In-store services give customers more reasons to visit your store – and can also boost incremental sales.
Adding a new in-store service can be an excellent way to drive footfall and grow sales.
One Stop Dumbarton Road in Glasgow introduced Evri parcel services last year. “Evri has been really good,” says owner Nathalie Fullerton. “It does get quite chaotic in November with Black Friday and all the returns in January after Christmas. It keeps the quieter months busy. I thought December would be crazy, but it was relatively okay. It’s a really good service to have, but you’ve got to find that balance.”
She claims that it would be easy to take on too many services and become overwhelmed. “Some stores might have Evri, UPS and Yodel, but we’re doing 6-700 parcels a week and for us that’s enough. We get 25p per parcel, not a great deal, but it does add up.”
The service has also helped to grow store sales. “Around 40% of Evri users buy products,” she adds.
Nathalie also installed a free-of-charge cash machine in the early part of last year.
“We initially tried to get a free ATM externally, but that comes with its own challenges – you’ve got the added risk of criminals ramming your shop to steal it and the added space requirement for the back of the machine in store. We didn’t have space for that.”
She was keen to steer clear of staff having to handle ATM cash. “I wasn’t happy to get one in that we had to service ourselves where you put the money in yourself. Then you’d need a dedicated member of staff you trust with that, and it becomes a faff. I didn’t want the responsibility or headache.”
She ended up getting a Cardtronics machine installed instead. “It doesn’t take up any time, nobody has to touch it, which is what I like,” says Nathalie. “We have a sign up saying ‘free cash inside’ which drives people in. People who might not have been in before are now aware of the store. It amazes me that people who live two streets away come in and say, ‘I didn’t know you were here’ – they have tunnel vision!”
Other local businesses are also directing customers to the One Stop because of the cash point. “It brings people in,” says Nathalie. “We have a nail salon across the road that only takes cash, and they constantly tell people to go over the road to use our ATM.”
She claims that the machine generates healthy incremental sales. “Ninety per cent of people pick something [else] up when they come in to get cash,” she says.
Baba’s Kitchen in Bellshill also has a cash machine, but it has been out of service for several months because owner Umar Majid was not happy about the supplier introducing a £2.99 fee per transaction. “We told the supplier that’s not on and the contract was due to run out, so we decided not to renew it and we’ve been speaking to multiple suppliers trying to get free cash withdrawal,” he says.
Umar knew he had made the right decision when a post on Baba’s Facebook page about the store replacing the machine with a free-to-use alternative received around 400 likes.
While they may not realise it, customers at Ayr Road Service Station in Dalmellington, East Ayrshire, are most certainly benefitting from the additional capabilities provided by a new EPoS system.
EDGEPoS from Henderson Technology means the process of ordering is now completed via a mobile device or handheld scanner, reducing the workload and making it far more accurate. In-store promotions are automatically updated, saving hours of time, which frees up staff to spend more time ensuring customers’ needs are met.
What’s more, faster transaction processing at the tills means that queue times are down, as customers can be serviced more quickly.
Out of stocks have also been greatly reduced thanks to the Automated Stock Management, so customers can nearly always find the products they’re after.
Director Brian Connolly said: “EDGEPoS has completely transformed our store operations. The ability to automate ordering and promotions made our processes far more efficient. The speed at the tills ensures our customers have a seamless shopping experience, and our staff can focus on more important tasks. With our recent expansion, having a system like EDGEPoS in place has been invaluable.”
InPost impact
In addition, Baba’s has recently installed InPost lockers in a bid to increase footfall later in the day. “We’re busy between 6am and 3pm, but we’re not that busy between 3pm and 9pm so we were just trying to think of ways to attract customers in the evening,” says Umar.
“The post office shuts at 5pm and people still want to collect parcels after they finish work at five, so we just decided to go with that option outside the shops 24/7, so that people can pack up and drop off whenever they want.”
The jury is still out on what impact the lockers have had. “It’s too early to tell, we can’t really tell who’s using it or not because we don’t get to see the numbers and because outside the store, you tend not to see who’s using it, but over the next couple of months or so, we’ll try and have a look at the sales between 3pm and 9pm to see if it’s had a positive impact.”
Matthew Fearn, Head of Network Sales at InPost UK certainly thinks lockers can boost business. “For retailers, offering InPost lockers can increase footfall and drive incremental sales, as customers using them often make additional purchases when visiting a store,” he says. In fact, 98% of InPost locker users said the main reason they visited a convenience store location was because the InPost locker was there, with 74% visiting the convenience store before or after using the locker, and a third spending up to £15 in store [Based on 2,097 InPost locker users at convenience store landlord-owned locations (December 2024)].
Convenience-loving locker users are more affluent, with 31% having an income over £50,000 and 19% shopping once a week or more [Retail Economics Report], so they can spend more, and shop more, making them a valuable audience to attract, claims InPost.
The locker market remains extremely strong, and InPost has aggressive growth plans. “Ultimately, we want to have every UK consumer using InPost lockers as part of their journey,” says Fearn.
Spar Clark Street in Airdrie has reaped the benefits of EPoS, thanks to the MPOS system from MHouse.
Shopper navigation has been aided by expert advice from MHouse, who used data analytics to help arrange categories in the most logical order and optimised the layout and product placement to create a visually appealing and customer-friendly environment. As a result, the business will also benefit from improved product visibility which will boost impulse purchases.
Its assistance in the creation of eye-catching promotional displays and attractive product bundles means the EPoS system helps the store to effectively highlight featured products, encouraging cross selling and driving incremental sales.
In addition, the advanced EPoS system features mean that waiting times are drastically minimised. The streamlined checkout experience helps to give customers a positive perception of the store and encourages repeat purchases, states MHouse.
Staff member Karen is delighted with the results. “The MHouse system has been very helpful throughout the shop,” she says. “It has helped with productivity and saved time and labour. The MHouse customer service is fantastic. I would recommend the system to any other shops.”
