Weather the Hard Times by Investing in Building Your Retail Business for Long-Term Success
I just read a great article by Henry Blodget of Business Insider and it just helped to reinforce my belief that the key to winning long term in the retail business – or any business for that matter – is investing in your business.
As Henry suggests in his article about Amazon that investment can take the form of money and capital, but it also can take the form of time and effort. Here are some examples of ways that you can invest for the long term without expending excess capital.
- Spend a little extra time in hiring retail sales associates who will serve and sell to your customers in a caring way that builds customer loyalty and repeat business
- Invest your effort to on-board and train retail employees to win from day one by giving them the skills they need to succeed
- Plan on executing customer loyalty incentives, bounceback offers, and low cost/no cost marketing programs
- Incentivize your team members with positive feedback and retail performance management activities that prove your committment to their development and happiness
- Network with the local community and social organizations to build foot traffic
- Constantly review your assortment so that you maximize stock turns and gross margin dollars
- Conduct a weekly financial review of the business by using a retail scorecard
While this may seem like an over simplification, the broad truth is that successful retailing is not hard and does not always require huge outlays to drive growth…it just requires hard work, focused thinking, and an investment in time and effort!
– David Goodwin is the Principal of the Retail Advocacy Group. As a 30 year veteran of the retail industry he has hired, trained, and performance managed thousands of retail sales representatives and retail managers. You can learn more about instructor-led, e-learning, and other training solutions for retailers at www.retailertrainingservices.com.