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There's a saying in retail that the "customer is always right". While this motto is often relevant for retailers and other business owners alike, letting customers call all the shouts won't make a retailer successful. And while every merchant is different and every store has it's own demands and goals, the following habits are repeatedly observed among many successful retailers.
Habit One: Prioritizing is Key.
Retailers are busy folks, with those not in the industry often misjudging just how much is on their to-do-lists. From ordering inventory to researching market trends to merchandising displays to training staff and planning in-store events to scheduling online marketing and more, running a retail business means constantly having something to do. With this in mind, successful retailers recognize the value in scheduling what is necessary to do and eliminating what is not. This also means recognizing that while some responsibilities are more enjoyable than others, all responsibilities must be prioritized to effectively run a successful retail business. Scheduling time limits and deadlines - even as your own boss - can help make retailers stay focused and on schedule, eliminating extra time spent where it shouldn't be.
Habit Two: Letting Go Is a Must.
With a lot on a retailer's to-do-list, who has time to dwell on the past? Sure, it's easy to fall into this habit when mistakes are made or opportunities are missed. But more importantly, it's better to learn from these scenarios. Retailers are bound to make poor inventory investments or have a slow month; however successful retailers analyze these situations as opportunities to learn from versus beat themselves up over. It's important for retailers to move forward since after all, their customers already have. One of the best ways to do this is lean on data, which successful merchants implement into their store operations through a variety ways. This often includes incorporating a point of sale (POS) system, using social media monitoring software and tracking customer loyalty. The more retailers know through hard data, the better they are in supporting their customers.
Habit Three: Training Staff is Vital.
Stores spend a lot of money to open their doors and keep them open, which is why it always surprises me when a sales associate has no idea how to support the customers in their store. The people of any business are the faces of that brand... whether they want to accept that role or not. As employers, it's key to understand this reality and train associates to best represent their stores. Retailers who successfully run their businesses recognize the value in their associates and not only train them, but train them often. New hire trainings are very important, but don't stop there. Opportunities to train staff can range from store operational procedures to customer service updates to product training to seasonal staff meetings and more. The key is to invest time and dollars into your employees to reap the rewards of strong associates and as a result, strong sales.
Habit Four: Knowing the Competition is a Priority.
Whether it's your big box competitors or your local Main Street stores, successful merchants know who their competition is. And while it would be easy to simply read about their competition, savvy retailers take the time to actually visit the stores that compete with their business. Analyzing their product assortment, customer service experiences, in-store displays, online shopping opportunities, special events, dress code, store packaging, visual displays and overall consumer impressions are just a few of the things smart retailers look for when it comes to checking out their competition. Often, this type of routine analysis allows retailers to recognize new industry trends, missed opportunities, new strategies to compete for sales and other ways to stay afloat in the competitive retail marketplace. Note - what they don't do is ignore their competition. Consistently analyzing the constantly changing retail environment is key.
Habit Five: Shifting Store Inventory is "Okay".
Often, retailers open a store because they love a particular product category and as a result, they enjoy buying inventory to sell in their stores. Unfortunately, this isn't always a recipe for retail success. Merchants who have become successful and more importantly, stayed successful, are willing to shift their inventory plans to accommodate their customers versus themselves. This may mean eliminating a product line or an entire category of inventory, as well as introducing a new product category that even the retailer is surprised by. When merchants listen to their customers, react to consumer trends, work with their vendors and respond to what their customers want, they are able to more effectively buy inventory for their stores. Using data will once again help monitor this, as well. And as a result, retailers are able to sell more.

Finally, successful retailers typically have one more thing in common... and that is the acceptance that they can't run their stores alone. For some, this means hiring great people to effectively manage all the necessary operations of their stores. For others, this means investing in outside consultants, service providers or companies that can aid their retail stores in a variety of ways that the store owner alone cannot. For all, however, it means willingly investing in people and companies to help their stores achieve success. And on a final note, each of these habits wouldn't exist without the willingness to accept change. Recognizing that retail is always evolving and that consumers are, as well, can help retailers stay competitive and relevant in today's modern marketplace.
Learn more best practices of retail, as well as gain action steps and discover a variety of resource guides, from Nicole Reyhle's new book, Retail 101: The Guide to Marketing and Managing Your Retail Business!

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There's a saying in retail that the "customer is always right". While this motto is often relevant for retailers and other business owners alike, letting customers call all the shouts won't make a retailer successful. And while every merchant is different and every store has it's own demands and goals, [...]

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fashion retail business industry news updates

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Retail sales boosted by price increases :: Fashion News Retail News

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The British Retail Consortium and KPMG have released figures from their monthly sales monitor which have revealed that food sales climbed by 2.5% on a like for like basis and by 3.5% on a total basis in the three months to September. Sales of non-food retail sales increased by 0.9% on...

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The role of Visual Merchandiser is creative and fast-paced. You will train, motivate and coach your colleagues to constantly think commercially. When you're good at what you do, there are endless career opportunities within H&M.

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TORONTO, Canada - In 2011, in what has now become retail folklore, Ron Johnson, one of the brains behind the Apple Store, was hired to resuscitate the American department store chain JCPenney. At the time, I was asked to write an article for Advertising Age on whether Johnson would succeed or fail at this herculean task. My feeling at the time was that he would fail - not because he didn't understand what needed to be done and certainly not because he lacked the creativity or knowledge to do it. He would fail, I believed, because customers, shareholders and ultimately the board of JCPenney wouldn't have the stomach for what Johnson would ultimately have to do in order to revive the ailing retailer.

What Johnson understood was that in order for the new JCPenney to be born, the old JCPenney had to die. In order to pump oxygen into an entirely new era of department store retailing, he would have to once and for all turn off the respirator that was keeping this old brand barely alive.

And while we can quibble about Johnson's approach to change management, (even he now admits he could have been gentler and more sensitive in his approach) the end result would have been the same. He failed because JCPenney felt more comfortable clinging to the corpse of their brand than working through a messy, uncertain and turbulent resurrection.

It's six years later and a similar malaise poisons the broader retail industry. Everyone is talking about the need for disruption, innovation and change, yet most stop well short of actually doing anything about it. Many retail brands talk about game-changing innovation but what we see are lukewarm iterations of existing concepts and old ideas. Retailers, it seems, lack the will or sense of urgency to effect significant and radical change.

Adding to the numbness is a continuous chorus of bloggers and retail pundits saying the "retail apocalypse" is overblown. They acknowledge that 8,642 retail stores will close in 2017 in North America alone, but somehow always work their way back to telling us the sky isn't falling and we need not be overly concerned. Well, I'm here to tell you that the time for concern has passed. We're well into "shit-yourself" territory.

They say change happens slowly and then suddenly. Here's a glimpse of what suddenly is going to look like. My hope in sharing this is simple; that it may spark new conversations in your organization and initiate the action your business so desperately needs to take. Here we go.

E-commerce will soon drive the majority of sales.
You don't need to multiply a small number by a big number too many times before the result is a huge number. Online retail is currently compounding globally at a rate somewhere between 12 and 35 percent, depending on where you do business. In the US, for example, even if nothing else changes, e-commerce will comprise 25 percent of total retail within 6 short years. In the UK that figure may exceed 30 percent. Perhaps most staggering of all is that within 3 years, three companies - Amazon, Alibaba and eBay - will control 40 percent of planet earth's e-commerce. And this is just a warm-up. Within 15 years, e-commerce will overtake conventional retail sales in developed nations, as a new wave of pervasive technologies take hold.

Products will replenish themselves.
The next profound revolution in e-commerce will come as our connected homes, cars, appliances, product packaging and even the products themselves begin connecting, communicating and transacting on our behalf. The three quarters empty bag of dog food in your home will suddenly have the capability to re-order itself. Using the third-to-last diaper in the carton will trigger the order of 40 new diapers delivered to your door. The light bulb that's going to burn out will order its own replacement, taking into account shipping times from your online provider. Sensors in your running shoes will measure tread depth and trigger a reorder when necessary. These and hundreds of other items will manage their own replenishment. All will be done with minimal intervention from consumers.

Stop thinking 'product' and start thinking productions.

Amazon is already offering free in-home consultations for connected home technology because they know all too well that the company that connects the home owns the consumers that live in it. Whether we opt to subscribe to Amazon, Google, Walmart or some other provider, we will choose a meta-service to manage most of our routine, regular purchases. E-commerce will no longer be something we do but rather something that just is. Within 20 years the idea of pushing a buggy through the centre aisles of a grocery store and lugging toilet tissue home will seem laughable.

Amazon will become the Sears catalogue of the future
The days of pointing and clicking at pictures on a screen will come to an end within a decade. Amazon already knows this, hence its push to develop its Alexa Voice Services platform and Echo devices. But while seemingly invincible today, Amazon, likes Sears before it, will eventually be overtaken by new platforms that completely redefine what shopping is. Technologies like Magic Leap's mixed reality (in which Alibaba is a major investor) will open a new chapter in experiential e-commerce. We will meet with designers in the virtual world who will style and fit us with clothes that we can see and feel. Fitting will be achieved with almost perfect accuracy as zettabytes of manufacturer data feed sophisticated fitting algorithms. We will "travel" to virtual places where we can contextually and viscerally trial the products we're looking for. We will not buy from online "stores," as we do today, but rather from within online experiences that are exciting, entertaining and fun. If you're a retailer struggling to keep pace with Amazon, you're going to have a hell of a time with the company that puts them out of business.

Physical retail will no longer be a channel for buying
With the vast majority of our daily and weekly needs simply coming to us as necessary, the role and purpose of retail space will no longer be principally to sell products. Rather, these spaces will act as living, breathing physical portals into brand and product experiences. They will become places we go to learn, be inspired, see and try new things, experiment and co-create. Beyond mere consumption, we'll go to these spaces for entertainment, education, connection and community. This is not to suggest that there will be no products for sale in these physical spaces, only that the emphasis will not be sales but rather on catalysing a relationship with the consumer that transcends the store. The way these spaces are planned, built, staffed, managed and measured will look and act nothing like the retail operations of today. My advice to retailers is to stop thinking "stores" and start thinking stories. Stop thinking "product" and start thinking productions.

There will be a retail refugee crisis.
Nearly 4.6 million Americans work in retail, making it the country's number one employer. Indeed, in many developed countries retail represents one of the most, if not the most populous of industries. Amazon has already proven that it can build a store without cashiers. And cashiers are just the beginning. Robotic customer service staff, fully automated warehouses, bot-staffed call centres, driverless delivery trucks and even the displacement of store management by artificial intelligence are all clear and present realities. Any human being that doesn't generate added value, either through creativity, expertise or intuition will be expendable. We can debate the morality and ethics of this endlessly but the certainty remains that retail workers will become the blacksmiths of their era.

As a retailer you need to decide now which side of this line you're going to stand on. If it's with the robots, start investing in the technology now. If you choose people, prepare to pay for the very best in the market. There will be no alternative between the two.

The economic model for retail will implode
If you're fortunate enough to sell something no one else on earth sells you might dodge this bullet. If not, you better find a new way of making money. This is because the wholesale-to-retail model is coming to an inglorious end. Firstly, brands are fleeing the confines of wholesale distribution in unprecedented numbers, largely because they can and secondly because it just makes business sense to do so. Technology has advanced to the point where the ability for brands to reach consumers directly is not only possible, it's preferable. Through vertical integration brands cannot only better manage their margins but also their brand image and customer experience.

This will put retailers in a position where the brands they call "vendors" are also competitors for the same shopper. In essence, even if they win, they lose. By selling more products they only feed the enemy's war chest. This sets up an untenable situation that private labelling can only partially remedy. Simply, the economic model for retail will require a complete reimagining.

Some smart retail start-ups are already doing precisely this. California-based electronics retailer b8ta treats retail as data and sells consumer engagement analytics back to the brands they represent, offering insights they wouldn't otherwise get, and giving b8ta a unique and recurring revenue stream. New York's Story sells experiences, working with brands to curate and produce beautifully executed, in-store events and they're paid handsomely to do so. These are the sorts of pioneers that I feel will lead an entirely new class of experiential retailers over the next decade; retailers that use their physical stores not to sell products but to sell experiences that involve products. These new experiential merchants will be intensely creative masters of retail stagecraft, and experts at executing and measuring consumer experiences.

The physical store will become the most powerful and measurable media channel available to a brand, and the customer experiences that take place there will be the most profitable product a retailer can sell.

So, it's true that retail may not be dead. But therein lies exactly the problem. Until we let go of the old era we can never fully move forward into a bright new age. If we really want to save retail, we've got to let it die.
Doug Stephens is a retail industry futurist, founder of Retail Prophet and author of 'Reengineering Retail: The Future of Selling in a Post-Digital World.'

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The store of the future will become the most powerful media channel available to a brand, offering customer experiences that are the most profitable product a retailer can sell. But to get there, retail as we know it must die.

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Mindshare UK has released its latest research report, 'The Future of Retail CX (Customer Experience)' to reveal the five key retail trends that retailers and brands should be considering to "become a real point of differentiation from competitors".

Topping the trend list is 'Game of Phones', stating that if retailers and brands only did one thing in 2018 that it should be to improve their mobile offering. With 65 percent of consumers stating that they see themselves using mobiles more in the future to make the in-store experience better, Mindshare's report states that mobile is the "glue that binds together multiple brand touchpoints for the shopper, providing a hub for data collection, payment, store and location-based experiences, convenient purchasing and much more".

Other predictions includes the 'conversational commerce' highlighting the importance of interacting with consumers is shifting to include messaging apps, chatbots and voice-enabled technology to allow brands to have direct, automated conversations 24/7. This is especially linked to targeting younger consumers as the research reveals that six in ten 25-34s find it easier to chat to brands via text, online chat or messenger apps.

While e-commerce addresses the demands of time-poor shoppers, Mindshare adds that at other end of the shopping spectrum brands are increasingly using their physical spaces to slow the interaction down instead - encouraging shoppers to spend time with their brands through the creation of memorable immersive experiences.

It states that the store offering will become a point of differentiation and staff will become more important than ever, as over half (51 percent) of consumers agree they are more likely to buy from brands whose stores are interesting or different, rising to 63 percent for under 34s, while 83 percent added that they think stores are important as they allow you to see, touch and feel an item in person. A good example of this is John Lewis' try-before-you-buy experience apartment that launched last month.

Mindshare predicts that mobile, the use of chatbots, and using data to personalise experiences as key retail trends of 2018

The fourth retail trend is 'data reboot', noting that data is the "lifeblood of truly great customer experiences", as it has the ability to connect consumer touchpoints, facilitate seamless brand interactions and provide unique shopper journeys, and that it believes that 2018 will be year that retailers step up their efforts to personalise the customer experience. This comes as 65 percent of consumers say they are becoming more conscious of what brands do with their data and 68 percent say they are very selective about the brands they share their data with.

Rounding up Mindshare's retail predictions is the concept of 'brand almighty' and the need for retail brands to focus on a clearly defined proposition that makes them unique and emotionally connected to their shoppers, using technology, store experiences and brand partnerships to achieve it.

David Walsh, chief business officer from Mindshare UK, added: "We believe that audiences are our number one client. By creating valuable experiences for them, greater business value will be driven for brands. This is never truer than in the continually adaptive and constantly changing world of retail.

"With the increase in technical innovations and connected devices, consumer expectations of their shopping experiences are higher than ever before. This research report aims to highlight some of these key trends as well as providing actionable insight that brands can implement."

Image: via Pexels

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Mindshare identifies key trends for retail brands

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Mindshare UK has released its latest research report, 'The Future of Retail CX (Customer Experience)' to reveal the five key retail trends that retailers and brands should be considering to "become a real point of differentiation from competitors".

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