In preparing pictures for my new book, the Retail Doctor’s Guide to Growing Your Business, I revisited these pictures which show how the banking sector is learning from the best retail and hospitality businesses. This illustrates where smart retail is going:
I used coffee in this example but it could just as easily be window coverings, flooring, cashmere sweaters, you name it. Price doesn’t make something a good value – people do – sales people do. Until you and your crew can understand and model that, you’ll be stuck with a race to the bottom cutting profits and crying the blues.
Any time weather affects business, it is hard to deal with. Deliveries are delayed, employees may have to deal with children needing care, your utilities may not be working reliably. You need to communicate to everyone, hope for help but plan to take care of all of it yourself. Here are a few tips for retailers affected by major snowstorms:
I think what will distance viewers is to realize they don’t have the kind of money to pour into their business for new fixtures, signage, plasma screens, registers and computers. And really, who needs to scan a barcode for a one-off shop that has very limited skus? We’re talking a shop for chocolate dipped strawberries here.
It isn’t about getting more bodies into the store; it’s how you sell those who already know you. You want to gain market share? Gain customers? Gain profits? Feel good about yourself again? Become a student of selling. Develop a selling culture like that restaurant owner in Long Beach and look at all the ways selling can be improved in your business. If you need help, remember the Retail Doctor makes house calls.
Remember it was the pioneers who got the arrows; be a settler once an item has survived in the marketplace in your lower categories, then bring it in. Merchandise is like milk; it goes bad quickly so you only want to carry what you need, not what you want.
When a customer can’t decide on whether to take their big old pile of cash in the bank or credit on their card and make the premium or luxury choice, you need to know what it took for them to purchase. That comes from owning the product yourself. Then you can empathisize with your customer that it seemed like a lot of money to pay but you found x, y, and z once you owned it. Without that first hand experience, you’re like a priest telling a newlywed couple what the wedding night would be like.
