Which problems are you facing?

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Louis_TextRepublic

Louis_TextRepublic

Free Member
May 20, 2013
10
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  • #1
    Hi All,

    I'm asking this question specifically for Retail Business Owners or Retail Managers : what are the most urgent and sensitive problems you are facing today in your business ?

    You can be as specific as you would like.

    I'm asking you this question to create content that will help retail professionals solving their problems.

    Thanks in advance,

    Louis

    PS: if you don't want to share those in public, you can send me a private message!
     
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    Louis_TextRepublic

    Louis_TextRepublic

    Free Member
    May 20, 2013
    10
    1
  • #5
    gr9ce said:
    ha ha
    We need what you cannot offer or arrange..............

    Sunshine.
    Click to expand...

    Aha, that's a good one...

    That might be a silly question but, can you clearly see a relation between the weather and the traffic in your store gr9ce ?

    Business Rates
    slowing footfall
    Click to expand...

    Thanks for your answer Duke Fame, can you be more specific ? That would be very helpful ;)

    Thanks,

    Louis
     
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    businessfunding

  • #10
    Vrs_Ltd said:
    Useing my shops to view goods and then go buy it on-line. :mad:

    One lady came in the other day wanting my to order something for to see if it was suitable for her. She made no attempt to hide the fact that she wouldnt buy it from the shop - she had allready seen it cheaper on-line.
    Click to expand...

    OK - I've been in trouble before for daring to criticise on the retail forum but reading this:

    - You have the customer in your shop.
    - They know what they want.
    - They have a price point
    - You are engaging with them.

    Most salesmen only dream of this type of opportunity..
     
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    David1962

  • #11
    kickstartbtm said:
    OK - I've been in trouble before for daring to criticise on the retail forum but reading this:

    - You have the customer in your shop.
    - They know what they want.
    - They have a price point
    - You are engaging with them.

    Most salesmen only dream of this type of opportunity..
    Click to expand...

    Trouble is that once upon a time shops and their owners were salesmen, paid a reasonable wage and receiving "spiffs" (commission). They knew their products and could actually help customers and at the same time sell the product the shops wanted to sell.

    Today shops are staffed by minimum wage employees with no incentives or sales experience. They have no desire to learn about their products or have any clue about assisting and advising their customers. This now goes for many of the owners of shops as well as it's what they have grown up with and think it's the norm'.

    The other issue is the use these days of part time staff, very very few retail jobs are full time anymore. Another reason for staff who don't give a monkeys. Remember when you would leave school and get a full time job in retail, work your way through the ranks learning about the product, sales skills and retail as you went. That simply doesn't happen anymore.

    Before I get jumped on I'm not saying all shops are like this, just most.
     
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    emmylou74

  • #12
    kickstartbtm said:
    OK - I've been in trouble before for daring to criticise on the retail forum but reading this:

    - You have the customer in your shop.
    - They know what they want.
    - They have a price point
    - You are engaging with them.

    Most salesmen only dream of this type of opportunity..
    Click to expand...

    You can engage all you want but for those people that are growing in numbers have absolutely no intention of buying only feeling the product and getting information then buying online. And they are open about it as well. I am getting lots of people come in asking for advice - I give them the knowledge I have, show them the options in products that would be suitable, then the person turns round and says great but I am not getting it from you. Then they walk out. Am I a bad salesperson - not if you look at my past sales records. I have worked in retail from a very young age. And always had great sales. But things are really different now.

    I have had to phase out all branded items and concentrate on my own designed products.
     
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    kelvin1950

  • #13
    kickstartbtm said:
    OK - I've been in trouble before for daring to criticise on the retail forum but reading this:

    - You have the customer in your shop.
    - They know what they want.
    - They have a price point
    - You are engaging with them.

    Most salesmen only dream of this type of opportunity..
    Click to expand...


    Great in theory, often not the case in practice these days, hence the post by VRS. Theory is not real world I'm afraid.
     
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    businessfunding

  • #15
    Much has changed in the world - for B2B as well as retail

    One thing that remains constant, however is that many customers can be sold to when engaged face-to-face. Price will be a factor but you there is always a value to them in 'here and now'. This is particularly the case when they can touch & feel a product (referred to as the puppy dog close)

    When the customer says they are off to buy on the internet you need to be question why? how much? do they know the supplier?

    Behaviour has changed a bit - human nature hasn't
     
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    emmylou74

  • #16
    kickstartbtm said:
    Much has changed in the world - for B2B as well as retail

    One thing that remains constant, however is that many customers can be sold to when engaged face-to-face. Price will be a factor but you there is always a value to them in 'here and now'. This is particularly the case when they can touch & feel a product (referred to as the puppy dog close)

    When the customer says they are off to buy on the internet you need to be question why? how much? do they know the supplier?

    Behaviour has changed a bit - human nature hasn't
    Click to expand...

    when was the last time you worked in a shop? IF you do not work in one, please, please go and work in one for a day then come back and post. I would be very interested in how you view it then :)
     
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    David1962

  • #18
    sirearl said:
    Would that be the point when they whip out their mobile and show you the price on ebay.:|;)
    Click to expand...

    Price has ALWAYS been a factor, the internet is JUST another price point. A good salesman will sell the correct product (being a product that suites the customer and the shop) to the consumer. Price has little to do with it if you are a good salesman who knows what his customer really NEEDS. Trouble is today almost every shop is focused on price.

    Price isn't the issue for B&M, salesmanship is. That is a lost skill.
     
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  • #19
    David1962 said:
    Price has ALWAYS been a factor, the internet is JUST another price point. A good salesman will sell the correct product (being a product that suites the customer and the shop) to the consumer. Price has little to do with it if you are a good salesman who knows what his customer really NEEDS. Trouble is today almost every shop is focused on price.

    Price isn't the issue for B&M, salesmanship is. That is a lost skill.
    Click to expand...

    Afraid people are not so gullible since the arrival of IT allows instant comparison.;)
     
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    AliG

  • #20
    Hi Louis

    I can offer you some specifics - hope they are useful.

    I have a mid to premium price point fashion accessories boutique the main shopping street in my town and have been trading for 5 years. I was originally in a secondary location before moving 2 years ago the the prime retail spot I now have.

    We are fortunate enough to have cameras on street that measure footfall and as luck would have it they specifically measure footfall past my shop window.

    Concretely, I can tell you that in the first 3 months of this year, 100,000 fewer people walked past my window than in the same period last year. 100,000 fewer opportunities to sell, which is about a 12% decline year on year.

    The rent that I pay is much higher than in my previous location and at the time I moved, I saw that as a 'cost of acquisition' of new customers and based my modelling on the footfall data provided by those cameras. My modelling is still fairly accurate but of course reflects the decline in footfall.

    My window attracts a lot of people and once we get them through the door our conversion is good, but the biggest challenge is getting enough people of the right demographic to walk past in the first place.

    Sadly, a significant increase in the number of shop closures and charity shops opening up i their place has changed not just the numbers but the type of people who shop on the street.

    The rent that I agreed two years ago no longer delivers on its promise of the footfall numbers and the demographic of those shoppers.

    As it happens, I have a very reasonable landlord with whom I have shared the camera data and he is very open to helping me find creative solutions to this problem. He understands that rents and footfall go hand in hand and if the footfall goes down then so does the rent.

    Business rates is perhaps more crippling for me. In my previous location I was able to take advantage of small business rate relief. In the new location, the premises are not much bigger but the rateable value is. This means that although I seldom paid more than a few hundred pounds in rates in my previous location, moving around the corner (literally) instantly gave me a £15,000/year rates bill.

    Perhaps if there incentives to make that transition easier? Some kind of sliding scale to help businesses expand and develop then that move would have been less painful?

    I agree with other posts on here about the promiscuity of shoppers these days. Some of the brands I sell are available on QVC and I often get people coming in to 'feel' the produce before they order for £5 less on QVC. Generally speaking though I can turn them round by pointing out that the £5 they save on QVC they will spend on postage. And once they have touched the item they often want to own it.

    I struggle more with 2 other aspects of such distance selling. In the case of QVC they offer a payment plan, and I just can't compete with that so often lose out to that, but at least I have the customer in the shop and I can engage with them.

    The other aspect with QVC and internet competition is that the distance selling regulations make it very attractive for customers to buy it, see if they like and send it back if they don't want it. Some blatantly tell me that they buy on QVC use it for a couple of weeks and then send it back for a refund!

    I've even had people come in and demand something for half price because they have seen it so on Ebay. The last time that happened was a Saturday and the customer wanted the item for a gift to be given at a Christening the following day. He went to great lengths to show me on his phone the same item on Ebay for half the full retail price so I politely suggested that he should place his Ebay order there and then and wished him the best of luck in receiving it gift wrapped in time for the event the following day!

    Suffice to say, he bought ours and we wrapped the gift beautifully with our compliments!

    I could go on but the rest of the forum will be asleep....

    Hope this helps.
    Alison
     
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    David1962

  • #21
    sirearl said:
    Afraid people are not so gullible since the arrival of IT allows instant comparison.;)
    Click to expand...

    You've totally missed the point of what I was saying and what sales is all about ;)

    Granted prices can be compared at the touch of a button, as can specifications. But selling is about knowing your products, knowing your market and knowing what suites your customers needs best. 99% of the time the customer doesn't really know what they need, a good salesman will. Obviously this doesn't apply to items like sweets, wallpaper or greeting cards!

    Perhaps it's the public's fault for having such low expectations that shops, led by chains, have fallen over themselves to meet.
     
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    Louis_TextRepublic

    Louis_TextRepublic

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    May 20, 2013
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  • #22
    Thank you so much to all of you for your very detailed answers.

    This is a huge help.

    Thanks AliG particularly for your very detailed post!

    If anybody else wants to share their views/issues they are facing in the retail industry, I'd be happy to read them!

    Thanks,

    Louis
     
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    businessfunding

  • #23
    sirearl said:
    Would that be the point when they whip out their mobile and show you the price on ebay.:|;)
    Click to expand...

    Hi think at that point you should roll over and die.

    Alternatively you could remember that you are running a business and that price competition is a challenge faced by all businesses not just retailers.

    It's not about being gullible. It is about understanding and conveying the value you are offering. The only area where you can't convey value is the internet
     
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    Suzuki

  • #27
    BBC wrote about this last month - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-22098575

    Very little you can do about it if you're selling the same products that can be bought online. Even if people didn't set out with the intention to use your store as a showroom to buy online, if they see a random item they like then they're only 20 seconds away from being able to use their iPhone to see what price it goes for online.
     
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    businessfunding

  • #28
    SouthernBusiness said:
    If someone can buy the same item at half the price. Sometimes less than I pay for the item for free next day delivery. How do you compete on that?
    Click to expand...

    Re visit your business plan. There is a point at which people won't buy (or not enough people will buy) to determine that point you need to understand who the customer is, what your selling proposition is and what the price flexibility is.
     
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    businessfunding

  • #29
    Suzuki said:
    BBC wrote about this last month - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-22098575

    Very little you can do about it if you're selling the same products that can be bought online. Even if people didn't set out with the intention to use your store as a showroom to buy online, if they see a random item they like then they're only 20 seconds away from being able to use their iPhone to see what price it goes for online.
    Click to expand...

    Interesting points in the article - particularly regarding the impact of targeting and engaging your client

    No stats given. It would be interesting to know what percentage of people are totally driven by price ( my guess is a relatively small minority ) what percentage are price flexible and what percentage will buy at any price.
     
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    OtterBliss

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    May 28, 2009
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    Bishops Itchington
  • #30
    Not sure if this is the right thread but the biggest problem I am facing is the opening of a factory warehouse in our very small market town. :mad: This has been opened in premises vacated by a small supermarket on the main street.
    I am only a small shop selling mainly home fragrance products ( candles, incense, fragrance oils and burners, pot pourri etc.) and knitting yarns, patterns etc for which there was no competition until this warehouse opened. I sell other things but so does some of the other shops since I first opened. The town has a short main street where all the shops are except for 3 which are just off the main street, mine being the furthest round and the only one which can't been seen from the main street. There are 11 independent shops, the rest are charity shops, co-op, estate agents, fast food, post office (that turned itself into a gift shop 12 months ago when new people took over) etc.

    Over the last couple of months, the footfall in the town had decreased, possible could have something to do with the weather.

    The way things are at the moment, sadly, it looks like I am not going to be here next year.
     
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    oldoakey

  • #34
    One of my biggest issues is price setting you know the 50%, 60%, 70% off merchants where there's a sale every other week. The way they do it is to set a totally unrealistic price for 28 days then discount. Most of the major players work this con.

    The problem this brings for us smaller retailers is that we simply don't have the man power to be able to do this type of con trick and more importantly it creates an expectation from the customer that a genuine 10% off offer looks measly but is in fact a much better deal for them in terms of the quality of the goods being what they expected from the headline (made up) price.

    People are being misled in a massive way, they actually think they are buying a £1,000 sofa for £500 not realizing until its too late that they have actually bought a far less quality sofa and that actually in the long run it will cost them much more.

    As i have said on here before I am some day going to offer a £100,000 sofa put this on my shop floor and then after 28 days advertise this as being 99% off at a retail price of £1,000 (what I wanted for it in the first place)

    A possible simple answer to this is to make the 28 days into 90 days.
     
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    Ryan_M

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    Jul 25, 2013
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    Airdrie, Scotland
  • #36
    I'd definitely say online-only businesses selling at very low margins.

    As a company who operate online as well as bricks and mortar store it is difficult to compete with these prices due to overheads and the set-up of the business.

    An online only company might be willing and able to basically drop-ship - take an order for a product which costs them £100 and sell it for £110 when the RRP is £200 but a company with higher overheads cannot do this as easily.

    Even if you do manage to do it, its not necessarily a good or healthy thing to compete solely on price.

    The added challenge that others have also pointed out is when you do have a store people use it as a shop window then go online and buy the cheapest option. I don't blame them and I'd do it myself but I feel that the manufacturers and wholesalers should have a tighter grip on the prices their products are being sold at... but then that would be illegal.
     
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    Ryan_M

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    Jul 25, 2013
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    Airdrie, Scotland
  • #37
    hayden003 said:
    Hi guys

    i have just started my site and i sell wallpaper online

    i would like some feed back as i have not sold anything yet

    what am i doing wrong?

    thanks hayden :)
    Click to expand...

    Selling anything tactile online is difficult. We sell rugs (which are more tactile) and people always want to see them first, then try to find the cheapest price online and buy from there.
     
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    SweetJo

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    Jul 24, 2013
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  • #40
    Hi, I thought I'd add my bit.

    I own a sweet shop on the main pedestrianised street in a town. Our current rent is quite a good deal but we are thinking of moving into a bigger shop but the rents being asked are too high in our opinion. Also rates are so high.

    Supermarkets and discount shops are a problem. We cannot compete with their prices. For example the big tins of Roses they sell at Christmas - they sell them cheaper than we can get at any of our suppliers. We often hear people say they'll go to Asda/B&M etc because it is cheaper.

    I hope this is of some help.
    Jo
    X
     
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