Education

A Strong Retail Immune System

June 14, 1998 | By: deaneparkes

Maintaining a strong retail immune system.

Very few industries are having the type of growth as the Natural Products Industry. Our window of opportunity is wide open and if we expect to enjoy long term success we need to do what we do best now. This often requires first we  define what we do best?

Mission or why am I in business.

This may seem like a simple exercise and though most people in business have heard of it few ever put it into practice. Can you sum up your stores main reason for existence in a few words , best organic food selection , highly educated staff , community wellness center , whatever you see as the purpose for opening your store[s] each day  should be understood by all your staff and customers and mainly yourself.

A way to find if your staff is on side with you is to ask each to write in 25 words or less what they see as the stores mission. This could be done at a staff meeting and from it you could, together, develop a clear mission that has energy, vitality and gives everyone a sense of purpose.

For those of you who have done a mission statement when is the last time you looked at it, does it still hold true and has your staff seen it?

Measuring your business.

Do you know how many customers you average daily ,  what your average daily sales should be , what your sales goal is by month , for this year , what your breakeven point is , how much inventory you should carry , each department sales ? As you can see there are many things to measure and with computers there is easier access to these numbers but are you using them to the best advantage.

In talking to many stores few can tell me how many customers they get on a given day or what the sales need to be to breakeven. How can you get to where you want if you don’t know where you’re going? This one subject could take an entire article but to sum it up I suggest [recommend] you keep a daily summary [not just your cash register receipts tossed in a file] of each days customer count , your total daily sales , your average customer sale , and a running total of daily sales towards your predetermined monthly sales goal. Every person who works for you should know these numbers, what they mean and how they determine the success of the store and the security of their job. By taking a few minutes each day to review these numbers you can get a feel for how healthy your business is or if there are warning signs to be aware of. For example your sales may be going up but your customer counts going down [ false sense of business growing] or you may have high customer counts but a low average sale consistently with one staff member [this shows a need for training or replacing ].

I have found that when everyone knows what the monthly sales goal is [must be realistic]  and there is a reward for reaching it [ money works best ]   that sales goals  are reached.

Next issue I will discuss how to take your mission into your community. With a clear way to measure your business growth you will be able to tell what type of promotion brings the best results.