This one’s going to be short and sweet and to the point: if you want to generate traffic and get the customers coming in the door when every newspaper on the planet is screaming about the meltdown on Wall Street, you gotta give them a reason to come in!

This means making deals. The prices on EVERYTHING are going up, up, up. It’s true in my store, and I know it’s true in yours. When was the last time a vendor called you and said, “Hey, we like you so much we’re going to eat the rising cost of gas because you’re that awesome?”

If you’re like me, that’d be never.

So prices are going up, everywhere. The customer’s feeling it no matter where they go.

Send them coupons — 10% off anything in the store. Run lots of specials. Put things that are NEVER on sale on sale. It’s time, right now.

These don’t have to be super deep discount sales. Especially if you’re a niche market, with lots of brands that never, ever discount. Customers know and understand that they’re not going to get 50% off some of these items — and that’s ok: they’ll buy at 10% off, when they may very well not have at full price.

Realizing 90% of a sale is a lot better than realizing none of it!

The most common mistake retailers make when times get tight is to stop promoting, to stop making deals, to stop reaching out to the customer base. That’s just wrong: this is the time, more than ever, that you’ve got to be out there, constantly, giving the customer a reason to buy.

It doesn’t matter who you are or what you do — unless you’ve been living under a rock, it’s pretty clear that the economy is in rough shape right this minute. That’s bad news for retailers: when customers are nervous about where their next paycheck is coming from and if they can make the mortgage payment, they don’t shop as often, and they don’t buy as much.

However, they still do shop. This is the time when it’s absolutely CRITICAL that you have and use your database!

A very good friend of mine is in the high end apparel business. This economy’s been rough on him — to the point where even he would tell you that his business tanked this summer. Nobody was buying.

So he went to his database, generated as list of customer’s addresses, and sent his clientele a coupon for 20% off. Suddenly, the customers came flying through the door — to take advantage of what was, for this retailer, a rare sales event.

Yes, he did give them 20% off: but 80% is tremendously better than 0%, and that’s roughly what he was making before the coupon campaign!

If you’re in the same spot, go to your database. Reach out to your customer. Customers are incredibly price conscious right now: it’s the time to offer them a deal as a way to say “Thank you” for sticking with you through the tough times!