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The "international greeting" among retailers is "How are sales?"
The response almost invariably includes a reference to Last Year. Sales are up versus LY, or flat, or down. This is the common metric among retailers.
- The U.S. Census Bureau collects data on retail sales each month. Once again, The Retail Owners Institute® has analyzed the monthly retail sales by retail sector, compared those results to the same month Last Year, charted the results for the trailing 6 months, and posted them on The ROI site.
- Go here to see how your results compare to other retailers in your sector. Now, thanks to The ROI, it's easy for retailers to get perspective. (For instance, maybe you find that everybody else in your sector also was down. Misery loves company!)
Interesting. But NOT Significant!
Comparing your own results to Last Year, or even to others in your retail sector, is interesting. How to make it significant? Just one way: compare your results to Plan!
Once you know whether sales are ahead of plan or behind, you can use the "lead time" to make adjustments!
And the most important adjustment for retailers is, of course, inventory!
For instance, take another look at your Open-to-Buy plan.
The key number to be watching with an eagle eye: your targeted Ending Inventory for each month.
- Sales ahead of plan? You may need to adjust your buying to bring in more merchandise to meet your targets
- Sales lagging from plan? Good thing you found out now! You still have time to make adjustments, and avoid excess inventory.
The ROI makes it easy for you to do all this. Just take advantage of our online BUYING PLAN Forecaster. Available 24/7. Free!
- Entries are easy and fast. Planned sales and margins for each month, plus Beginning Inventory at the start, and turnover rate. That's it!
- Immediately see a monthly Open-to-Buy, including targeted Ending Inventory for each month.
- Powerful. Fast. Free, 24/7. Only at The ROI. Go here to use it for yourself.
Now THAT is significant!
Question: Why is specialty retailing like Major League Baseball? (And, why is online shopping a lot like Spring Training?)
- Much like shopping at Amazon, eBay, etcetera, Spring Training games offer lots of selection! Each team's Spring Training rosters number 60 to 70 players! Talk about an "endless aisle"...
- With that "breadth of selection" comes variation in quality. Some are young "prospects"; others are players attempting comebacks; still others are veterans trying to hang. Plus, there are the big-name free agents establishing themselves with a new team.
- Just like online shopping, Spring Training offers every imaginable price point (that is, total team payroll, as well as individual player's contracts.) From prospects to free agents, there is much variation.
- And, while the scouting reports from the pros aren't available, there is no lack of "reviews": newspaper columns, TV reports, blog posts, tweets, etcetera about the relative merits of each player. Opinionated? Yes! Informed? Maybe.
But then, the "regular season" approaches. Rosters must be trimmed to 25 players on each team. As they say, "It ain't slow pitch!"
That "editing" of the assortments - cutting the roster to the best 25 players - is why specialty retailing is like the Major Leagues. Retailing isn't slow pitch either!
The competitive advantage of specialty retailers is much like that of the baseball manager: wisely editing for the most success and the best fan appeal.
- Specialty retailers decide every day which merchandise "makes the team", and of that, which is in the starting lineup.
- Specialty retailers are dispassionate about trying new merchandise, as well as taking markdowns on under-performing merchandise. (Just like baseball managers send players back to the minor leagues, or trade them, or cut them from the team.)
- And yes, just like a baseball manager, a retailer's livelihood depends on how good a job of "editing" has been done, and how it performs.
When it comes down to it, the toughest decision in retailing is what merchandise to NOT carry. (Especially when the vendors want you to carry everything!) And baseball managers risk their jobs with their decisions of which players to not have on the team.
See, good specialty retailing IS the Big Leagues!!
What does it take to survive in retailing today?
Profitable lines of merchandise? Sure, but that may not be enough. Profitable stores? That may not be enough either. Instead, only those retailers with the most profitable customers, whether instore and online, are those who are destined to thrive.
That's why your knowledge of your very best customers is the bedrock of your competitive edge. The more you can know, document and analyze about your customers, the more equity you are growing in your business.
We think this explains what has puzzled some observers of Amazon, who wonder why Amazon is not growing its advertising revenue to its capacity.
"As big as Amazon's ad business already is, it could be much larger," writes Jay Greene, Seattle Times business reporter. "The data that Amazon collects gives it the ability to see patterns Google and most of its other ad rivals could never find.
"That's data nirvana for advertisers.
"But here's the interesting part", Greene continues: "Amazon won't share the most coveted of its data with advertisers for fear of alienating shoppers.
'Customer trust is paramount to us,' said Lisa Utzschneider, vice-president of gloabl advertising sales at Amazon Media Group. 'We would never do anything to infringe on that trust.'"
Amazon has chosen to not sell their customer data to other advertisers. While they claim it is out of respect for their customer's privacy, their decision to preserve this knowledge for only their own uses demonstrates their recognition of the true worth of this information.
In our view, that provides some key takeaways for all other retailers:
- Are you gathering – and documenting! – this valuable customer data in your business? (Your POS system may have more data available than you realize, and/or could capture even more.)
- Are you protecting and preserving this asset – your true competitive edge – as zealously as you should?
Want to grow the value of your business? Invest more – time, resources, even money – in your most valuable asset: knowledge of your best customers.
We're continuing to read and also hear anecdotal reports from retailers about foot traffic being way down, especially in the malls. Currently, the shoppers are just not showing up as they once were.
How to account, then, for the increases in retail sales? Yep, it's the internet.
Shopping isn't declining. People still need to buy what retailers sell. But to survive, retailers must be where the shoppers are. And that means being on the internet.
However, having a robust e-commerce capability can be very daunting. And expensive. But not having those choices for your customers can be fatal. And that's where "shopping platforms" - like Amazon Merchants - must be considered.
We know. Some retailers reject this as a matter of principle. "That's like getting in bed with the devil", they grumble.
We understand that concern. But, in our view, retailers should regard these shopping platforms as the contemporary shopping mall.
It used to be that when considering where to lease space for your store, you would compare a shopping mall to a free-standing location. The mall required higher rent, plus CAM charges. And rules about what hours to be open. Grumble, grumble.
But, that's where the shoppers were! As a free-standing store, even a "destination retailer", your advertising budget was just a drop in the bucket versus the mall's presence.
Retailers always must be where the shoppers are. Today's shoppers increasingly are on the web, not in the malls. If you are not already there, or need to expand your presence, we urge you to investigate the increasing array of options. Not just Amazon and eBay, but now Facebook and Pinterest, for example.
Retailing's extended infatuation with "Bigger Is Better" is what we refer to as Retailing on Steroids. You know, the category killer "big box" stores, the ever-larger "super stores". It's been going on for decades.
According to the International Council of Shopping Centers, retail square footage in the United States has now grown to 23.1 square feet per capita, by far the highest in the world. Yikes! We seem to be over-stored (or under-demolished!)
Now, Downsizing Is In
- Best Buy is touting its "Stores within the Store", as they deal with their excess space.
- Radio Shack and Staples are closing hundreds of stores.
- Sears is trying to "reposition its real estate assets".
- Target is opening City Target stores, with smaller footprints, and products scaled to smaller urban condos and apartments.
- And Wal-Mart is doing the same thing.
Better Is Better! Bigger may not be.
And what these initiatives have in common - besides the need to shed retail square footage - is the attempt to replicate the "specialty store" shopping experience. Yes, they're now going after the fundamental competitive advantage of independent retailers: Better Is Better! Bigger may not be.
The advantages that smaller stores offer:
- improved "theater of retailing"
- much closer connections between the sales staff and customers
- financially, higher sales per square foot.
Therefore, in our view, independent retailers need not worry when they read and hear the media reports. What these "big guys" do not have is the agility and responsiveness that independent retailers and their customers thrive on.
