How to Find Strength In Being A Brick-and-Mortar Retail Store

By Bob Phibbs

Last updated on July 2, 2026

7:39

Best for: brick-and-mortar retailers whose biggest disadvantage isn't location or price, it's an undertrained team.

Brick-and-mortar stores struggle when the one advantage they have over online, a live person who can read the customer and close the sale, goes unused. Untrained associates default to being order takers: they answer questions, ring up what's asked for, and let the customer decide alone. That's the same experience as shopping online, minus the convenience.

Retail sales training fixes this by giving associates a repeatable process for engaging customers, asking the right questions, and guiding a decision instead of waiting for one. SalesRx delivers this training online, so every location gets the same consistent skill set without pulling staff off the floor for in-person sessions.

Stores that invest in this see the gap close fast: a mystery shop before training typically shows 3 to 30 percent conversion. Re-shopped at six months, that number is closer to 78 percent.

Retail sales build one person at a time. Do it right, and you form a relationship that lasts with your client. Do it wrong, and you miss your chance.

Shoppers are looking for someone to be responsible for their happiness when they drive to your shop. Welcome that challenge!

Three tips on how you can make your brick-and-mortar store stronger:

1. Constantly looking at your store traffic flow

Where do shoppers go from the moment they walk in until the moment they walk out?
Do they turn around 10 feet in after giving your store a once-over? It’s probably because you unconsciously created a barrier.
Where are your most profitable items located?

The reality is you can move almost any store around - yes, even the fixtures - if you’re committed to constantly making your environment more exciting and in tune with your shoppers.

Remember, physical retail exists to answer a shopper's one question, "What's new?" Make sure your store - especially after the pandemic looks and smells fresh.

2. Always be upgrading your sales staff

Are you afraid to fire longtime employees whom you hired to engage but can’t sell?
How can you re-engage them to understand the party’s in the aisles, not behind the counter?
What additional training are you giving them on how to sell amid an always-on consumer?
What processes should be in place for how you want a customer to receive an exceptional experience?
How are you measuring it against those standards?

When you are slammed with revenge-pandemic shoppers, it is easy to tell yourself you don't have to worry about those things. Until one day, you aren't, and you're struggling.

3. Have fun with your marketing

When your marketing includes humor and can position you as the angel to a competitor’s devil, it gives your brand a personality. I did this with one of my first clients - read about this marketing success story.

Consider how you can make jokes about online retailers delivering something late, something the wrong size, and with the hassle of boxing up returns.

All that versus your well-appointed fitting rooms where you put it back for them if a customer doesn’t like it. You have displays with items they can touch, feel, and use - you get the point.

Good relationships, like eating well and getting enough exercise, aren’t just a matter of luck.

And...

"Expecting employees to magically create rewarding interactions with no selling process on your sales floor is delusional."

Managers share the blame for not creating customer satisfaction

They are frequently focused on tasks and rarely steer employees to the important goal of developing their rapport-building skills.

You must provide associates the skills to forge deeper ties with people than by tapping a heart emoji on Instagram.

They probably don’t have the soft skills you do, but unless you train them, they’ll be stuck, unable to converse with strangers.

As a result, we as a culture lose too. retail community marketing

These spokes of connection create a community first between two strangers, then within your entire business, and on to your entire community.

Employees must be taught that to claim the mantle of having a vibrant company culture, they must create it.

Look, shoppers are shopping at a rate not seen since the mid-2000s, but you must be brilliant on the basics.

Yes, online shopping will continue to improve, and all sorts of distractions like AI and Virtual Reality technologies will continue to make brick-and-mortar retailers feel out of date.

As if they are as antiquated as the doily your great aunt puts under her mint tea pitcher in the summer – quaint but irrelevant.

And while many stores haven’t changed much since the mid-2000s, physical stores can still be incredibly relevant.

If you own the strength of your physical location and don’t give in to crying the blues with a desperation that seeps into your every email, promotion, and new hire.

Don't just take my word for it...

Katia Beauchamp, CEO of Birchbox, predicted that customers will increasingly visit stores to get curated experiences from shop representatives.

For brands to meet this demand, they need to have well-trained staff who understand products inside and out and can offer personalized advice.

According to Fast Company, "In Beauchamp's view, the one thing the internet does not provide is human contact."

That's from an online retailer who sees the enormous staying power and opportunity in retail stores.

When you own your power to entice and convert shoppers, you find new ways to do more to bridge online and offline by looking at your customers’ frustrations.

I’m always shocked at the number of pet stores bemoaning how they lose dog food sales to online retailers. They don’t seem to understand that their customers don’t want to lug home a 30-pound bag every few weeks.

If they owned the role that their physical store could be their community’s source for pet food, then when pet owners came in to shop for something smaller, they could build on that opportunity and set up an auto-ship of dog food... and replace the online retailer.

Own the fact you are a physical store! Lead with your strengths:

Offer curated variety, so shopping doesn’t feel like work.
Offer immediate satisfaction, so customers don’t have to wait for its arrival.
Offer a personal touch so they get what’s right for them, not just what’s on sale.
Feature displays that show how seemingly unrelated items work together.
Remove frustrations from shoppers’ lives in a human way online, and chatbots simply can’t…

Build your list to truly see all you offer that your online competitors do not.

Then, you need to commit to both training and an effective retraining effort in your stores so you don't become a victim by ignoring your major strength: your physical store, where people make connections.