Retail Management: Investing in People Support to Lower Costs

It is no secret that, in the retail management world, the pool of potential employees is vast, but sometimes does not yield the type of output that your company needs. This often results in high turnover rates, and thus money lost due to the process of hiring and onboarding.

How much are you actually spending? What are your employee turnover rates? The following three areas can mean big bucks when it comes to people support to keep your location running smoothly. And this is especially true when it comes to temporary or short-term hires (think seasonal employees).

Hiring. Whether you advertise the open position with a sign on the storefront window, on your website, or through a job site, there are always eventual costs associated with hiring. Sifting through a stack of resumes to find potential candidates takes time, as does the interview process, and the time it takes to conduct reference checks and fill out paperwork – this is inevitable.

Training. Once you have decided on a new employee, this is when the costs can really start to add up. Onboarding, if done correctly, can be incredibly costly. The time it takes (and the money that is spent paying for that time) to train the employee properly, to ensure that they understand and can adhere to your high standards, isn’t negligible. Maybe you hold orientation sessions to make them feel comfortable and introduce them to the company’s core values, or perhaps you have them shadow another employee for a period of time. Whatever your methods, the training period is one that can’t be avoided. After all, if you skimp on the training, you are the one who will ultimately suffer.

Firing. What about when that employee, or any other employee, doesn’t seem to work out. Do you try to save time and money by keeping them on and attempting to fix the issue, or do you cut your losses and let that employee go, thereby leading to the repetition of the entire process once again? Or, in the case of seasonal employees, you’ve just got to let them go when you know you’ll have to try again come the next seasonal rush.

Ok, great – so we’ve outlined all of the issues that are inherent in retail management – and for the most part they can’t really be avoided. So what are your options? Well, when it comes to people support, especially during peak times that necessitate hiring waves or potential short term hires, why not take a step back and rely on a company that can offer trained, professional, experienced replacements to cover whatever areas require the attention, on short notice, and just for the period required. This means no hiring, no onboarding, and no eventual firing. Makes a lot of sense, doesn’t it? We thought so. So, when you are in a lurch, maybe think about how not hiring can actually get you the best employee out there.

For more about people support that doesn’t cost an arm and a leg please contact Storesupport today by calling 1-877-421-5081.

Taking Control of Your Retail Management

Successful retail management, or the control of your brand at a retail location, is crucial for success. Meeting your customers’ needs and wants is one of the major ways to increase both your bottom line and customer retention and brand loyalty. But what does this include? What are we talking about as far as retail management? 

Firstly, what do we mean by retail management? Well, simply, the management of your brand. When you rely on a retailer for everything from stocking/restocking shelves to pricing you have to be sure that they are meeting your expectations. In order to retain as much control as possible in a situation such as this, knowing what is going on in-store is vital. This is a key component – make sure that you are able to keep tabs on what is going on on the ground.

Another important aspect of retail management is distribution resource planning. This includes establishing inventory control parameters to measure inventory requirements over time. When you rely on a retailer, you have to make sure that your product is on the shelf, otherwise it isn’t going to sell. There are many factors requiring attention when it comes to this planning, including on-hand inventory, back-ordered demand of a product, required quantity of a product, and constrained quantity of a product. Keeping on top of these will help ensure that your stock is where it should be, when it should be there.

When your retail management is effective, this in turn positively impacts your customer retention and brand reputation. For example, what if a consumer enters a store intent on purchasing your product but then cannot locate it in-store or it is not stocked on the shelf. Instead of asking an employee they may choose your competitor’s product. What if they like your customer’s product just as much as they like yours? Or what if they feel it offers the same quality at a lower price? Companies lose, on average, 20% of their customer base annually, and this is one of the ways that this comes to pass.

Yet another important factor in effective retail management: social media community management. When you take advantage of the many benefits offered by social media, you also have to be aware of the impacts that this can have. Setting up a Facebook page and developing a following, only to ignore it once this has been accomplished, can be problematic.  Complaints going unanswered or a loss of interest will reflect poorly on your brand. Keep up with what is going on online. Treat complaints as a gift – if you respond to customer concerns it shows an awareness and interest and a commitment to making things better.  

Be smart about your retail management – make sure that you are always aware of what is going on in-store.  Want some help accomplishing this? Storesupport has you covered – contact us today at 1-877-421-5081.

Don’t Let a Problem Crush Your Brand: The Importance of Smart Retail Management

If you sell a CPG brand at the retail level, you are no doubt aware that retail management and brand reputation management go hand-in-hand. Getting consumers to recognize your brand and building customer loyalty is critical if you want your brand to succeed. But sometimes unforeseen challenges can arise. Challenges that occur at the point of purchase should be your top priority. Your customer is your bread and butter and the ‘stakes are high’ if customers have poor experiences with your brand when they try to purchase it at their preferred retailer.

This day and age things run at a very fast pace. The customer experience at the retail level can immediately reflect on your brand’s reputation. Customers who become frustrated because a product is out of stock, or not properly tagged resulting in a hold up at the checkout counter can take to their mobile devices and post witty thoughts to their Twitter or Facebook page. Not only have you lost a customer but now they have negatively influenced those in their networks about your brand. This is why a key component of strong brand reputation management is smart retail management.

Smart retail management leads to increased sales and customer retention. Sales will be needed and, especially in the case of smaller brands, poor sales can lead to retailers de-listing your products.

To better understand how you can improve your retail management, let’s explore some of the top ways that a customer can have a negative in-store experience with a brand?

1.     Product is out of stock. Sometimes product is not on the shelf but is in the back. When retailers’ employees become busy, re-stocking your product can fall to the wayside. When a customer is in the grocery store and sees that a favourite product is out of stock, some may seek out the product at an alternate retailer, but most will simply try the same product by a different brand. This is dangerous because if the consumer likes the other brand’s product, you could see a shift in the customer’s loyalty to your brand. One way to stay ahead of the competition is to have a plan in place to ensure that you are on top of what is happening with product at the retail level.

2.     Product is moved. Unbeknownst to you and against your planogram your product is moved. Again, another frustrating experience for the customer. Will they look around to try to find your product or will they just buy the next available thing?

3.     Product is on the shelf but not priced. Would you buy something without knowing the cost? Not likely. When product isn’t priced it can make it difficult for a consumer to make the decision to purchase.

4.     Product is improperly labeled. Product that is improperly labeled can cause confusion for the consumer.

5.     UPC scanning issues at the point of sale. This is a big one. When the UPC code on your product doesn’t scan properly, this can cause your customers to get backed up at the checkout counter.

Smart retail management will include having retail merchandising contingencies and resources in place to make you aware of problems at the retail level and to enable you to address them quickly.

For more information about retail management or for information about our retail management solutions please visit www.storesuppport.ca or call 905-847-6513.

Strong Retail Management Begins with Effective Distribution Resource Planning

An ongoing challenge in retail management continues to be effective distribution resource planning. Effective distribution resource planning includes setting inventory control parameters to calculate time-phased inventory requirements. When you allow a retailer to be completely responsible for your brand’s distribution resource planning you may run into instances where your product is not on the shelf or runs out of stock. Inevitably, if your product is not available to sell, it won’t. In the end, the retailer could de-list your product despite the fact that it was the retailer’s poor retail management that caused your product to be unavailable for consumer purchase. 

Distribution resource planning is a science that involves many moving variables at both the beginning and end of a period. These variables include:

·          on-hand inventory 

·          back ordered demand of a product

·          required quantity of a product

·          constrained quantity of a product

·          recommended order quantity

In addition to distribution resource planning, a brand is also largely reliant on the retailer staff’s ability and training to understand the impact to a brand when their product is not on the shelf. If left up to them you could have a product that is in-stock but sitting in the back simply because the retailer’s staff has other priorities. It takes considerable effort to get a retailer to list your product and, even more, to keep it listed.

Good retail management is the key to a brand’s success at retail. Many brands work with merchandising companies to ease the burden of distribution resource planning and to ensure that the retailers are not the reason that their products are not on the shelf. Not only do merchandising companies assist with retail management and distribution resource planning, they also include teams that actually go to the retailer’s location to ensure products are in stock and on the shelf. If for some reason your stock is low before you anticipated that it would be, your assigned team will bring additional stock to the store before the retailer runs out. If your product is in stock and not on the shelf, they will ensure it gets there.

In the end, poor retail management and poor distribution resource planning causes the brand and the retailer to lose out on sales. This impacts customer retention greatly. The challenge for the brand is to manage what is already out of the door.  If you have not taken measures to put controls in place, and the retailer is the reason that the product is not getting adequately stocked or is not on the shelf, the retailer has all of the control. You are at the retailer’s mercy and should the retailer de-list the product, you lose out.

Once the product makes its way in-store, a minimal investment on your behalf will ensure that your product is in stock and on the shelf. This will improve your product sales, which profits both the brand and the retailer. It will be a key reason that the retailer continues to offer your product.

For more information about retail management and distribution resource planning please contact Store Support at 905 847 6513 or visit www.storesupport.ca