Audits, Tasks and Communication
Retail and Hospitality Operations
With 77% of consumers having recently identified rude customer service as the most bothersome aspect of shopping in brick and mortar stores and another 55% willing to take their business elsewhere due to lack of follow-through from a merchant, it’s fair to say that not all customer service is the same across retail. Keeping this … Continue reading How to Improve Customer Service Standards
In retail, even the slightest lapse in safety and security can spell disaster. Theft, fraud, and data breaches can put a sizeable dent on your bottom line… and reputation. This is why it is important to establish store security measures across your locations. Industry data shows that security issues in retail aren’t slowing down. The … Continue reading How to Establish Security Measures for Retail Stores
Just because one retailer may be smaller than another, that does not mean they have any less responsibility regarding their security. Whether it be from a break-in or a cyber-attack, most retailers will experience some form of a security breach. This is why we have put together these security tips for retailers. Regardless of the … Continue reading Security Tips for Retailers
One of the most essential measures when it comes to running a brick-and-mortar store is getting foot traffic. The more traffic you generate translates into more opportunities for sales and customer engagement, which in turn leads to the main goal — increased revenues. For small and large retailers alike, having a storefront that customers enjoy and … Continue reading Reasons Why Customers are Walking Past Your Store
Franchising is a great way to expand your brand and make a bigger geographical footprint. Take note: there's more to building a successful franchise business than simply handing out a few brand guidelines and letting your franchisees run with it. The most successful franchises go the extra mile. McDonalds is one of the world’s largest, most … Continue reading Franchising in Retail: 7 Ways HQ Can Support Franchisees
Retail district store managers have a ton of responsibility — and they play a valuable role in the business’s overall success. A good district manager oversees the operations of all stores within a given district or area. They can juggle everything from staff development, compliance, and sales to customer satisfaction, all while serving as an … Continue reading How to Be a Better Retail District Manager
A grocer was cited for failing to keep an accessible checkout lane open. A coffee shop was fined for not maintaining clear space on the transaction counter. A restaurant, bar and antique shop, all were cited for refusing to allow a service animal inside. Those are just a handful of retail locations that recently settled … Continue reading Improving Accessibility: How Retailers Can Improve Online and Offline Access for Customers
The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) has been around for over 30 years. Although there is virtually no area of American business that has remained untouched by the landmark legislation, retailers especially have to be careful about how they comply with it. Serving the public means accommodating everyone — regardless of their physical limitations. Even … Continue reading A Retailer’s Guide to Compliance with Americans with Disabilities Act
Whether you are a thrift store, consignment store or vintage retailer, you have a wide range of duties across several departments. From receiving and approving donations, sorting, pricing and finally merchandising items, using a Checklist for Thrift Stores will improve the performance of your operations...and your bottom line. Use this sample Checklist for Thrift Stores … Continue reading ✔️ Thrift Store Inspection Checklist
Merchandising is — and will continue to be — one of the biggest drivers of sales and customer engagement in retail. How your store is merchandised influences everything from brand perception to customer experience, which is why it’s important to keep your merchandising initiatives fresh and relevant. Part of doing that requires paying close attention … Continue reading 5 Retail Merchandising Trends to Watch Out for
Key Performance Indicators are performance measurements that help you know if your business is reaching its goals and operating optimally. Use a KPI checklist to help you measure, detect and respond to dips in sales and margins and other strategic facets of your business. Below, some sample Key Performance Indicators to include on your KPI … Continue reading ✔️ KPI Checklist
Meeting high standards for the health and safety of patients is the most important focus for Pharmacies. However, to continue delivering the care patients expect, pharmacies must also be successful retail stores. Merchandising cannot be overlooked. How can pharmacies drive brand loyalty and sales if the retail space is poorly merchandised, disorganized or unappealing? Below, … Continue reading Retail Merchandising Ideas for Pharmacies
Everything that customers perceive when they walk into your store falls under the category of retail merchandising –– from the curb appeal of your window display to customers’ experience with your POS system at checkout. By merchandising products in the right way, you can keep traffic moving throughout your store, maximize inventory visibility, and turn … Continue reading 5 Retail Merchandising Mistakes that are Killing your Sales
As a retailer, you know that your point-of-sale (POS) system is more than just a tool to process transactions but rather an asset to help your business improve both profit and operations by leaps and bounds. With so many POS options available, it’s easier than ever before for merchants to have access to even more … Continue reading 5 POS Strategies That Increase Sales
This Loss Prevention: A Comprehensive Guide for Retailers recognizes that loss prevention is a very real challenge for retailers. Shrinkage is a problem that costs retailers billions of dollars every year. Yet businesses are using tools and technologies to prevent shrink less and less. The loss associated with shrink is two-fold: You lose the capital … Continue reading Loss Prevention: A Comprehensive Guide for Retailers
Instagram has proven to be a boon for many businesses. According to the Instagram, more than 200 million users visit at least one Business Profile daily and a third of the most-viewed stories on the platform are from a business. Those numbers tell us that Instagrammers have an appetite for content posted by businesses, so … Continue reading 6 Ways to Use Visual Merchandising to Drive Social Shares
Seasonal programs like Valentine's day drive big profits for retailers and restaurants.Valentine’s Day spending topped 25 billion in 2024! The average spend is also up to $185.81 per person. And while most Americans still spend the majority of their Valentine's Day budget on a significant other, the National Retail Federation (NRF) observes a "big increase this year in … Continue reading Valentine’s Day In Retail: Interesting Facts and Emerging Trends
Merchandise will sell itself when it looks good. But when it doesn’t, even the best product can sit on your shelves gathering dust! You need an environment that attracts customers, entices them to spend time in the store, and encourages them to purchase impulsively while they are there. Here is a list of 4 store … Continue reading 4 Retail Store Layout Tricks That Increase Sales
Retailers — actually, all entrepreneurs — are busier than ever, with most business owners feeling like they don’t have enough time. Research by Microsoft found that more than 50% of managers feel burned out at work. Can you relate? If so, then you should make it a priority to free up more time in your … Continue reading 7 Manual Processes Every Retailer Should Quit Doing
In order to grow as a business, you have to learn from the best in the business. And when it comes to retail, it doesn’t get much better than Apple. When Apple released their financial results for its fiscal 2018 fourth quarter, it was revealed to be a quarterly revenue of $62.9 billion, an increase … Continue reading 7 Things Retailers Can Learn From Apple
Customer Experience continues to be one of the most talked about retail trends. Customer Experience expert Blake Morgan, who has been covering the topic since 2014, wrote in Forbes: "The phrase customer experience gets a lot more play than it did in the business world in the past when people would simply throw it around synonymously with the … Continue reading 4 Ways to Improve Your Store Experience
Executing a product recall is never easy. It involves logistics, communication, regulatory compliance, and often times a disruption of operations. Here's how one retailer coordinated, completed, and verified a product recall across all locations using Bindy. Problem: Executing a Product Recall Each year E. coli infections cause approximately 265,000 illnesses in the US. Often times, … Continue reading 📚 How-To And Case Study For Quickly Executing A Product Recall Due To A Foodborne Illness
A smart retail checklist has points, best-practice pictures, supporting files, conditionals and action plan recommendations. It allows company standards to be checked, deficiencies tracked, assigned and resolved. It guarantees programs and policies are deployed in full, in time, in every store. A smart checklist is built, then used in the audit workflow. Retailers and hospitality … Continue reading What is a Smart Checklist?
Nothing endures but change - Eraclitus Change is inevitable in the fast paced environment of retail and hospitality. It helps the brand stay relevant, efficient and competitive in the eyes of customers and guests. However, change can be hard. Not everyone likes it! Change means stepping into the unknown. It does not have to be … Continue reading 4 Strategies For Change Management In Retail
If you’re in retail, you’re likely in the middle of planning for the holidays — and for good reason. Known as the biggest shopping event of the year, the holiday season consistently brings in tremendous foot traffic and sales. According to NRF, retail sales during the holiday season grew 3.8% to a record $964.4 billion. … Continue reading From Seasonal to Loyal: 5 Tips for Converting Holiday Shoppers into Year-Round Customers
Retail productivity is a metric that every store owner or manager wants to maximize. After all, the more productive your stores are, the better it is for your bottom line. Many factors contribute to helping maximize staff productivity — your selling space, fixtures, and products are key examples. But one factor that’s sometimes overlooked (and … Continue reading 7 Ways to Maximize Retail Staff Productivity
More than 1 billion shoppers find the products and services they need and want online today. It has become increasingly difficult to get customers into a physical store and even harder to keep them engaged long enough to make a purchase. The good news is, with the right techniques, you can improve the overall in-store … Continue reading How to Create a Memorable In-Store Experience for Your Customers
Mid-sized to large Real Estate Investment Trusts are more vulnerable to fraud in their parking operations than smaller property firms and the effects can be more devastating to the bottom line. The types of fraud that property owners and managers need to be aware of generally fall into four categories: cash theft, validation theft (discount … Continue reading 7 Easy Steps to Help Identify Fraud in a REIT’s Parking Operations
Choosing the right type of business relationship with a parking operator is even more important than choosing which operator should run your parking facility. Why? Because the terms, conditions, and expectations of the business arrangement (in the form of a management contract or lease agreement) are clearly set out in advance between the property owner … Continue reading Parking Contracts: The Good, The Bad and The Really Ugly
Customer needs must be a priority for store merchandising. While the right products and price points are important, it’s the customers that make the difference. Without a combination of new and returning customers, retail businesses fail. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, approximately two-thirds of businesses with employees only survive about two years. To … Continue reading 10 Merchandising Mistakes Retailers Make That Lose Sales
One of the best things about being a retailer today is having access to a multitude of tools, apps, and platforms that can make your work life more efficient. While merchants of the past relied heavily on manual admin, paperwork, and inefficient communication channels, modern retailers enjoy the benefits of speed, automation, and cloud-based systems. … Continue reading Retail Apps, Tools, and Platforms That Take Your Stores to the Next Level
The holiday season means you have more merchandise to move than ever, but your store size has stayed the same. How can you display and sell more merchandise in the same footprint? We have some tips to help you get the most from your holiday merchandising, but even better, you can use these tips all … Continue reading Holiday Visual Merchandising Tricks That Can Be Used All Year
Does retail lighting boost sales? According to Amerlux, "Globus, a major grocery retailer in Germany, experimented with a combination of colored lights at a promotional area inside one of its stores." This led to a 6% increase in sales in the promotional area. If you are still using fluorescent tubes, it is definitely time for … Continue reading 5 Lighting Techniques for Visual Merchandising to Increase Sales
When running a small business, there are no small decisions. You have to dig into the retail details and analytics that deliver the data behind every transaction and interaction that happens in your store. That’s where Key Performance Indicators (KPI) come in — numeric values that indicate whether your business is reaching its targets. They … Continue reading Top 10 KPIs That SMB Retailers Should Track — And How To Measure Them
19 percent of yearly sales for retailers take place within the last two months of the year the National Retail Federation found. Bottom line, November and December are the most important months for your retail business. You need to offer compelling reasons to get customers into your stores. Below, some tips to help you increase foot traffic … Continue reading How to Get Customers Offline and Into Your Stores During The Holiday Season
While the regulations around cannabis retail in Canada are still being ironed out, we do know one thing: the industry is booming. According to Deloitte, "Total recreational and medical sales between 2018 and 2021 are estimated to be $11 billion in Canada overall, two-thirds (67.8%) of which was for recreational cannabis." Clearly, there are a lot … Continue reading 5 Tips to Help Your Cannabis Dispensary Stay Compliant
All humans share similar psychological and emotional triggers — gravitating toward pleasure versus pain, amusement versus boredom, and satisfaction versus discontent. The average consumer naturally weighs costs and benefits when shopping. Retailers can utilize a range of psychological techniques to influence shoppers’ behavior and ultimately increase conversions and total sales during the holiday season and … Continue reading 10 Ways To Use Consumer Psychology To Increase Sales In Retail
Seasonal programs like Father’s day drive big profits for retailers and restaurants. Father’s Day spending has surpassed $22 billion! “Fathers, husbands and sons can expect to feel the love this Father’s Day,” NRF President and CEO Matthew Shay said. “Over the past decade, spending on Father’s Day gifts has increased significantly. Retailers are ready with gifts that will have … Continue reading Father’s Day in Retail: Interesting Facts and Emerging Trends
The cannabis retail checklist ensures that your dispensaries have the right processes and systems in place and meet regulatory, community and health and safety standards. Regulations do vary between US states and Canadian provinces. So this checklist is meant to help you get started in building a core collection of critical areas to inspect in … Continue reading ✔️ Cannabis Retail Checklist
In retail today, every dollar counts, and loss prevention challenges are very real. Shrink has a significant effect on a retailer’s bottom line. In fact, a recent study by the National Retail Federation (NRF) found an average shrink rate of 1.6%. This costs the retail industry more than "a staggering $100 billion...”. This is why … Continue reading Loss Prevention Challenges in Retail
While your success as a district manager largely depends on your skills and knowledge, the tools that you’re using can significantly affect how well you do your job. That’s why it’s vital that you utilize solutions (i.e., apps, platforms, services, etc.) that keep you informed, boost your productivity, and make your job easier overall. Need … Continue reading 6 Essential Tools Every District Manager Should Use
This definitive guide to retail audits is everything you need to plan, build and launch a retail audit program across your retail network. Who is this Guide for? This guide for retail audits is for multi-unit retailers in industries like food service, convenience stores, pharmacies, spas and clinics, telecommunications, and alcohol retailers. This guide also … Continue reading ⭐ Retail Audits – The Definitive Guide
Visual merchandising creates an impact and makes an impression on every guest who visits your business. Anything the customer can see from the outside of the store and throughout the interior can work to optimize the retail space. From storefront displays to signage and overall floor plan, effective visual merchandising techniques work cohesively to reflect … Continue reading 7 Visual Merchandising Techniques to Increase Sales
Retail is abuzz with the momentum of companies jumping to create a niche for themselves in the emerging cannabis market. As cannabis becomes more widely accepted thanks to legalization, the market will continue to boom with new products. Here are the trends affecting cannabis and retail. Cannabis Edibles and Retail Photo credit: Shutterstock Though cannabis edibles … Continue reading Cannabis and Retail: Interesting Facts and Emerging Trends
Focusing on operational standards, safety, and customer experience isn't just for retailers. Too often parking operators neglect reviewing standards and best practices until there is a problem (e.g. broken gate, slip and fall, theft). Regular parking lot inspections/audits help you be proactive (not reactive) and solve problems before they are liabilities. Revenues from parking management … Continue reading 3 Types of Audits Parking Lot Operators Should Conduct
Loss prevention is a set of policies and procedures designed to minimize theft, fraud, vandalism and waste. Use this sample Loss Prevention Checklist for Parking Operators to create or update your loss prevention program across your parking lots and sites. General Record date of the last LP Audit Location has a key control log for … Continue reading ✔️ Loss Prevention Checklist for Parking Operators
Any multi-store retailer would agree that having a competent district manager is critical to success. Tasked with overseeing the operations of all stores within a given district or area, a district manager needs to juggle several retail components, including staff development, compliance, sales, customer satisfaction, and more. Needless to say, the individual that you hire … Continue reading 6 Tips for Hiring a Retail District Manager
Through our business and research, we have come across a number of high-level facts and statistics about the retail pharmacy industry, its direction and emerging trends. While our research focused on North America, we thought these emerging pharmacy trends would be of interest to our customers and readers in all markets. Your senior customers matter … Continue reading Pharmacy Industry: Interesting Facts and Emerging Trends
Mother's day is the third largest retail holiday in the U.S, following Christmas and the back-to-school season. Seasonal programs like Mother's day drive big profits for retailers and restaurants. Mother’s Day spending reached a record $35.7 billion! “Mother’s Day spending has been growing consistently over the past several years, and this year’s spending is expected to be the highest in … Continue reading Mother’s Day in Retail: Interesting Facts and Emerging Trends
The United States, Canada, Europe, and Australia are all experiencing a swell in their aging populations. In the US 10,000 people turn 65 every day, and in just over a decade, 20% of the US population will be over 65. Already in 2016, 15% of Australia's population was 65+. An aging population means a greater … Continue reading How Pharmacies can Better Engage Seniors
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