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Successfully "doing retail" has always been a challenging and fascinating and evolving exercise. As the old Chinese proverb states, “It’s easy to open a store. However, it’s tough to keep it open.” And today, seemingly more than ever, third party organizations, more than individual entrepreneurs, seem to be drawn to retailing. Consider:
These and others fit into our category of “retail-as-added-use.” "It looks easy. Why don't we open stores?" But, retailing is not their core competency; they are manufacturers or direct marketers, or wholesalers, or importers, or whatever.
Nonetheless, they are confident that they can better represent their products and brand to the customers than can professional retailers. Hmm. We think they are likely to discover that there is more to retailing than meets the eye. In fact, we think that opening and successfully operating a retail store is a lot like assembling Ikea furniture.
Let us be perfectly clear. Ikea furniture is terrific. Loved and used by millions. But so are stores! Especially those run by dedicated merchants and real students of retailing. Successfully going from a vision to its accomplishment? The pros make it look sooooo easy.
A few years ago we were on a PBS news show about retailing's ups and downs. Several months later, one of us ran into a teacher of one of our kids. That person excitedly mentioned having seen us on TV, saying "I didn't know you knew so much about retailing." (Yep, known just as someone's parent, right?) But then this very well-educated person said the key thing: "I never knew there was so much to be known about retailing!" Well, that incident happened a few years ago when retailing was perhaps more understandable, even more predictable. Alas, those days are history! Today, nothing in retailing is quite as understandable or as predictable as before. Or as manageable!
"Retailing dead?" Hardly! “Retailing” is selling to the ultimate consumer. That is not going away, in spite of the current perception. What IS (appropriately!) endangered? Deadly retail real estate! Conventional, impersonal, and boring brick-n-mortar stores are deadly.
YOU are the leader we need now! Most of the people who receive our weekly newsletter from The Retail Owners Institute® are either owners of stores (duh...) or work with retail owners, not only in America but around the world. When you think about it, owners and senior management of retail businesses are looked upon as leaders everyday, by employees, by suppliers, by customers, by their families and often by the media. You are community builders. Amidst this pandemic, your leadership is more vital than ever.
"Buy low. Sell high. Collect early. Pay late."
That's the essence of retailing, right? But now, in the early summer of 2021, retailing more than ever demands a strong dose of good judgment. It's shouted everywhere: "Look out! The inflation tsunami is coming!" Yikes! It's buying season for many retailers, and the pressures to buy more, now, at these-low-prices-that-won't-last are mounting. And this is only the beginning.
Think about it. Shoppers, employees, people everywhere today have, in the back of their minds, one defining thought.
No matter where they work, where they shop, where they live, where they travel, where they eat, they always wonder "How safe will I be?"
The definition of a good coach is “That person who makes you do the things you don’t want to do, to become the person you want to be.” Given that, we would suggest that the pandemic proved to be a great coach for many retailers. So much so, "Coach P" really deserves being recognized as the Coach of the Year! Think about it. The pandemic forced retailers to do things they had long evaded or delayed (remember “technology laggards?”)
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