With so many 'special days' and events throughout the calendar year, Giftware now presents an ideal opportunity for farm shops to expand into this category.
Read MoreThe key to retailing today is to provide an experience, for the whole family. If the children are happy, then their parents are happy. If you can get all age groups to want to linger longer then your average sale is bound to go up.
Read MoreExpansion of a farm enterprise can take many forms. In the second of this two-part series, I'm looking at other ways to successfully diversify your farm business by turning it into a popular destination site.
Expansion of a farm enterprise can take many forms. For the purposes of this article though, I'm focusing on retail activities and added value offerings specifically that are either customer or food-related. Each area offers a chance to extend your reach to your existing customer base, attract new customers, and allow you become a proper destination site.
According to the dictionary, a "Connoisseur" is an expert judge in matters of taste. Surely, this sounds like some of your customers? If you have connoisseurs then why not create a 'Connoisseur Club' and build on the opportunity to grow advocates for your business as well as extra sales?
Read MoreConsider four areas of retail work – merchandising, staff, customers and tasks. Which is the most important? What if we had the most desirable product and best staff, but no customers? Tasks have to be performed, but the customer must always come first. To fulfil this, we need to engage good customer service - we need to put customers at the centre of the story.
Read MoreI remember the days when a major part of my workshops was focused entirely on customer service. Improve customer service and you can increase the average sale per customer; that was the motto for success. Retailing has changed though and successful retailers need to continue to find more ways in which you can create happy shoppers.
Read MoreLet's face it, marketing that delivers positive results is far from straightforward and it is easy to get lost in the noise. Sometimes, to make an impact, you need to go outside the 'box' and just get creative with your thinking. Do it right and those around you will be talking about your brand for a long time.
Read MoreLike it or not, we now live in an "Experience Economy", where, as the Harvard Business Review so eloquently put it, "a company intentionally uses services as the stage, and goods as props, to engage individual customers in a way that creates a memorable event."
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