Price is not everything

It is important to remember that price is not everything. Value is. There are many, many consumers out there willing to pay more for an item when they see value.

Benefits such as ... a clean, well maintained store that has an excellent reputation for both quality products and service excellence, professional staff that are both friendly and knowledgeable, staff that is mature and have good attitudes, staff who they have some rapport with and anything else that creates value for the customer.

Because....

There are many things that customers want and/or need, whether they articulate it or not, but they must see the value in what they buy. Let's not forget that people buy with emotion and justify with logic.
Granted, sometimes price is the only thing they care about...but that is usually based on the type of item they are purchasing. That is why international companies like WalMart and local companies like Makro, PEP stores etc as an example similar to them, do well. They get the sales based on price.

But if a customer wants the benefits I mentioned above, then price is not necessarily the first thing they think of when they're ready to buy.

The point is that if you own or manage a retail company, or store, that sells at higher prices...and if you are providing the value that people want...then you don't have to worry.
If, and when, your staff tell you that the competition is selling for less and that is the reason they are not getting the results you expect - ie: to meet their targets - be sure to check it out to make sure you're not way out of line, but don't give in to price cutting just because! It can be a downward spiral and, if you are offering the benefits people want, and if customers see the value in your offering, you don't have to be caught up in that downward spiral. Always refer back to your CVP (Customer Value Proposition) and if you don’t have one, consider contacting Master Retailing as this should be one of the cornerstones of your business.

One thing you must do, however, is make certain you have everything right. And, most importantly, the right staff...the ones who make customers happy to pay more!, in the end it is all about relationship building and creating a trust factor with your clients.

Consistency

All of us are looking for success in our retail businesses. Apart from and beyond everything else, sustainable success requires consistency. What do we mean by that?

We mean being consistently great in all aspects of our retail business.

Short term successes are possible due to some lucky combination of factors. But, we can't rely on lucky combinations. They are too few, and far between.

What we need to do is to set the foundations of our business right so that we can repeat our successes consistently.

This also has a profound impact on customer satisfaction. Your customers expect a certain level of performance from you on the basis of the perception you created. By being consistent at your skill set and service levels, you satisfy the minimum expectations.


And if you put a degree of constant improvement process in place, you'll create a winning combination for your retail operation. At minimum, some of the areas you must deliver on a consistent basis are:

1. Sales Skills (Trained staff on professional retail sales skills)

2. Quick response to all sorts of customer issues (Rapid response procedures in place)

3. Clean, tidy and efficient store environment (Great visual merchandising and maintenance)

4. Streamlined and customer friendly checkout process.

Pretty basic, right? Yet, just wander around the malls and shopping centres and see for yourself how many retailers are failing in consistent delivery of the basics.

Companies who understood this simple philosophy went on to create empires.

All the Success!

Master Retailing

The Power of Association

The Power of Association is too real: It might sound strange, but sometimes depending on your situation, the less you associate with some people, the more your life will improve.

Any time you tolerate mediocrity in others, it increases your mediocrity. An important attribute in successful people is their impatience with negative thinking and negative acting people. As you grow, your associates will change. Some of your friends will not want you to go on and act like a handbrake holding you back. They will want you to stay where they are. Friends that don’t help you achieve your best and are there for you and motivate you will want you to crawl. Your friends will either stretch your vision or choke your dream. Those that don’t increase you will eventually decrease you, the same applies to both your personal life and your work life, so ask yourself the question are you adding value to somebody’s life or are you taking away from it.

Consider this:

• Never receive counsel from unproductive people.
• Never discuss your problems with someone incapable of contributing to the solution, because those who never succeed themselves are always first to tell you how.
• Not everyone has a right to speak into your life. You are certain to get the worst of the bargain when you exchange ideas with the wrong person.
• Don’t follow anyone who is not going anywhere. With some people you spend and evening: with others you invest it. Be careful where you stop to inquire for directions along the road of life.
• Wise is the person who fortifiers his life with the right friendships. You have no doubt heard about “If you sleep with dogs, you are bound to get fleas” or “if you run with wolves, you will learn how to howl”, however if you associate with eagles, you will learn how to sour to great heights. As they say in the classics, “How can I fly like an eagle when I am surrounded by a bunch of turkeys?” Remember Eagles are not found with a bunch of turkeys, but eagles are found one at a time.

“A mirror reflects a man’s face, but what he is really like is shown by the kind of friends he chooses.” The simple but true fact of life is that you become like those with whom you closely associate – for the good and the bad.

Master Retailing wishes you good luck in this epic life time adventure and hope you make the right choices in life.

Tips on Peak Season Trading

Regardless of the economic outlook, you can rest assured that many people will be in your stores this holiday season. They may be working with a tighter budget, or they may not.They may be more discerning, or they may not. Whatever happens you still need to be prepared.

There are things you need to do to have your store, your staff, your management team and your merchandise ready. Here are some Peak Season Trading Tips, to help you make sure you’re doing everything you can to make the most of the holiday traffic that comes into your store:

Study History- Get out last year’s sales records, promotional calendar and staff schedules. Study them to see if there is anything you might do differently this year. If you were the Manager last year, try to remember the things that really caused things to breakdown. Learn from those things and safeguard against those same things happening again this year. Hint: If you do not already do this, make a point of noting all of the things that work really well and the things that don’t so you you’ll have the benefit of that information next holiday season.

Schedules – The Backbone of your Store-Make schedules for the remaining weeks before Christmas, as well as well into January and ensure you include in your schedule who’s going on leave and when, as well as possibly stock counts required after peak trading. Based on your sales targets, you need to figure out what kind of floor coverage you will need for each of the remaining weeks. These can be dummy schedules but they should fairly represent what your actual schedule should look like. It is during the making of these dummy schedules that you will come up with your plan for the holiday season with regard to floor coverage, stock replenishment, deliveries, receiving, cashiers, greeters, fitting room coverage, recovery of the store throughout the day and at night, etc. You’ll get a very good idea of how many temporary or casual employees you should hireif you have the luxury thereof. Hint: Once you know how many temporary employees you will need, prepare to hire at least 1 more and have another two on standby.

The reason you will want to schedule well into January 2012 is because of the trend toward the purchase of gift cards. After the main holiday event, many customers will come into your store to spend their gift card. You need to be as ready for them as you were for the pre-holiday gift buyers. So, whatever you do, don’t become complacent in January.

Employee Illness - Try to recall from last year: Did a lot of employees call in sick? Were there certain days where you were left without proper coverage? How did that affect your business? Were the temporary employees trained well enough to really add value to your business? What can you do to avoid the pitfalls of last year? Hints: 1) hire more temporary workers and train them better 2)make sure your regular staff are considered when making the schedule – the needs of the business comes first, of course, but your regular employees will have some particular dates that they really need to have off for Christmas shopping, family gatherings and holiday preparation 3) send sick workers home so as not to spread illness to customers and other staff members 4) make sure you are not working certain employees so hard that they become exhausted or disillusioned.

Staff Meetings– Don’t forget to schedule time for management team meetings and staff meetings. Some of the meetings will be short meetings just to touch base and others may be educational. Still others should be for fun and celebration. Remember, everyone is stressed during the holidays and anything you can do to make your employees’ lives a little better during this busy time will probably pay dividends. Hint: Appoint someone to organize a pot luck luncheon for some of your busiest days. This accomplishes three things. 1) it promotes a sense of camaraderie among regular and temporary employees and 2) it saves them from having to fight the line ups at the food courts; giving them more time off of their feet and 3) it gets them back on the sales floor where you need them on time.

Maintenance –Always important but now is the time to make certain that all of your light fixtures are working; your exit signs are lit, your fire extinguishers have been checked, your flooring and carpets have no turned up edges that can trip people, your POS and printers are working properly, your doors or door grills are in good repair, ceiling ducts are clean and dust free, fitting rooms are clean and welcoming, shelves are firmly in place to avoid accidents, no chipped glass anywhere, no rough edges on sign holders, the back room is well organized, the plumbing (if any) and any illuminated store signage is working properly, your delivery vehicles have been serviced etc. You won’t want to be spending valuable on floor and customer time taking care of pesky maintenance issues that could be taken care of in advance. Emergencies aside, your concentration needs to be elsewhere so…get it done now.

Don’t forget the rule of thumb of: Happy employees = Happy customers, so from all of us at Master Retailing, good luck, happy trading and remember don’t forget to have fun!J

The Answer to Vacant Retail Space

Having walked around in various CBD’s as well as some major shopping centres, one can’t help but notice numerous and rather large and empty retail spaces. Not only is it unsightly, it also made me wonder firstly what visitors impressions were to those specific area/s or shopping centre/s they were spending their hard earned money with, secondly how commercial property owners profitability is being impacted on by having these vacant spaces, and thirdly how entrepreneurs are letting these opportunities pass them by. I am convinced that parties’ willing, there has to be a win – win solution for everyone involved.

I am sure that many of our retail landlords will not have much to lose but rather more to gain by allowing a Temporary tenant to take occupation at a reduced rental without them having to enter into a long term lease. Landlord conditions could include for example that the premises get vacated in “x” number of days after the landlord has signed up a permanent tenant to occupy the premises.

Some alternatives to be looked at include:

• Internationally Pop up Shops have been around for a while, but still not having taken off convincingly in South Africa, here lies a huge opportunity for smart, savvy entrepreneurs to take advantage of this.
• Due to us entering what for many retailers is the largest trading period of the year, satellite stores could be erected with very low overheads, affording them an increased footprint, brand exposure and additional revenue
• Here the landlord receives an income be it a reduced rental, it surely is better than nothing and the retailer or entrepreneur has an increased income potential whereas the consumer has additional convenience and does not have to get the negative perception and impression of unsightly vacant spaces.

In my books it is a win-win for all parties, Pretty innovative, right?

What are your ideas for vacant retail spaces?