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Here's Looking At You
Volume 4, Issue 4
Whether your business is located on a street or in a shopping centre, your front window is the first chance you get to make an impression on potential customers. This Retailer's Guide offers insights into window displays, strategies for crafting windows that sell, and tips to help you refocus the eyes into your store. |
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Starting Over
Volume 4, Issue 3
In 1998, during the great ice storm that hit Eastern Canada, Quebec stores assessed their losses at about $250 million. In February 2008, an arsonist blew up retail stores along West Broadway in Vancouver; not too long after that, a series of buildings along Toronto's Queen Street went up in flames, completely destroying several retail businesses. |
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The Health & Safety Checklist
Volume 4, Issue 2
Health and safety isn't always a top concern for retailers. It's not because retailers don't care about the health and safety of their employees and customers, but if nothing ever goes wrong, then it's only natural for a retailer not to worry about it.
It's only when something does go wrong that health and safety becomes a priority — and by then, it's too late. |
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It's A Wired, Wired, Wired World
Volume 4, Issue 1
Scan the Yellow Pages and you'll find most retail shops listed. Search the Internet and you'll only find retailers who use the Web to reach customers.
The holdouts, those retailers who haven't gone online, usually say that taking their stores online is too complicated, an unaffordable investment, or unsuited for their kind of store. |
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Tracking Traffic
Volume 3, Issue 6
Traffic is what all retailers like to see — in their stores, if not on the roads.
Tracking who your customers are and when they are most likely to enter your store (and when they are most likely to buy something) is fundamental research for any store because advertising strategies, merchandising, store hours and staffing allocation all rely on those numbers. |
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Loss prevention dos and don'ts
Volume 3, Issue 5
Loss Prevention is a complicated issue that affects all aspects of a retail organization, creates ties between retailers and law enforcement, and affects the ways retailers interact with their customers.
Technology will always play an important role in the fight against retail crime, but before you rush out and break the budget on the latest in loss prevention technology, consider performing a quick organizational check-up to ensure your LP spending won't go to waste.
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Creating A Positive Customer Experience
Volume 3, Issue 4
The customer experience is the first-hand knowledge a customer gains about your store, knowledge that customers collect every time they come in contact with your business.
If a customer experiences poor service for any reason, chances are good that customer will remember it. When they hear your store's name again, they'll think "bad experience" and shop somewhere else. |
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Get Free Stuff
Volume 3, Issue 3
While there's no formula, he says there is one equation to remember: Profitable Business + Exposure = Competition. In other words, a profitable business that knows how to advertise will become even more competitive. |
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For Sale: A Guide To Successfully Selling Your Retail Business
Volume 3, Issue 2
It is possible to make an uncertain future a little more certain. It just takes hard work and some good planning.
Planning for your store's future can seem especially difficult. For many retailers, your store is a lifelong investment. What you do with the business when you're ready to move on raises many difficult questions. Should you sell the business? Should you pass it on to the kids? Or should you join the ranks of the semi-retired and hold on to the store for as long as you can? |
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Making Your Store Safe
Volume 2, Issue 6
When it comes to injuries in your stores, prevention is the best medicine. But when you can?t prevent them, it's important to know how to respond.
This Retailer's Guide describes how to prevent injuries and offers some ideas of how to respond to accidents. As with all sensitive issues, use this Retailer?s Guide as starting point for crafting your own injury response plan. |
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Gift Cards: The Portable Store
Volume 2, Issue 5
Gift cards make gift giving easy, and for most retailers, they add another dimension to the store – customers can shop without fear of buying the wrong gift and retailers can communicate with customers they didn't know they had. |
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Energy Efficiency: It Is Easy Being Green
Volume 2, Issue 4
Natural Resources Canada advises businesses to make three fundamental changes if they want to reduce energy consumption over the long term: change individual behaviours; change the outlook of the organization; and change the technology.
This tip sheet offers some ideas on how to change your thinking, revamp your organizational outlook, update your technology and become more energy effi cient. You'll save money and your customers will appreciate it. |
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HR Checkup: Preventive Medicine for a Healthy Employee Lifecycle
Volume 2, Issue 3
Turnover is a fact of retail. When you find somebody to fill a vacancy, somebody else leaves. Training and a team atmosphere can reduce turnover, but it'll never get you out of the hiring loop. This tip sheet examines the different stages of the employee lifecycle and offers some ideas on how to make the most of an employee's time in your store. |
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Merchandazzling: Tips for Great Merchandising
Volume 2, Issue 2
Great merchandising is like sleight of hand: if it's done right, it's magic. If it's done wrong, it's silly.
Merchandising is a combination of science and art that takes strategy, imagination, money and persistence. What follows is an overview of how to build a merchandising plan for your store that will help you dazzle customers. It is also a good refresher for those of you who need to revisit your current merchandising strategies! |
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Gullible's Travels: Signing a Lease without Getting Suckered
Volume 2, Issue 1
Like Gulliver, who found himself pinned to the ground by Lilliputians, it's the little clauses in a lease that can tie you up in knots.
Everybody knows that you should never sign a major contract like your store's lease, without consulting a lawyer and understanding it inside out. Like eating healthy and driving with a seat-belt, knowing your lease is sage advice many retailers forget until it's too late.
If you are signing a new lease, or looking at renewing a lease, here are some tips to help you enter negotiations with renewed vigour. |
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How Retailers Can Plan for an Emergency
Volume 1, Issue 4
When Hurricane Katrina lashed the Gulf Coast, it became the new worst-case scenario of emergency preparedness.
Few disasters rival the scale of Katrina's destruction. The storm caused levee breaks and floods that destroyed communications, ruined homes and businesses, immobilized the population, sickened and killed thousands, and made hundreds of thousands of people instantly destitute. Businesses in New Orleans lost billions of dollars in revenue and thousands were forced to declare bankruptcy. |
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Beating Shoplifters at their Game
Volume 1, Issue 3
A large part of the loss prevention game is deterrence. Creating an environment that tells thieves "You're not welcome" is the first and most important part of protecting your store.
And, if loss prevention is a game (and it isn't), it's important to remember that shoplifters and others who steal from you don't play by the rules. They lie, they cheat, and of course, they steal. They prey on vulnerable retailers of all sizes, exploiting the hard work of others. |
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Customer Service As A Romantic Relationship
Volume 1, Issue 2
What drives customers to your store is a combination of the kind of service you provide, the prices you offer, the selection of products, and more. What inspires a customer to stay loyal to your store is rooted in how well you service the needs of each individual shopper. |
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Common Organizational Mistakes
Volume 1, Issue 1
The mistakes that put you out of business are the mistakes you sometimes never realize you make. And when you do realize them, sometimes it's too late. Habitual mistakes are the worst kinds of mistakes – they happen again and again. While hypnosis won't cure any of these common retail mistakes (but, yes, you are getting sleepy), good ol' fashioned therapy might help break these habits. |
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