You want customers to do two things; firstly to come into your shop, and secondly to return to your shop.
So how do you do this? To get customers into your shop:

• Hire a great shopfitter to make a great shop front.
  Something that stands out, attracts attention (in a good way!) and that is representative of what you sell.
  
• Advertise on stands outside of your shop - telling people passing by what it is you sell and why they should come in NOW.
  The now bit is important, you need to be compelling and give them a reason go into your shop.
  Tell them about your promotion that ends tomorrow and about the product that is reduced for only limited time.
  
• Ask the local newspaper to write an article about your shop when you open - tell them why it's great and why people should visit.
  Tell them when the shop opens and plan an 'opening ceremony', encouraging customers to come.
  

To get customers to return to your shop:

• Offer gift vouchers - Gift vouchers have a couple of big things going for them.
  Firstly you get the money upfront, potentially before you have to buy the product from your supplier; this does wonders for your cash flow.
  Secondly, quite often people that receive gift vouchers never actually end up using them - free money!
• Loyalty store cards - loyalty store cards provide incentives for customers to keep coming to your shop in the long term.
  Particularly useful if you sell products that are consumed, because once something is consumed, the customer usually buys it again which is why the supermarkets are big on this tactic.
  You can either provide points that can be used in your shop or cash as a reward.
  
• Buy one get one free later - this really applies to perishable items.
  Giving the opportunity for a customer to take advantage of an offer now, but take the benefit of that offer home later has hidden advantages for the shop owner.
  It will require a return trip to your shop in order for the customer to pick up the second item - creating another opportunity for them to spend money in your shop.
  
• Tell customers about future promotions - hand out flyers informing customers of promotions that you will be running in the future or about new product lines coming in.
  
• Collect customer data - when you run an offer, request that the customer fills in a form with their name, address and email.
  This enables you to build up a mailing list that you can send flyers to in the future.
  The more information you can collect about your customers the better - this will provide a rich set of data upon which you can base your marketing strategy.
  
• Have a great shop - using a good shopfitter to fit out your shop so it is a nice environment to be in will pay dividends in returning custom.
  By taking the time, effort and money to make your shop great, people will talk about it.
  Word of mouth is the most powerful form of marketing - It's free and highly credible.
  
• Stock great products - above all stock great products that people want to buy.
  If you have great products in your shop, people will come back.
  

So there you have it, a few ideas about how to get customers into your shop and keep them coming back.