Swipe These Ideas from Your Colleagues

“I don’t watch the show,” admitted Stacy Elofir, director, Towson University Store, Towson, MD, referring to the long-running TV hit, Keeping Up with the Kardashians. “But who in the room doesn’t know the Kardashians?” she asked during her CAMEX24 roundtable session, Keeping Up with the Retail-dashians.

In addition to sharing the celebrity drama of their everyday lives, the Kardashian family is famous for making lots of money from a variety of business enterprises. However, none of them have invented anything—they all borrowed good ideas from other sellers (such as comfy underwear, trendy perfume and makeup, high-end liquor, and so on) and tweaked the concept to produce sales success of their own.

And that’s how it goes for campus stores as well: taking an idea that’s been successful at another school and adapting it.

Elofir’s session encouraged attendees to share ideas that have worked for them or to highlight sources of inspiration for merchandising and marketing. Here’s a list of ideas from the session—you might find something to put into action this fall.

Figure out what makes your store/institution/community special and work that angle.

“If you don’t know your uniqueness, that might be one of the issues,” commented an attendee. One store takes advantage of a moonshine festival held on its campus annually for the past 30 years. Another reaches out to tourists dropped off by cruise ships at the nearby port.

Plan discounts with a sales-multiplier effect in mind.

You don’t have to discount everything in the store to get a sales boost. Select certain merchandise for the discount or issue a limited coupon; customers who come in for the discount will buy the full-price merchandise, too. One campus store hands out a $10 coupon at new-student orientation; those who redeem the coupon nearly always spend much more than the face amount.

Another store held 12 Days of Sales during the holiday season, with a daily special (the biggest was 80% off clearance items). Not only did the multi-day sale attract repeat customers, the sales spurt for the discounted items carried over to merch that wasn’t discounted. “We actually did more sales with the illusion of savings,” said an attendee.

Seek out partners to expand your offerings, even temporarily.

You might perceive there’s a market on campus for a certain type of product, but you don’t want to invest in inventory or spend time sourcing. Instead, look for a partner to do the work and you take a fee or commission. An attendee’s store partnered with a local store that sold metaphysical wares (such as crystals, candles, incense, spiritual items) to hold a popup sale, earning 10% for the store.

One store brings in a poster company to run a popular sale every Valentine’s Day, on a commission basis. “You don’t have to do any work and it looks like you’re doing this crazy event,” the attendee said.

Extend your store’s “hours” with online-only promotions.

Even though the stores are closed the day after Thanksgiving, a couple of them still host online sales on Black Friday. “We come back and there’s 600 orders,” a manager said. “We also do Small Business Saturday.”

One store started an online-only promotion—get a free backsack with $50 or more orders—and later expanded it to in-store purchases.

Reward your customers for shopping with you.

One store gives a point for each dollar spent, and customers can redeem their points whenever they want. “I’ve had some students save all year and use points for their graduation stuff,” an attendee said. Some students spend their points on snacks. “Most don’t use their points but it’s the perception,” the attendee added.

Have fun with your student customers and with your student employees.

A university store was the official sponsor of a two-day event similar to Comic-Con, with registered attendees (many in costume) coming to hear speakers discuss comics and related art forms and participate in activities.

Another store told student employees they could switch the ambient music if their sales reached a certain threshold. That motivated them to remember to greet customers and offer add-ons. One store does a digital holiday card every year and sends it out by email; a graphic artist creates cartoon versions of employees to depict on the card.

Check your store’s online ranking.

Be sure to do a Google search for your store’s name and see where it lands on the first page of results. If it’s not at the top—Elofir found an online competitor was there instead—then review your website and social media to determine which keywords should be added to boost your ranking.