Once upon a time in bustling world of retail there was a wise and savvy store owner named Sarah.  Sarah knew that in order to succeed in her business, she needed to target specific groups of customers who were most likely to buy her products.  This was no easy task, but Sarah was determined to make her marketing efforts efficient and effective. To begin her journey, Sarah decided to delve into the mysterious world of customer segmentation.  She understood that different customers had different needs and preferences, and she wanted to create personalized and relevant marke ..read more

Now that the busy holiday season is over, it’s time to focus on effectively managing your team’s sales performance.  We have compiled a list of ten strategies that can help boost retail sales and can be utilized during coaching sessions. Assessing your team’s performance during peak shopping periods can be challenging.  Sales tend to be easier during these times when customers are actively making purchases.  However, when customers are less abundant and not obligated to buy, the competence of your sales associates becomes crucial for your business. Here are ten strategie ..read more

The first time a Retail Manager realizes that their company, district or store, and their performance in managing that, is being judged by the numbers they quickly understand that there is more to managing retail than getting all of the work done, making everything look nice and being good to customers. Unfortunately, that is when many get lost. Continue reading at DMSRetail website: https://dmsretail.com/retail-math-managing-by-numbers ..read more

Music to Your Customers’ Ears Particularly during busy times, when you see increased customer traffic in the store, you will need to come up with a short and sweet message to give to your staff heading out onto the sales floor every day. We recommend that, on most days, you provide staff with a ‘line of the day’. You’ll pick an item, or topic that you want to promote, and you’ll come up with a short line that your staff can use to introduce the subject, or break the ice. Write this ‘line of the day’ on your communication board in the backroom which, usually, is positioned to ensure all staff ..read more

Having worked for several prominent retail organizations I have seen the impact of both positive and negative cultures on the workforce, the customers and, of course, the success of the business. Have no doubt whatsoever, the head of the organization dictates, through words and actions, what the culture will be. I want to tell you about the incredible culture created by a CEO, and a gentleman, I’ll call Sam. For three years, I had the opportunity to work for the company that this man headed up before he decided to sell his successful enterprise to a large, old school retailer. We were all very ..read more

Test your retail management analytical and problem solving skills. Here’s the case store situation: In a busy regional mall, which has been operating for approximately 30 years, and which has undergone several renovations, there is one very unusually positioned store. The store sells women’s lingerie. It is part of a well known, multi-national chain which does very well. The store volume is pretty good and they are above average in meeting targets for sales and most other KPI’s. The one KPI they do not ever meet is conversion. They are always below chain, region and district average in their ..read more

A brand new market reality is upon us and, naturally, most retailers want to lift their performance up a notch compared to last year. How big a jump that’s going to be depends on the overall goals and objectives of the business. Whatever the number is, reviewing the fundamentals of your retail operation is in order. At DMSRetail, when it comes to performance, we place the highest degree of importance on people. When all things are equal, people make a big difference. In fact people make a huge difference even when everything else is not equal. We have seen stores out performing other stores t ..read more

A recent shopping trip to a store — one of many stores in a large, well recognized chain — indicated clearly, that a performance culture does not exist in that organization. I have shopped at several of their locations to purchase things for my home and car, for camping supplies, for Christmas lights and decorations, etc. I can’t say I have ever been really impressed with the service level offered, but I usually found what I was looking for and paid a reasonable price for it. They sell major brands and can generally be counted on to stand behind the merchandise they sell. It’s easy to determin ..read more

Today, we’re going to look at an important, but often ignored, part of running a profitable business… … using a couple of enlightening (and very brief) anecdotes from my recent shopping adventures. Let’s call this lesson: Amazing Little Store vs. Sluggish Giant. See if you can spot how the following short story may apply to YOUR business… OK, here we go. In my line of work, I am required to shop a lot! For everything. Over the past few months I’ve been doing a study on two markets…or grocery stores…in a city of about 500,000 people commonly referred to as Forest City, although that is no ..read more

Retail is Different When it Comes to (trying to) Manage Time But, there are a few Tried, Tested and True Steps that can Make Your Life Easier We left out things that do not apply to people who work in the field in retail and other service industries…those who cannot simply close the office door or get to the bottom of their inbox by working late!! Here you go… 14 Time Management Steps for Success: 1.) Know what you’re doing — Make a list of all of the things you routinely take care of during a normal day/week/month and assign a number of minutes or hours to each one. This exerci ..read more