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Retailers: How To Beat A Lower Priced Competitor, Your Vendor

Many retailers face a common problem: what do you do when you are directly competing with one of your vendors?

For example, a store selling Sony products has to compete directly with Sony online, which has inherent cost and supply advantages over brick and mortar retail businesses.

Not only is it easier than ever for customers to buy products directly from manufacturers online, but they are opening their own stores and using third-parties to get around the very retailers who built their business.

But I get it, stockholders are looking for additional value and the easy way is to cut out the middleman; just like the customers.

The problem is, the customer I believe still needs a middleman.

As an independent retailer, how do you turn a profit on products like this when your margins are thin to begin with? Continue reading Retailers: How To Beat A Lower Priced Competitor, Your Vendor »

Small Business Advice: Are You Too Weak To Become Stronger?

I was talking to a potential client about using my services as a retail consultant. “I’m afraid that my customers will think I’m in dire straits if they find out I’m using you,” the retailer said.

I can’t say his fear wasn’t true for him, but I can say that the opposite is true – that whenever you seek help or information, it is a strength.

I work with some of the biggest brands in the world and help them leverage all they are doing right so they can gain even more market share.

Maybe the fear is due to the reality show craze that showcases the tears, the bills, and the draammmaaa of small businesses that are about to go over a cliff if they don’t change.

Maybe the fear is because many entrepreneurs got where they are on their own chutzpah so that they feel seeking someone else’s help minimizes their strength.

Again, they fear that asking for help denotes weakness. Continue reading Small Business Advice: Are You Too Weak To Become Stronger? »

Penney’s and Groupon Plummet: Is Your Retail Shop At Risk Too?

Disruption – the buzz word when talking about new businesses. It refers to how traditional modes of commerce and retail, in particular, are being disrupted by new ways of doing things.

Groupon

Groupon was one of the first to get the disruptive buzz as a new way to buy. Out with the old paper coupons, the fliers on car windows, the expensive direct mail… and in with daily email offers from local merchants. Only if enough friends claimed a Groupon would it go live, encouraging even more people to share among their friends. Continue reading Penney’s and Groupon Plummet: Is Your Retail Shop At Risk Too? »

Should Your Retail Sales Training Be In-House or Online?

The long-held belief for getting your retail sales team on the same page has been that in-person retail sales training is the only way to do it.

Bring in managers, assistant-managers, team-leaders, training-staff or some combination thereof and tell them to bring back your training to their staff.

That is the way that it’s done; that’s the way it has been done.

Which was fine.

For awhile.

But this strategy was inherently flawed. If you’re telling your top sellers what they need to know then you have got to appreciate that they will take their own spin for how they think your instructions should be interpreted. Continue reading Should Your Retail Sales Training Be In-House or Online? »

Retail Consultant Small Business Makeover

As a retail consultant, I’ve done plenty of small business makeovers and thought this time I’d bring you along through the process.

As we go, we’ll look at marketing smarter than the competition, visual merchandising, retail sales training, and more.

It’s important to note, every small business is different – there are no cut and paste formulas as each business’ needs vary – could be marketing issues, issues among the principals, wrong merchandise, bad location – you get the picture.

Meet my new client, Black Horse Farms and their two principals, Lisa and Chellie. They peg their start to 1791, when the site of their current location was the Black Horse Inn. This family operation, located in the mid-Hudson River Valley, has been around for generations.

With over 1000 acres that provide produce around the state, this family’s country store and greenhouses lie right off Route 9W (the original Indian Trail to Albany, which starts out as Broadway – yes that one – in NYC) north of Catskill. It is a seasonal store and was due to open on the first day of Spring. Continue reading Retail Consultant Small Business Makeover »