Subscribe to Deane Parkes’ Newsletter Today!
Close

Education

Shop your own Store

March 5, 2006 | By: deaneparkes

It is so easy for us humans to fall into routine in our businesses and not notice where we may need some fine-tuning. There is always room for continual improvement and I suggest you make a point of marking on your calendar specific dates to give your business a check-up.

Often times a faded poster in a window, a display that is leaning over, an accumulation of ‘stuff’ behind the counter, etc start to become the norm in your everyday work. The problem with this is the ‘everything matters’ woman customer sees these and begins to access the overall ‘quality’ of your store.

I won’t go into too much detail but a few areas to consider:

The entrance – from fingerprints on the door, faded window displays, a burnt out light, etc you need to make the entranceway a very positive first impression. It takes apparently 8 or so seconds for a person to size up your store and make an impression that will be hard to change.

Staff appearance – After a while some people may tend to lose their shine. In a survey where the only difference was the clothes the person wore it was found the cleaner and neater dressed person out sold the shabbily dressed person by a large margin.

Walk your store before each shift – make notes of areas that need attention – facing needed, display redone, new signage, spot cleaning, major cleaning, and all the other details you notice. Your checkout counter should receive even more attention!!!

When I worked for a major retailer that had $135,000 days this was ‘the’ most important manager task when starting any shift. Also referred to as management by wandering around.

Spy on your store – Ask a friend you really like and trust will give you the honest truth to shop your store and see how they are served. Have them return something and see what happens. Ask them to ask some specific questions of staff to see how it is answered. This may sound too ‘corporate’ but remember most people never return to a retail store because of how the staff treats them. Do not loose business because you assume things are ok. Make sure they are ok; your customers deserve the best!!!

Call your store – Ask a friend to call your store and see how the phone is answered on specific subjects as in price check, product info, friendliness of tone, etc. Do you train staff on how to answer the phone?

Ask an expert – I noticed that Alain Roy has begun a new business where he will spend a day to access the merchandising and overall store appearance. He has vast experience in successful merchandising techniques that increase sales. I am certain a store would recover his cost in the first month [probably week]. It is always nice to get outside input and since merchandising is a, if not the, major influence on a consumer buying decision this may well be one of the best investments you can make.

Everything matters – The idea of doing regular checkups is to keep your business in the best possible shape. To a woman everything matters. When she shops all her senses are at work – smell, look, feel, seeing, touch and her sixth sense intuition. Do everything you can to create an environment that appeals to all of her senses. And if she is happy the men will be too as they generally are a little less particular.

Related Articles

Read Article - The Recommender
The Recommender

Perhaps the most important role in natural retailing is the role of the recommender… the person who helps choose which product will bring the greatest benefit and value to the end user, the consumer. Over the past five-plus decades, millions of Canadians have benefited from safe and effective natural products sold at local health food […]

Article
Read Article - The Core Shopper
The Core Shopper

I believe the core shoppers of health food stores amount to about 15% of Canadians. I am unsure if this number of core shoppers is growing very fast, we just have far more choices of natural food, cosmetics, supplements and natural medicine for them to choose from. The core shoppers are fully engaged with the […]

Article
Read Article - Customers shop your store for solutions not products
Customers shop your store for solutions not products

This is frequently repeated statement in our business yet I still find many health food stores only displaying products without ANY solutions. People shopping in a health food store come in to either prevent or deal with a health issue. They also have family and friends who may benefit from the solutions you sell. Unless […]

Article