50 Best Tips of 2012

11. When retailers buy stock for seasonal promotions (e.g., Super Bowl, Halloween, St. Patrick's Day), they have a sense of urgency as the date gets closer to get rid of the inventory. Take Halloween for example. A retailer in this space could pull a customer report of everyone that came to its site but didn't buy a costume, then send an email campaign to those visitors offering last-minute costume ideas.
Eric Tobias, iGoDigital, "How to Leverage Big Data for More Targeted and Effective Marketing," April 19, ROI Report

Email Marketing
12. Set up a welcome campaign. Develop a plan to introduce your company and its products/services to the user over a two-week to three-week period. Usually this can be done with three emails to eight emails, depending on how much you have to say. Like an initial thank-you email, this series should be an introduction to everything the user needs to know about you … and then some. Don't be afraid to be provocative, aggressive and salesy.
Amy Africa, Eight by Eight, "Shop Talk," March/April, Retail Online Integration

13. It's a rule of thumb that customers who have purchased from you recently are more likely to purchase again. You might consider creating different test groups for former buyers — e.g., no purchases within the last 60 days, no purchases in the last two months to a year and no purchases in over a year. Try sweetening your offer for inactive buyers to motivate them to purchase.
Reggie Brady, Reggie Brady Marketing Solutions, "How to Use Segmentation to Increase Email Relevance," July/August, Retail Online Integration

In-Store Marketing
14. Align your staff to traffic, not transactions. Aligning your staff resources to when prospects are in your store will help maximize the chances of converting more visitors into buyers. Pay particular attention to lunchtime, when store traffic can be way up. Staff lunch breaks can seriously drag down conversion rates. Associates need to eat, but shoppers need to be served. Matching staff schedules to traffic volume and timing will improve your chances of converting more in-store shoppers.
Mark Ryski, HeadCount, "5 Ways to Drive Customer Conversion Rates in Your Stores," Jan. 16, ROI Report

15. The best in-store marketing tool is a broom. Consumers like to shop in a clean and spotless atmosphere. Make sure that your windows sparkle and your floors shine.
Sruly Markowitz, StoreSigns.com, "How Retailers Can Optimize In-Store Marketing Efforts," March 28, ROI Report

Inventory Management
16. Have inventory planners perform in-season reforecasts. Doing so enables your business to make faster, smarter repurchase decisions when reordering inventory to fulfill projected shortages; cancel or delay purchase orders for unneeded inventory; direct consumers to the highest quality inventory to optimize sales, reduce wasteful marketing expenses and clear out excess inventory; and initiate markdowns on overstocks to maximize gross margin and dispose of unwanted inventory (quick response yields the best possible gross margin while minimizing inventory carrying costs).
Joe Palzkill, Direct Tech, "How Inventory Planning Supports Marketing Decisions," Jan. 27, Return on Inventory blog

17. Have an end-of-season clearance sale. Merchandise clearance items on your main site in separate clearance pages that are linked or in header navigation that's found on all pages.
Jim Wehmann, Digital River, "Inventory Lifecycle Management: Online Liquidation Strategies," Feb. 8, ROI Report

18. Set a minimum monthly sales threshold per product, review product sales each month and be diligent about discontinuing items that don't meet the threshold. The cost of holding that inventory and waiting for consumers to find it and respond almost always outpaces the gross margin benefit of waiting to sell at full price.
Joe Palzkill, Direct Tech, "How to Manage Nonproductive Inventory, Part 2," March 8, Return on Inventory blog

Loyalty Marketing
19. Build a loyalty program that allows customers to enroll while in-store, track purchases and redeem points — all from their mobile device. Retailers need to mobilize their rewards program now and plan for the future.
Carrie Chitsey, 3Seventy, Blinx,"What Technology Has in Store for the Retail Industry," Feb. 7, ROI Report

20. Roll out a social loyalty program. By incorporating social elements into your loyalty program, you can influence not only spending behavior but also brand advocacy. Using social motivators (e.g., leaderboards, badges, public mentions) in addition to traditional financial motivators can amplify results at a low cost. Incorporating referral elements adds acquisition to traditional retention-oriented program metrics. Social loyalty programs can increase total customer value, impacting not only how much they spend on an individual basis but also how much they influence others.
Bob Tekiela, 500Friends, "Turbocharging Loyalty Programs With Social Media," March 6, ROI Report