Page 28 - Lighting Magazine September 2018

ALA
Following her opening day keynote detailing trends among Millennial homebuyers, re- nowned market researcher Pam Danziger will lead an educational session on How to
Make Your Lighting Shop POP!
Danziger has great news for independent light- ing retailers. “If your store survived the Great Recession, or even if you have opened a store since, you are in the sweet spot of the consumer retail economy for at least the next decade,” she shares.
Small Retailers
Win Big
Movements such as “Shop Local” are bringing customers back to Main Street, but it won’t be just like old times. “For the last 100 years, buying and shopping were basically an integrated activ- ity,” Danziger notes. People came into a store to browse, found something they liked, purchased it, and took it home. Today, shopping and buying are isolated acts. Consumers are browsing online before they come into a retail store to see the product in person — and that’s no guarantee that they will purchase it on the spot.
One of the emerging retail trends Danziger suggests is the notion of creating a shopping ex- perience unlike any that can be found at a nearby mall or online. She explains that demographic shi s, “with both aging Baby Boomers and young Millennials looking for a more personal shopping experience, will drive customers to seek out services and products that only local, small busi- nesses can provide.”
This is not a time to kick back and wait for hordes of consumers to magically appear at your storefront, however. “Retailers need to recognize that they have to provide a shopping experience to bring shoppers in,” Danziger remarks. “They have to put a personal touch to the shopping experience they o er and make an emotional con- nection with the customer. That’s the only way to compete with online shopping.”
You might have heard that people come into a store to touch and feel the product; Danziger says it’s the emotion-based, “person-to-person con- nection” that ma ers. “If you are treated well [by associates in a store], you’ll be much less likely to shop around to nd the product cheaper online.”
One area where independent retailers o en fall short is their web sites. “Pay a ention to your web site and the ‘story’ it tells customers to entice them into your store,” Danziger advises. “What I see out there are many smaller retailers thinking,
ALA Conference speaker and noted retail author Pam Danziger of Unity Marketing believes the time is right for independent retailers to be victorious in the bid for consumer dollars.
26 enLIGHTenment Magazine | SepteMber 2018
www.enlightenmentmag.com