The Retail Doctor's Blog

Michael Kors received a lot of attention last week for announcing they would be closing about 125 retail stores over the next two years. Comp sales at stores open at least a year fell 14% this past quarter while wholesale sales dropped 22%.

Online retailers are jealous.

A few years ago, it seemed everyone was tacking on a gas surcharge for most any product.

This could also have been headlined, Why people quit your store.

When you give salespeople a terrible manager, one who hasn't a clue about employee performance management, they can remove all the opportunities for making a sales team's work meaningful and engaging.

All those employees will ever get out of their jobs is a paycheck. 

When managers come up with busy work simply to occupy their employees’ time and not to drive store sales, they are disengaging the minds of the great employees and welcoming the mindless to work each day.

People who sell retail have to up their game, or their brick and mortar stores will bleed customers.

And don’t blame online sales…

In spite of the relentless onslaught of online retailers, 85% of transactions are still expected to be done in a brick and mortar store well into 2025 according to McKinsey.

Since that’s the case, it would be good to stop looking at omnichannel and online retailers as the real foes of a brick and mortar store and confront the real one…

Most retailers don’t make us feel comfortable enough to buy from them.

I received a note from a reader wanting retail advice, "I was given a part-time job at a high-end department store in the handbags department, but know nothing about handbags. What can I do to be given a full time position and be successful at selling?"

If you are the owner of a store, stay with me, for the answers to this question could be given to your own employees looking to advance.

I asked several retail owners for their advice on Facebook which I’ll get to, but first a story…

It was 1977 when I was hired part-time at the Broadway department store. I was stuck up on the Third floor in a dead zone nestled behind Intimates and Notions – in TOYS. In June.

Prior to his opening, I was asked to visit a franchise to evaluate his new crew. I discovered the team members were bland, boring and shy.

None of them were customer-focused.

Without that, the store would fail disastrously.

When I asked the small business owner why he hired them, he explained, having had a background hiring for a set of convenience stores, “I just wanted to be sure they wouldn’t steal from me.”

While the chances of a great hire are about 50%, many employers continue to pick the wrong employee over and over. 

How does it happen?

Time management isn't for accountants - it's for everyone.

Many times managers and independent retail owners are pulled and pushed in dozens of ways because of the nature of the business.

As a result managers and owners can become overwhelmed by multiple demands resulting in not moving the business forward.

You can either be passive and carry all these demands on your back, or you can become proactive and the master of your day.

One you're stressed out, the other you're sane.

It starts with what you focus on as you come to work...

As we come into the holidays, if you come into the store and all you can say is how overworked you are and that there's no time, well, guess what?

Your holidays will be harried and you'll have no time. It's a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Trust is one of the building blocks of sales, retail employee management and economic life as we know it.

Life in retail management can be as cutthroat as anything else, as evidenced by my suggestion to terminate bad new hires quickly.

When teammates don't trust their bosses or vice-versa, sales always suffer. That's because people who don't trust can't be trusted.

And no-one picks that up quicker than your customer.

That's why, as you work your way up the ladder as a manager or shift leader, it’s important to remember whose company you’re in. Conversations among some people might be fine; among others not so much. If you are an owner or C-level executive, you should know these already.

And nowadays, who you text and what you text can be a smoking gun that leads back to you as much if not more than what is said so before we begin...nip that in the bud now.

Having seen the effects of not knowing appropriate boundaries as a retail consultant, here's my retail management tips...