5 Tips for Dealing with Unsuccessful Retail Programs

It happens even to the best brands. You conceptualize and execute a retail campaign to get your product into customers’ shopping carts, only to see lackluster results. The campaign, to put it bluntly, flopped. It’s a frustrating position to be in, but how you handle and respond to program flops can help you learn and … Continue reading 5 Tips for Dealing with Unsuccessful Retail Programs

5 Consumer Trends for Brands (and How to Keep Up)

The CPG landscape is more competitive than ever. The shopping habits of consumers have changed dramatically over the last few years, and brands who fail to keep up risk losing market share to more innovative and forward-thinking companies. Don’t let this happen to you. Ensure that your brand stays relevant by keeping an eye on … Continue reading 5 Consumer Trends for Brands (and How to Keep Up)

Why Store Execution Matters

We've all heard "retail is detail" Let's find out what that means and why execution is so important. Vision vs. Reality The vision is what head office envisions. The vision hopes to deploy merchandising initiatives and seasonal programs to produce a certain outcome such as higher sales, lower costs and/or higher customer satisfaction. The vision … Continue reading Why Store Execution Matters

How to Implement Two-Way Communication Between Stores and Head-Office

If you have retail stores, or franchisees, you need to send and receive information from stores. How to do this effectively is less obvious. Let's dive in.  From head-office to the stores Head office needs to communicate information to all/some stores, in all/some regions. These packets of communication travel "downward" and may be used to … Continue reading How to Implement Two-Way Communication Between Stores and Head-Office

10 Operational Failures That Hurt a Retailer’s Image and Sales

Christopher Fifelski recently posted this list of Top 10 Retail Failures to the District Managers and Retail Operations group on LinkedIn, a Bindy-moderated professional group with over 40,000 members. With his permission, we are cross-posting Chris’ list on this blog. We also thank the other industry professionals who have contributed to the discussion, including Adele … Continue reading 10 Operational Failures That Hurt a Retailer’s Image and Sales

“Old School” Retail Sayings

There is something about "Old school" sayings. Somehow, they seem to capture tried-and-true wisdom. As retail professionals, we tend to use them to illustrate core values of the retail industry. Recently, David Johnson a member of the District Managers and Retail Operations group on LinkedIn, asked members to share their favourite "old school" retail sayings. … Continue reading “Old School” Retail Sayings

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6 Reasons to Measure Brand Standards

Brand standards span broad areas of the operations of a franchise network, including customer service, product preparation, merchandising, cleanliness, human resources, security, loss prevention and fire prevention. They govern how specific tasks should be completed and what a successful implementation outcome entails. Most customer-facing franchise-based groups, especially in industries such as hospitality, food service and … Continue reading 6 Reasons to Measure Brand Standards

Who Benefits from Retail Audits?

Retail audits and store visits are proven to drive brand standards, increase customer satisfaction and mitigate risks in multi-unit retail. How exactly do retail audits benefit you? Here are some of the benefits you can expect from retail audits. Head Office Lower total cost of ownership than Excel™ and paper-based visits. Home-grown solutions are often … Continue reading Who Benefits from Retail Audits?