Most retailers toy with the idea of starting a loyalty/membership club at some stage. Some start the process; some even keep going for a while. FlyBuys seems to have been around forever, even though the program reminds me a bit of the dog that chased the bus… and caught it. FlyBuys has been hugely successful [...]
Filed under: Customer Service, General, Marketing, Strategy | 2 Comments »
This list was gleaned from a Kevin Hogan article. Whilst seeming tangential to our retail focus, it serves us well to remember that ‘retail’ is full of people - all chasing some success in life - and these ’steps’ are a timely reminder.
Although somewhat repetitive, and although no earth-shattering revelation; still a handy list to [...]
Filed under: General, People | No Comments »
… well almost everything.
For conversations are the seeds of all change.
Last year there was a blogger collaborative that created The Age of Conversation. 100 Bloggers worked under the leadership (such a quaint word for the blogosphere, heh?) of Gavin and Drew to create the book. The story of the book is a story in [...]
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Management gurus (real or self-proclaimed) always tread on dangerous territory when they come up with THE ANSWER – particularly the answer to why some companies are more successful than others. I personally think Tom Peters actually gets closest, because his answer is the simplest: Implementation.
In Built to Last Collins and Porras found that long lasting [...]
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At one level retailing is a very simple business, and in other ways it is complex. Either way, retailing is a tough business: it is a science and it is art. Sometimes the number of things to do can be overwhelming. By this I mean the operational workload, as well as the range of strategic [...]
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Cold-calling is probably the least favourite activity of most sales people – an unpleasant chore to get through. The same can be said of approaching customers in a retail store; it is not a favourite activity of sales staff, hence the customer complaints about being ignored or sales people being ‘rude’ and talking amongst themselves. [...]
Filed under: Customer Service, Selling | No Comments »
The retail training joke (1)
I follow the fortunes of retailers in the business journals, the web, the news out and about town, also through physically observation. Some come and some go; that is the nature of the beast. As an ex-retailer, it breaks my heart to see small independent retailers close their doors; I can [...]
Filed under: General, Management, People, Retail Operations | No Comments »
Much has been said (maybe too much) about the importance of ‘customer service’ in the retail environment. It has now become more than a cliché – in fact some retailers actively zone out when those two words are mentioned.
I have blogged elsewhere on retail$mart about the importance of managing the customer experience. There are literally [...]
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Traditional wisdom states that you should always wait for the other party to make the first offer/ move. The thinking is that they may come up with a starting offer that is better than you would have hoped for and from there on you can only improve.
Retailers ask vendors for quotes and negotiate from there [...]
Filed under: General, Management, Productivity, Retail Operations | 1 Comment »
You could do worse than follow Wal-Mart, right?
Contrary to popular belief, Wal-Mart does not just simply follow an EDLP strategy; they also apply some marketing smarts. They carefully segment the market as follows:
Brand Aspirationals - People with low incomes who are fixated on brand names;
Price-Sensitive Affluents - Wealthier shoppers who love deals; and,
Value-Price Shoppers - [...]
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