Retail consultant Bob Phibbs: Holiday Shopping: 9 Tips To Get Last Minute Shoppers To Spend More In Your Brick And Mortar Store

Years ago I remember reading advice from a retail consultant to department stores like Sears, that if they wanted to sell more, why not provide shopping carts, like grocery stores and discount merchandise stores.

And of course, the six most important words that McDonalds uses to spur add-on sales (although I notice that at the McDonalds I frequent maybe three times/year--I have this "myth" about eating high fat McDonalds food when I have a cold -- they've forgotten to say it):

-- Do you want fries with that?

Retail consultant Bob Phibbs offers retailers some very practical advice to sell more.

From his blog entry, read the entry for the details:

1. Give a shopping basket. If you don’t already have shopping baskets, get them – now. Paco Underhill first reported 75% of people who take a basket actually buy something versus 34% who don’t.

2. Empty their arms. If you are a clothing store, sporting goods, or other retailer where baskets aren’t practical, your crew should still be walking up and offering to take the clothes or items from the shopper so they can be more relaxed while looking around. Yes, some will refuse, some will think about it, and some will accept.

Make this your mantra: full hands equal fewer sales.

3. Keep ‘em in the aisles. Keep your best associates out on the selling floor and away from ringing up sales or wrapping gifts. Their goal is to increase add-ons. As they finish helping someone, make sure they simply ask, “Who else is on your list?” It works wonders.

4. Spotlight A No-brainer Gift. Put one product under 15 bucks, - even better under 10 - by the register, ideally pre-wrapped with a sign that says, “A gift for the person you’re bound to forget.” The key is to have one product that doesn’t require any thinking. The shopper has to get it like a USB charger for $9.95 rather than a tiny book of pithy quotes by Margaret Thatcher.

5. Ship it. While UPS and the rest will be challenged, there’s still time to sign up for a local delivery service like Deliv in the US or Shutl if you’re from the UK. Millennials hate to carry too much – they’d rather have it shipped. Notice I didn’t say free – it’s a value add.

6. Cut the line. If you offer gift wrapping, make sure you have a separate line for pickup away from the queue to pay. Make sure to get their cell phone number so you can text them when it’s ready, and add their name and number to your CRM so you can market to them in January.

7. Heads up. Always instruct your managers to have their heads up and looking around the store to see who has been waiting a long time, who has a question, and which cashier is not up to it. They need to be able to step in as appropriate to keep your store moving along.

8. Keep it clean. Make sure your store is clean and organized by your part-timers or even a young relative.

9. Work the line.