by Graham Speak, Speak Consulting
Whether you operate a theme park, museum, zoo, live show or any other tourist attraction – it’s likely you have options for guests to buy items throughout their visit. Whilst larger businesses may have dedicated retail teams specialising in retail strategy and buying – that’s often not the case for smaller attractions.
In this post, we’ll outline why it may be worth putting an additional focus on your retail offer in order to increase your bottom line and improve the customer experience.
Growing revenue, with relatively low costs
Whilst there are some costs to operating retail outlets (including holding inventory, store fit and staffing) – generally these are not as significant as attraction CAPEX expenditures or large marketing campaigns.
Retail can be commercially significant if managed effectively – and is a great area to focus on to drive incremental revenue from your existing visitor and fan base (if you secured an extra pound/euro/dollar from each guest, what could that be worth to you?)
But, over and above the ‘obvious’ commercial benefit, why else should retail be on your priority list?
Building loyalty & taking home memories with a retail experience
Gifts and souvenirs from visits can be valuable as reminders of positive experiences. Along with other ‘nudges’ (like timely email prompts), this could be a great way to encourage re-visits, whilst providing a great talking point to drive positive word of mouth with family and friends.
Right now, sitting on my daughter’s bed are various soft toys – Magic Jester Pardoes from Efteling in The Netherlands, and Ed Euromaus from Europa-Park in Germany – along with Captain Mickey from the Disney Cruise Line. They’re a great prompt for us to talk about the fun experiences we’ve had together…and usually end with her requesting a revisit!
It’s not all about plush toys and kids though – photo frames are another great way to build an emotional connection between your brand and a special guest moment. Europa-Park sells alcoholic spirits developed specially for their resort. These are available to purchase and take home – what better way to spread the word of a visit than with friends over a drink?
Providing solutions and increasing guest satisfaction
Being there with the right products to buy at the right time can help make guest visits memorable. Sometimes this is as much about turning around or stopping a negative experience as it is creating a positive one.
There has been more than one occasion where we’ve needed to head all the way back to the car for a Calpol sachet because they haven’t been sold all around a resort. Retail plays a really important role in helping days out run smoothly for guests – offering what they need, when and where they need it.
What could your guests need at different stages of their visit to enhance their experience?
Making retail an experience in itself
‘Power-Up Bands’ in Super Nintendo World at Universal Studios Hollywood and Japan are great examples of how purchasing a wearable is as much part of the experience as the rides themselves. Buying one of the bands allows you to interact with the heavily-themed worlds, collecting coins and competing across your group.
Buying yourself a Mario hat, or glasses and moustache set is almost a compulsory part of a visit!
Over at Disney’s Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, designing and building a droid in the Droid Depot, or creating a custom lightsaber in Savi’s Workshop are attractions themselves, often requiring advance reservations.
Right next to Hersheypark, you can find Hershey’s Chocolate World. The World’s largest Hershey store is open year-round, It is free to enter and a must-visit as a chocolate lover! It sells souvenirs and offers an interactive opportunity to create your own candy bar, along with a free factory tour ride.
A similar example is The Lego Store at Legoland Windsor (the UK’s biggest Lego store) – these stores are year-round, go-to destinations, in their own right.
An opportunity to engage with guests before and after visits
Thinking about how retail can play a role in the guest’s journey before a visit could provide you with a great opportunity to build a connection and excitement, as well as help prepare a guest to have the best time.
The Science Museum encourage you to ‘bolt on’ souvenir guides and kids’ handbooks as part of the ticket reservation journey. Dreamworks Water Park at American Dream offers you the opportunity to buy souvenir towels when you buy your tickets. Whilst needing to consider the complexity of the ticket purchase journey – retail pre-selling is a great way to enhance the experience and drive additional income.
Likewise, retail can be a great way to connect with guests after their visit and help reinforce and remind them what a great time they had!
Some attractions and organisations take this one step further by developing licensing programs, connecting their brand with potential guests and customers outside of the attractions themselves. English Heritage, for example, licenses out its IP for gifting ranges, food products and home textiles.
Retail experience is a way to build partnerships
A retail experience provides an opportunity to develop authentic brand and commercial partnerships. Disney World and Pandora have a strategic partnership that includes Pandora sponsoring night-time spectaculars, but also retail outlets across the resort – selling unique, Disney-themed jewellery.
These partnerships provide great commercial opportunities, but where there is a genuine reason for being they can also enhance the guest experience.
Building the right retail strategy for your attraction
Hopefully, this piece has inspired you to think about how retail could add further value and be a greater contributor to the success of your business.
Not all of the benefits discussed will be relevant for every business – but beginning your planning with a great understanding of your customers – and how retail can enhance their experience is a great way to start!
In future blogs, we’ll talk about some ways to maximise retail and also learn from other retail sectors how they’ve made strong customer connections and profitable, growth retail businesses.
Top image courtesy of Hersheypark and the Hershey Company.
