Member Article

Hitting the right chord: Wolverton music store diversifies to boost business

Buskers, a Wolverton music shop, has boosted sales by adopting a diversification strategy; starting out selling a range of musical instruments - from guitars to keyboards and even ukuleles – the store now encompasses a bustling coffee shop, which hosts regular live music events.

Based three miles outside of Milton Keynes city centre, owner Martin Wakley recognised the need to make the store more of a ‘destination’ to encourage customers to travel that little bit further or to make repeat visits.

With the rising popularity in independent coffee shops in the UK, blending the two businesses together seemed a natural progression, Wakley explained:

“While Milton Keynes has a vibrant music scene, adding an experiential side to the business has allowed us to appeal to a wider customer base. We’re no longer solely a retail operation. The addition of the café has made us a hub within the community. Both elements of the business complement each other - some people come to enjoy a bite to eat whilst listening to live music, while others browse the instruments before grabbing a quick coffee.”

With the business continuing to grow, Buskers underpinned its expansion by upgrading its payments system, adopting electronic chip and PIN payment terminals from Milton Keynes-based Retail Merchant Services, the UK’s largest independent card processing provider. Wakley added: “With more and more customers asking to make combined or cross-business payments on their cards, we wanted to provide more flexibility and choice.”

With fewer customers carrying cash and one in four UK consumers now saying they walk away from transactions if they cannot pay by card[1], 83 percent of Buskers’ sales value came from card payments in the last six months.

Gareth Poppleton, Managing Director of Retail Merchant Services, said, “As UK consumers move ever closer to a cashless society, SMEs, such as Buskers, who are looking to increase their customer base are seeing the value in being able to offer accessible and flexible payment options.”

Boosting its event offering further, Buskers will be trialling a series of themed evenings and supper clubs in forthcoming weeks; the licenced evening events will include live performances from local musicians.

[1] http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/technology-science/technology/britain-becoming-cashless-society-according-3767630

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Gareth Poppleton .