Extra service may make the difference

All businesses must consider how much value to give their customers and when it ceases to become profitable. Measuring this is difficult and today's idea may make it harder or easier for you. Let me know?

In business schools they teach you to do the least that you possibly can so that your profits will be as large as they possibly can. This strategy does not seem to be widely promoted for corner shops. Instead, shopkeepers find themselves being urged by suppliers to do the most that they possibly can to delight their shoppers and win extra custom.

Seth Godin says in a recent blog that that the latter strategy is a "crazy alternative that seems to work: do the most you can do instead of the least. Radically overdeliver."

"Turns out," he says, "That this is a cheap and effective marketing technique."

Which is an interesting idea for independent retailers to consider. While big companies may exploit your willingness to overdeliver to shoppers to sell their product or service, taking value away from you, at the same time your act of overdelivering creates extra value for the shopper that makes a visit to your shop more attractive than to a competing multiple...and creates more value for you as a result of winning their loyalty.

Perhaps what you lose in cash margin, you make up in cheap marketing? You will have to work it out for yourself.

Comments

Three secrets of great merchandising

Look at the ceiling and top wall of this McDonalds restaurant. There is a picture of two good looking healthy people having fun and some bright primary colours. Ask yourself what is the purpose of this picture? In the latest issue of Retail Newsagent in a feature on merchandising, Andrew Knight of RI tells its independent readers that they need to think about using sharp pictures of non-packaged products linked to people consuming goods. Perhaps this has been taken to the next level by the fast food chain - that is selling the feeling of being happy and healthy rather than the products. A second, related tip from the same feature is made by most contributors - it is vital to keep windows clean and clear of clutter. "I believe that less is more," says Roli Ranger, a retailer from Ascot, Berkshire. He has posters for promotions in between the windows that are regularly updated and discreet signs in the windows. Third, a highly visible well-stocked promotion at the entranc

Overcoming a price disadvantage

Planning for his speech at the Independent Achievers Academy last week, Theo Paphitis asked an assistant to buy a basket of six essentials from a Tesco, a Londis (independent operator in a symbol group) and a One Stop (Tesco's CTN/convenience chain). Tesco was cheapest by a big margin. Second came Londis. The most expensive was One Stop. Mr Paphitis understands the power of the supermarkets and he says the way to counter them is to focus on how to make the experience of shopping with you more relevant to shoppers or more enjoyable for them. John Heynan, sales director of Molson Coors, told Retail Newsagent at about the same time that occasional beer buyers will pay 13 per cent more for their beer in an independent convenience store, provided the retailer targets them appropriately. Tesco has carved itself out this 13 per cent head start. Looking at pricing, if Tesco is 100, then Tesco Express is 108, One Stop is 112, a good symbol group is 115 and non-affiliated independents

A sign of retail stress perhaps

It must have been four months since this window was broken in the Tesco Express on Pentonville Road and I simply cannot believe that it has not been fixed. This is the sort of lack of focus that independent shops usually get criticised for. The only purpose in sharing this image is to encourage those independents with high standards who are finding the going tough that they can do better than this.

nickshanagher

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