How not to frighten a buyer with a greeting
According to statistics, the average buyer, when visiting a shopping center, visits only three stores, while he does not always know what he needs, and when the seller greets him with the phrase “Do you want something to help?”, The client willy-nilly finds himself in a defensive position. The same thing happens if a store employee loudly greets an incoming person from behind the counter. The buyer immediately feels increased attention to his person and will try to avoid any questions from the seller. The friendliest visitors get off with the answer that they are “just watching.” Retail expert Bob Fibs believes sellers are too often imposing or clinging to a visitor right at the entrance.
“It's like grabbing a fly swatter as soon as the fly flies out the window,” he comments.
How not to frighten away the visitor and place him to himself?
The visitor should be greeted with a phrase like: "Welcome to (the name of your store), look around, and I'll be there." Let the buyer get comfortable and understand what kind of store it is. Watch what you say to him.
After a while, pass by with a shoe / sneaker / boot in your hand, as if you were going to rearrange it and gently tell us about the specifics of the product. An example might be: “Sneakers from the brand’s new capsule collection came to us” or “these shoes have super strong soles, we checked ourselves”. You simply add some information without making the client respond or get scared.
The main thing is to speak, not ask questions. This method does not require answers. The client cannot say no.
“If you show that your goal is not a client, but, for example, you are busy working with the assortment, it will be easier for you to observe the behavior of the consumer and enter into communication with him,” advises Bob Fibbs. “Realizing that the seller is not focused solely on him, the buyer will feel more relaxed and may be willing to listen to offers.”
According to statistics, the average buyer, when visiting a shopping center, comes to only three stores, while he does not always know what he needs, and when the seller meets him with the phrase "You ...
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"When Customers Are Few: How Fashion Store Owners Can Squeeze the Most Out of Every Customer"
In recent years, offline retail in clothing, footwear, and accessories has been operating under conditions of a steady decline in incoming traffic. By the end of 2025, offline store traffic in Russia had declined by 8-15%, with the offline segment's purchase rate declining more sharply than the overall market, according to Retail.ru. According to statistics from individual shopping centers, the decline by the end of last year was between 15 and 25%. How can salespeople effectively engage with customers in such challenging conditions? We'll explore service strategies in low traffic conditions with SR expert Elena Vinogradova, who specializes in purchasing and sales in the fashion business. The expert shares proven methods with practical examples of speech modules. Elena is confident that, in a context of declining traffic, high-quality service is becoming the main competitive advantage for the shoe industry.
Offline vs. Marketplaces: How to Survive and Win in 2026?
In Russia, e-commerce's share has grown from 5% in 2019 to nearly 23% in 2024 and continues to grow, with e-commerce market analysts predicting it will reach over 30% by 2029. Offline retail, meanwhile, can not only survive but also grow by 20-30% annually if it stops offering clothes on hangers and shoes on shelves and starts selling unique experiences. We discuss this topic with Shoes Report regular contributor Elena Vinogradova, an expert in fashion buying and sales and the author of the Fashion Business Blog, a blog for retailers and buyers.
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Customer traffic in shopping malls and street retail is declining; people are shopping less offline for a number of objective reasons, one of which is the convenience of online shopping with all its advantages. And yet, offline shopping continues to thrive. How can we control store traffic, learn to correctly calculate and influence the number of people visiting stores to ensure profitability?
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Emotional response from customers is the key to successful retail sales. Shop windows are capable of not only attracting attention, but also evoking emotions: from joy and nostalgia to a sense of belonging and the desire to possess. Using psychological triggers in shop window design helps turn a passerby into a buyer. SR expert in visual merchandising and retail design Viktor Malygin talks about approaches to the concept of shop window design and current themes and plots for presenting goods in shop windows.
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“How do you charge your consultants for personal or general sales?” Is one of the most popular questions causing a lot of controversy and gossip on the online forums of retail business owners. Indeed, how to properly form the earnings of sellers? But what about bonuses, where to get a sales plan from, do employees allow them to buy goods at discounted stores? In search of truth, the Shoes Report turned to a dozen shoe retailers, but no company wanted to disclose its motivation system - the process of its development was too complicated and individual. Then we asked four business consultants, and finally became convinced that the topic of seller motivation is very complex, because even our experts could not come to a common opinion.
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Bayer is no longer a new, but still a popular and sought-after profession. It’s fashionable to be a buyer. Buyers are at the origins of the emergence and development of trends. If the designer offers his vision of fashion in the season, then the buyer selects the most interesting commercial ideas. It is on buyers that the policy of sales of stores and what, in the end, the buyer will wear depends on. This profession is surrounded by a magical fleur, often associated with a lack of understanding of what exactly is the work of a buyer.
Technology Selling Issues
There is nothing worse than meeting the buyer with the words “Hello, can I help you with something?”, Because the seller works in the store just to help. Criticizing this well-established pattern of communication with the buyer, Andrei Chirkarev, business coach for effective sales and the founder of the New Economy project, shares the technology of truly selling issues with readers of Shoes Report.
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In Soviet times, for shoes from Czechoslovakia sold under the Cebo brand, customers stood in line for four hours and did not regret it, because Czech shoes were considered to be of high quality, comfortable and fashionable. Shoe designer Juraj Shushka shared a photo archive of his collection with Shoes Report magazine, which contains the most interesting Cebo models from the 1940's to the 1980's.
Retail Arithmetic
Before you begin to solve specific problems, you need to find out how accurately all the leaders of your company understand the basic terminology of retail.
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