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Atricle Dump - The Small Retailer's Survival Guide - Part 8 - The Highs and Lows of Refitting Your Store
A lot of companies nowadays are coming up with various customer loyalty programs to ensure bigger profits for their companies. This may seem to be quite a worn idea already for a customer loyalty program but people, no matter how wealthy they are, actually enjoy getting freebies every now and then.1. The ConceptLet’s try to further discuss the concept behind this customer loyalty program. With a rewards-based customer loyalty program, the customer will have fun spending more on your company due to your company’s promise that the bigger points the a loyal customer receives from their purchases the greater the rewards that they will soon get from the company. From having free expensive designer items to even an all-expenses paid grand vacation trip courtesy of the company.It really doesn't matter - the point is, it is a small amount to pay considering the years of loyal purchases that these customers have brought in to your company. Of course, this all sounds good on paper, but a truly excellent loyalty program doesn't just pamper customers, it entices them to continue patronizing your business, or even tell their friends about it, offering your business some invaluable word-of-mouth advertising.2. Rebate ProgramsA less fancy customer l
Another very important point is the fact that customers will find products in all the wrong places if you have remerchandised most or all of your product ranges. Older customers, some disabled customers and those in a hurry will not be too happy about this. Most of them will undoubtedly get over it, but a few may not and may reduce their visits to your store or may be gone f
Washington state offers two types of specialist contractor licenses: plumbing and electrical. Electricians and plumbers are required to obtain a Washington state contractor license before they can operate a business.PlumbingIn order to be able to perform any of the following activities in a building in Washington, you are required to be certified by the Department of Labor and Industries: installation, modification or repair of potable water, medical gas systems or liquid waste.For plumbing contractors the Department issues certificates for trainee, journeyman or specialty/residential plumbers and medical gas piping installers. Each of these specialities have different requirements and you have to pass a written examination in order to qualify for the contractors license.The Washington state contractor license qualifications also requires supporting documentation of your work experience. The requirements are 6,000 hours for specialty plumber and 8,000 hours for a journeyman plumber, where 4,000 hours must be for commercial or industrial work.ElectricalThe Department of Labor and Industries in Washington State issues five different types of contractor licenses for electrical work. They are trainee, contractor, jour
A good consultant can cost you a lot of money, but you may find that they add a considerable premium, not just to your sales, but more importantly to your profit. They may also prevent you falling into some of the many traps that are part of the shop refitting experience.
Full Package
Many shop fitting companies will employ their own consultants. Obviously they would not be as free with their advice as an independent and they would understandably be in the business of maximising the shop fitter's sales to you. If the cost of the consultant is loaded into the price of the shop refitting, then make full use of this service. You can always reject advice if you do not like it, but you may find that it's very useful, even if you have to cherry pick the best bits. You should also bear in mind that if the shop fitting process should go wrong, it is easier to get redress when you are dealing with one company. If you are splitting responsibilities between the consultant and the fitter as two separate parties, then you may find them blaming each other. Even before anything goes wrong you may find that the two parties just don't get on. If, for example, you ask the consultant to be the specifier and the shop fitter to work to his specifications, you may discover that the relationship between them doesn't work and you will have your work cut out arbitrating between the two.
Customer Resistance
In part seven of this series of articles, I mainly concentrated on the benefits and pitfalls of refitting from the point of view of your business and crucially whether a refit would do harm or do good to your sales and profits. Store refitting is all about short term pain for long
term gain. You may decide to shut the store down for a day or two (or even longer) in order to minimise and shorten the refit work. When calculating the cost of closing, always consider customer goodwill as well as sales for any given period of time. Yes, you have lost the takings for the closure period but you may also have lost some customers for good. Some may not appreciate that fact that you have withdrawn your service. Others may not take it so personally, but will have taken the trouble to discover another store which will give them the service they need. It is more likely that the former of the two "locked out" customers will return - at least they care enough to be upset. The second
customer may be lost forever. If you multiply the loss of just one regular customer over a few years you may be shocked at how much profit you have turned away. So, when costing store closure for refitting, add a reasonable percentage for lost goodwill.
Another very important point is the fact that customers will find products in all the wrong places if you have remerchandised most or all of your product ranges. Older customers, some disabled customers and those in a hurry will not be too happy about this. Most of them will undoubtedly get over it, but a few may not and may reduce their visits to your store or may be gone fo
What happens when progress slows right down - and nothing happens between you and your team?There is a stifling stench of paralysis.It's time to ensure you have next steps in place.'Next Steps to Success' is a simple tactic to ensure that progress on a topic is made clearly, quickly and precisely.Ken Blanchard has a great little (and as always, easy to read) book called 'The One Minute Manager meets the Monkey'. This is all about the 'monkey'.By ensuring that there is always a 'next step' in any discussion, issue or problem, which is clearly defined, owned by someone and timescaled, you will be much more likely to have progression.So what is this 'next step' and how does a monkey fit into all this?Well, the 'next step' is some actual piece of activity that someone (and it is best if it isn't you! I'll come on to that later), takes accountability for delivering, demonstrably and in a certain timescale.If you've come across SMART objectives, it's along those lines and very tactical. It happens and happens fast - usually.This 'next step' in a process, means that things keep moving and someone is signed up to the progress by doing the next link towards the final outcome. Think of it as a monkey jumping from eac
A good consultant can cost you a lot of money, but you may find that they add a considerable premium, not just to your sales, but more importantly to your profit. They may also prevent you falling into some of the many traps that are part of the shop refitting experience.
Full Package
Many shop fitting companies will employ their own consultants. Obviously they would not be as free with their advice as an independent and they would understandably be in the business of maximising the shop fitter's sales to you. If the cost of the consultant is loaded into the price of the shop refitting, then make full use of this service. You can always reject advice if you do not like it, but you may find that it's very useful, even if you have to cherry pick the best bits. You should also bear in mind that if the shop fitting process should go wrong, it is easier to get redress when you are dealing with one company. If you are splitting responsibilities between the consultant and the fitter as two separate parties, then you may find them blaming each other. Even before anything goes wrong you may find that the two parties just don't get on. If, for example, you ask the consultant to be the specifier and the shop fitter to work to his specifications, you may discover that the relationship between them doesn't work and you will have your work cut out arbitrating between the two.
Customer Resistance
In part seven of this series of articles, I mainly concentrated on the benefits and pitfalls of refitting from the point of view of your business and crucially whether a refit would do harm or do good to your sales and profits. Store refitting is all about short term pain for long
term gain. You may decide to shut the store down for a day or two (or even longer) in order to minimise and shorten the refit work. When calculating the cost of closing, always consider customer goodwill as well as sales for any given period of time. Yes, you have lost the takings for the closure period but you may also have lost some customers for good. Some may not appreciate that fact that you have withdrawn your service. Others may not take it so personally, but will have taken the trouble to discover another store which will give them the service they need. It is more likely that the former of the two "locked out" customers will return - at least they care enough to be upset. The second
customer may be lost forever. If you multiply the loss of just one regular customer over a few years you may be shocked at how much profit you have turned away. So, when costing store closure for refitting, add a reasonable percentage for lost goodwill.
Another very important point is the fact that customers will find products in all the wrong places if you have remerchandised most or all of your product ranges. Older customers, some disabled customers and those in a hurry will not be too happy about this. Most of them will undoubtedly get over it, but a few may not and may reduce their visits to your store or may be gone f
What do I mean you may be asking? What is niche-talking? Why is it important?First of all, think about your own product set or service set. Do you have a product that could be marketed to multiple end-user markets? If so then a Circle Sites Marketing approach is a necessary approach to achieve an edge over your competition.Niche marketing is all about talking or marketing to a specific niche to a specific set of individuals. The more you can define the niche the more you will be able to talk specifically to them. Once you know this then your message is much clearer, your offer is much clearer and your follow up communications will be much clearer.Now how can you apply a niche marketing approach to your Internet marketing? One sure way to do this is to set up specific websites to specifically focus your message. If you now have a general website then consider which niche subsets actually would be the most profitable to niche market to. You will be very glad you did this once you start seeing the results.A niche focused approach can benefit not only how you communicate to your target audience but also how the search engines treat you. Remember that a search engine want to deliver the most relevant website on a specific niche t
Customer Resistance
In part seven of this series of articles, I mainly concentrated on the benefits and pitfalls of refitting from the point of view of your business and crucially whether a refit would do harm or do good to your sales and profits. Store refitting is all about short term pain for long
term gain. You may decide to shut the store down for a day or two (or even longer) in order to minimise and shorten the refit work. When calculating the cost of closing, always consider customer goodwill as well as sales for any given period of time. Yes, you have lost the takings for the closure period but you may also have lost some customers for good. Some may not appreciate that fact that you have withdrawn your service. Others may not take it so personally, but will have taken the trouble to discover another store which will give them the service they need. It is more likely that the former of the two "locked out" customers will return - at least they care enough to be upset. The second
customer may be lost forever. If you multiply the loss of just one regular customer over a few years you may be shocked at how much profit you have turned away. So, when costing store closure for refitting, add a reasonable percentage for lost goodwill.
Another very important point is the fact that customers will find products in all the wrong places if you have remerchandised most or all of your product ranges. Older customers, some disabled customers and those in a hurry will not be too happy about this. Most of them will undoubtedly get over it, but a few may not and may reduce their visits to your store or may be gone f
On April 21, 2005, a new Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) security rule went into effect. The requirements of this rule, which are basically information security best practices, focus on the three cornerstones of a solid information security infrastructure: confidentiality, integrity and availability of information.The HIPAA regulatory requirements encompass transmission, storage and discoverability of Protected Health Information (PHI). Given the widespread use and mission-critical nature of email, enforcement of HIPAA encryption policies and the growing demand for secure email solutions, email security has never been more important to the healthcare industry than it is right now.Although many assume it applies only to health care providers, HIPAA affects nearly all companies that regularly transmit or store employee health insurance information. HIPAA was signed into law in 1996 by former President Bill Clinton, with the intent of protecting employee health and insurance information when workers changed or lost their jobs. As Internet use became more widespread in the mid-to-late 1990s, HIPAA requirements overlapped with the digital revolution and offered direction to organizations needing to exchange healthcare information.your work cut out arbitrating between the two.
Customer Resistance
In part seven of this series of articles, I mainly concentrated on the benefits and pitfalls of refitting from the point of view of your business and crucially whether a refit would do harm or do good to your sales and profits. Store refitting is all about short term pain for long
term gain. You may decide to shut the store down for a day or two (or even longer) in order to minimise and shorten the refit work. When calculating the cost of closing, always consider customer goodwill as well as sales for any given period of time. Yes, you have lost the takings for the closure period but you may also have lost some customers for good. Some may not appreciate that fact that you have withdrawn your service. Others may not take it so personally, but will have taken the trouble to discover another store which will give them the service they need. It is more likely that the former of the two "locked out" customers will return - at least they care enough to be upset. The second
customer may be lost forever. If you multiply the loss of just one regular customer over a few years you may be shocked at how much profit you have turned away. So, when costing store closure for refitting, add a reasonable percentage for lost goodwill.
Another very important point is the fact that customers will find products in all the wrong places if you have remerchandised most or all of your product ranges. Older customers, some disabled customers and those in a hurry will not be too happy about this. Most of them will undoubtedly get over it, but a few may not and may reduce their visits to your store or may be gone f
Do you think that dropping out of college to start a business is a risk? Are you a risk taker? Would you drop out of college to start a business? Bill Gates did. He dropped out of Harvard to start Microsoft, which became one of the most innovative companies ever. He's like many self-made billionaires and entrepreneurs; he is a risk-taker and an innovator (actually, that also describes many self-made millionaires).Risk tolerance and innovation are just two of the personality characteristics of self-made billionaires. Here are more: They are entrepreneurial They "step up to the plate" when an opportunity arises They see opportunity where nobody else does They don't procrastinate, they "make it happen" They are full of optimism They accept mistakes because there is an opportunity to learn from failure They enjoy success and thrive to achieve it They appreciate their own personal success They are motivated They know how to invest They make money doing things that they love They practice time-management, meaning they don’t waste their time on meaningless tasks They are influential and persuasive They surround themselves with sma
Another very important point is the fact that customers will find products in all the wrong places if you have remerchandised most or all of your product ranges. Older customers, some disabled customers and those in a hurry will not be too happy about this. Most of them will undoubtedly get over it, but a few may not and may reduce their visits to your store or may be gone forever. You may accept the short term pain, but some of your customers may not. It is always hard to quantify this affect, but you must take it into account.
Merchandising
As well as advising on layout and fixtures, a consultant may also discuss
your product range, perhaps suggesting lines that you could introduce while encouraging you to stop other lines. All storekeepers hate to reduce stock to clear, especially non perishable items. Your consultant may persuade you to accept less backroom stock space and give this over to the sales floor. As a result you may need to be ruthless with those ladies slippers that have hardly moved over the past two years. As much as it hurts, accept that these and other stuck lines have failed and reduce them to clear. Your back room stock needs to kept low as the space is required for the sales floor. Once you have cleared the unwanted slippers and other stuck lines, you will have a vibrant range offering products that people want and you should have more total sales floor space. This will allow creative merchandising, using traditional retail shelving as well more innovative designs such as carousels, hanging fixtures and
display rings. You may group some product lines together and perhaps separate others. You will certainly ensure that higher profit premium products are prominently displayed very close to their everyday low profit items. For instance, if you sell milk, then most people will happily pick up the same low priced milk every other day. You can also display higher margin organic milk prominently nearby and, just now and again, your customers may try organic for a change, just because it is right there. This method of having low margin products shine a light on higher margin products is just one of the techniques that are employed when merchandising goods.
There is a philosophy amongst some retailers and consultants that a store with a low volume turnover and a large sales floor should reduce their sales space, even going to the extent of erecting false walls. This is only true of fresh foods where sparse and empty displays can be off-putting. If you have a large space to fill - then use it! If you put up a false wall with a empty space behind, the space will soon be filled again with stock that nobody wants. If you cannot extend current product ranges then consider introducing a niche product range or a distant related range. For instance, if you sell ladies clothes only, perhaps it is time to introduce a niche men's range? If you sell computer accessories, consider having a section that sells audio products or cell phones. You may even consider having a third party use the space as a store-within-a-store concession.
Lighting
Food stores need bright, white lights that are as close as possible to natural light. Darkness is associated with a lack of hygiene. Clothes and fashion stores tend to have softer and colorful lighting. Whatever your product range, ensure that the lighting does not act as a barrier to sales. It is amazing that, if a light bulb suddenly goes out of action in one corner of a store, that corner suddenly looks less inviting. If your whole store has dull lighting, then the whole store is not inviting. Just as a town or street looks pleasant on a sunny day, as opposed to a grey day, so must your store look pleasant through the use of bright lighting.
Cleaning and Moving Fixtures
Whereas older fixtures can be hard to move and hard to clean, modern fixtures are made to a more modular format, so t
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