HOW TO INCREASE SALES IN LINGERIE STORES

1 B2B Magazines & Trade Shows
Trade magazines are not only an excellent source of information on the lingerie market, but also a promotional tool for stores and the brands. In particular, Intimoda magazine, with whom I always enjoy working with, offers to lingerie and swimwear brands the opportunity for presenting their products in the best way possible, while store owners can share their business experiences with other lingerie market specialists. Another way to promote your business is through participation with exhibitions but it is an expensive pleasure; some alternatives to trade shows are listed below. Put information about your shop in a fair's catalogue or on an organizer's website. Make a promo-action by giving away samples or other lowbudget items. Give your customer’s something positive to make them remember your store. Putting a flyer in an exhibitor’s bag is also an

2 Join a Partnership Program, Creating Joint Cross-Marketing Promotions
Team up with partners who have products that complement yours and are aimed towards the same target customer. The sense of such a partnership is to share your client base with a partner. You are not competitors after all! And don't forget to invite local media - you won’t need to wait long before seeing the results!

3 Contests and Quizzes
This method is similar to cross-marketing but it's more entertaining. Each partner adds their own contribution, such as providing prizes, highlighting the event by making videos, writing articles, live feeds, or by providing drinks, food and clothes. Most important for you is to appoint an event organizer and split expenses.

4 Interesting In-Store Events
Host an interesting event in your store with answers for current problems, for which people usually pay, such as a mini-seminar or micro training and invite experts. As an expert you can always invite a famous person from your city or a specialist from the field.

5 Word of Mouth Marketing
Involve the local community in your store’s promotion. Write a recommendation letter and give it to every loyal customer asking him or her to recommend your store. Write to me and I will send you a sample of a recommendation letter.

6 Atmosphere and Service
Create activities for people accompanying your target customer. What do I mean? I often see mothers in stores who come there with their children. Buying lingerie is quite an intimate process, requiring a certain mood (also it usually takes a lot of time to buy lingerie), often I see how children start to act up and literally draw their mother out of the shop. Really that's not the ideal time for a purchase! As a result a sale has been lost. What can I suggest in this case? Buy a blackboard or a small table and chair. Put paper and pencils on it. Give a child something to do while their mother is trying on lingerie. And remember – everything should highlight your professionalism, the quality of your services, inspire trust in you, your store and your product. Sales are made of “details!”

7 Gift Cards and Little Thoughts
Never leave a client with empty hands! Above when I wrote about giving out samples at fairs, I mentioned low-budget presents. What are these presents? There are many options. One of the examples can be your business card with a chocolate, resembling a moneybag and a kind word on the other side of the card (P.S. – author's idea). Creative entrepreneurs can complement such presents with a good luck message. The point is to turn these little gifts into charms, which make the customer feel good. Make a marketing plan of promotions for the year ahead and rigorously follow it. A marketing plan will help you not only to plan ahead all of your promotions and get organized in time but also package and launch them in the right way at the right time. Believe me, launching promotions requires a lot of time and strength! A plan to work through will help!

8 Barter
Exchange products, if you have the same target customer and you are not competitors. By exchanging products, you will attract not only a new audience but will also increase your average amount per purchase as well.

9 Onsite Trading
Few use this method although it is one of the most effective. Go to corporate events or other kinds where your target customers spend time, organize small temporary sales points there.

10 Attracting customers via Social Networks
Unfortunately, many entrepreneurs underestimate the effective method of attracting customers through social networks. Attracting customers through social networks is one of the quickest methods. You have to do it in several steps. Let’s use Facebook as an example. On Facebook, you have to create three accounts: personal, interest group (works best with the name of your shop) and a business page. I'll explain the differences. On your personal account, you will put your pictures, favorite poems and phrases, moods of the day – all that you think is important to let people get to know you. Don’t include any “sales” information on your personal account! Your personal account is not for sales! For business and sales, Mark Zukerberg, Facebook’s founder, specially created pages for businesses. In other words, your business page on Facebook is your website and e-store. Here you can put your products and sell them. Without target advertising your page would only be seen by your friends, to whom you will send invitations, and only if they click the “like” button. It's an organic scope. To widen your target audience you will need to launch target advertising. You can hire a freelancer or you can launch advertising yourself given, of course, certain skills. What budget do you need? Budgets can be different – from 100 rubles to infinity. It all depends on your goals and the tasks you set. A Facebook group is needed for communication. In groups you can tell people about deliveries, give useful advice about selection, buying lingerie, style and fashion trends. Don’t forget to only include interesting content. Ask your readers questions often, talk to them, ask them for advice and always give feedback. This will quickly create loyalty for your store. Using at least some of these low-budget methods to attract customers both online and offline will quickly attract many new customers, who will not only buy from your store one time but come back again and again. Let your business grow and prosper! Always let your dreams come true! Good luck to you!