Point of sale is the important psychological moment when the customer’s wallet is open because he or she has bought something. Any marketer will tell you that selling to an existing customer is miles easier than obtaining a brand new customer. So that point of sale (or point of purchase) moment is ripe for upselling. The size of your business is unimportant. In fact, for a small business, successful POS upsells can deliver a far greater pro rata upward sales bump.

Take a small convenience store as an example of a small business. There are many factors that influence the level of business transacted, such as footfall on the street outside, proximity of competition, affluence of the area and clientele, convenience level, such as available parking for drive past customers. All of these factors are external and outside the control of the owner. But once a customer crosses the threshold, the game changes. Now the owner has a captive audience and the POS strategies and displays will determine the level of success measured by the average size of sale and the daily cash out totals.

What Is The Impact Of POS Displays?

The objective of implementing POS strategies is to increase sales by increasing the amount each customer spends on average. Even the simplest of devices will achieve that to a lesser extent. However, POS displays are popular for one reason and one reason only: they work!

Every campaign is different and even every store is different with different customer profiles and demographics, for example. But it has been confirmed that POS displays have a far greater impact on consumer buying behaviour than any other form of marketing. Even price discounting pales into second place by a long way. The reason is partly how our minds work and how we respond to the stimulus provided by POS material. Impulse purchases totally ignore logical restraints and price points, especially for low value items like a chocolate bar or a packet of biscuits. Even more significant spends on products such as CDs, DVDs can be successfully sold as impulse purchases via POS aids. Small businesses need to take this on board and fully explore the possibilities provided by good and well thought out POS strategies. It is not complicated, nor is it rocket science, but can take some trial and error to find the best mix and hot that sweet spot.

What POS Strategies Should Take Priority?

Significant increases can be delivered by deploying dump bins, for example. Basically, they are just barrels or boxes in walkways packed with a product. Studies have shown conclusively that sales of a product will improve by anything from 150% to 300% and sometimes a lot more when using a dump bin. That is because the product is off the shelves and sitting in a walkway in isolation, where the customer literally cannot miss it. Of course, results depend on the appeal of the product itself, how appropriate it is to the customer mix entering the store and how effective the display or signage is on the dump bin.

The most obvious and simplest POS mechanism is some form of display at the till that amounts to a special offer. At its most basic level, you don’t even need signage or cardboard units to display the product. The store assistant can simply draw the customer’s attention to the offer as items are being checked out. Countertop units (aka popup displays) are highly effective for promoting low cost items such as snacks, or even DVDs or CDs. If your store frequently has queues at checkout then you can take a leaf out of the playbooks of larger chains that often have browsing displays constructed right where customers queue. They have a captive audience at which to promote the merchandise in that display as the queue moves slowly to the checkout.

Choosing The Right POS Approach

There are other POS aids, often provided by suppliers and vendors such as dummy boxes, pallet wraps, free standing display units and so on. But for DIY POS strategies for a small business, starting with dump bins and countertop displays should deliver a quick win. Download our free Point of Sale Marketing Guide for more information about the different types of display and how they are best used.