It's the end of April, and my beloved Red Sox are off to a slow start. (It doesn't help that both the Rays and Yankees are smoking!) But it's still early. Last year New York started off like this, and they ended up winning the World Series. So we don't lose faith.
After a strong March, many independent retailers were having to keep the faith through April. The earlier Easter really drove March, and led to a lot of optimism, but if you look at March and April together things still weren't all bad. Still, the recovery is spotty, and there are still categories, and retailers, that are lagging.
But, like baseball, we're in it for the long haul, and success goes to the steady and persistent. Success also goes to those independent retailers who are committed to rebuilding their revenues one customer at a time, the old-fashioned way, by engaging them with compelling merchandise and a memorable experience. To badly mix my metaphors, success goes to those who stick to their knitting.
I dusted off my boat shoes this week, and shook the wrinkles out of my cargo shorts. It's almost May, perhaps the very best time of the year, with longer days, warmer weather and all the trees and shrubs in bloom. Find a lilac bush bursting with blooms, and Breathe Deep!
"How sales personnel engage customers can make or break a retail store. Most customers assume that small, local stores generally have a bigger focus on customer-care excellence. However, this isn't always the case. Big box retailers also can harness the power of engagement. It all boils down to how employees relate to customers. From Retail Customer Experience.com
"Loyalty programs are thought by many to be the least costly method of trying to get your customers to come back. Perhaps not surprisingly, the least costly methods are often the least effective.We've been listening to frustrated consumers complain about retail loyalty programs for years, so we were not surprised that our recent research confirmed this position." From Retail Customer Experience.com
"If you think it's tough to get a read on how consumers are feeling now, think about what it's like for retailers who are trying to forecast how generous their customers will be at Christmastime. That's the problem retail buyers are confronted with right now as they begin to order their inventory for the fall and winter season." From CNBC.com
"Now in its third year, Record Store Day has become bigger than Christmas for many mom-and-pop music shops, making it an important weapon in their fierce battle against digital downloads and big-box discount chains." From The Seattle Times
"Retailers who are actively involved in marketing their products and/or services using a Facebook fan page have a distinct advantage over their competitors, according to the March Retail Omnibus study conducted by Morpace Inc. The study found that not only are consumers joining fan pages that are managed by businesses, they are using Facebook as a means to offer and receive product recommendations." From Retail Customer Experience.com
"Social media can be scary to those wary of dedicating time and resources to an area where they're unsure. If you're a small business owner that wants to get involved, where should you start? How does one become fluent in this whole "social media" thing?" From Small Business Trends.com