Retail Evaluations For Store Improvement

Terrarium shop owners reorganizing for retail store improvements

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By performing retail store evaluations, retailers examine various aspects of the business to collect information on what needs to be improved.

Every store owner or manager is skilled in certain aspects of retailing. Some are great buyers; some excel at visual merchandising and display; others are strong salespeople. Retailers tend to focus on their strength as the most important aspect of the business and often ignore other factors that need to be evaluated.

To avoid this mistake, consistently evaluate your store using a set of comprehensive standards that ensure all aspects of the business are assessed:

Visual Elements of Your Store

Look at your store and think about how your store’s aesthetics make customers feel when they enter. You should evaluate your store in its layout and display design including the signage. Does the store emit professionalism or an aloof vibe? Do visual displays invite customers to buy something?

Layout

The arrangement of your display areas, the checkout location, dressing room, and other necessary elements should make sense in how the customer interacts with your product. Make sure there is enough room for shoppers to move easily down your aisles. Arrange your merchandise on display areas to it invites the customer's eye and does not appear cluttered or unthoughtful. Also, remember to leave a line of sight for security against shoplifting.

Displays and Signage

You may want to place a feature display stand near the threshold to the store. Use this area to place products that best represent the store. For example, if you’re a special occasion store, you should have a special occasion dress or item in the threshold area. Consider the placement of promotional items. They should encourage the shopper to buy. Organize your products with thought. A clothing store may place items on a rack by size, color or use.

Many shops will place discounted merchandise at the rear of the store to encourage shoppers through the other aisles. Check your window displays for dirty glass and accumulated dust.

Merchandise Buying Habits

Most people believe they’re a great driver, and very few people believe they’re a bad driver. Similarly, most retailers think they’re great buyers. Let’s get real--all retailers should evaluate their buying habits and merchandise lifecycle.

How long has the merchandise been in the store? Every piece of merchandise has an expiration date of 90 days. This timeframe is based on each season being roughly 90 days in length.

How long do you wait to mark down products? Is your store working on higher margins with certain items? In as many departments as possible, do you offer a good, better, and best assortment of a product?

Does the merchandise look fresh, and is new, current merchandise arriving daily? Create a constant, slow flow of high-quality merchandise, which is far more effective than the quantity of merchandise in your store.

Sales Team

Does the store know how to sell? Can your salespeople complete a sale, or do they act like clerks waiting to ring up merchandise? Do customers ask for salespeople by name? Do your salespeople request buyers’ information so you can contact customers in the future?

Do your salespeople make multiple sales? In our book The Retail Sales Bible, we discuss the skill of the add-on—the ability to add more items to a customer’s purchase. Are your salespeople proficient in this skill?

Understand the power of a great sales team. We have seen some of the ugliest stores experience large profits because the owner knows how to sell and how to train their salespeople how to sell.

Ability to Make Money

The definition of making money is taking in more money than you spend. From an accounting point of view, your inventory is considered an asset; from a retailer's point of view, inventory is an expense that does not improve over time (unless you're selling fine wine).

Do you use a reliable buying model to understand your profitability accurately? You should know on a monthly basis what percentage of your total sales goes to expenses (utilities, rent, packaging), and what percentage goes to new merchandise. If you know these two percentages, you’re more than halfway to turning a profit.

Evaluate the Store Personnel

How does your personnel affect morale and sales? Often the evidence of a strong manager is small turnover. Great retailers typically have staff who has worked with them for a long time.

However, consistently compromising with an employee can be unhealthy, and sometimes retailers need to let difficult personnel go.

Why is the employee being let go? It’s not always the employee’s fault; many times the manager is to blame for failing to communicate well or failing to motivate the employee adequately.

Use of Technology

Do your metrics prove the technology and social media you’ve chosen to use to meet the goals you intended them to accomplish? Every month delivers a new tool with new promises. Retailers can’t use them all. Figure out what tools work best for you, and optimize their impact in your store.

Website, Social Media, and Blog

These web components are interrelated and act as an extension of your brick and mortar store. Do they align with the same level of professionalism?

Alignment

Are your salespeople in alignment with the type of merchandise you sell? A 68-year-old grandmother can be successful at selling skateboards, but this is the exception, not the rule. If your store claims to be the best at something or several things, are you actually those things? Shop your competition to be sure.

Signature Line

Your signature line—the few words located below your store name—tells customers, management, and employees who you are and what you represent in the marketplace. Does your signature line accurately define you? If not, replace it with one that does.

Shop, Shop, Shop

What is your competition doing that you’re not? Every other day, every other week, or (at a minimum) once a month, shop stores like yours. Also, shop stores unlike yours. How are other stores displaying merchandise? What colors do they use on displays? How are they using signage around the store?

How can you fight a battle without intelligence? Shopping provides you the intelligence and the inspiration you need to beat your competition successfully.