As the owner of a nutraceutical retail store, you play a vital role in promoting the well-being of the customers you serve.
With the approach of the new year, these consumers will be focusing on making positive changes in their health using your vitamins, herbs, botanical extracts, probiotics, and other functional foods and supplements.
In order to meet their demands, prepare your shop well in advance.
Optimize your payment infrastructure.
Your first order of business is to make sure that the systems that you use to accept online payments are top-of-the-line. Specifically, we are referring to the hardware and software that facilitates fast and secure payments from buyers, whether they shop in person or online.
There is one important note to consider: As a seller of nutraceuticals, you will need to partner with a high-risk payment processor. Due to the elevated number of chargebacks, additional regulations, and volatility of your particular business type, traditional lenders will not agree to establish a partnership with you.
Although your high-risk processor may charge higher per-transaction and monthly fees, and impose additional contractual mandates, you will find that this alliance brings advantages of its own: better customer service, inside knowledge of your industry, and an enhanced ability to navigate the complex nutraceuticals security landscape.
Once you have initiated a relationship with your payment processor, talk with them about equipment. As part of their services, they can provide you with credit card machines and peripherals that will enable you to make the payment experience safe, fast, and easy for customers and staff alike.
Optimize your inventory management.
When people decide to set a goal, they are highly motivated to get started right away. They certainly don’t want to hear that the nutraceutical product on which they have their heart set is back-ordered.
Well before January 1, conduct a thorough examination of the products you have on hand. Focus on potential shortages, expired items, and those that have not sold well in the past.
Using analytics data about previous buying behaviors, you can then re-order intelligently, keeping in mind that weight loss and immune support supplements might be particularly popular during this season of winter health concerns and resolutions.
Set up engaging marketing strategies.
Although keeping your shop at the top of consumers’ minds is always important, doing so is crucial during the busy and highly competitive holiday season. In order to key in on the goal-setting that takes place before the new year, create marketing campaigns that target common resolutions such as weight loss, enhanced fitness, and stress relief.
Harnessing the power of social media can be a game-changer in these strategies. Regularly post content on the pages your customers prefer to visit that focuses on furnishing daily health tips, product demos, and other forms of educational content.
Slant your text and video content toward helping customers with their health aspirations, and be sure to give them strong calls to action that redirect them back to your website’s product pages.
As you work to get the word out about what your store has to offer, never underestimate the power of collaboration. If your shop is ecommerce-only, find a nutraceuticals micro-influencer with whom you can partner. You can then spread the news about your products to an already-receptive new customer base.
Brick-and-mortar nutraceutical store owners might consider teaming up with a local gym or wellness center, enabling both businesses to gain added exposure, and perhaps even leading to increased purchases on your contactless card reader.
Enhance your product selection.
The turn of the calendar often inspires customers to look for new or trending solutions to old problems or issues.
Therefore, this is a great time to take a look at what types of products are trending in your industry so that you can order them in plenty of time to meet anticipated consumer demand. CBD, adaptogens, superfoods, and collagen are just some examples of what health-focused consumers are looking for this year.
At the same time, don’t forget to keep a solid inventory of the traditional favorites that customers reach for on a consistent basis.
Do your best to carry a wide selection of items that cater to your diverse client base, enabling everyone to find nutraceuticals that will help them to achieve their health goals for the upcoming year.
Upgrade your checkout experience.
If buyers are overwhelmed by a confusing or unclear website or are frustrated by long lines at your cash register, they might choose to take their New Year’s resolution purchases to one of your competitors.
For this reason, you should take a long look at your entire checkout operations: payment gateways, credit card machines, your mobile or contactless card reader, etc. If your equipment or procedures are slow or outdated, they might actually lead to a higher risk of security breaches.
Before the hustle and bustle of the holiday season gets into full swing, sit down with your payment processor to discuss your current systems and devices. If your operations need a makeover, this will give you plenty of time to choose your new equipment, train your staff, and test everything out before the onslaught of customers begins.
If you have not done so already, use your point of sale software to launch a customer loyalty program that rewards buyers for their frequent purchases.
Since so much about resolutions involves creating and sticking with new habits, this system will help you to encourage ongoing nutraceutical purchases that will help to support your best customers’ aspirations well into next year.
As an advocate and seller of nutraceutical foods and supplements, you are highly committed to fostering the success of every person who walks into your store or clicks on your website. Implementing some or all of these strategies will help you to communicate your passion and knowledge of your products at just the perfect time.
Supporting buyers’ resolutions today can lead to happy customers who return to refill their supplies for months and years to come.
