Just a Retailer? Or, a True Merchant?

Everyone, and anyone, can be a retailer.

If you put on a garage sale, you are in retail; you are selling to the ultimate consumer. By selling on eBay or Amazon or Etsy or a farmer's market or your own stores, by definition, you are a retailer. And every day, The ROI is helping many of them worldwide.

But, just as in education, or in sports, there exists a highest, ultimate level of professionalism. In retailing, this is to be a "Merchant".

Acres of Merchants

A few weeks ago, we visited the huge outdoor Orange County Market Place® in Southern California.

• It covers acres!
• Open Saturdays & Sundays only, 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. 
• The vendors sell all new merchandise – everything and anything – to the throngs that come each weekend. 
• And, each year, in the 100 or so days it operates, it attracts 2 million visitors! 

It was absolutely fascinating to watch! 

We came away with a great deal of respect for the Orange County Market Place vendors who survive. They are pure Merchants. And, in our view, retailers who become Merchants will survive. (The others will contribute to the deplorable 8-9% annual failure rate.)

How Do We Define a "Merchant"?

These are the attributes that separate Merchants from "just retailers":

• Merchants source for a particular group of customers. They are agents for the customers, not agents for - or beholden to - any vendor. 
• Merchants closely monitor any changes in their customer group. 
• Merchants judge every piece of inventory they own on whether it (still) appeals to their customer group. 
• Merchants dispassionately add or delete products, services, locations, personnel as needed to best serve "their" customers. 

Think of retailers around you. 

• Clearly, some are or have been led by Merchants: Starbucks, Costco, Nordstrom, Crate & Barrel, etc. 
• Now, think of recent or pending retail failures.

See the difference? Whether large or small, the distinction between success in retail or failure is traceable to the Merchant-instincts between the ears of the top people.

Can any retailer become a Merchant? 

Indeed, yes! But to do so, 110% of their mindset must be on getting and doing what a specific group of customers will pay for. And to do that better than the competitors.

Want to see lots of Merchants?

Go to the largest Farmer's Market or Street Fair you can find. In that environment – as in yours – only the Merchants survive!