Is it Spring yet?
Please!!!
Here at the Arctic Circle (formerly known as New England) we are finally getting some warmer temperatures this week. The three foot snowpack and 30 foot snow mountains have begun to melt. Not too fast though; we don't need the flooding. Everything in moderation, I suppose.
I know that's how a lot of retailers feel across much of the country. After a brutal January, when the weather did everything but cooperate, a little moderation in the weather would be most welcome. It's tough to run an increase when one news report after another are advising folks to stay home and off the roads.
There's been a lot written in the retail press and talked up at the recent NRF show in New York about the impact on retail of emerging technologies, particularly mobile. Last week RetailWire ran a piece on its Braintrust discussion board which suggested that there's been so much attention on emerging technologies, like mobile, that retailers risk overlooking core retailing fundamentals that build a distinctive and memorable customer experience.
I think there's some truth to that. Much of the discussion about mobile is about using the technology to further target promotions and deals to customers. I believe retailers, especially specialty retailers, can continue with the endless discounting like the major national retailers, and race each other to the bottom, or adopt a strategy built around customer experience, as all great retailers always have. I guess you know where I stand, but I'll continue to make the point.
To reinforce this, the first two pieces I've chosen this month focus on customer experience. It can be a tough go trying to kick the discounting habit, but discounting is not a strategy, it's an addiction. When you read about the eight characteristics of successful retailers, please note that discounting and promotional pricing isn't one of them.
Spring training starts this week. Baseball is back. Spring just has to be just around the corner now! Breathe Deep! We're almost there!
"The holy grail of strategy for any firm, but especially retailers, is to create a concept that is so different and compelling that it renders competitors irrelevant - and then to implement that concept in such a way that core customers are bonded and the competitors find it hard to copy or react.
Are there any common characteristics that these brands share? Although each is different with respect to strategy and context, it is possible to observe some factors that are associated with successful new retail concepts. Not all are always present but there are cases in which the absence of even one can be fatal. The resulting eight guidelines are meant to be provocative."
From Retail Customer Experience.com...
"I'm sensing a tipping point in how customers relate to loyalty program rewards, and my thinking goes like this: When customers choose which company to do business with, rewards just don't matter like they used to.
My take is that the classic loyalty reward scheme -- earning points toward "hard" rewards for repeatedly doing business with a company -- has been trumped by the customer experience. In other words, today's customer is more likely to opt for a better experience today, than accept a lesser experience that pays dividends down the road."
From Retail Customer Experience.com...
"Buyers often consider the following factors in deciding whether to pick up a line and how deeply they buy:
- Does this collection fit with our image?
- Can the fashion house fill the order on time and on budget?
- Does the price point make sense?
- How many units do we expect to move at full price before we have to start taking a markdown?
"Mass-market buyers are making the same kind of bet as the designers do when they analyze a show," says Mitchell. "They're trying to decide what's going to sell and how quickly. Sell-through is one of the most important ways to measure success."
From Portfolio.com...
"When my tech company couldn't find funding a few years back, I started looking into a source not typically associated with innovative technology: a local bakery. In late 2008, at the deepest point of the financial turmoil, I began talking to Polarbröd, a large, 40-year-old, family-owned bakery in Sweden. Although our businesses were in completely different industries, Polarbröd understood the potential of investing in an up-and-coming company such as Nordic River. What at the start seemed like an odd partnership has turned out successfully for both parties."
From BusinessWeek.com...
"Small businesses whose books are audited-by a hired certified public accountant, not the Internal Revenue Service-improve their chances of getting a loan, and at far better terms, than businesses with less scrutinized financial statements, a new study shows.
"Banks love when you have audited financials because they view it as a form of insurance," says Buzz Rose, a certified public accountant in Pittsburgh. "But audits have become very expensive and to have one done 'just in case' would seem to be a waste of time and money."
But the benefits might outweigh the costs."
From The Wall Street Journal.com...
"While walking through one of America's most successful malls and a number of big box retailers this week, it occurred to me that there are significant parallels with one of the country's most successful TV series, "CSI (Crime Scene Investigations)." Each show opens with a crime being committed and the subsequent scientific analysis of the corpse and other evidence.
So here are the parallels:
The Crime: Missed sales opportunities during the most important season of the year.
The Evidence: Racks and fixtures loaded with clearance merchandise or bare without a transfusion of transitional merchandise." From Retail Customer Experience.com...