With consumers continuing to watch their budgets and those who are spending more freely again, becoming increasingly selective about where they put their money down, retailers and restaurant operators must double their efforts to keep customers coming back. Here are a few strategies for moving in that direction:

As a retailer or restaurateur, you can be just as innovative, even at the point of sale. Retailers might take a page from the book of Best Buy, which last year began putting QR codes on shelf signs to give shoppers more information about the products displayed at the moment of decision.

“QR” is short for “quick response”, and QR codes are, in basic terms, two-dimensional bar codes that closely resemble the ones to which we’ve all become accustomed. However, QR codes pack so much more power than their simpler bar code “cousins”.

Merchandise returns are a way of life in the retail industry, but with the National Retail Federation (NRF) pegging return fraud as costing retailers a collective $9.6 billion annually, it makes sense to take steps to ensure that as many returns as possible are truly legitimate.

What’s more, the survey indicates, organized retail crime is not only an isolated problem in a handful of areas across the country. A staggering 72% of retailers who participated in the survey said they have identified organized retail crime syndicates who are exporting goods outside of the U.S. or across state lines.

With the use of social media going through the roof, it is easier than ever for retail and restaurant customers to let seemingly the entire world know about the experiences they have had with the businesses they have patronized. If the word is good, put it to work for you.

Suggestive selling is as important for retailers as it is for restaurants. At pcAmerica, we believe that in order to sell suggestively, merchants and their employees should:

Part of the trick to a successful email marketing campaign is to make sure you follow the rules of the CAN SPAM Act. The CAN SPAM Act spells out the requirements for messages of this type. Below, we continue with the second half of the CAN SPAM Act’s list of requirements.

Increasingly, retailers and restaurant operators have been leveraging the power of e-newsletters and promotional email “blasts” to maintain closer contact with customers. That’s a great idea—but we at pcAmerica would like to remind you that it’s also important to ensure that these communications don’t violate the CAN-SPAM Act, which spells out requirements for messages of this type.

Just as customers shouldn’t compromise on the products they purchase or the food they consume, retailers and restaurateurs shouldn’t settle for second best when it comes to point of sale solutions. In the past, there existed almost no choice but to do so because most available applications were generic in nature.