retail

INNOVATION + CHANGEAre you already embracing innovation in your business?

UK RETAIL

Business Cash Advance

http://www.merchantloanadvance.co.uk


INTERACTION

Are you creating an interaction between your brand/product and your customer? Are you creating a true customer experience to validate the reason for a high street presence? By looking to interact with your customer by creating a social experience maybe through in store evening parties, try-out’s, tastings, product education and so on. Create ‘immersive’ customer experiences around your product and you will reap memorable rewards.

www.merchantloanadvance.co.uk



TECHNOLOGY

Used correctly in a way that aid’s your business, technology can be worthy of exploration and investment. A well known charity shop tagged it’s pre-used products with QR codes that when scanned gave the history of the product to the customer browsing. Sales surged across all stores that rolled out the scheme and proved that items with stories are more valuable and establish the monetary value of a story. An example of a social experiment which worked in a retail environment.




CUSTOMIZATION...

Customization and personalization are the keywords here. Retailers in the US and now UK can help you build your wardrobe online or in person leaving you time for everything else. Look for ways to combine eCommerce with retail store visit experiences. Personlised style experts able to fit you out remotely and then deliver the look to your door or better still collect in store for the human touch.




HYPER LOCAL

Offering fresh local produce and the keyword here is provenance, supporting the local community. Environmental shopping is not just a trend but a focus for the new age consumer. Communities are being supported by their local retailers and those retailers who support their communities ethically can expect reciprocal support.




HIGH STREET V HIGH RANK

Do you actually need bricks and mortar ? Could your business survive in the cloud that is the world wide web. Have you embraced the change for the online market ? Do you have a percentage of sales through online channels such as Google, Facebook or Twitter and if so are you tracking the growth against your in store sales ? If you don’t believe you need the online presence or your sitting back you are playing a risky game! Embrace the many, many tools that you have at your fingertips online which will compliment your store sales.




ALTERNATIVE FUNDING

As we know High Street Banks haven’t had the best of press when it comes to lending to small UK businesses, but with government backed crowdfunding and business cash advance products on the market you do have options available. Peer to Peer loans can be a little slow to fund but are a great way for a new business project to raise capital whereas a merchant loan / BCA product releases funds based on your credit card sales. So if your bank manager says ‘computer says no’, there are other real options available.




