The benefit of being honest with yourself

There is a lot of talk about growth and the convenience channel and it was no different at the Local Shop Summit in Torquay earlier this month.

With more than 200 retailers in the audience, John Kinney, retail director of Today’s, asked a simple question: Who was in growth? The answer on the electronic pads was 42%.

As industry figures show that more people are shopping more frequently in local shops - and experts say more than £10 billion in extra sales will be in the convenience channel by 2018 - where is the growth?

Principally in supermarket stores and in symbol groups, says Kinney. Why? Because the biggest area of convenience is top up shopping and this plays to the supermarket operators’ strengths.

What he did not say is that much of that £10 billion is not new money but simply the transfer of sales from a Tesco out of town to a Tesco in a high street. What is encouraging for independents, particularly those in symbol groups, is that they are winning sales from these new shoppers (or new shopping missions) at the expense of the multiples.

But you only win the business if you organise your business for success. And anecdotal evidence from the Summit is many retailers simply are not ready to change their retail model or the way they operate.

The first vote of the day asked the audience to recall the last piece of customer service they delivered and to rate it on a scale from brilliant to poor. Nearly 70% described it as brilliant.

International retail expert John Stanley challenged this repeatedly. Are you being honest with yourself? The answer to this is probably yes and no. Honest in that this is the attitude of most of the people in the audience. But not honest in that they simply do not measure how they perform.

Brilliant customer service is a result of great staff delivering at the end of a process that starts with excellent merchandising and retail execution. Which is a discipline that starts before the shop opens for business every day and continues through a series of interactions with suppliers and shoppers.

Too many people open their shop in the morning, sit behind the counter and expect the customer to come to them. This simply won’t work.

There are exceptions. One retailer told me that his issue was his secondary location simply was not attracting shoppers. While he and his retail peers are taking action to improve the physical environment they are not yet active with social media such as Facebook.

Stanley challenged independents to make digital marketing a key part of their tool kit. Market your area, not your shop, he advised. (Check out www.betterretailing.com to see some brilliant videos of independents doing this).

Attendees were challenged to take back three action points to their shops, One retailer told me he had five. Many more, I suspect, took none. If you are in the latter camp and reading this: be honest with yourself. How badly do you want success? To Get Local Right you need to have an action plan and embrace change.

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...

Busy street, empty shop, missed profits

True in part to my New Year resolution, I held a business meeting in an independent coffee shop today just next door to a Starbucks. The cafe was presented well and four staff were busy preparing for the lunchtime rush, at 11am. As my guests were late, I had a half hour overview of footfall on the street outside and in the restaurant. Six customers. Barely enough to form the queue in Starbucks or Pret-a-Manger just down the road. Plus one Italian girl who dropped off her CV. Some people stopped to look at the posters in the window and moved on. The owners seemed quite happy. When I left just after 1215, they were doing brisk trade. However, I have the impression that the business is not working hard enough. It could easily have managed 120 customers between 11 and 12, instead of 12. This is lost profit as the fixed overheads and staff costs are already in place. The owners are clearly busy - perhaps too busy to take time to look at the potential that their cafe has. What shou...

Sticks and stones do hurt

My 17 year-old son returned from a rock festival this week wearing a wristband proudly declaring him 0ver 18. He explained how easy it had been to use someone else's ID to get the identification and said it was ironic that he had not needed to show the over 18 band when buying alcohol. Today, Scottish retailer Abdul Qadar is complaining that public authorities are asking people to lie about their age when making test purchases. What trading standards officers may be forgetting is that the fact that retailers invest in a business premises and trade consistently from it make their job much, much easier. The alternative, a world of markets and itinerant traders, will be far harder to police. Mr Qadar's sense of injustice is fair. Those retailers, like Mr Qadar, who value their investment will seek to trade legally and will not sell alcohol to people under the age of 18. Asking children to lie about their age to local traders is a slander on all retailers.

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