Time to get real in retail

With a report from the ‘TUC’ revealing that the retail industry has seen the largest rise in people claiming the dole, with a staggering increase of over 76 thousand people having been made redundant; what does this mean for the people that work in this environment?

I am still of the firm belief that the companies that have fallen by the wayside, would have eventually done so – all had been struggling prior to the ‘recession’ and had underlying issues. However, this does not help you if you are one of the people now without a job!

So – what can you do to ensure that you are not one of people out of work?

To me the simple answer is to ensure that you are delivering in every area of your job role at all times. If you feel there are areas that you can improve – look at your colleagues and see what you can learn from them. It is always an idea to speak to your Manager and see what additional training and support is available – those that are keen to improve themselves will always be one step ahead of the game!

Training is one of the areas that seem to be neglected when times are tough and Training Departments are one of the first fields to be disbanded when Head Office cuts need to be made. So what can the canny Store Manager do to ensure that they are delivering in all of the critical areas?

Many of the key areas that Retailers are monitored on are around simple goals and targets. Sales, Account Cards, Wage Cost control, Stockloss and Profitability. So how can you get them right and ensure you, your teams and your stores survival?

As the more experienced amongst you will already know – all of these areas actually have a direct link to each other. E.g. if you have well trained staff, your Sales and Account Card numbers will be high and if you approach all your Customers and offer great service – your Stockloss will be reduced. Everything you do impacts on your deliverables!

So what are the three key things you can do?

1. Recruit the very best people and ensure that they enjoy and have a passion for retail. You can only improve people if they have the desire to improve!
2. Train and develop your teams. From their Induction program when they start with you, to basic on the floor coaching. Never stop improving your team!
3. Manage! It’s in your title of Store Manager, however sometimes we can forget that you are the glue that holds everything together. Direct and support your teams. Know what your sales are. Control and have full knowledge of your profitability and most importantly – lead by example in EVERYTHING that you do!

If you can achieve the above 3 points – you will be well on the way to protecting your job, your teams job and the business you work for!

Retail can be a tough business – so now is the time to get real!

Is 99 just for flakes?

This is just about a pet peeve of mine!!

I have to admit that I absolutely hate the trend of adding a 99p onto a price point in the foolish belief that this ‘confuses’ or ‘bamboozles’ the Customer into believing that they are paying ‘less’ or ‘not as great’ an amount.

You tend to see this on larger priced items – therefore you buy a Sofa for £499 rather than over £500 - Only a penny difference!  This has also become a trend for clothing retailers over the last couple of, however are the general public really falling for this?

Price points have become more and more critical with the recession and the confusion over the lowering and then increase around VAT has also not helped.

When the Chancellor announced that the standard rate of VAT was to be reduced from 15% from the 1st December 2008', this was seen as a positive move for the economy.

Many Retailers removed the reduction in VAT at the Till Point - therefore the labelled price of a garment could confuse the Customer - or delight them when slightly less was needed when they came to pay.

However, with VAT having returned to its previous 17.5% from 1^st January 2010, where does this leave Retailer pricing?

It seems that the Stores which have pricing that hits the pound are also bucking the trend and are reporting year-on-year growth – Primark works on an extremely competitive price arc and all items are clearly marked. Has this been part of their strategy for success?

I always prefer to have a clear understanding of what the goods I am purchasing cost and believe that to price something just under the pound by using the ‘99p’ tactic is a pointless exercise.

After all – who wants to spend a penny anymore???? 

The 25% Effect...

As I walked through my local town centre of Camberley, it suddenly occurred to me that there were more empty shops than ever before. This got me wondering about the massive changes in today’s High Streets and what impact this was having on customer service?

With the majority of town centres at only 75% occupancy and with some smaller market towns this figure being nearer to 50%, what does this mean for both the Retailer and the Customer?

Writing about this very issue in ‘Retail Weekly’, Ben Cooper comments that ‘An exodus of the multiple retail brands, hoardings plastered over once thriving shop fronts and a glut of struggling independent retailers… all are symptomatic of how the downturn is affecting secondary and tertiary towns. Many are rapidly turning into retail ghost towns.’

http://www.retail-week.com/property/in-town/the-new-ghost-towns-on-uk-high-streets/5004353.article

I wasn’t shocked to find that my home town, Camberley was the 2^nd emptiest High Street in this article about towns with the highest voids – coming in at a staggering -43% as it certainly felt that way on my visits.

So what can be done to keep our High Street retailers thriving and also to guarantee their survival?

I am passionate about Customer Service and I still believe that it holds to the key to delighting, surprising and more importantly to retaining your customer base.

The other challenge affecting struggling town centres is around competition. It is always easier to get footfall into a High Street when there is a strong offer from different retailers.  Let’s face it – if you are shopping for a specific item, E.g. a dress for an occasion, you are far more likely to want to visit somewhere that has some choice, rather than a town or centre with just one store.

So – if competition is good, how can the decline of our High Streets be prevented? Will it just be a matter of survival of the fittest? Or will the best service and offer win the retail war?

I am constantly staggered by how little impact the recession seems to have made on the Sales Assistants that I seem to come across in my day-to-day exploration of our shops.

From an attitude of total indifference and a basic lack of product knowledge, right through to out-an-out rudeness – it is rare to find someone in retail that really seems to understand that they are in a Service Role!

I understand that retail is not the best paid work, and I also realise that there are unpleasant Customers out there who subject staff to verbal and occasionally (and unacceptably) physical abuse! However, these Customers are the exception NOT the norm, and yet ‘bad service’is far more common.

So what can the Retailers do?

Well, my first suggestion is that they review the staff that they have. In today’s climate, where jobs are becoming harder to find and unemployment is at an all time high, I wonder if some of the Sales Assistant’s I come across should even be having a career in retail! Surely every Store should be employing the best – and at a minimum people who actually enjoy helping Customers?

Secondly, all Retailers should review their levels of staffing. Wage cost is one of the largest and most controllable expenditure that the business has. This has led to certain stores feeling like a ghost town when you walk in. Bad service? No – in these stores you get ‘No Service’!

Thirdly and most importantly – Retailers need to continue to train and develop their sales teams. All Sales Staff need a basic level of product knowledge and also need to be coached on how to deliver a really superb shopping experience. Without these skills – how can a business develop Customer loyalty and therefore retain and increase their repeat business – the lifeblood of any thriving Retailer!

Finally – and perhaps critically – Retail has never been more price sensitive. With Companies such as Primark and New Look reporting far better results and the rest of the High Street having been in perpetual ‘Sale’ since before Christmas – it seems that ‘a bargain’ will still drive us into stores and get us buying! It seems when we are paying rock bottom prices – our service level expectation decreases exponentially!

If the High Street is to survive – it seems that many Retailers still have much work to do! So if we have over 25% vacancies in the majority of our High Streets – perhaps it’s time we got 100% of service?

Fabulous in Florida...

So – there I was in sunny Florida. I had managed to get to the beach a couple of times, enjoyed some great meals and we were all having an absolutely wonderful time.

One morning when we woke up, the weather was not as good as it had been, so we rubbed our hands together in glee and thought hurrah – it was time to hit the shops....

Shopping in Florida has always been such a different experience to back home. The choice of products is massive in comparison and as for the service – it really is incomparable to the UK!

I wanted to jot down my feelings about the whole retail experience and try and work out how they manage to ALWAYS make me feel so good about spending my dollar!

Is it that they seem to really enjoy what they do? Or is it the level of product knowledge that every single sales person seems to have? Could it be that the sales staff really seem to ‘want’ to sell to you? Or maybe it’s having a commission based sales system that really ‘makes a difference’? I had set out to try and discover the answer...

My first thought upon reaching the makeup counter of a well known US department store, was the lack of snootiness. Rather than look you up and down and judge you unworthy of their time or assistance, you are greeted by the Sales Assistant with a cheery ‘Hi, how are you?’

Is this disingenuous? Possibly....But do I prefer American insincerity to British rudeness – oh yes!

The level of knowledge and also of excitement that the Consultant demonstrated about her offer – including being more than happy to order something in for me – really did make me feel that she actually wanted to help me and that she was also playing a longer game and wanted my repeat business!

On a shopping trip for an evening dress for an event we were going to back in the UK, the sales assistant (Brittany!) couldn’t be more helpful – including suggesting dresses which we had initially dismissed and even finding us a secret stash of frocks in the size we were looking for deep in the depths of their Stockroom.

When we finally found a dress that fitted the bill – it was slightly too small. This again was no problem for Brittany and she promptly ordered the correct size and even arranged to have it sent direct to our Holiday Condo – this really was service!! We didn’t even need to return to the store to pick it up! It was pretty impressive!

We left the Mall extremely pleased that we had managed to achieve our aim of finding an evening dress that we could confidently predict no one else in the UK would have at this particular event!

The set out of American Malls, with their wide spacey Food Courts, a huge choice of Department Stores and comfortable seating at every turn, also helped make this shopping trip a pleasure.

But it was the service that really stood out for us and also ensured that we spent far more than we intended!

So are they really ‘fabulous in Florida?’  Well, for us - that would be a resounding ...yes!