Your Ideal Customer

Retail Notes:

Who is your target market?

Independent retailers often have trouble stating who their target market is. They are afraid that creating a specific profile of who they want their customer to be will limit their market and be too narrow. On the contrary - if you don't know exactly who you are trying to attract to your store, you end up attracting nobody.

To help you figure out who your target market is, write down the description of your ideal customer. Make this as detailed as possible. This is easiest if you picture a real person in your mind. Who would you consider to be your best customer, or your top 10 customers? You want to attract more customers like them because they will be the most profitable for your business.

Making this description as specific as possible will help you to create the most effective marketing. While you will also attract customers who fall outside of this profile, the focus of your marketing and merchandising efforts and budget should be on the people who would be your ideal clients.

Your ideal customers are the ones who are repeat customers, who give you feedback on what they like or don't like, who tell their friends about your store, and you enjoy doing business with them. Create a profile based these great customers. Try to find more like them.