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No matter what merchandise you sell - whether it's tires, apparel, books, housewares, office supplies, whatever - every retailer has to give the customer what they want.
Right now, customers want “Steak, cheap”, not “cheap steak.”
Customers also are eager to shake off the doom and gloom of the winter. They are more than ready for a fresh new outlook. (Aren’t we all?)
Consider these upcoming calendar events:
The spring ahead to Daylight Savings Time is this weekend.
The “official” March 21 start of spring is just two weeks away.
What a great opportunity for you to welcome a fresh, positive, upbeat Springtime State of Mind!
Combine that fresh attitude with some well-priced promotions – remember, “steak, cheap” – and you have the makings of a fine start to your spring season.
Running a retail operation, as you know, is a tough job to do successfully. (The failure rate keeps reminding all of us of that fact.) And now, that job is even harder.
Maybe we're being overly dramatic, but it seems to us that there are two very dark clouds simultaneously coming our way. Consumer confidence is falling while announced tariffs will be raising costs.
We all have to wonder whether consumers are going to hold back discretionary spending even more;
And, at the same time, we must start guessing what impact tariffs might have on our merchandise.
We've not heard of any available consultants, pundits, or fortune tellers that have magic solutions. Alas.
What is called for? Your best judgment, as the owner. Never before has it been needed more immediately.
Remember the three things needed to be successful in retailing - location, location, location?
And remember how that was upended by the internet? (In fact, that's what drove much of the talk of a "retail apocolypse;" it really was a "retail real estateapocolypse." Retailing – selling to the ultimate consumer – still was happening.)
Nevertheless, retail leasing patterns can offer some useful insights to retailers.
For instance, this new study* by JLL Retail Research documents how retail leasing activity has shifted towards experience-based tenants. It notes that 51% of the retail space leased in January–November, 2024 was for service-based tenants. And that trend is expected to accelerate in 2025.
It's that time of year when all the talk is about all that's new and different for retailers. As the trade show season gets into full swing, there is no shortage of reminders of all the elements you need for your business to "keep up."
We get it. Keeping pace with the relentless changes in retailing is not easy. Retailers know it demands constant adjustments.
But you’re the owner. How well is your business keeping pace with your personal goals and ambitions?
Remember, the point of owning your own business is to make the business work for you! How are you doing so far?
Very likely, you saw this headline today, as we did. “Amazon Announces $56,000,000,000 Profit.” For one quarter. Nice, eh?
The announcement also referred to Amazon as the world’s largest retailer, surpassing Wal-Mart. Again, how nice.
Meanwhile, another headline earlier this week: “Physical Stores Still Vex Amazon.”
Hmm. The “world’s largest retailer” not able to make stores work?! The hypocrisy of boasting about profits, most of which come from Amazon Web Services, not bricks-and-mortar retailing. Moreover, their “online stores” reports 11 times as much volume as their physical stores ($61.4B versus $5.2B.)
Well, if you are Amazon, a little hypocrisy will probably never be noticed. Oh, how nice.
It’s very common for retailers to have their fiscal year end be January 31. It’s after the Holiday season, and inventories are generally low.
Likewise, it’s also very common that retailers are taking (or having a service take) physical inventory this weekend or soon thereafter.
As we all know, counting inventory by hand is tedious, boring, expensive and, frankly, no fun at all. However, whether by hand, by barcode, by any method of technology, the inventory count matters, and it matters a lot!
Let’s review the Big Picture for this business doing $700,000 in revenue, with $290,000 in total operating expenses.
Will your sales less your expense goals add up to a profit?
Or are there surprises ahead?
Do you have a way to know throughout the year?
This retailer-friendly calculator lets you project whether your expectations for sales, margins, and expenses will deliver the profit you need.
Just in; published last month. The best financial data available! Annual Statement Studies from Risk Management Association for all NAICS industries.
The ROI’s Key Retail Benchmarks Charts are one of the most-used resources of The ROI. And for good reasons!
Presented visually, these compelling five year trend charts reveal how stores in each retail vertical are trending on key financial indicators: profitability; inventory productivity; financial strength.
Incredible value! 👀
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