Stock, Staff & Signage – are you nailing them?
Why invest so much of your hard-earned profits on external advertising if you haven’t perfected the formula at the point of sale? It just doesn’t make sense.
In my experience in shopping centre management and marketing, I have seen many retailers spend thousands of dollars on all media advertising without having their act together at the point of sale.
• Let easy sales walk out the door simply by not noticing their customer wants more.
• Don’t do enough to entice passing customers in.
As a result, their advertising investment isn’t working as well as it could.
Sound familiar? Improve your results by nailing the three S’s: Stock, Staff and Signage
I call it the ‘invisible ask’ when you get your point of sale mix right. Once you have the right stock, staff and signage then the asking almost goes on autopilot.
Stock
Choosing products because you like them is a fine strategy if 90% of the population think like you do. Monitor and observe the type of customers in your area and fill your shelves with stock that interests them, not you.
Are you listening to your customers? You don’t always have to ask – just listen.
Displaying too little or too much stock is another area where small businesses miss opportunities. Have enough stock on the shelf that you don’t have to restock too often, but not so much you look desperate.
Scarcity creates want for some customers.
Staff
Do you have your favourite supermarket checkout operator? I do.
Some are faster and friendlier than others. I avoid the half-hearted operators. It’s not okay for Woolies and Coles to have underperformers and it’s not okay for you and your business either. Recruit staff who have a passion for your product, love to come to work and play their A game EVERY day. Don’t settle for less – EVERY one of your customers deserves amazing service, EVERY time. Staff management will be a delight when you have a great team. If you’ve been struggling to find good people, talk to someone who is doing it better and find out how.
Are you the biggest grump in the business? Get yourself out of it.
SME’s who acknowledge this will stay away from staff and the public, in the kitchen, or on set up, clean up and shut down.
Are you really the best person on your team to be dealing with customers?
Signage
Please, no handwritten signs on kindy paper, no felt pen written price tag pins stuck in produce – YUK.
Your signage reflects your personality too. It really needs to be as awesome as you are. High fashion = high standard. Fresh food = clean hygienic display cabinets and signage. These are the minimum standards.
If you are in a shopping centre, make use of the poster stands to attract customers from the opposite end of the centre to you.
If you are in the street, find out where you can display signage 20 or 30 metres either side of you. Increase your customer walk ins by giving them time to digest your offer before they are at your door.
When potential customers react to your signs and visit your store, the picture painted in the signs needs to resemble what they see when they get there.
Are your customers seeing what’s in the sign?
I remember one ad campaign for a regional shopping centre, where the signs represented the centre as a high fashion, upmarket, trendy and exciting destination. The reality was a centre that was difficult to access with limited parking, a high number of vacancies and the occupied tenancies were the same ho-hum national retail mix you see in most regional shopping centres. Customers were disappointed and disillusioned the moment they arrived. This is what happens when you over promise and under deliver. Surprise and delight your customers by ensuring the live experience is even better than you promised.
In summary, put your advertising budget aside for now until you get the 3 Ss as good as you can.
The three S’s: Stock, Staff & Signage – are you nailing them?
Written by Desley Cowley
Chitchat Newspaper. November 2025.