Rainbows of Newbury is a lovely little craft shop (in Newbury, Berkshire.) It’s a treasure trove of all things crafty – things to cut out and stick down, or stick on, or paint or patchwork. One of the owners of Rainbows, Fiona, was telling me how she regularly moves things around inside the shop and the amazing effect it has. She can have something on display in a basket for months and not sell any. Then she moves the basket to a different position in the shop and people who have been coming in on a regular basis see the basket. “I didn’t know you sold these,” they tell her and they start to buy them!

Rainbows has only been open since the end of 2012 and already it’s building up a number of loyal customers who keep coming back. By moving things around inside the little shop, Fiona can encourage her customers to buy something they’ve not bought before, simply because they haven’t seen it. She told me how she assumed that because they’d been into the shop a few times, they knew what she was selling. But that’s not necessarily the case. Things get overlooked – especially in a shop that’s full of all sorts of lovely things to distract you! If Fiona’s customers know there will be different things to buy or try out the next time they visit, they’ll keep coming back.

You’ve probably heard the phrase ‘your website is your shop window’. It’s the online way of showing customers what you do and what they can buy from you. If they come once and don’t see what they’re looking for, you need to encourage them to come back another time. How do you keep them coming back? By moving things around. Try putting your ‘products’ in a different place in your ‘shop’. Find different ways of displaying them, to catch the eye of your visitors. Just like Fiona in her shop, you don’t actually have to give your customers something new to buy every time they visit – just think about different ways of displaying what you’re already selling. Add content that explains in more detail the benefits of your service. Put up a client testimonial or case study to show how other people use your service. Write a blog that will give people ideas on how they can use what you sell.

Treat your website like the shop window it is for your business and just like Rainbows, you’ll be able to create a loyal base of customers who keep coming back and keep buying from you.

If you want to know about Rainbows, you can find them at www.Facebook.com/RainbowsOfNewbury.