Are you a shop owner like me who needs a crystal ball to predict what customers are going to want next? I swear that at least once a month my staff and I comment on the weird specific trends we see. One week everyone is looking for green candles, the next week they’re buying handmade incense cones like crazy. In the big picture, it’s always a challenge to gauge what customers will be looking for next when they come into our shops. However, when you have a brick and mortar store, you have a couple of great advantages over the online marketplace. First, the personal and real-world experience of coming into a space filled with love, spirituality, and magic. Second, the ability to guide customers to new and exciting products that they may not have been searching for.
We want our customers to not only come in for the magic of our shops, but to leave with a little bit of that magic in their hands – something that will let them continue to experience that wonder and spiritual connection at home and keep them coming back for more! One of the best tools for that immediate-gratification experience is an oracle card deck. There are some really fun and engaging ways we can direct them to that instant magic.
Oracle cards are definitely one of the most accessible of all divination tools. It doesn’t require intensive study to get rolling with them and your customer can purchase a deck and experience the joy of being able to do a reading for themselves or their friends the same day. And unlike print books, where you may be facing competition from eBooks and audiobooks, there’s no substitute for the magic of shuffling cards in your very own hands and learning to let your intuition guide you. And you, as the retail shop owner, can get those cards into your customers hands, opening up a lifetime love of divination and keep them coming back for more.
Here are five fresh ideas that you can implement (including two of them that you can do today) to give your customers a taste of real magic in your shop and turn oracle browsers into oracle buyers.
Invite your in-house readers to integrate oracles decks into their sessions
Do you currently have tarot readers, psychic mediums, Reiki practitioners, or astrologers providing sessions in your shop? Give your service providers a complimentary oracle deck to use with their clients. Tarot readers can easily incorporate an oracle card or two into a reading to give some further insight into or a different view of a question. If your service providers are not used to working with cards of any kind, then invite them to have the client pull a single oracle card at the end of the session as a little extra helpful message. Either way, if they can have the box that the cards came in somewhere visible, it can be an excellent suggestive selling tool.
By the same token, if your card readers are regularly using an oracle or tarot deck that you don’t have available for sale in the shop, you are missing out on a great selling opportunity. Find out what decks your readers use and start stocking them. Also, be sure to communicate with your readers to let them know that you have their deck available in the shop so that they can let their curious clients know.
Host an oracular spectacular!
Everyone loves a party! Host an “Oracular Spectacular” and invite your customers to come to a magical tea party. Set up a specific start time for your event as you are going to spend the first 15 minutes (while your helpers are pouring the tea) introducing people to some of the amazing decks you have for sale. Make sure that everyone is seated at a table and give them some kind of icebreaker exercise so that they feel comfortable introducing themselves to their neighbors. After you’ve given them a brief rundown of the new decks you are excited about and have shown them how to do a quick oracle card reading, place the sample decks in the center of the tables and let everyone chat, enjoy their tea and test drive the cards with old friends or new ones.
Invite an artist or author to be a guest reader or teach an oracle deck reading workshop
Is there an artist, author, or deck publisher that you love? Reach out to them and ask if they can come to your shop to teach a workshop on oracle card reading techniques. As an author myself, I love to teach classes in new places and meet new people. Are you afraid to ask because you don’t have the budget to pay them? Many are willing to come out if you give them the space and time to be a guest reader so that they can cover their costs. Be sure to stock plenty of copies of their book or their deck so that they can have a signing session after the class, and you can make those sales.
Create an Oracle Card Divination Station
You know the sample cards that some publishers will include along with their decks? These can be turned into a really fun and interactive oracle device all their own! Use a decorated box, a magical cauldron, or a cute basket and create signage designating it the “Oracle Card Divination Station.” Invite your indecisive customers or more intuitive and experienced clients to close their eyes and ask the question “What oracle deck am I meant to work with?” Let them reach in and pick the card that their intuition guides them to use. If you want your divination station to be “self-service,” print out labels identifying the name of each deck and paste them on the backs of the cards so that people can find their new deck easily.
Have a deck at your checkout
Oracle cards are so easy to work with that there really is no excuse for you and your staff not to give a mini “reading” to customers when they’re standing at the cash wrap. Choose a featured oracle deck of the week and display them next to the cash register. If you choose an oracle deck that has card meanings printed on them, the process is totally simple. When your customer is coming up to pay for their items, you can ask them if they’d like to ask a question and get an answer from the “(name of deck) oracle deck.” If they say yes, let them ask their question silently or out loud and then spread the deck over the counter and direct them to intuitively choose one card. Once they’ve read the answer to their question on the card, they can put the information together in their own mind as to what the oracle is telling them. If they want to ask another question and choose another card, it’s the perfect lead-in to say, “Why don’t you buy a copy of this deck, take it home and try it out and then come back and let me know how it worked for you?” If you constantly change out the featured deck, you’ll have more opportunities to let your returning customers test-run different oracle cards and ultimately increase your sales.
Oracle cards are such a fun and gratifying tool for self-discovery and spiritual awareness that it seems a shame that most shops just keep them up on a shelf and wrapped in their boxes. Give your customers a little guidance and a chance to try them out and you will be putting magical empowerment into their hands and creating a confident customer who will happily come back to you for more.
Author: Madame Pamita
Madame Pamita is a Tarot reader, spellcaster, teacher, author, and a Maker of Magic, music, and mischief. She is the author of The Book of Candle Magic recently published by Llewellyn, and Madame Pamita's Magical Tarot published by Weiser Books. She is also the owner of an online spiritual apothecary, the Parlour of Wonders and lives in Santa Monica, California. You can find her at:
Website: https://www.parlourofwonders.com
