Do you leave customers waiting?
We all have been victims of that shop assistant who looks the other way when we are needing some help in the department store. They find a convenient time to just disappear right when you need some assistance. Maybe they have a fear of confronting the customer: more often than not customers are just asking for some assistance to help them make a buying decision.
In the old days of retail, shopkeepers used to employ window dressing experts. These people would work with the store owner to work out what are the most profitable sale items and they would feature them in the Window at the front of the store. Many stores were designed with an entryway that funnelled customers into the store via two large Windows with a floor to ceiling window on the left and the right where customers could window shop and see all of the bargains.
Sadly those days may have passed us by. On a recent trip to Western New South Wales, I saw plenty of these old shops in places like Tenterfield, Tamworth, Coonabarabran and other country towns. Sadly, few of the retailers that were occupying the stores understood that there is still passing traffic and that they like to window shop. I walked past a business supply store that had used the front window and the surrounding area as a store room!
Junky old boxes everywhere!
Interestingly, in all of the smaller towns, there was plenty of customers wandering around. We found it hard to get a parking spot in most of them. Customers expect to be able to view and see and touch your product both in your business and on the web.
In our modern day internet-enabled age, we must understand that customers are now doing the same thing as customers used to do in every little country town or even the big city on your website.
Your website is now the equivalent of your front window.
Is your website easy to navigate? Do you get your message across in 10 seconds or less?
Do you target those researching differently from those ready to buy?
My first job was in a retail store in David Jones in Parramatta Sydney. Their front window was the envy of every other store in Parramatta. At Christmas time people would come from far and wide to see the Christmas displays. In New York, thousands flock to the major stores to see the displays.
Has anything really changed? Web sites give your business a fabulous opportunity using visuals, sounds and moving pictures to display your product in the best possible way. That does not mean that you take photographs with your iPhone and upload them or steal a few pictures off the Internet because you don’t have any.
The art of window dressing sadly has passed by for many retailers but the concept of having someone professional display your products in the best possible why still holds true for your website today. Professional photography does cost money and professional AIPP photographers understand how to portray your product the best possible way. They use camera equipment that delivers high impact, High resolution images suitable for the Internet on any screen and they understand the sales message your business is trying to portray.
The upshot is that you also usually get a set of photographs that you can use for printing and on-site promotion and a host of other uses.
R6 Web Design™ uses AIPP Professional photographers for websites that require professional photography. They work in our business.
Your business will benefit from professional photographs and images of your products and services on your website. Have a look at the Apple website and have a look at the stunning images of their products. They may just look like photographs to you but the reality is that these are professional high-quality images.
