Edge in Competition

The concept of productivity management is essential in the retail business. However, retail stores have unique characteristics. Thereby, it is impossible to just adopt retail indicators used by other stores. You have to know your own purpose why you would want to measure productivity. If you know your reasons, then you know how you would measure productivity. When you have measured what you intend to measure, then you will know the necessary actions that you have to undertake.

More common among these indicators would include those related with sales, such as turnovers and transactions; loss prevention, like stock loss and cash loss; matters related to operations, like availability of stocks, and the reliability of inventory, salaries, service, and several others. It may also be relevant to include as indicators those matters that pertain to human resources and the variable costs in order to determine which among the expenses may be avoided.

Owning, much less managing a retail business, is not an easy task, especially with the current economic situation and stiff competition. There are a number of aspects that should be dealt with day after day as long as the business exists, which all have considerable effects on the success of the business. KPIs can also help shed light on how sales revenues, especially if they are insufficient, can be improved.

Of course, you should also be prepared to implement measures that would guarantee improvement in the performance in the business as a result of the application of KPIs. Also, you should expect that this course of action will definitely affect the employees in several ways, particularly in how they perform, and hence, you need to be prepared, as well as the employees themselves would need to be prepared. After all, the purpose in doing this is to make the business more competitive.

These indicators provide the metrics you use as basis in the decisions you have to make regarding the entire operation of the business. Remember that in the business, as is elsewhere, whatever that can be measured can be improved. And if a business is constantly improving, one can just imagine how successful it could become.

Business conditions are constantly changing. Therefore, it is necessary that we are prepared and equipped when changes have to be made, as well as to adjust present plans and future ones in order to remain competitive in the market, if not gain an edge over the competition.

There is more to the retail business beyond the purchase of goods, adding your markup, and then selling them to consumers. The purpose of employing indicators is for you to be provided with the necessary information that would assist you in analyzing your entire operation, to be able to identify problem areas, and to take corrective measures to prevent the problem from getting out of hand. And if you decide to use retail indicators, which we highly recommend you must, you have to use them in order to benefit from them. Their purpose after all, is to help you do what you have to do when you have to do it. Make sure the indicators you use do not contradict each other. Rather, they have to be able to unify your operations towards the right direction, and that is gaining more profit instead of losing more.

Portable Credit Card Machine

A portable credit card machine is a great way for businesses to take customer payments while in the field and not sitting in your office or store. Usually these machines allow you to scan the card right there and the transaction happens via a cellular network. Even if portable credit card machines may be a bit expensive to buy, they offer some dramatic advantages to your business that can save you money and head aches along the way. First, if you currently bill by sending an invoice, you have probably encountered customers who won't pay or take as long as possible before paying. When a credit card machine, you can get paid right away.

These machines can also save you money because the rate is usually lower when you scan the actual card versus writing down the number and typing it in back at the office. This also allows you to deal with expired or otherwise rejected credit cards right away by asking for another card or suggesting a check or cash. When you are back at the office, it may be difficult to track down the customer again. Finally, many customers like it because they can often get a receipt right away, and they also don't need to worry that their credit card information is written down on your papers where it could easily be lost or stolen. These portable machines are usually best for businesses who do the majority of their work at a client's site like a plumber or a carpet cleaner.

Pre-Printed Till Rolls

Ever wondered why retailers go to the trouble of printing logos and information on the back of their receipts? Or have you thought your company would benefit from this practice. Read on to find out what different types of information are frequently printed on the reverse of receipts and how this could generate revenue for your business.

Let us consider the types of information business select to print on the reverse of their receipts and what benefits they expect to see from doing this.

The most common practice is to merely display company information on the back which normally consists of a single or dual colour logo followed by the HQ address, phone number and web address. The receipt issuer's purpose for this information is not simply to make their customers life easier but make their receipt stand out from the crowd and thus reinforcing the brand. This indirectly with other brand reinforcements encourages return visits by customers and increases sales. Placing web addresses and mail order numbers on the back also encourages customers to use the companies other sales channels with the intention of once again increasing sales and increasing brand loyalty.

Many business have information that they wish to deploy to their customers via the receipt. This can be very cost effective compared to other methods? You will find a wealth of information displayed from returns policies to dietary information to terms of sale and all easily accessible to every customer who makes a purchase.

It is hard to escape advertising wherever you go these days from billboards to digital screens and now even the back of receipts does not escape this phenomenon. It will not surprise you that the fastest growing utilisation for the reverse of the receipt is for advertising material in both text and graphical form. This tends to fall into two categories, advertising for the issuer of the receipt and secondly advertising for third party businesses. Retailers spend a great deal on promoting their business and products to us so what better way of doing this than by advertising to us via the receipt itself. In addition to this stores may want to promote high margin, unique or repeat products directly to the customer and consequently use the back of the receipt for this purpose.

The most interesting use of advertising is when the advertising is not for the receipt issuer but for a third party or for another non competing business. Let us look at an example; have you ever purchased parking via a vending machine only to find a coupon on the back of the receipt for a popular burger franchise? If not then you can certainly understand the concept. So why would the receipt issuer advertise other businesses or their products? The answer is simple, revenue. If a company issues tens of thousands of receipts a day you can guarantee that other business are prepared to pay for the privilege of getting their message across to the issuer's customers. This procedure is acceptable and beneficial to both parties as long as they are not competing against each other now and in the future.

But surely cost it prohibitive to small businesses?

In reality the costs are not as steep as you would think and the costs are coming down all the time as more businesses adopt this practice. Most suppliers will give you two costs if you ask for a quote. Firstly you will encounter a single one off fee for the configuring of the printing software and hardware for your design. You will have to provide the artwork design to the supplier including details of the exact colours you wish to use for them to provide you with a sample to sign off. Secondly you will receive a cost for the rolls themselves. All suppliers will ask for a minimum order with some stipulating a quantity of repeat orders. You may well be surprised how low the quotes are and how small the minimum quantities can be. Consider carefully the number of colours you use in your design as the greater the number of colours the greater the initial and ongoing costs.

What else is there to consider?

So you have print or advertising on the reverse of your receipts and may even be making money from third parties, what else do you need to think about? One last thing to deliberate is coloured paper. With or without pre-printing on the back, coloured paper is an excellent way to make your receipt stand out from the crowd. This can be a cheaper way of reinforcing your brand as certain colours are manufactured as standard and if your brand colours match these colours it can be quite cost effective. Most suppliers can provide rolls in any colour that you specify but request a minimal order quantity. Deciding whether pre-printed or colour rolls are right for your business is a simple process of working our whether the additional costs outweigh the returns in brand awareness, return customer visits, additional revenue and Information promotion. So what are you waiting for?

Sell Clothing

Have you ever wondered how much of an impact your garment racks have on your customers? You may have if you were really researching retail merchandising. Merchandising has more of an impact on a customer's decision whether or not to buy than any other marketing approach or advertising campaign. There are a few reasons for this and you should consider them when merchandising your store. This includes the decisions that you make when buying your displays and store fixtures, like garment racks.

It is every business owner's dream to be able to influence their customers' thinking. The fact of the matter is that you can't make people spend money. However, you may be able to point them in the right direction. To do this, you have to show them what they need to see in order to make them feel like spending their money was their idea. Not that you are trying to trick people, but making them comfortable.

When they enter your store, you are essentially bombarding them with messages and promises of delivery. You want them to get that first impression that they need to decide if your store is right for them. So, you gear your window displays, signage, lighting, music and general atmosphere toward attracting the right customers to your store. The right customers are the ones who will likely spend money in your store.

So, in order to do this, you need to come up with what messages you want to send and what promises you want to make. Your message may be something like this: "This is a store for teenagers and young adults. We are a reasonably priced, but not a bargain basement store. We carry name brand clothing that is fashionable, yet conservative enough to wear to school. We have unique items that you won't find anywhere else."

People can pick up on all of these messages simply by glancing at your window display or by peering inside for only a second. Your initial focus needs to be on making this first impression one that you mean to make.

Now that you've got the attention of the right customer, you can concentrate on your promises. As they walk into your store, they are mentally testing you to see if you are worthy of their trust and their business. They take note of literally hundreds of details in your store without even really having to try.

Think about whether or not they will enter and see that the quality, condition and cleanliness of your store matches the promise that you are making with your prices and apparel. If you have stained carpet, squeaky uneven garment racks and harsh lighting, then I would expect that you were not promising me any type of high quality clothing.

On the other hand, interesting, high-end details, like vintage style garment racks, interesting art and clean glass on the counter display, would set my mind at ease about the quality of the merchandise in the store. Then I would feel more comfortable buying from you and spending more money in the process.

Do You Deserve to Fail?

No, not you personally. I am talking about several of the shops that I visited yesterday, as I made an infrequent trip into the City of my home town. I was out shopping for a birthday present for my sister, what amazed me, I just could not believe how 95% of the stores that I visited, were throwing away sales and sales opportunities.

My sister loves a particular perfume, let me tell you that it is not cheap, at £85.00 a bottle and a small bottle at that. This is not something she would normally buy for herself because of the cost, but it was her birthday and I had decided to treat her.

I visited several shops to ask for this perfume and the responses given to me were amazing.

In one shop the assistants were in the middle of taking stock of the lower shelves, sitting on the floor, this was not the problem, I have done enough stock taking myself, when asked if they had the perfume I wanted to buy the response was: If it's not on the shelf then we haven't got it. They did not get up, ask what the perfume was for and could they find me an alternative, or some other perfumes by the same label. They did not engage with me at all, not even eye contact.

In some shops I received polite responses, telling me that they did not stock that particular perfume, but not one sales assistant actually asked me if they could show me an alternative. One very helpful assistant, in the last shop I visited, did give me directions to a store that she believed did stock the perfume, they did which was very good news for me, but, and it is a very BIG but, they too should have asked more questions and at least attempted to sell me an alternative.

I have no idea if the managers or owner's of these stores were on the shop floor, or even in the building, but I can guarantee they would be the first to complain about the state of the economy, agree with all the media babble about falling sales, when what they need to do is - deal with the poor sales and service in their own backyard first.

Many sales people have never had to really sell before, because times have been good for so long. In the emerging climate of the new economy, consumers are more careful and particular about where and on what they spend their cash, unacceptable customer service is the last straw for some, and they will make a decision to spend somewhere else.

Poor sales people and business owners, who are not stepping up their sales and marketing techniques, are leaving themselves exposed and vulnerable, and they will suffer for it.

Don't let this be you. Step up your marketing so that your customers know that YOU are the person they should be doing business with.

In the examples above, the first weak link in the chain were the shop assistants. The second weak link has got to be the structure that allows this level of customer service to be acceptable. Always go over your business looking for the weak links and fix them, you will be surprised with what you find. Do this regularly, it is not a one off exercise, but a way of life. Invest in staff training.