Today we’re speaking with Jim Inglis, a 60-year home center industry veteran, executive, and author. In part two of this podcast series, we explore the ten principles of high productivity retailing gleaned from Jim’s time with The Home Depot and his tenured career. Jim shares insights about how building brand, customer loyalty, trust and culture is critical for success in retail.

 

IN THIS EPISODE: 

 

• [01:45] What are the 10 principles of high productivity retailing?
• [09:27] How has the digital revolution impacted brand and customer loyalty and what's that interplay?
• [12:45] Where do you think the impact of the retail apocalypse is going to be felt?
• [17:30] What does the “self-service is the best service” principle mean to the retailer?
• [20:20] Why is the full journey to customer loyalty and trust so critical?
• [22:57] How does a retailer truly empower their people and drive culture for success?
• [26:30] What are your last parting words on the 10 principles of high productivity retailing?

 

KEY TAKEAWAYS: 

 

• Embracing change, delighting the customer, right pricing, measuring the success with gross margin return on investment, having low cost and low price, advertising, having self-service, becoming more service-oriented, and paying attention to the company culture bring productivity to retailing.
• There has been an evolutionary change in the retail business and an absolute revolution in marketing. Technology has become vital to businesses in communicating with customers.
• Bad malls were being driven out of business by good malls. It was a false premise that there was going to be a physical store apocalypse because of e-commerce. In fact, pure e-commerce players are unlikely to survive in the face of rising costs and online-only service delivery.
• The value-oriented retailers who design their stores to work well are growing and opening new stores.
• The “work good” versus “look good” dichotomy is choosing between the ambiance and shopping experience. Value-oriented players’ operating models are focusing on designing their stores to work well, achieve efficiency and drive down costs.
• Culture drives employee performance. Leadership sets values and demonstrates behavior that instills a mission-driven culture with very specific goals and objectives.
• Bleeding Orange Culture was built on decentralization and delegation that requires the empowerment of associates. The associates take ownership, which means they adopt the culture and understand the mission-driven culture and begin to make the right decisions. Companies must educate and reward their employees for better results.

 

LINKS MENTIONED 

 

www.breakthroughretailing.com

 

www.telaid.com/solutions/retail-automation/

 

BIO: Jim Inglis

 

Author of How a Bleeding Orange Culture Can Change Everything! Jim Inglis has more than 50 years of experience in the home improvement retail segment. He served in executive positions with The Home Depot for 13 years and has served on the board of several retail-related associations and businesses. Since founding Inglis Retailing in 1998, Jim has advised leading home improvement retailers worldwide. In 2015, he was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Global Home Improvement Network and the European DIY Retail Association.