Why?
I wrote in a previous blog about running a successful restaurant in a small town. Now I am turning my attention to the retailers. The small town I grew up in, the town centre is not the same; full of coffee shops and a few high street brands, the majority of the retailers are struggling. I actually did a social media project with the retail community of the town and was shocked by how many of them are throwing their businesses away because they have done little to update their business skills; their shops are trailing behind modern practices and processes and therefore, they are failing. But this could be any high street in any small town.
I truly believe that there is absolutely no need for a small retailer to fail in this decade, you just have to provide the services in a way your customers want today and not twenty years ago.
In this post, I have given ten steps that retailers can take to help them to achieve greater success.
Get a coach
I could have added this as an eleventh point but I am going to put it here. I don’t care if it is biased, it breaks my heart to see these retailers fail knowing that if they had invested in some proper support from a coach it could have helped to save their business. I can’t shout this loud enough. Get a coach, get a coach, get a coach.
1) Brand
This is so important for any business, to have a strong brand. To know who you are, what your brand values are and to ensure that it is everywhere in your shop, on your website and social media. From the storefront to the layout, to your bags, to the labels………….
People must see your brand and be able to identify it immediately. When people see your brand on the street it must make them want to walk through the door, when they see your brand online it should make them want to visit your website. Your brand should be something people want to talk about.
When you walk into a Space NK, you know you are in a Space NK, when you walk into a BodyShop you know where you are, as you do when you walk into Karen Millen. Their brands talk, tell a story and they are powerful. If you can get people, especially women to fall in love with your brand they become very loyal.
2) Know your customers
The number of people who come to me for coaching or the number of business people I speak to daily, when I ask “Who are your customers?” they say “Everyone.” “Everyone” is not your customers, no one has a customer base of every one. My 70+-year-old Mum is not going to want to buy that same as me and I am not going to want to buy the same thing my teenage niece is going to buy.
So you have to get real and really nail down who you are selling to. You need to create characters for your perfect clients, create avatars so you know who you are selling to, what they are buying in other shops, what they will be looking for in yours, their budget and what trends they are following.
Nailing down your customers will help you nail down your brand and products and how to talk to your customers about them.
3) Know your Products
When you opened your shop, there was a reason, there was a certain type of product that you wanted to sell, whether it be flowers, clothes, furniture, jewellery. Within that product range, you have a love for one particular type. Say you opened a clothes store, it could sell clothes for teenagers, it could be vintage, it could be high-end designer, it could be plus sized.
The important thing is you must stick to your products. I went into a bookshop, not so long ago and they were selling scarves, in fact, they were selling a lot of tat that had nothing to do with books. It reeked of desperation, it just looked like a shop that was just trying to find products that will sell and not sticking to the category of the shop.
But not only should you ensure you stick to your brand you need to know inside out the products so that you help customers and show them how much you know about what you are selling.
4) Do Business this year
This is probably one of the biggest lessons that failing retailers need to learn. People shop differently now, people have different expectations, they have different needs. People rarely, randomly wander around a small town hoping they can buy what they think they are looking for. People look online first, they ask opinions, they compare, they think it over, they either then come and look and buy or they buy online. This means that your website must be strong. You have to create a high-quality website that represents your brand, shows your products off in amazing quality and then makes it easy for people to buy.
Too many small retailers act like they are running their businesses in the 90s. There is a high-end jeweller, that I have pieces from since I was 15. They design beautiful jewellery. They should attract clients globally but they still do business in the same way they did 30 years ago. The website is appalling and they have virtually no social media presence. If retailers don’t start to accept the way people shop and change their selling practices to fit then their businesses will fail.
Look to what successful retailers and doing and do that for your own shop.
5) Don’t focus on footfall
Leading on from point 4. Too many small retailers fail to focus on leading the horse to water, they expect it to just walk through the door and drink.
This goes back to not recognising how business now gets done today. When your only focus is on worrying about people walking through the door, then you fail to see all the potential that is around.
If you can set up your retail business so that a large percentage of sales come from online then you can worry less about the footfall, which is not the same on small-town high streets any more.
The House of Hackney is a LifeStyle store based in Hackney London, their shop is incredible but what makes the business work end to end is their incredible website, their social media which supports it and the ease in which you can buy their products online.
6) Excellent Customer Services
This is so important and a follows on from point 5. At every point, you have to offer excellent service. Anyone that works in the shop must be trained to know your brand and your brand values. To know, inside out, your products and to treat online customers with excellent service and then anyone who walks through the door like royalty.
It is something that has really been something that has really been rapidly declining in the UK from the major chains to the small retailer.
Grow your list and treat regular customers like they are your best friends. Think about how you would want to be treated as a customer. Create a culture where your staff feel empowered and are trusted to deal with clients. The same bookstore where the owner told me she didn’t have time to write books reviews, is the same person that told me she didn’t trust any of her staff to do them. Why would you hire a team to work in a bookstore that was not capable of writing a book review? Your staff are an extension of your business and brand so should be given the capacity to represent it fully.
It is all about the customer experience and customer service is the cheapest way to give your clients the best experience.
7) Do you need to be on the High Street?
This is the question you need to ask. Because the way in which people buy and the footfall is just not the same then you need to the ask the question. Do you need to be on the High Street?
Let’s say you are a florist. How many people actually walk the door on a day to day basis? Imagine if you could move your business to a business or industrial park, you may pay less for a unit or get a bigger space for the same price and set yourself up there. Not only would you have space to sell more, you will probably have parking, which means psychologically people buy more. You will have space to do more, like hold events and do training. Try and think outside of the High Street and see if that will be a better option for your business.
8) Run Events
You need to make your business work outside the normal hours. Hold events, create clubs, have special 
evenings for your VIP list. If you have a bookshop then there are a ton of different events you could have, for new popular books, create writing clubs for adults, teenagers and children, invite authors to read, create book clubs………
Events make people feel special, it allows you to show your expertise, your excellent customer service and it creates a bond with the community and it leads people to buy.
On top of that, it enables you to take great photos for social media to make others know what you are about and to wish they were invited.
9) Create Power Partnerships
This is one way that will help to make High Streets thrive, by creating powerful partnerships with each other. Businesses don’t have to work independently and they become stronger, powerful and more successful when valuable partnerships are created.
Imagine if the Butcher, Vegetable stall holder and local restaurant partnered up, combined their list and create a special week of dishes, maybe even lunchtime special street food. What if the local florist partnered with the local interiors shop and used homeware products and flowers to display tablescapes. What if the local bookstore, partnered with a restaurant and that is where you held the book club. The ideas are endless and the more innovative you can be the more they will stick in the mind’s eye of your customers.
Also, create partnerships with influencers and enable them to use their following to promote your brand and create new loyal customers.
H&M have been creating powerful partnerships for years now.
10) USE SOCIAL MEDIA
Since the emergence of social media, it has been a never-ending surprise to me the volume of small businesses that still fail to incorporate social media as part of their day to day actions.
There still seems to be a high level of denial, with small retailers, that seem to think that they don’t need to use it and fail to accept the fact that if you don’t use social media your business may fail.
It goes back to how people shop these days and definitely how they will shop in the future. If you have ever dared to enter the inner sanctum of a local Facebook group then you will see the level of retail enquiries that are posted. “Where can I get birthday cards in town?” “Where can I get my wedding rings cleaned?” “What are good books I can buy for my holiday?” “Where can I buy fairy wings for my birthday by tomorrow?”
It is endless and it goes to show how much research people do before they even make the simplest purchase. This will only continue when the next generation become serious retail purchasers and their primary mode of communication has always been via Social Media.
As a small retailer, you have the perfect canvas to create constant social media content. Take advantage of quiet times or take advantage of satisfied customers. Don’t waste a single opportunity to let people know about your business on all platforms.
Georgina Hustler owns two retail shops. Antique Rose & Mason Rustic. Georgina is a retailer I just love to work with because she gets it. She has invested in developing social media strategies and social services and has employed someone in her shops to execute the social media full time. This is the attitude that every retailer should adopt. This is what Georgina has to say about social media.
Social Media is our main marketing tool as it allows us a small independent retail business to reach our existing customers and and a wide potential audience quickly, effectively, regularly & at a low cost. In today’s smart phone led world people want up to date information at their finger tips but they are also bombarded by information. Social media allows us to keep our brand and our products constantly in the minds eye of our audience and to build a relationship providing advice, news, information, products & promotions in a none pushy yet effective way. Although not free it is a cost effective, relatively simple way to instantly get your messages to the most people and is always current unlike print advertising … Nowadays consumers will check out your social media and online presence to authenticate and create trust in your brand before they purchase both online & in the high street, it is no longer a nice to have but an essential part of running a retail business !!
Stop being old school about it, that will get you nowhere. There is no such thing as too much content. You need to create a solid social media strategy and execute it so it is targeted to your customers.
To finish up
No one has gone off shopping and women still like to wander around shops by themselves or with friends. However, consumers have become much more discerning over time. You have to do a lot more to win them over and gain their confidence than just expect them to walk through the door and straight up to a till to make a purchase.
That said, there is absolutely no reason why any shop should fail if the above is applied.
If your retail business is struggling don’t stand alone and wait for it to fail. Get a coach, join a mastermind group and work together, with other retailers, in a positive way, to turn your business around and enable people to enjoy your products.
