Retail
Retail is detail, and the better you understand the value of the modules, the better you will serve.
This section is about retail challenges and possibilities. After leading retail projects across the globe - in all sorts of channels - there are quite a few common denominators when planning for growth. Some countries have evolved further than other countries, but the spirit is the same from the smallest Spaza shop in Africa, to the biggest Carrefour in France; it is about serving shoppers and making a profit. The intriguing part is, that there exists multiple approaches for how to make it come to life, and that is the focus here.
Top three priorities
Studies show that retailers are like any other businesses; where top focus areas emerge around selling more, cutting cost and by bring out something unique to the world.
The exciting thing is that these three can grow top-line alone (or in combination with other priorities). A well known CVS has embedded their ‘uniqueness’ into their DNA of being ‘first, best and only’. The best way of understanding your clients’ needs, is to listen when they talk. One time we did not listen to a retailer’s need of cutting cost and failed, but as soon as we did - we changed our way of working - and sales propelled 1,350% . We call this; ‘Listen to Jack’.
shopper preferences
There are four universal facts about what shoppers like and dislike. Those who understand these ‘traits’ do have an upper hand in the battle for growth.
McDonald’s succeed by guiding their shoppers through menus, and is an untapped potential area for many retailers. It is about understanding the shopper needs and their occasions.
Treasure hunting for promos are vital for ‘retailtainment’ and incremental sales. Shopper simply enjoy to ‘be surprised’ during their conventional shopper habbits.
Out of stock (OOS) is a billion dollar brand, and upsets shoppers across the world; where 50% of them change brands the first time it happens, and up to 50% change store thereafter.
To wait and wait for doing the payment is a big no-no. This act hurts, so retailers better ‘staff up’ during peak hours. Fixing these essentials create the invitation for the next round of shopping.
store layout
An average store have four walls, can be split into four quadrants. Sure thing the traffic can go right to left; then you simply mirror the quadrants. The principle is however so simple.
Q1 is where you enter and Q4 is where you pay and exit. Q3 is the ‘hidden’ zone with the lowest traffic.
Each of the quadrants have distinct differences when it comes to roles, sales performance and shopper visits. Utlizing this simple structure, facilitates a more granular approach towards store execution and furthet growth.
Knowing the ABC of store layouts, is like the Cerebellum. This is where you control the balance of sales, movement of SKUs, and coordination of execution. It is a small insight, but vital for your success.
store traffic
In an average store with only one entrance and one exit, 100% of the customers have to come in, and 100% have leave those quadrants.
The worst corner of the store is Q3, where only 20-50% of the (weighted) shoppers go through. The main aisle, with proper visibility to category, is the key area.
All categories do not need the same level of visibility. At the simplest level we can say that impulse products need better visbility than basic top-ups.
For impulse categories, the old slogan still matters: ‘How can you ever sell if you can’t be seen?’
store execution & evolution
What happens in a store is like warfare, and the strategies for proper store execution is developing accordingly.
In its simplest form, the combat is from the trenches. Suppliers with a larges sales-force often do carpet bombing, placing the products as many places as possible, with a solid uplift, but not very effective.
Stealth execution is about few, but smart POEs, resulting in a significant uplift, turfed on an agile twist and cross category benefits. At this level, the supplier & retailer move beyond transactional selling only, and include some, or all five ways of selling.
A hollistic perspective to store execution, have often lifted projects above 1,000%, and is much more rewarding than only the simple battle of share gain.
converting shoppers to buyers
Converting shoppers to buyers is the real thing when it comes to propper retailing, as well as category leading suppliers.
It is key to make the category elegant, relevant and to maximize the interaction with the category in distance (meter) and in time (seconds), as well as shopper density (%). By practicing this tricolor, you’re for sure on the right track of converting shoppers to buyers.
The key metric is incidence in %. You get that by dividing number of buyers to number of shoppers (and multiply by 100).
When understanding the power of module of the stores, the shoppers, shopping missions, and shopper occasions - you have the basics set for transforming your sales. If you then on top add in the five ways of selling, your sales will grow exponentially.
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