Nordstrom Empowers Associates to Stay Ahead of the Pace of Change

From customer-facing technologies and business architecture to innovation and people labs, Nordstrom is focused on enabling associates to deliver exceptional and innovative service to customers.



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QR Codes: The Definition of Retail Tech Gone Wrong

Social media and marketing guru Scott Stratten believes QR code technology is routinely mismanaged, and can sour the customer's opinion of the brand.



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Monster Food Company

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Should traditional retailers sell online?

Last night I attended my local Chamber of Commerce monthly meeting. It was a fairly normal meeting, in that someone always raises the questions about the number of currently vacant shops, and how sales are being affected by negative comments etc and what is "everyone else" going to do about it.

During general business one of our successful local fashion retailers raised a question, is anything going to change with GST on goods purchased online overseas? She felt that this was hurting her business greatly, she has "friends" that shop online regularly and buy clothes similar to what she sell, from mainly overseas sites, at greatly lower prices than what she sells her products for or can buy them for herself from her current suppliers.

This got me thinking!

The world is much smaller now, I hear from retailers regularly that they often feel like showrooms for online retailers, customers come in, ask lots of questions, play with the products, try on clothes and shoes to find the correct size and say that they will be back, but mostly never return.
I get asked regularly how should they combat the rise of online sales. Should they sell online?
There are lots of buzz words and experts spruiking about omni-channel and multi-channel retailing, bricks and mortar stores, and what the future will look like. It is very clear that certain retail categories are changing quickly, newsagents and video rental stores, to name two, are having to quickly adjust their business models to survive.

What I see is that your typical retailer no longer has to just look at the local stores as their competitor, but they have to look online as well in their categories and see what is trending there as well. That does not mean that they should sell their products at the same price, but they should at least see how they may be able to compete What value can they add to what they sell? This can be the level of service, after sales service, product information and so on. When a customer purchases something online, can they return it easily? Swap a size or a colour? What happens if your product breaks down, or you need it to be serviced? These are questions that need to be asked, and the sales people you have selling need to be aware of how to put that doubt into the customers mind of what will they do if something goes wrong?

Every retail business selling products should look seriously at if they should sell online. I have seen some very successful local, small town retailers become very successful in doing this, and opening themselves up to an untapped market. In many cases their success in online selling has increased their shop front size and range, further increasing their success.

Whatever view you take, one thing for sure is that retail will continue to evolve and change. The successful retailers will be those that adapt to what the customer wants and delivers on how they want to buy their products.

At the end of the day, the customer will always drive the change!

Keep the whole purchase process as simple and quick as possible, that is always a key element. Keep me waiting, and I walk!

Good trading,
Geoff

Great Retailers

One of the great things about my job, is talking to passionate retailers around Australia, and being able to train their staff.

In this modern world, with all of us having access to the global shopping world in our pockets via our smart phones, it is important that we do not forget what being a great retailer is all about. As a retailer, you can no longer just open you doors and expect your customers to flow in and buy your products. Customers are spoiled for choice.

Do your know your customer?

Do your research, watch how your customers move through your shop, what catches their eye? Most of what you need to know about your customers happens every day in your own store, you just have to have your staff ask the right questions. 
Do you ask your customers that are leaving without buying anything what they were looking for? Ask the question, many customers will just look and if they cannot see what they need, and no one asks them or offers assistance, will just walk out empty handed.

What are your customers buying?

How do you track your sales? Have your staff write down everything that a customer asks for that you do not stock. This is something that I have done many times in Stores I have run, and it will surprise you how many times staff write down items that you already stock. You will also see what extra items that may be worth stocking. If the demand is there and customers are asking for it, you should seriously look at selling it.

Are you buying your stock at the lowest price?

You make a profit by buying at the lowest price, and lowest freight costs. Retailers focus too much at times on the selling price and overlook the buying price. Negotiate volume discounts, or payment term discounts. Be creative, look for package deals, or are there parallel importer / suppliers.

Look after your customers

It amazes me how hard we make it in some stores for people to shop. There are always rules and policies that someone in Head Office or administration has created that slows the purchase down. Keep the whole process as simple and quick as possible.
It also amazes me how many people working in retail hate customers! My answer, change careers.
Genuine friendly service will always help to close a sale, and build repeat customers. It costs nothing to provide and the returns can be huge.

Show the customer the price

There is a common theme that I keep seeing in those retailers that get it right:

The staff are engaged, love their job, love talking to customers, and solving their problems.

When recruiting, hire for character, and train for skill! Works every time.

Good trading,
Geoff

Customer service - It is all about me, the customer!

We have had a few office discussions recently about customer service disappointments, you know those times when the service that you receive was not what you expected to receive. It really got me thinking, that it is very true, that most complaints stem from not the way that the sale or transaction was performed, not from the actual shopping experience, but most complaints come from how a mistake is either ignored or corrected, or how a bad outcome was handled.

We are human, mistakes happen, we all expect something to go wrong at some time. You know the drill, the item won't scan at the checkout, a price check is called, the checkout operator has no idea how much the item is, they ask you, but I have no idea either, even though I would have looked at the price when choosing that item, I never buy anything without checking the price. For the time it takes to get the price, in labour costs it would have been cheaper for the supermarket to just give you the item! My time is valuable, the checkout operator's time is valuable, no one wants queues, or to wait in a queue, but they happen. How long would you wait before complaining? What is an acceptable time to wait? It all depends on what you are doing next, what you were doing, how many things you are buying. If I think back, I get the most impatient when I am only buying two or three things, don't mind waiting when I have a trolley full!

A recent situation highlight what drives people to make a complaint about the service they received. As we discussed the experience, each step from the outside, seemed reasonable, not great, but not too bad. What tipped the situation was the manner in which they were spoken to. Not what was said, but how the staff member addressed the customer. It is then that all the individual experiences get put together to make the whole experience not good enough and worthy of a quick email to customer service to get dealt with.

I must say in this situation, it was handled brilliantly and proved that with the right PR procedures in place, a "I WILL NEVER EVER GO TO THAT PLACE AGAIN" was quickly turned into a "They listened to my problem, apologised and I will see how they have improved next time"

I know that in my previous career, some of my most loyal customers were those that were at one stage my biggest customer complaints. If you fix it right, you will win them forever.

Keep looking after those customers!
Geoff

Retail careers

Why not a career in retail?
I was one of those kids that took on a casual job in retail, never thinking of it as a career option. It was a choice made at the time to earn some cash and buy a car, driven mostly by living in the bush, no public transport, and nothing to do. Money, your own money gives you choices, options to decide what you do.

30 years on, still involved in retail, now I am focused on helping those starting out in retail to have the skills and knowledge to be succesful and earn their employees plenty of sales. Looking back now, I have no regrets and have certainly enjoyed the journey. I am glad I did not listen to my career advisor at school, who at the time could not understand why I would be leaving school to work fulltime in a discount department store.

Why is it that many people do not consider retail as their first choice? I know that many people that have never worked in retail do not understand the many jobs and tasks that are needed to successfully run a modern retail business. There are numerous job roles behind the scene to keep the stock rolling in, the shelves full of the correct stock and to keep teh customers walking in the door.

Many people end up in retail jobs and make it a career after not finding employment in their chosen field, and go on to be Store Managers, Regional Managers and earn very high salaries. Unfortunately many people when you say that you work in retail, think of you as a "shelf stacker", or a "checkout chick". When without those postions being filled by people like me or you, we would still be out hunting for our dinner!

The retail industry needs to be proactive in promoting retail careers to raise the standard of retailing in Australia, improve store standards, and especially improve customer service standards. Many employees focus on hiring junior casual staff, never offering them permanent work, and not giving them many shifts as they get older. This generates turnover of staff, the hidden costs of recruitment and training, and reduces loyalty to the business. This gives the retail industry a bad image and does nothing for the previously mentioned standards.

With all that said, would I encourage one of my children to work in retail?
Too right, the wide range of skills learnt can be applied into any field you choose to move into at a later stage.

Good trading, keep those customers happy,
Geoff