Retail Grand Opening Marketing Tips and Ideas

Once your retail store is stocked and ready to go, you'll want to throw a grand opening to inform potential customers about the new business. Overlooking this critical stage could spell disaster for your newly opened store, resulting in a lack of customers and sales. Thankfully, you can set your retail store on the patch to success by throwing a grand opening. To learn more about how to market a retail grand opening event, keep reading.

Am I Ready For a Grand Opening?

Grand openings aren't events that you should rush. If your store isn't completely ready for a wave of eager customers, postpone the event for a future date. So, how do you know if your store is ready? Ask yourself -- is my store 100% complete with all of the products, fixtures and decorative accessories? Throwing a grand opening when work is still being done in your store will send the wrong message to customers and clients. And instead of visiting your store again in the future, they may send their business to one of your competitors.

Perform a thorough inspection of your retail store before throwing a grand opening event, double-checking all of the products, fixtures and displays. If you believe a particular product will be a 'hot seller,' then it's probably a good idea to stock up on it for the grand opening event. Running out of an advertised sale item will undoubtedly upset some customers, so make sure this isn't a problem by stocking up on the appropriate products.

Know Your Target Demographic

Store owners should research their target demographic to determine who exactly they are selling to. Using this information, you can better market and advertise your products, resulting in more customers and higher sales. Don't be afraid to spend some time driving around your store's location to get a better feel for the market. Pay attention to the amount of traffic in the area, competing businesses, nearby highways, etc.

Spread The Message

Retail grand opening events are only successful if people know about them. You can have the most extravagant, well-planned grand opening for your retail store, but it's not going to have much of an effect unless people know about it. This is why it's so important for store owners to invest some of their time and resources into marketing their grand openings.

Here are some effective solutions for marketing a retail grand opening event:

• Mail advertisements
• Phone book advertisements
• Sponsor a local sports team
• Hand out fliers
• Use online marketing platforms
• Social media networking
• Radio commercials
• Television commercials