Retail Activation: How To and Examples

Operating a retail store means balancing multiple moving parts. You’re hosting in-store events to attract customers, designing window displays to lure in passersby, and optimizing your store’s layout to increase its conversion rate. All these tactics are grouped together under an umbrella term: “retail activation.”

Retail activation means providing a memorable in-store experience—one that convinces a shopper to buy and reinforces brand loyalty. But with several components involved in an effective retail activation campaign, it can be tricky to know where to start.

This guide is designed to help. Ahead, you’ll learn the importance of retail activation, complete with ideas and examples from brands that have successfully implemented a retail activation strategy to give you inspiration.

What is retail activation? 

Retail activation, also known as brand activation, is a strategy whereby store owners engage with shoppers and convince them to take action in-store. This could include buying a product, inquiring about special offers, or participating in an experience. The goal is to make the shopping experience more exciting and memorable so that visitors want to buy.

Why is retail activation important for revenue?

Retail activation directly impacts how potential customers interact with your store. If somebody walks in and remains “unactivated,” they haven’t spoken with a sales representative, been made aware of any promotion, or got excited about the thought of buying. As a result, there’s little chance of an unactivated store visitor taking a product off the shelf and heading toward your checkout desk.

Retail activations can also impact impulse buying. Even if a customer enters the store with the intention of browsing, offers, discounts, or exclusive deals could encourage them to make a purchase immediately. 

Retail activation isn’t a failure if the visitor doesn’t convert because it creates opportunities for sales associates to collect data about your customers. Gathering their email address—and ideally, the products they’re most interested in or the pain points they’re trying to solve—is valuable information to remarket to them in the future. 

Components of a successful retail activation

• In-store experiences 
• Digital integration
• Promotional strategies
• Partnerships and collaborations

In-store experiences

Experiential marketing can be a driving force in the number of people who visit your store. Potential shoppers are more likely to go out of their way to visit a store if they know something fun and exciting is happening there, as opposed to just browsing products they can view online.

Retail activation is also influenced by the layout and appearance of your store—whether that’s showing promotions on a window banner or using sensory elements like lighting and smell. These factors contribute to the memorable experience. 

The in-store shopping experience is also an opportunity to speak with your customers face to face. They can’t hide behind their device by visiting your website anonymously. When they enter your store, your retail staff can initiate a conversation to learn more about the visitor. This is key data you can use to personalize their shopping experience.

Digital integration

Not everyone who visits your retail store will be unfamiliar with your brand. Shoppers are more omnichannel than ever; almost a quarter of store visitors will have already researched a product online before their arrival.

Digital integration helps make the shopping experience seamless, regardless of where your customer interacts. That might mean:

• Displaying inventory quantities on your website, so people can check availability before visiting your retail store
• Sticking a QR code to a shelving unit for customers to scan and read the product description on your online store
• Offering mobile payment options like contactless or mobile wallets
• Using interactive displays for shoppers to browse your online store on a larger screen (as opposed to their mobile phone)

📚 Learn: Retail Operations: Store Operations Process & How to Improve it

Promotional strategies

Retail promotions like discounts, limited-time offers, and exclusive deals are powerful tools for luring customers into your store. They help with activation because customers who feel like they’re getting a good deal are more likely to buy. 

Product bundles and upselling strategies also have their place in a retail activation campaign. The shopper still feels like they’re getting a good deal, oftentimes by choosing a higher priced product that better suits their needs.

If someone is browsing for a new mattress, for example, they might be considering a $499 mid-range option. A promotional video on a large display screen that shows the additional benefits of your $549 mattress with upgraded springs, however, could use price anchoring to upsell the higher priced product and offer customers a mattress they’ll be happier with.

Partnerships and collaborations 

Partnerships and collaborations help retailers activate shoppers as they allow you to lean on the experience a potential shopper has already had with another brand or creator. 

If you’re a coffee brand working with a household name like Starbucks, for example, die-hard Starbucks fans will want to visit your store and support your business because it’s indirectly supporting their favorite brand. 

Collaborations also allow potential customers to feel closer with the creators they follow. Whether it’s an appearance at your store or a collaborative product line, an endorsement from a trusted creator can go a long way in building credibility—an important factor in many purchase decisions.

Shopify Collabs can uncover creators that your audience listens to, without crunching the numbers yourself. View shortlisted influencers’ social media metrics and previous brand collaborations, then send them free products to share with their followers directly from your Shopify admin.

Retail activation examples

• Jenni Kayne
• Tomlinson's
• Off Beat Bikes

Jenni Kayne

Luxury design brand Jenni Kayne Home has always valued the omnichannel approach. Its director of home experience Sam Mella said: “People experience holidays and create memories in their homes. They need time to research the items that are going to become part of these memories before buying them. 

“Our customers often do this research both online and in-person, so we have to ensure we’re providing a cohesive experience regardless of where they engage.”

Jenni Kayne enlisted the help of Shopify for digital integration of its quoting tool on their POS and digital catalog. Sales associates can print out a branded and personalized quote for home furnishings clients, with the ability to email these to customers directly from the POS system. This allows the retailer to collect customer emails to use for retargeting. 

Tomlinson’s

Tomlinson’s is a family-owned pet supplies business with a huge flagship store in Austin, Texas, as well as 17 other locations throughout the state. It uses strategic promotions to drive sales both online and in-store. 

One standout campaign is the Pet Club—a membership program that lets customers earn loyalty points on their purchase and redeem rewards on their next order. 

Tomlinson’s previously used a commerce platform that made it difficult and time-consuming for retail associates to apply these discounts. “You had to tap through a number of different tabs on the POS before you could check out a customer,” says owner and operator Kate Knecht. “If discounts needed to be applied, that was yet another tap.”

The pet supplies retailer turned to Shopify to unify sales and customer data across multiple retail stores and its ecommerce website. Now, retail associates can apply and redeem loyalty points to customer orders with ease. Kate says: “With Shopify, the right discounts populate automatically when you add items to the cart. It’s a thing of beauty.”

Off Beat Bikes

Retail activation doesn’t just target first-time customers—it can mean driving existing customers back to your store with the aim of convincing them to make another purchase. 

Off Beat Bikes is a shining example of how to do this. It uses Shopify to manage in-store experiences like buy online, pick up in-store, as well as appointments for bike repairs and servicing. Retail staff create draft orders on the POS system for these appointments to keep accounting records organized.

“Shopify makes the customer experience I want to offer customers possible, without burdening me with more admin work,” says owner Mandalyn Renicker. “It was easy to migrate, easy to learn, and makes running my business more straightforward than it used to be.”

Tips for your retail activation strategy

• Get the right selling tools
• Train your retail team
• Choose your store layout wisely
• Prepare for Black Friday Cyber Monday
• Consult retail analytics

Get the right selling tools

Technology is at the heart of retail activation. Only when you have the tools to collect customer information and reference up-to-date sales or product data can you make the in-store experience an enjoyable and memorable one. 

Shopify POS is the best solution for retailers that make online and in-person sales using retail hardware. You can manage your store from the Shopify app, enabling seamless transitions between online and physical sales.

Shopify also allows you to activate retail shoppers with features like:

• Loyalty programs
• Discount codes or bundles
• Personalized email carts for on-the-fence shoppers to buy at a later date 

Train your retail team

Retail activation is most effective when each store visitor receives the same level of service. That’s made possible with regular retail staff training.

Say you had two salespeople interacting with visitors on the shop floor. One assistant told the customer about special offers on a product they’ve shown interest in, while the other forged this information in the hopes of receiving a higher commission payout. 

It’s a recipe for disaster on both sides. The salesperson might recommend a higher-priced product that doesn’t actually suit the customer’s needs, resulting in no sale. Should the customer buy, however, they might learn about the discount they didn’t redeem and request a refund at a later date. 

Retail training can give your team a framework for activating shoppers. Granted, the experience should still be personalized for each individual shopper, but the ideal outcome and the structure of the conversation should remain the same.

Choose your store layout wisely

Whether shoppers interact with your brand can depend on how they feel in-store, which is largely impacted by your store’s layout. A cluttered and messy store can make shoppers feel overwhelmed. But if they’re greeted with a clean storefront that’s easy to navigate, you can increase their time there.

Your retail space can also make retail activation strategies like discounts or promotions more obvious. Anyone entering your store can see the sales on offer, and then they can decide whether to take advantage of them. 

Interactive elements, such as product demonstrations or free sample stations, should be obvious if you want shoppers to interact with them. Consider placing them near the entrance of your store or beside a front window to draw in shoppers and convince them to participate.

Prepare for Black Friday Cyber Monday

Black Friday Cyber Monday (BFCM) is the year's biggest shopping event. In 2023, Shopify merchants drove a record-breaking $9.3 billion BFCM sales, a 24% increase from 2022. Clearly, it’s a golden opportunity for retail activation because it can drive foot traffic and sales. 

To properly prepare, consider some of the following tips to activate customers during BFCM:

1. Create BFCM-exclusive in-store experiences: Design unique, limited-time experiences that shoppers can only access during BFCM. For example, you could offer interactive product demos, VR experiences, or exclusive workshops related to your products.
2. Promote door-buster deals: Offer highly attractive deals on select items, available only in-store during specific hours.
3. Offer in-store-only bundles: Create special product bundles available exclusively for in-store purchases during BFCM. This gives shoppers a reason to visit your physical location instead of shopping online.
4. Take advantage of BFCM for loyalty program sign-ups: Offer extra BFCM discounts or perks for customers who sign up for your loyalty program in-store during the event.
5. Create shareable moments: Set up photo booths or Instagram-worthy displays encouraging customers to share their BFCM shopping experience on social media.

Train retail staff to help customers navigate deals and find the best products. No matter what day it is, a friendly and engaged staff makes customers feel more comfortable and can lead to more sales. 

Consult retail analytics

Retail analytics is the data that proves whether your retail activation strategy is successful. Use tools like Shopify POS to monitor in-store activity using key performance indicators like:

• Foot traffic: How many people enter your store, and which path do they tend to follow? Does this change between segments of people who do or don’t purchase?
• Conversion rate: What percentage of people enter your store and make a purchase? Does this change depending on active promotions, in-store experiences, or sales strategies?
• Inventory data: Which products sell best, and which tend to get left on the shelves? Does this change depending on the promotion or placement of that inventory in-store?
• Customer preferences: What type of experience do customers interact the most with, based on customer feedback? 

Use any data you’ve collected to fine tune your retail activation strategy. If you find that conversion rate jumped by 15% during the week you hosted a buy one get one free sale, for example, consider making the event a regular occurrence—perhaps in slow seasons—to attract a steady stream of new customers year-round.

Implement your retail activation ideas to convert shoppers 

Retail activation is an ongoing strategy. To offer memorable brand experiences to your store visitors, the in-store experience needs to be new and exciting.

That doesn’t mean overhauling your store’s layout or introducing new products every week. Tapping into experiential retail, collaborating with creators, and offering exclusive deals could be what your store needs to give shoppers a reason to come back and buy.