OPINION: How are you going to drive customers into your shop this summer?

Three independent retailers share their ideas on how they plan to encourage customers into their shop and improve sales this summer.

“We’ve got the end of the football season and all the big games coming up, so we’ll try to work some advertising there. We’re a seaside store, so we’re looking at some kind of beach party later in the summer. We may do a colouring competition for the kids and we’re thinking of doing a photo competition for the grown-ups through Facebook.”
John Parkinson, Broadway Premier, Llandudno

“We’ve overhauled our ice cream range completely to work out which give higher margins and take off anything that wasn’t selling. We’ve increased the number of bestsellers such as Magnum and put promotional products next to them. I’m also working with my son on a store in Birmingham. We’re revamping it and giving it a proper launch. We’re going to have an ice cream parlour there.”
Vip Panchmatia, Hexagon Stores, Hampshire

“We’ve added an ice cream parlour to the store and we’re looking at how we can improve sales on last year. If you can fit any kind of soft scoop ice cream area into your store I’d do it – there are great margins of 65-70%. We’re also doing an American range, I’ve got a bay and soft drinks in the chiller and we’re turning over £600 a week with some really good margins.”
 Dave Hiscutt, Londis, Weymouth, Dorset