The Resilient Retail Game Plan - retail insights, retail trends and best practices

With the postal strikes looming and the adverse weather conditions currently affecting travel across the whole UK, there’s a good chance many of you will have moved your final Xmas posting day forward, or maybe you’re ahead of the curve and have already got your feet up, eggnog in hand, after dispatching your last order for 2022. 

Whether you’ve already stopped or are just about to break for Christmas, these weeks and typically January are quietest for most businesses. You may have some small items of business admin to keep things ticking over, but in today’s episode of The Resilient Retail Game Plan, I want to share five things you can do in your business during the quiet time.

In today's podcast, I’ll discuss the importance of celebrating your successes after a long year’s hard work, we’ll also look at the best way to study and leverage the data from your numbers, and I’ll share some advice on how to ‘replenish your tank’. I’ll also ask you to review the state of your business and consider whether its current trajectory is sustainable and I’ll also share some learning resources for you to sink your teeth into during your downtime.

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Good stock management is important all year round but now as we arrive about a week into December, at the annual peak selling period, it deserves special consideration.

From your year-round bestsellers to your short-term seasonal selects, you’ve no doubt got a lot of stock on your hands - so, in episode 123 of The Resilient Retail Game Plan, I want to share my thoughts on stock processes specific to the Xmas period to help keep you and your business nimble and cash-rich in these uncertain times.

In this podcast, we’ll cover those pesky ‘brown bananas’ and review how to best handle products with both seasonal and literal expiry dates. We’ll take a look at stock levels on the whole and the relationship between what you’ve got left and what you expect to sell before 2023. We’ll also discuss classifying your stock and whether it’s destined to be defined as ‘carry-forward’ or ‘clearance’. I’ll also touch on putting a clearance plan together and the importance of your sales messaging, and we’ll finish up by taking a stock sense check for Spring 2023. 

Don’t forget - use the code: 10podcast to get £10 off your first month when joining The Resilient Retail Club.

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*Resilient Retail News Flash*

I'm very excited to share that my new book "Tame Your Tiger: How to stop your product business eating you alive" is now available to preorder at https://uk.bookshop.org/. In the book, I'll show you how to easily apply big business tools and perspectives to help better understand your business, as well as how to get clear on what you need to do to grow profitably, and, ultimately, tame your tiger.

On to today's episode! 

In episode 122 of The Resilient Retail Game plan, I speak to the founder of 'The Ecommerce Assistant', Elle Williamson. Having spent over ten years working in e-commerce for small and big brands, Elle now helps independent businesses to get the most out of their online shops.

In this podcast, we discuss the feature-rich Shopify 2.0 and the importance of giving your customers everything they need to know in order for them to hit that 'buy' button with confidence. We also go through some tips to help you with your conversion, from personally testing your buyer's journey out to carefully curating your range of products for a more personalised shopping experience. We also delve into email marketing, and run through where you could be better optimising your mail-outs to drive an increase in that all-important revenue! 

Check out Elle’s services at: https://www.theecommerceassistant.com/

And connect with her at:

https://www.instagram.com/theecommerceassistant/ https://www.facebook.com/theecommerceassistant https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-e-commerce-assistant/

Mentioned in this episode:

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We’re now into the golden weeks, the period where we see people spending the majority of their Christmas budget. With many ongoing economic issues, the increased cost of living and ballooning inflation plaguing the public, we can expect to see reduced spending this Christmas in contrast to last year - but after recently visiting the “Spirit Of Christmas” fair and attending “Stylist Live”, as well as a number of other markets and smaller events, the bustling crowds and the sheer number of carrier bags I’ve observed being carried around prove that people are still spending this season. In episode 120 of The Resilient Retail Game Plan, I want to assuage your fears and give you some top tips when it comes to securing those sales this Christmas. We’ll dive back into the power of “micro-niches” and why it’s more important than ever to get really specific in order to appeal to your ideal customers. We’ll discuss how important it is to not make assumptions about your customer's relationships to your brand and how to get as clear as possible on what it is that you’re selling. We’ll also look at the literal act of selling, how to avoid the ickiness and create a sales experience that’s positive for everyone, and I’ll also touch on those ever-important email lists and how you can encourage subscriptions through incentives. Don’t forget - use the code: 10podcast to get £10 off your first month when joining The Resilient Retail Club.

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Whether you're setting up shop at a small-scale Xmas craft fair, getting ready for one of the big branded seasonal showcases, or are yet to sign up for a festive event, it’s time to think strategically about maximising your sales at in-person events this Christmas

Events aren’t just about sales, they provide great opportunities for promoting your brand, making connections and gaining important insights from your customers face-to-face - but when Christmas accounts for such a large percentage of a business's annual turnover, it’s important to be setting yourself up for success when it comes to seasonal selling.

In episode 119 of The Resilient Retail Game Plan, I cover four easy ways to maximise your sales at Christmas events. We’ll look at the importance of setting yourself targets to help you stay motivated and build better forecasts for the future. We’ll discuss how to involve your existing community and why you need to continue building on that ever-vital email list. I’ll also give you some tips on preparing your stall and a potential ‘script’ and we’ll also look at a number of tactics you can use to try and up your customers’ average spend.

Don’t forget - use the code: 10podcast to get £10 off your first month when joining The Resilient Retail Club.

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As a small business entering the ‘golden weeks’ - the six-week run-up to Christmas - you’re no doubt looking for ways to maximise your sales at a time that can represent more than 50% of your annual turnover. 

I’ve spoken before of the only four fundamental ways to grow sales - getting more people to come, getting more people to spend when they do come, getting customers to spend more each time and getting customers to come back more often. These strategies still apply when it comes to Christmas, but ultimately you won’t see the results of things like working on your SEO now in this time frame - we’re not looking for long-term solutions at this point. 

In episode 118 of The Resilient Retail Game Plan, I’m going to give you my top four ways to grow your sales at Christmas. We’ll look at being present, whether online on social media, or offline at events. We look at the importance of giving people all the information they need to make a purchase, from gifting options to product demonstrations. We’ll discuss how to encourage spending by creating win-win situations for you and your customers. We’ll also review how vital your most loyal customers are to your business and how to best interact with them.

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In the age of Amazon and next-day delivery, it is heartwarming to see a growing push towards people shopping local, investing in sustainability and consuming more consciously - with a more compassionate outlook shared by independent retailers and customers alike. 

Where the lumbering dinosaurs of high-street retail have failed to evolve or capture the imagination of their customers, we’re seeing more creative, engaging and meaningful products and brands slowly take their place, and with the strong communities that coalesce around them, I very much think they’re here to stay.

In today’s episode of The Resilient Retail Game Plan, I speak to maker turned shop-owner, and founder of Prior Shop, Beck Prior. Based in Bristol, Prior Shop is a not-for-profit arts hub, eco-conscious retail space, workshop and gallery hosting and offering works by the local community.

In this podcast, we discuss agility and how small businesses are often in the perfect position to pivot and adapt when times are tough - we also talk about the importance of storytelling in gift buying (and receiving) and how the layout of your store can have a tangible impact on your customers - and we also focus on how running your business in an ethics-led manner can help those you collaborate with reflect better on how they operate within the broader retail picture and small business community.

Check out Beck’s wonderful online store at: https://www.priorshop.uk/

And connect with her at:

https://www.facebook.com/PriorShopBristol https://www.instagram.com/priorshopbristol

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We might still have Hallowe’en and Thanksgiving ahead of us but as we all know the festive event that we really need to set our sights on is Christmas. 

Now, we’re all very familiar with the red sale signs of the high street, and with the yearly routine of seasonal discounts offered by large retailers you’d forgiven for thinking that slapping a “20% off everything” banner across your website might put you in good stead come the end of Q4 - but this week I’m here to tell you to hold your horses (or maybe that should be reindeer?) as properly profitable promotions require some real planning.

In episode 116 of The Resilient Retail Game Plan, I cover the five crucial factors to keep in mind when planning your Christmas promotions. We’ll look at the different types of promotions to use, as well as the ideal frequency and proximity of when you deploy them. I’ll also discuss why preparation is key and how, at the end of the day, these promotions aren’t really for the customer, they’re for you! 

If after this podcast you want even more info and tips on planning for Xmas 2022, make sure to tune in to my live talk at 1 pm on the 27th of October at resilientretailclub.com/christmas

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We’ve come a long way since the days of Don Draper and the post-war triad of print, television and billboard advertising. The advent of the internet, the growth of social media and the ubiquity of mobile devices have transformed the advertising landscape, and the changes to the way we advertise and are advertised to are only getting more significant and more rapid as technology and our relationship to it evolves - it’s a lot to keep up with! 

That’s why in episode 115 of The Resilient Retail Game Plan, I welcome back Narada McKoy, marketing extraordinaire and founder of Bravada, the startup marketing specialists offering startups flexible, on-demand services.

In this podcast, we discuss the changing nature of data tracking and what it’ll mean to live in a cookie-less future. We deconstruct and review the sales funnel stages and why we need to start employing ‘broad-stroke marketing’, and we also discuss the growing popularity of TikTok and the increasingly blurred line between entertainment and e-commerce.

Check out Narada’s services at: https://www.bravada-uk.com/

And connect with him at:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/narada-mckoy https://www.instagram.com/bravada.marketing/

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