It’s Shopping Season – Making Sure Your Store is Clean for More Customers

The holidays aren’t quite here yet – which means they’re guaranteed to sneak up on most of us faster than we realize. As we enter the season of giving, many businesses are expecting their most profitable quarter of the year. Particularly in the wake of the shut-downs that swept the nation earlier in 2020, it’s important for businesses to maximize sales to boost their bottom line before we enter 2021. In order to make the most sales, especially as we all continue to operate in an unfamiliar world where a silent pandemic continues all around us, it’s important to both attract customers – and protect them – by operating in a responsible environment supported by proper cleaning techniques. It’s officially shopping season, so here’s how you can make sure your store is clean for more customers and ensure that you can make the most sales to grow your business.

Offer hand sanitizer and wipes

The best first steps to offering a clean environment is to ask customers to participate themselves. First, it very much falls under the “many hands makes light work” mentality, and allows your patrons to participate which can help avoid your staff feeling overwhelmed, or leading to corners being cut. Second, it empowers customers to take responsibility for their own well-being, making your store feel like a safer place to shop than the competition. Take advantage of both of these facts, and help your customers sanitize their own hands, their own carts or baskets, and help keep themselves and your employees safe.

Schedule regular cleaning

Keeping a clean store is always important, but these days the simple act of cleaning is almost as important than the final result. Offering a truly clean environment is important, but allowing your customers to see that the cleaning process is happening regularly and frequently is also a great way to boost confidence in your business, make them feel safer inside your space, and ultimately making it more desirable for them to shop with you – and support you. To this point, consider scheduling your staff to do a quick refresh of the store every hour or so – wiping down door handles, sanitizing surfaces, and being sure to clean high touch areas.

Keep a routine

It’s good to do an overall refresh once an hour, but there are many things that shouldn’t wait that long. For example, it’s a great practice to sanitize the check-out counter in between each and every transaction. Make it a practice for your cashier to spray the credit card pad and wipe the counter down after every purchase – this will go a long way with the customers currently in line and those browsing by leaving a great impression and helping them feel safe in your space.

Clean your store every night

There’s daily cleaning, there’s deep cleaning, and then there’s everything in between. Most stores have always had a closing cleaning procedure, but particularly during COVID-19, now is a great time to step up your game just a bit. Make sure the windows are cleaned, the doors are free of fingerprints and the handles are sanitized, and dust isn’t accumulating in corners or under racks. Ordinarily these things are all still important, but making sure your space is something to showcase and be proud of is a great way to boost the confidence of your shoppers – leading to more business and more sales.

Cleaning has always been an essential aspect of any customer-facing business, but COVID-19 has undoubtedly made cleaning practices more important than ever. In order to set your business up in the best possible way for the 2020 holiday shopping season, be sure to implement these strategies to keep your employees safe, your customers happy, and your business booming.