myRetailer.ca

Leverage community excitement with promotions to drive traffic and sales

Alex Bilodeau brings home Gold. Photo by Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images from YSportsVancouver via Flickr

With the entire nation following and rooting for Canada’s athletes in the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics right now (including my friend John), why not celebrate with them.

Once the games got started, Randall Leavitt, our managing partner in Fredericton had an idea. He thought it would be fun to celebrate with our customers every time Canada won gold at the Olympics. He suggested that we give away free slush drinks to all our customers the day after one of our athletes won gold. (more…)

Commit to Being an Active Participant and Support Your Business’ Community

I know we all say that our business supports our local communities, however I stopped into Treasure Islands Toys and I was impressed at just how much this store supports their community.

Out of their small 1,200 sq.ft. store, Lili and Ingrid work hard each year to support local area children sports teams and raise money for an annual donation that goes to help support 500 local area children in need. This is done through local area day care centres. Wow! Now that’s great community support.

And when you walk into their store on Danforth Ave. you know they are a part of that community. From the thank you notes written by children displayed in their front window display, to the pictures of the sports teams they support inside their store, Treasure Island Toys has certainly entrenched themselves in their community. It’s no wonder they receive so much support from their customers! (more…)

Let ideas flow and empower your staff to be creative and see them succeed

Sometimes it’s best if the owner just gets out of the way.

I had an experience like this recently when one of our staff members in our Moncton store wanted to run wild with a live auction on the night of our Customer Wine & Cheese Event – a Christmas customer appreciation night at our store. Linda Thibideau, our outside sales associate, wanted to hold a live auction in order to raise money for the local soup kitchen. At first we were a little skeptical about the idea. She was so enthusiastic about it that in the end, we just let her run wild. (more…)