by Graham Speak, Speak Consulting
In a recent post entitled ‘Why retail could be your secret weapon’, we discussed how developing an effective retail range could help you improve the guest experience, alongside growing revenue (the perfect combination!).
Building an effective retail experience for an LBE venue doesn’t have to be complex. In fact, laying it on some basic foundations often leads to the most successful outcomes.
Know your guests…they are not made equal
This one sounds really basic. However, understanding the make-up of your audience is critical for building retail experiences suited to their needs and desires. Understanding the key demographics like visitor ages, sociodemographic profiles and income levels can all help you understand how your guests may want to shop, and provide the right products and retail environments.
For example, the percentage of your visitor base that is local (regular visitors, members etc.) may influence both the size and how often you plan to change your LBE retail offer. It’s likely regular visitors would also look for different types of products to purchase, and for different reasons. At Beamish, alongside ‘usual’ souvenirs like plush toys, frequent visitors can pick up traditional sweets from the Jubilee Confectioners and Beamish-inspired products for their homes. There is also a regularly published magazine with updates from the museum.
Being aware of ‘fans’ versus casual visitors is also important. Blackpool Pleasure Beach in the UK does a fantastic job of blending park souvenirs, gifts and novelties with special purchase products for super-fans. For instance, used pieces of ride track, wheels and signage.
Are there certain times of year that school groups spike? Perhaps adapting or supplementing your retail offer over that time could make sense.
A final thought (but a big one) is understanding who makes a purchase versus who may influence one. To give one example: children influence parents or carers but often don’t make the decision on a purchase themselves. Creating a retail experience that balances the different needs of both audiences is important to make sure that retail is exciting for kids (and encourages them to influence!), but not infuriating or experience-damaging for purse owners.
Sell where it makes sense
Understanding your audience may also give you some clues about where guests want to shop through their experience journey. Lining up your retail offer with guest needs throughout (including before and after) their visit is important. Balancing how you sell physically, alongside online and on-app is critical.
On a recent visit to an unnamed theme park, I witnessed generically branded board games for sale in a gift shop at the very back of the park. This was about 2km from the car park. I can’t imagine they sell any of these products in that location, as I can’t see that product delivering against any guest’s need or desire at that point in their visit. In fact, it’s more likely to inhibit their ongoing experience.
That’s not to say large items cannot be sold in-park. But ensuring they are appropriate for that part of the visit, provide a solution for guest needs or wants and are combined with some sort of ‘buy now, collect later’ service would drive much higher levels of conversion.
Make retail part of the LBE experience
Retail doesn’t just need to be a gift shop at the exit of a venue. It can also be an attraction in itself. Across the broader, changing, retail landscape there are great examples of the convergence of retail and experience. Some stores are even becoming “must-sees” themselves.
A visit to the Droid Depot at Disney’s Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge is a great example, where building your own droid to purchase is a retail experience that often requires a reservation. Meanwhile, CAMP stores in the US are pioneering a new type of retail with regularly changing features to engage visitors in paid-for retail experiences. This is alongside a more traditional retail store, which still comes with slides and exciting displays.
Creative development expert at Branded Build, Mark Lofthouse, believes that blending the ‘necessary’ and ‘leisure’ aspects of retail is the key to success:
“Make your ‘products’ readily available, easy to find and straightforward. Make your ‘experience’ intriguing, adventurous and entertaining. These two are not mutually exclusive. You can make your products easily available, but the space surrounding the product creates an engaging, and entertaining experience.
“The question we always ask ourselves is… how do we engage with the audience? Making a product part of the audience to generate a better emotive response, and therefore memorable experience. Imagine for example, holding up a shirt, or dress in front of a golden gilded mirror… for that mirror to magically transpose that outfit onto you in real time, so you can see exactly what it looks like without having to go through the laborious task of a fitting room.
“Although this might sound expensive, small interactions can create big enhancements in experience. Down to how your staff members greet the audience, through to additional scents, music and the guest flow within your store. Anything that touches our senses and creates an emotional bond works to engage your audiences.
“Engaged audiences are much more likely to spend additional revenue, than a simple in and out transaction.”
Develop the right range for your LBE retail experience
A retail offer doesn’t need to consist of hundreds of products and a huge stockholding. Lining up customer needs and wants, with appropriate products, priced and merchandised carefully through the visit, is a great start for any attraction.
Taking this to the next level and developing exciting, different, unique and engaging products with your guests at the heart can help supercharge your retail offer.
Matthew Henderson is a product development specialist and believes:
“Story is key. We communicate more than ever before and want to be able to share the stories behind our chosen purchases with friends and family, especially when giving them as a gift. A lot of cultural organisations I work with are used to telling stories through their exhibitions.
“We build upon this to tell stories through their shops and commercial spaces. Where was it made? What was the inspiration? Who benefits from the sale? Is it exclusive to that shop? All questions that could be considered when range planning, so you can tell stories in your shop.”
He goes on to say:
“When range planning, it is always worth considering longevity and risk, particularly around exclusive products. A popular range should develop over time. So, whilst it’s important to get a good product selection from the start, it’s always worth starting with tried and tested items or items with low minimum order quantities to reduce risk. Then, as confidence builds, so can your product selection.”
Henderson points to Lilidorei at the Alnwick Garden as a great example of developing a range based on the story and USP of the attraction, with locally produced products, and thinking creatively to develop ranges that guests can’t help but purchase as part of their visit.
Keep it simple
Developing a retail experience in LBE can be daunting, as there is so much opportunity and plenty of examples in-market of businesses doing innovative and pioneering things. My number one tip is to start simple. Understand one or two things you could sell to enhance your guest experience – and work on landing them well – and driving a high conversion of uptake.
One of the best examples I saw recently was at Chester Zoo. Alongside their face-painting stalls around the attraction, they were selling animal tails and masks as a trade-up. A simple additional offer, appropriately positioned where it made sense for guests. Appealing to the influencer and sensible for the purchaser. And 80% of kids with their faces painted around the site appeared to also be the proud owners of a new animal tail.
There is so much opportunity to develop retail experiences in the LBE sector. There are also some great examples out there of engaging and incremental offers that add to the guest experience, drive additional value, and leave visitors with positive reminders of their trip to take home and spread the word!
I can’t wait to get involved in helping more businesses unlock their value and see how retail further pushes guest satisfaction levels over the coming years.
