Building strategies that don’t collapse when business softens.

Every retailer loves marketing when the store is busy.

Sales are strong. Customers are walking through the door. Advertising seems to be working. Employees are energized, inventory is moving, and the marketing budget feels like an investment rather than an expense.

Then traffic slows.

Suddenly, every marketing expenditure gets examined under a microscope.

Should we cut advertising? Should we send another coupon? Should we run a sale? Should we reduce payroll? Should we just wait until business improves?

This is precisely when a retailer discovers whether they have a marketing strategy or merely a collection of promotions.

Good marketing should not collapse when traffic softens. In fact, some of your most important marketing work should happen during slower periods.

Don’t Confuse Traffic With Demand

When sales decline, the first question is usually, “How do we get more people through the door?”

That may be the wrong question.

Start by separating traffic from conversion.

Suppose your store normally receives 1,000 customer visits per month and converts 35 percent of them. That produces 350 transactions.

Now traffic falls 10 percent to 900 visits.

If conversion remains 35 percent, transactions fall to 315.

But what happens if better selling, improved merchandising and stronger follow-up raise conversion to 39 percent?

Those 900 visits produce 351 transactions.

You have essentially recovered the lost business without generating a single additional customer visit.

That is why retailers should resist treating traffic as the only lever available.

You may not control how many people decide to go shopping this Saturday.

You have considerably more control over what happens when they walk through your door.

Your Customer List Becomes More Valuable When Traffic Slows

One of the greatest assets an independent retailer possesses is often sitting quietly inside the point-of-sale system.

Your customer database.

When business is strong, retailers sometimes become lazy about customer retention because another shopper always seems to be coming through the door.

Slow periods expose the weakness of that strategy.

Your existing customers already know you. They have purchased from you. They have demonstrated some level of trust.

That makes communicating with them fundamentally different from advertising to strangers.

But communication should not always mean sending another 20-percent-off coupon.

Tell customers about new merchandise. Invite them to an event. Introduce an employee. Explain why you selected a particular product. Show them something unusual that just arrived. Remind them about a service you provide.

Give them a reason to think about your store even when they are not currently planning a purchase.

The objective is not merely to generate tomorrow’s transaction.

It is to remain relevant.

Stop Training Customers to Wait for a Sale

Slow traffic creates a dangerous temptation.

Discount.

Sales are down 8 percent? Run a promotion.

Still slow? Make the promotion bigger.

Still slow? Extend it another week.

Eventually, customers learn the lesson you have unintentionally taught them:

Don’t buy today. Wait.

Discounting can certainly be an appropriate retail tool. Sometimes inventory needs to be cleared. Seasonal merchandise has a shelf life. A promotion can create urgency.

But markdowns should solve a specific problem.

They should not become emotional support for nervous retailers.

If every traffic decline produces another coupon, the business can gradually destroy its regular-price credibility.

You may increase transactions while reducing gross-margin dollars, which is a peculiar way of celebrating success.

Market What Makes You Different

When business softens, independent retailers sometimes imitate their largest competitors.

That is usually a mistake.

You are unlikely to outspend a national chain on paid search. You probably cannot match its advertising frequency. And you certainly do not want to compete with the Internet on endless assortment.

So market the things large competitors have difficulty duplicating.

Expertise. Personal service. Product knowledge. Fitting. Problem solving. Community involvement. Relationships. Convenience. Your people.

If you have an employee who has spent 20 years fitting shoes, that is marketing material.

If your store carries products selected specifically for your local customers, that is marketing material.

If customers can call and speak to a human being who actually knows the merchandise, that is marketing material.

Independent retailers sometimes possess extraordinary competitive advantages and then advertise exactly the same things everyone else advertises.

“Great selection!” “Great prices!” “Great service!”

Those phrases have been used so often they have become retail wallpaper.

Show customers what makes your service great instead of merely telling them that it is.

Slow Traffic Creates Time

There is another side to a slower store that retailers often overlook.

You have time.

Use it.

Improve displays. Photograph merchandise. Call good customers. Clean your database. Train employees. Update your website. Respond to reviews. Create social media content. Contact customers who purchased a product six months ago. Review lost sales. Examine inventory that has stopped moving. Ask employees what customers are requesting that you do not carry.

A busy store can hide operational weaknesses because everyone is occupied serving customers.

A slower store exposes them.

That is not necessarily bad news.

It gives you an opportunity to fix things before traffic returns.

Measure Marketing in Dollars, Not Activity

One of the easiest traps in marketing is confusing activity with results.

We sent 10,000 emails. We posted every day. Our video received 8,000 views.

Wonderful.

What happened to sales?

Retailers should connect marketing activity to business outcomes whenever possible.

Did store traffic increase? Did conversion improve? Did average transaction rise? Did gross-margin dollars increase? Did existing customers return sooner? Did we acquire new customers? Did the promotion generate incremental sales, or did customers simply use a discount on purchases they would have made anyway?

The objective is not to become excellent at marketing.

The objective is to become excellent at producing profitable customers.

There is a difference.

Build Marketing for the Bad Months

The strongest marketing strategy is not the one that looks brilliant during November or December.

It is the one that continues producing when the calendar turns ugly.

Build a customer database before you desperately need it. Develop relationships before traffic disappears. Train employees to convert customers before every transaction becomes critical. Create useful content before you need immediate sales. Protect your margin before discounting becomes tempting. Know your numbers before business slows.

Most importantly, don't disappear.

When competitors become quiet because business is soft, continuing to communicate can actually make your voice louder.

Retail will always have slower periods. Economic cycles change. Weather interferes. Consumer confidence rises and falls. Competitors open. Traffic shifts.

You cannot build a business model that assumes every Saturday will be busy.

You can build a marketing strategy that still works when it isn't.

And when fewer customers are walking through the door, each one becomes more valuable.

Make sure your marketing strategy knows what to do with them.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Alan Miklofsky is a semi-retired, self-described “Professional Shoe Dog” with a distinguished career in the footwear industry. Over the decades, he successfully ran an award-winning shoe business while dedicating 29 years to the National Shoe Retailers Association (NSRA) Board of Directors, including serving as Chairperson from 2009 to 2011.

Today, Alan channels his expertise through creating content on issues vital to independent shoe retailers and offering consulting services with a focus on financial oversight.