As your stores are able to re-open after the coronavirus shutdowns, how they look tells a powerful story. And for you, a great opportunity. This is no time to try to go back to normal, back to business-as-usual. Nor to simply have all kinds of protective shields in your store. While necessary, how welcoming is that? Instead, this actually IS a second chance to make a good first impression! Take full advantage!
Some restaurants have introduced well-dressed mannequins, or even stuffed animals, to occupy chairs and tables, instead of just blocking them off.*
The key takeaway: make it fun! To get you off to a running start, ask your staff to take the lead. Especially the younger ones. Your shoppers will return – maybe not to buy at first, but at least to say "Hello!" And when they do, you'd best have a fresh and fun look about your stores. Plus, be sure to make it "Instagram-able!" Start by having your staff take fun pictures and post them on Instagram. It could be a hoot! If your customers are eager to take selfies in your shops, and post them for their friends to see, how great is that?
Each of these steps offer fine opportunities for being promoted on your social networks. This too could be a terrific project for your staff. Get them involved. Those uses of new technology may allow you to reduce the hours that your physical store is open. Do you really need to be open all those days, and all those hours, if there are other ways for your customers to buy from you? This is the perfect time to be revisiting all of those "that's the way we've always done it" practices. Remember, you're making a "first impression" again. The key: show that your store is embracing the reality of the demands of these pandemics, not resenting them. Makes for a much healthier, happier store for everyone! Much easier and appropriate for independents to do. And the Big Guys can't match it. ---- * Suzanne Rowan Kelleher, Restaurants Are Using Mannequins, Blow-Up Dolls And More to Enforce Social Distancing. Forbes.com, May 19, 2020. ** Tracy Schumacher, Would you buy meat from a vending machine? A butcher in NY is betting on it. USA Today, June 1, 2020.
The Retail Owners Institute® makes it easy for you to get a quick financial health assessment of your own stores, as well as the retail industry, and every vertical within it. From farm stores to apparel stores, wine stores to tire dealers, gift shops to convenience stores; all 45 verticals. Here's how to get started.
Quite a picture, isn't it? Which ratios are trending up? Down? Any suggest some shaky times ahead? Any surprises? But most importantly, how will yours compare?
Let's assume your stores have been closed for weeks now.
We recognize how conscientious you are. So, after paying what you can to your employees (and yourself), the next most-worrisome dilemma is your rent.
As you likely have discovered, a common choice for many landlords is to offer to defer your payments. But that means taking on more debt, as those payments are only being postponed to a later point in time. You need a better solution than that.
It's that time of year. As you review your Profit & Loss statement for 2022, your thoughts most likely are turning to "How do we make 2023 a better year than that?" As we look around, we see a popular cost-saving and productivity-boosting tactic being instituted by many national retailers, shopping malls, and restaurants. They are open fewer hours. This offers an opportunity for you to revisit your store hours and employee scheduling practices. Maybe it's time to consider some changes, if you haven't already. Start with the mass of data resting comfortably in your POS system. Look for all the reports by the day of the week. (Be prepared; this may require you to gather information from several reports.)
What you are looking for is data such as this by the day of the week:
There's a very important annual job for you, the owner, and all of your senior staff. It's vital, and it involves your presence. The pressures are mounting on your stores, and in particular, your front line staff.
By now, you have your year-end financials for 2021. Remember, it always comes with a Balance Sheet! Whether sales are up, down, or sideways, the financial strength – and staying power – of every business is shown on its Balance Sheet. And revealed by its Balance Sheet ratios.
Alas, there is really no way to avoid discussing COVID-19, the coronavirus that began in China last month, and now continues to spread throughout the world. No matter whether or when it is officially declared a "pandemic," the uncertainty and angst that it is generating have troubling implications for retailers.
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