If you live in Singapore, then you must be aware that cleanliness plays a bigger role in determining your overall personality. It doesn’t matter how busy your retail shop looks. Clients are always looking for a reason keep coming back, and there is no better way to make this happen than working on your first impression. Whether you have the best prices and services in town, your an untidy retail shop will always raise questions especially if you are dealing with food items, kitchen utensils, home appliances and more. The ugly truth is, most customers are always judgemental, and the worst part is, you can’t do anything less or more than sticking to what they want. You must be in a position to impress, lure and most importantly, maintain them. In this article, I’m going to take you through a few tips and tricks on how to keep your retail shop tidy and clean.
1. ORGANIZE YOUR SHOP
If you’ve spent enough time in your retail shop, then you must be aware that lack of proper organization plan is one of the main hindrances when it comes to keeping it clean. It is never easy accessing all the dirt in every corner of your shop if everything is lying around. It also makes it harder to find specific products you want to sell to a customer in waiting simply because you aren’t sure where to find them. The only trick to this is to plan on how to organize your shop. You might already have the shelves where you place your products, but if they aren’t properly named, you will still have a hard time tracing where some products are, especially those that don’t sell enough. To save yourself all the trouble, you must ensure that you have the right number of shelves; enough to display your products, categorize your products, place them in specific locations and most importantly, name each and every part of the shelve depending on the product you place there. This will make it easy to access your products anytime you want them.
2. DUST OFF THE SURFACES
You should be aware that dust particles accumulate with time and the last place you need them is, on the surfaces of the products you sell. Dust particles in your retail shop and on your products will not only pose a threat to your health but will also, destroy your personality. Ask yourself this question, how can you convince a new customer that your products haven’t expired when they are covered in dust? The truth is, this might ruin you in several ways, and that includes sending away customers. The good news is, you don’t need to sweat it. What you need to do is, prevent the dust particles from accumulating by dusting the surfaces daily. You can easily do this by regularly vacuuming every corner of your shop and the surfaces of your products using a vacuum cleaner.
3. CLEAN THE FLOORS
Most of the time, customers will be getting into your shop especially when they are planning to buy something. I don’t know about you, but I won’t enjoy entering a smelly untidy place and am sure most customers won’t like it either. Your floors play a major role in the overall look of your shop and your personality. No one likes to buy from a dirty retailer, and you are not exempted from it. Fortunately, unlike cleaning the rest of your retail shop, for example, your shelves and the surfaces of your products, cleaning your floors takes a very short time simply because you don’t need to move a lot of things to access and clean it. If you have a plain cemented or tiled floor, you need a mopper. You can do the mopping several times in a day, at least two times. However, if you have a carpet on your floor, you must consider professional cleaning services. Unlike cemented or tiled floors, carpets attract more dirt and the worst is; they absorb it making them harder to clean. The only way to save yourself the trouble is to hire a professional cleaning and maintenance service to do the job regularly. Meanwhile, you can always try and vacuum your carpet to remove the dirt that just sits there.
4. HIRE A PROFESSIONAL CLEANING SERVICE
Unless you have all the time, doing the cleaning yourself might interfere with your daily programs simply because it takes most of your time. The best shortcut is to hire someone who can do it. Someone who understands that dirt in your retail shop and on the surfaces of your product is a bad picture and a threat to your life. Hiring a professional cleaning service will not only give you more time to focus on what your customers want but will save you some expenses and the best part, convenient. Ask yourself this question, what is the importance of marinating your walls, floors or carpet? Simple, you won’t need to buy a new carpet, replace your floor or walls. This is because maintenance protects your floors and walls from wearing out easily. To achieve this effectively, you need a reliable partner dedicated to doing the job regularly and at a better price.
5. THROW AWAY USELESS ITEMS
One of the things that make your shop look untidy is keeping items that are no longer useful such as boxes, expired or spoiled products and more. Apart from making your retail shop look untidy, they will make your shop look full while in the real sense it isn’t. To avoid this, you need to do away with items that are no longer useful. You can simply do this, by either throwing them into dumpsites or burn them. You can also dig your own dump site to make your work easier.
OTHER TIPS ON HOW TO KEEP A RETAIL SHOP TIDY AND CLEAN
• Paint your walls:
One of the tricks to make your shop look clean is to paint it. Painting your shop will simply improve its appearance. However, not all shops will bring out the good look. To achieve this, you need to choose the right type of paint. You need a paint that will bring out the clean look. What you mustn’t forget is that dirt shows up easily on very bright coloured paints such as white chalk paints. According to experts, cream oil paints makes a better choice.
• Reuse recyclable items:
As said earlier, you need to do away with useless items. However, if you have to use the items in future, it won’t be a good idea to throw them away especially if they are expensive. If you can’t get a person to sell them to, you can always reuse them. This will not only save you the trouble of overspending but will also help to tidy up your retail shop a bit. You don’t need to use the items in your shop if you don’t need them there, you can find a place to keep them safely such as a store or your home garage.
In summary, keeping your shop clean is the first step for a successful business. As we all know it, cleanliness makes a better first impression. The good news is, unlike spending on advertisements or promotions, you don’t have to spend too much on this one. What it needs is your dedication. You need to plan a proper cleaning routine such as regularly vacuuming every corner of your retail shop, dusting every surface and most importantly, cleaning your floors. For better results, you can hire a professional cleaning service simply because, it is the only guarantee that you will do away with anything that makes your shop look untidy. Use the tips above and realize how easy it is to lure and maintain more customers.
