Welcome back retailers! Are you looking for some ideas to make this next year your most profitable year yet? We can help! Here at RetailBound we’ve come up with ten New Year’s Resolutions that will help bring you and your company into 2014 with a bang!
- Talk up, not down – focus on the positive attributes of your company, product, employees, services, etc. rather than what your competitors are lacking.
- Spend more time coaching and training staff
- Develop a customer rewards program that inspires brand loyalty – see our post on how to create a successful loyalty program here
- Keep on top of your inventory with daily, weekly, and monthly reports
- Find a vendor partner – a vendor partner should be your long-term, go-to supplier that gives you not just the best price but the best value; consider shipping, terms of sale, and other factors before making a commitment
- Attend trade shows and other retail expos – see our post on how to navigate these events successfully here. You will need to invest a little capital in order to get up and running at a trade show, for example, you’ll need some equipment like a fold-away table and a trade show banner, but it’s a small price to pay for the ROI.
- Amp up your social marketing – move your marketing online by employing these tactics
- Reduce shrinkage – average shrink is about 2% of total sales; combat loss by cracking down on employee theft, shoplifting, administrative errors, and vendor fraud
- Give back to your community with an employee volunteer program – studies show that businesses that volunteer benefit from brand awareness, affinity, loyalty, and reputation, and their employees are more retentive, productive, loyal, skilled, and satisfied. To help with brand awareness in your community, why don’t you offer residents an umbrella with all of your brand’s details on there. You can get your company logo on a quality branded umbrella from somewhere like BrandedBrolly to ensure that people will recognize your business; especially on rainy days.
- Commit to effective delegation – determine your personal ROI and delegate the tasks outside of your scope
Don’t be discouraged if you didn’t meet all of your goals last year. With a new year comes new hope and opportunity to turn things around to the way you really want them. You can always reach out to experts around you to help with areas you may not have the best experience in, such as looking up “Public Relations”, “Online marketing” or “www.ngpimc.com” to find ways to boost that brand awareness, or reaching out to other local vendors to find partners and forge new business relationships. Remember to keep goals realistic and attainable by setting smaller, incremental goals or benchmarks along the way.
Have more ideas to better your business this year, or want to convey a story of your own? Share them with us on our blog, Facebook, or Twitter. Or email us at info@retailbound.com.
