Yesterday I walked through one of our most popular super regional shopping centres.
And once again the “sameness” of retail offer within the same categories stood out.
Do we wonder why some retailers fail in the face of declining transactions, sales and profitability when it is obvious that their offer never changes with the same tired shop image, windows and product sitting in the same place every day with the same bored tired staff just “going through the motions”.
We often talk to our clients about their business “personality” ranging from the brand positioning (that point of difference) through the product personality through to people personality and their successful interaction with customer personality.
That creates this retail “magic” that attracts more and more business.
Perhaps we are witnessing a retail personality bypass and if we are why could this be happening?
Is it:
· The long hours
· Only buy what you know will sell in product (don’t take risks approach)
· Not stepping back and taking the customer’s perspective
· The silos approach (Never explore competitors and other retailers for inspiration?)
Anyway all this adds up to is the same old thing!
Where is the uniqueness, the magic and in store freshness in look, windows, product stories and people personality?. We know and our customer satisfaction surveys tell us that attractive retail for them has some very simple features.
Including:
It’s essential that your store retains a "fresh" feel, with subtle yet constant change. Flexible merchandising systems and getting the basics in shape allows you to execute time and time again with minimum fuss for maximum effect.
Look and learn from other retailers (not even in your category) for the things they do that communicate ‘fresh and new and innovative’ to their customers.
A majority of respondents stated they were unlikely to go ‘out of their way’ to a retail offering with little point of difference to their competitors.
Customers continue to tell us that the simple retail attributes that have motivated them for many years are still the most relevant and most likely to engender loyalty.
Give them a surprise experience (something new) underpinned with great service, systems and relationship.
It is a long slow day in any business when nothing changes.
Looking forward to talking with you about effective customer relationship marketing next week (Connecting with our customers)
Yesterday I walked through one of our most popular super regional shopping centres.