The hidden Secrets of how Retailers operate

Louise Lally Podcast

On this episode I am joined on the Retail series with Karim Doukir also known as the Fresh Prince of Retail we discussed areas of Retail that are waiting to be potentialized on as there is now an even BIGGER appetite for bricks and mortar Retail then ever before.

Creating the shop floor experience starts with understanding the personality of a Retail stores shop floor this can be the energy that is felt by your customers through your team is it excitement, enthusiasm, positive can do attitude, compassion and empathy? Or is it feeling forced, robotic and scripted? How does a Retail business harness these emotional connection within a store team and with customers?

The brand is not a brand until it emotionally connects with customers so how are Retailers currently doing this?

Collaboration within departments in a retail store is key to driving efficiencies the trap that a lot of large chain retailers make is poor communication and collaboration across multi faceted departments internally. These departments to name a few may consist of Marketing, Buying, Visual Merchandising, Loss Prevention, HR and others which work in silos it impacts the Regional and Store Managers to a point that they become overloaded with tasks and deadlines from other departments many times crossing over one another. This creates stores that are so task focused the customer naturally then becomes the last priority as they chase to get things done.

So what can be done to counteract this and better manage situations like the one described?

Some strategies we discussed were setting an outline for peak trade within your Retail store that is a No Tasking time zone and reviewing operational tasks that best suits the needs of the customer by outside of trade. Ultimately the biggest contributor to the success of a Retail business comes down to one key aspect which is the team hired into that business.