, a 10% discount may be enough to attract customers.

Most in-store promotions can help increase sales by 20%. In-store marketing is essential for fast-moving consumer goods, as it helps differentiate brands from their competitors. For example, when a customer goes to the store's body spray area, she sees at least 10 brands, not to mention fragrances and labels. By adopting a good in-store advertising campaign, you will be able to stand out from the competition.

Considering the COVID-19 crisis, customers want to buy the bare minimum, so they focus on essential products. If your brand is in the premium or leisure section of the store, your sales may be dropping due to the pandemic. E-commerce is flourishing while physical stores lose money every day; some countries even closed physical stores, leaving only a few grocery stores that sell essential products (food, cleaning products, medicines). Food samples are banned due to COVID-19 regulations, so you'll have to think of a different strategy.

The goal of in-store promotions should be to attract customers to make an initial purchase of your product and to encourage repeat purchases. By offering discounts (especially when buying in bulk or buying one get one free), you can even increase the volume of purchases and build customer and brand loyalty. Fortunately, there is a people counting solution like Dor that makes it easy for retailers to gain visibility into each store and better understand foot traffic and its sales conversion rates. Here are 15 sales tricks and in-store promotion tactics that can help you get started:

  • Anthropology, a major home goods retailer with more than 200 stores worldwide, is known for offering an incredible experience by providing honest product demonstrations and advice.
  • Use typography, staggered heights and various decor elements to make your store and products look super attractive.
  • Build a great community of local retailers by joining forces with other local retailers to promote each other.
  • Stores often use these strategies to drive traffic to the store, eliminate too much stock, or create additional revenue when sales are falling.
  • Learn from Lush cosmetics retailer by providing customers with an exceptional shopping experience.
  • Attack in-store promotions with four tactics: offer discounts (especially when buying in bulk or buying one get one free), increase sales (sell a more expensive similar product) and cross-sell (sell other complementary products).
  • Set up small promotional islands with cardboard cutouts of celebrities.
  • A grocery store can have an employee prepare a full meal and serve samples to customers.
By combining these two calculations—in-store promotions that impact customers while maximizing invested capital—you'll learn which in-store promotions work best for your brand. In addition to in-store promotions, effective in-store marketing can help promote your product to consumers.

The best-known consumer goods brands around the world have great in-store marketing strategies but lack the tools to promote their brands. With these 15 sales tricks and in-store promotion tactics, you'll start seeing an increase in your sales targets soon.

Esther Woodcock
Esther Woodcock

Esther has been in Marketing field for 15 years