As off-shoot main business (lg upscale consignment ) started thrift next to one store. Thrift separate store. Tiny. 700 sqft sales-19 years. Main business left unsold stuff becomes main business’ property but wanted to sell to benefit community. Solution – operate the thrift for a different group local non-profits’s and split sales quarterly. Cute/boutique like. No smells/junk. Decorated. Clothes, books, jewelry, small decoratives. Down outside hallway, around corner/cheap rent. Prices dirt. Get same customers. Don’t care $ for NP’s. 2 problems: How to advertise/get new customers w/out increasing public donations ’cause mostly crap/big labor/disposal costs. How to reward current repeat customers w/out giving away NP’s profits or train to wait for ‘sales’. (Staff so tired of hagglers)

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Jay’s Answer: Your question is basically, how can my store (which supports non-profits and sells goods cheaply) get more customers?

A thrift store is basically like an indoor garage sale – you don’t know what’s there until you show up, and it can change daily. The people who are looking for a bargain will continue to shop your store, and haggle as well. So, you need to do something different. Make it easy for people who are looking for your goods to find them.

• Create a website for your store, and list the inventory (allowing searching).
• Create a service for people who are looking for something special to be notified when/if it comes in (and you could charge for this VIP service).
• List your new goods daily on Craigslist for your community.Connect with a local business that handles eBay (or other online) auctions. You’ll no doubt be able to sell your (better) goods for more $

The key is connecting your supply (of goods) with the proper demand.

We’re a small boutique located in the downtown of a city of 115,000. We sell business fashion to both men and women, and our average customer’s age is between 35 and 55. We rely very heavily on word-of-mouth and have a number of loyal customers who have been coming back for 20 years.

We’re nearing our 30th anniversary of the store’s opening (in about a year). This is a great milestone that we wish to leverage. We have two post-secondary institutions in our city and have ran a few seminars for the business classes on how to dress in the workplace. We’d like to target a younger audience and are searching for other ways to market to them. Our budget is not yet defined however I would greatly appreciate ANY suggestions on how to make the most of our upcoming anniversary!!

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Jay’s Answer: Ultimately, workplace dress is mostly about success, not to make a fashion statement (for most businesses). Therefore, teach how purchasing clothing from you is really a financial investment. Conduct surveys (or find them) that show how better dressed people in the workplace get more job offers, better job offers, better pay, better professional networking, etc.

Go to where your target demographic hangs out – whether it be the local gyms, coffee shops, library, or sports arena. Connect with them there. For example, co-market with the local gyms. If people care enough to work on their body, then how much better would they look with the right business clothes?

We are a small retail company that sells locally made products, souvenirs, and gift baskets. We have opened a new downtown location in a mid-size city with multiple hotels in close proximity. We have been brainstorming ideas about how to develop a rewards program for the hotels to encourage them to refer their guests to our store.

So far the only good idea we have is to give the hotels business cards with our info and possibly a discount or some sort for the customer. The card would also have the hotel name on it and when the guest comes to the store, they would give us the card and we track how many referrals have been given from that hotel.

This idea is the only functional one we have come up with. Please give any input on this idea, positive or negative or a completely different idea. I am very new to the industry and would appreciate any advice!

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Jay’s Answer: Focus on the reason for someone who’s staying at a nearby hotel to come to your store. Is it for a souvenir of their stay or a last-minute gift?

If you have attractive gift baskets, then see if there’s a public space (ideally, behind glass) in the hotel lobby that you could put your baskets in with your card.

A rewards program is just too hard to manage in your case. When someone new purchases from you, ask them if they’re staying at a local hotel, and if so, which one (and/or “How Did You Hear About Us?”). Then call the hotel (or write) to thank them for their referrals at the end of the month. If you want to make the referral tangible, gift the front desk & concierge with something you sell or a gift card for them to use (and visit your store).

Likewise, ask the local hotels for brochures of theirs to leave in your store. You can put them in a book (“Where To Stay”), etc.

We are going to sell a customizable product in the fashion accessories niche and because of the relatively big freedom our customization options offer we expect people who are confident about their look and appearance to be our (first) customers. They are the people who are “courageous” enough to use all the options we give them and some of them might have waited for exactly that. We don’t have a certain age group limit for our product but it is most likely that it will attract people between 20 and 35 who can afford to pay the premium price.

We will advertise mostly online and use public relations to our advantage. Because of our premium brand we also have to be careful what channels of advertising we use and how of course.

Any ideas for the look, feel and copy of our advertising campaign to appeal to our target audience would be awesome!

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Jay’s Answer: Since you’re selling a visual product, show your prospects how customizing will look. Use models in your target demographic for your visuals. If the product is being sold locally, use a local model in the demographic – their face may be helpful to selling it as well.

The language of the ads should be using your demographic’s language – use the words & phrases they use (for example, have a focus test of your product with a test group. Tell them about it in your language, and ask them to “sell” it to others in the group in their language. Make sure to record the session so you don’t miss anything).

Model the campaign after other successful ads targeting your demographic. Where are they placed? How do they look? You don’t want to clone them, but want to be able to place your ad side-by-side with them and be as “strong”.