Diversity as a Major Driver of Popularity of Retail Stores
by Ankita Tripathy Business Planning & Opportunities 22 April 2024
A popular store must be diverse. It must be creative and innovative. It should, moreover, be competitive and distinguishably profitable.
The popularity of a retail store depends on many factors. However, diversity boosts the popularity of a store like nothing else. Have you also wondered what is the most popular store? To guess right, you must know the factors driving store popularity.
Diverse stores are the most popular among customers in the US. Firstly, diversity brings unique perspectives to the table. Secondly, it lays the foundation for creativity in a retail company. Other driving factors are the location, competitive strategies, CSR, and stakeholder management strategies.
Diverse employees also perform better. Above all, decision-making in a diverse company is better. Companies with a gender-diverse leadership team are 25% more profitable. Moreover, US customers also like diverse retail brands.
Factors Contributing to Store Popularity
If you recently searched what is the most popular store, you should know these. Store popularity depends on product quality, customer service, marketing strategies, and the accessibility of a store.
1. Quality of Products
Customers often search what is the most popular store. Certainly, the stores with high-quality products are the most popular. Firstly, diversity increases cross-cultural understanding in the workplace.
Secondly, diverse companies have a mix of expatriate and local employees. The expatriates streamline the business value. However, the local employees have a good understanding of the local customers’ tastes and preferences.
Above all, customers prefer companies that tap into their tastes and preferences. Such brands have the highest customer loyalty. Without diversity, your store is bound to fail. Moreover, diverse companies excel in brand communication, too.
Brand messages of your store should reflect the local culture. A brand with a local British influencer can’t inspire American customers to buy.
2. Customer Service
Good customer service shows that a store cares about the customers. However, it would help if you had a diverse customer service team to communicate effectively. There is a difference in the perspectives of a male and a female customer. Certainly, a gender-neutral customer support team can understand both perspectives.
The most popular grocery store or electronics store certainly enjoys great W-O-M popularity. Meanwhile, W-O-M inspires 92% of sales in stores.
Diversity plays a significant role in customer reviews. An MNC store must have employees of all genders, castes, ethnicities, and cultural backgrounds. As a result, they can communicate and psychologically connect with diverse customers.
3. Marketing and Branding
HBR spotted that:
“Diverse teams have the potential to be more creative.“
Again, creative employees can frame unique marketing messages. They have a better understanding of specific customer niches. Therefore, a diverse workplace has ideas to compete in all markets where they operate.
The strength of a brand is its employees. Workplace diversity sends a message that the brand is ethical. Forbes reported that 88% of US customers favor ethical brands2. Therefore, diversity appeals to the customers.
4. Location and Accessibility
Nowadays, Americans show low brand loyalty. It means you stress other factors, along with the brand name, while shopping. Therefore, all stores would try new daily strategies to attract foot traffic.
Above all, your store must be in a posh location. It can be a high street or a critical junction. Most foot traffic can see your brand there.
The more people see your store, the higher your sales will be. Store diversity will help you after you can bring more people to your store. To clarify, if you own a store in LA or NY, your store must have an accessible and attractive entrance.
Then, your store employees should be able to speak local languages. In addition, they should also understand the tastes of all customer types. But to do so, you need diverse employees, who represent the essential customer communities. For instance, employees from the most popular store in Ireland will not know the tastes of Americans properly.
5. Innovative Offerings
Forbes found that innovation in diverse companies is 1.7 times higher3. As a customer, you want products that stand out. The most popular clothing store in America also operates by this rule. Its customers will want more than just new styles. But they will search for the best fit, and comfort too.
To make your product stand out, you must know your customer in and out. Today, US clothing brands are opening stores everywhere. However, they will need local employees to interact with customers, to know their preferences.
A diverse organization uses diverse strategies too. But you must know what customers want, when you set a promotional strategy. For instance, 74% of American customers like discounts, while shopping online. But 89% of Americans want low base prices rather than discounts, while shopping from physical stores.
Challenges in Maintaining Popularity
Diverse companies are always popular. But a new store must learn how diversity helps them. Above all, diverse stores are always connected to customers. Moreover, they are ahead of their competitors.
1. Competition
The American retail industry is very competitive. Emerging stores like Rack Room or Wilson comfortably compete against Target or Walmart. Therefore, what the stores need today is innovative and competitive strategies.
A diverse workforce lets you win over the competition easily. Certainly, they are more motivated and intrigued to share ideas and acquire skills for growth.
Has anyone asked you what is the most popular store in any US city? I guess you tried to understand the taste of the person before recommending it. Brands nowadays are doing the same thing.
They track customer data, learn about their tastes, and then send personalized recommendations. That’s the best way to keep your customers loyal and stay ahead of the competition.
2. Changing Consumer Preferences
Diverse companies are mostly ethical in nature. Above all, customers love to shop from ethical brands. In fact, they are willing to pay more to shop from an ethical store.
Stores that avoid child labor, have fair labor policies, and have gender neutrality are loved by customers. Most brands like Gap, Target, and others are trying to match these trends.
Forbes found that a diverse workplace has:
“a variety of worldview perspectives”
They use this skill set to educate employees on how to scale products according to customer demographics.
3. Online Presence
A strong online portfolio is what you want to succeed as a store. 83% of US shoppers searched for a brand and its user reviews online before visiting.
What can be a better and free way than social media to start communicating with your customers? If you own a store, it’s high time to create a lucrative Insta or Fb profile.
A census study in the US found that ecommerce sales increased by 43% in 2020. In short, all stores should set up an online marketplace, to increase sales. It is applicable not only for clothing or groceries. It applies to the most popular jewelry store too.
4. Sustainability and Social Responsibility
By now, you know customers prefer shopping for ethical brands. To manage their expectations, you must be a people’s company. Treat your employees well. Comply with the laws and have strong CSR.
A socially responsible company supports its employees to grow and scale. In return, employees give better results to the store. According to HBS, 90% of employees feel empowered, working with a purposeful brand.
Strategies for Sustaining Popularity
Employees need training to be truly diverse. It makes them adaptable. Moreover, they learn better means of customer communication. When someone asks what is the most popular store, your employees should be able to benchmark your store above others.
1. Continuous Improvement
Your store should have the capacity for demand forecasting. You must track customer footfall data. Then compare it with real sales data to identify sales conversion rate.
A diverse company can champion customer communication. Employees in such companies are more empathetic.
It means they can understand others’ perspectives. Moreover, HubSpot states that empathetic employees build better relationships with customers.
2. Community Engagement
Community welfare is the most characteristic CSR policy for Walmart. They aid local communities in disaster preparedness. Walmart also supports families of military veterans, among other things4. No doubt it is the most popular store in the world.
Your community projects act in your favor. If a store indulges in community projects, the news spreads. Customers are eager to know more and visit the store.
3. Adaptability
Adaptable companies are more flexible. Diverse employees from different backgrounds have different niche skill sets. As an employer you can trust them to catch up with the recent market trends.
Economic volatility is the biggest challenge in the retail sector. But the stores which have a better understanding of customers easily recover from recession.
Even in recession, customers will visit you, if you know their preferences precisely. During the pandemic, customers wanted more value-oriented products than lifestyle products. The stores with better customer communication could adapt to this trend.
4. Employee Training and Development
Your store will perform better if your employees can perform freely. Only then will they freely interact with customers and learn about their needs.
It is better not to bind employees with a rule book. Starbucks gave free-will to employees. But their employees have a good understanding of the company’s mission and vision. They understand that making customers feel valued comes first.
Conclusion
We found in our research that store popularity is crucial to attracting customers. A diverse store has most of the factors needed to satisfy customers. So, when someone asks you what is the most popular store, you name the most diverse one.
Diversity is, however, the first step only. Your store must train employees to be more adaptable. Moreover, they must learn the latest trends and preferences in the market. We found that employees perform earnestly in a diverse workplace. Their efforts to satisfy customers are visible.
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