Tips Retailers
Issue 1 | May 2006 | By Sharon Hayles, InFocus Retail Consultancy
Plan to Attend
INVITATION TO BUSINESSES ALONG THE CANADA LINE CONSTRUCTION ROUTE
• Workshops • Marketing Tips • Construction schedule
Today’s retail environment continues to put pressure on profit margins and cash flow. It is critically important, that retailers who are in the small to medium size category, use all the tools that the larger organizations have at their disposal. This means using tried and true retail operating principles, to plan, execute on a day to day basis and evaluate results to be able to push to the next level. To help retailers along the Canada Line construction route manage through the coming years, a tool kit of these principles has been developed. The intent is to assist retailers with strategically looking at their operations. To this end, the Canada Line Rapid Transit Inc. has sponsored Sharon Hayles of InFocus Retail Consulting to develop and deliver a workbook and workshops. Sharon has over 25 years in the retail sector and the last 15 have been consulting with small to medium sized independent owner, operated retailers. The Vancouver & Richmond Business Liaison and Communication Committees along with Retail BC are happy to endorse this innovative project.
For more information and to sign-up please contact:
Sharon Hayles at 604.731.2762 / email: infocusretail@telus.net or Colleen Fee at 604.484.6734 / email: cfee@canadaline.ca
Please specify which session you wish to attend & provide your phone number
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Workshop Dates:
Yaletown
Monday, 29 May, 2006 6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m. OPUS Hotel, 322 Davie Street, Vancouver
Downtown
Tuesday, 30 May, 2006 6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m. Pacific Centre Meeting Room (Pacific Centre Complex) Suite 950, 609 Granville Street, Vancouver
Cambie
Wednesday, 31 May, 2006 6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m. Plaza 500 Hotel, Ballroom 500 West 12 Avenue, Vancouver
Richmond
Tuesday, 06 June, 2006 6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m. Lansdowne Centre (Centre Court) 5300 No. 3 Road, Richmond
Additional Workshop:
Date to be confirmed for Richmond
www.canadaline.ca
Tips Retailers
One of the truisms of retail is that “the only constant is change”. This was never truer than it is today.
There are number of ways to achieve this but I am going to leave you with a couple of tips for you to start to get a plan in place.
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The Start to 2006
Tip #1
How current is your inventory? Are you flexible enough with your open to buy dollars to get merchandise in as frequently as the customer walks in the store? The trick today is to provide the customer with what they want, when they want it. It is challenging today to make sure your inventory is truly an asset for the business and not a liability. You can no longer carry unproductive merchandise in the store.The key to this, is solid merchandise management. Be sure to develop a sound budget to make sure the flow of goods in the store will support the appetite the store has to sell. Projecting the correct sales is the key to inventory management along with the correct amount of purchase orders placed each season.
While the beginning of the year started out rather positively, the last couple of months have seen some disappointing numbers. Here are a few well recognized retailers’ numbers:
RETAILER
JAN
FEB -11.0 % -4.9 % 6.0 % 2.3 % 4.0 % 3.2 % -10.8 % 4.2 % -1.7 % -0.5 % 8.6 % 8.0 % -6.0 % -31.0 % 1.0 % 1.0 %
MAR -13.0 % 4.3 % 3.0 % -1.0 % -3.0 % 1.4 % -2.0 % -1.7 % NR NR 8.1 % 7.0 % -3.4 % -29.0 % 6.0 % 0.0 %
Tip #2
Why do we continually go looking for new customers when we have a customer base of people who have already been in the store? It costs a retailer more money and is more difficult to get a new customer in the door, than to get the current customers back in the store more frequently. We have already fulfilled a need for these customers and it is important to build on this relationship. Is there something else, another product or service, we can be providing for our customer. Not only will it make for a happier customer but in the end it will provide additional sales and profits. Take the time now to review your data base. Do you have one? Is it current? What information can you collect about the customer? What do you want to know about them? Now is the time to ask permission and invite your customers to be on your email list for upcoming events, newsletters and special offerings. Keep them informed of the changes during construction and how they can access your business.
The Gap 1.0 % Nordstrom 6.0 % American Eagle 11.3 % J.C. Penney 2.5 % Claire’s 9.0 % Wal – Mart 4.7 % Pier 1 8.2 % Bombay Company 6.0 % Payless Shoes 0.8 % Dollar General -1.0 % Guess? 31.0 % Costco 9.0 % Talbot’s 0.8 % Sharper Image -13.0 % Children’s Place 9.0 % Federated Dept 1.0 %
Even though these are larger retailers, if you look at the numbers, you can see some trends in certain categories of business.
www.canadaline.ca