Articles Index
Choosing a Retail Store Location
Where you choose to locate your retail business will have a major impact on everything your shop does. The difference between selecting the wrong location and the right site could be the difference between business failure and success. Here are tips for selecting a retail site.
Types of Retail Locations
Retail locations are available in many different forms. Stop and think about the stores in your town. Like most communities, there are probably older shopping areas, new bustling retail locations and some tucked away shops. Retailers have many store location options to consider when choosing a place for their business. Here are a few of the more common types of retail locations.
Dealing With the Disgruntled
In retail, it's inevitable that there will be the occasional disgruntled customer. No matter how wonderful your products are or how committed you are to provide the best customer service, problems do occur. Armed with the following customer service tips, you can diffuse a situation and possibly even save the customer, as well as the sale.
Retail Calendar of Events
Retail industry event calendar features retail trade shows, conferences, seminars for retailers and other retailing events. View the upcoming events for retailers and retail professionals.
Power Retailing: Not Just for Large Firms
Business Week first popularized the term power retailing in citing the competitive advantages of certain large chains. There are three key principles that every retailer, regardless of size or line of business, could learn from the concept of power retailing.
Competing With Big Box Stores
Retail business owners often worry when a large chain store comes to town. Similarly, many people contemplating starting a small business are reluctant to compete with the large retailers. Here are some tips to better position your retail business for competing with the big box stores.
What's Your Competitive Edge?
It's important for new businesses to complete a competitive analysis during the business planning stage, but competitive intelligence can also be useful for marketing, pricing, managing and other strategic planning for retailers. Before you can know your competitive edge, you must know your competitor.
Writing a Business Plan
The most important thing you can do for your new or existing business is to write a business plan. Businesses have different reasons to write a business plan but the process of creating a solid business plan will help the business become successful.
How to Build Customer Loyalty
The Pareto Principle says that 80% of your sales come from 20% of your customers. To keep these customers coming back, you need to help them remain loyal to you. Here's how to build customer loyalty and keep customers coming back.
Setting Store Policies
The best time to establish policies and procedures for your retail business is during the planning stages. By anticipating problems before you open your doors, you can strategize how you’ll handle special situations, as well as the normal day to day operations. This helps avoid making mistakes once you’re faced with customers.
Appealing to Repeat (Loyal) Customers
Too many retailers concentrate on how to woo new customers and, thus, they do not pay enough attention to what they can do to gain the loyalty and increased patronage of their repeat customers. Unless you are actively engaged, you can do a better job in this area.
3 Ways to Thrive in a Retail Slowdown
When the economy starts sputtering that's when savvy retailers take action. Every newspaper, news program, news website is full of doom and gloom these days. Stores closings, foreclosures, rising gas prices, job cuts, rising food prices are all the top stories in the media.
How to Buy Wholesale Merchandise
Looking for wholesale merchandise? Don't know where to get the products to sell in your store? Once you know what products or product lines you would like to sell, it's time to buy wholesale merchandise. Here's where to find wholesale merchandise to resell.
Retail Store Evaulations
In order to meet our customers' needs, it is important to conduct regular retail store evaluations. An objective assessment of our stores can help us measure whether or not we are fulfilling our customers' expectations. Learn how and why retailers should conduct a retail store evaluation.
3 Tips for Choosing Customer-Friendly Fixtures
One key way to attract and keep the attention of shoppers is to create an environment that is conducive to shopping – and one key way to do that is to use compelling, interchangeable store fixtures and retail display systems to keep your store fresh, interesting and appealing.
Tips to Increase Retail Sales
Whether it's due to forces beyond our control, seasonal sales or a decline in foot traffic, many retailers will experience a slump in sales at some point. The following are a few simple ways you and your staff can improve your retail sales.
Retail Pricing Strategies
Knowing what and how to price your products can be confusing for any new retailer. We're in retailing to turn a profit and while there are many factors that affect the profitability of a business, setting the right price is a major step toward making that profit. Here's how to determine which of the retail pricing strategies to use in order to set the right product price.
Reducing Retail Business Expense
There are many areas in spending in which retailers can reduce without compromising customer service or quality. If your store is experiencing a cash crunch, consider the following ways to cut retail business expenses.
Recognizing Return Fraud
Does your return policy allow stolen merchandise to be returned for cash? We certainly hope not! However, the National Retail Federation's Return Fraud Survey says criminals often take advantage of retailers with relaxed return policies. Learn the types of return fraud and the signs your retail business may be the victim of return fraud.
Business Blogs: A Retailer's Guide
Like any other aspect of retail store operations, blogging should be carefully planned and executed to create value for the reader. Done incorrectly, a business blog may not be the best return on investment and could actually harm the retailer's reputation. However, once retailers learn how to blog properly, they're finding a blog can increase sales and build customer relationships.
Shoplifting Prevention 101
This shoplifting prevention guide will help retailers identify shoplifters and shoplifting methods, create a less attractive environment for shoplifters and teach retailers how to put policies and procedures in place to protect their store against theft.
50 Marketing Ideas for Retailers (Part 1)
Small business owners can easily get too involved in the day-to-day operations of their retail stores to spend any time brainstorming marketing ideas. Some retailers worry that marketing is too expensive, others may find it too time consuming. Without announcing who you are and what you sell, how will anyone know? Here are 50 marketing ideas for retailers.
Good Pricing Practices
The Federal Trade Commission says it can be relatively easy to improve pricing practices -- and in the process, boost customer satisfaction, your bottom line and compliance with the law. Here are their step-by-step suggestions.
Loss Leaders
Loss leaders are goods or services offered at steep discounts in order to attract new customers to a store. The intent of the loss leader pricing strategy is to not only have the customer buy the loss leader, but other products that are not discounted.
Pricing and Small Retailers: Questions to Consider
One of the most crucial areas of decision making for retailers is pricing. Yet, we have found that small firms often do not have well-conceived pricing plans. Joel R. Evans, Ph.D. and Barry Berman, Ph.D. has prepared this six-part series on pricing. They offer a number of tips to help you improve your pricing decisions.