We are already in autumn, an important time of year for planning the commercial growth of our retail businesses.
We may be considering extending our assortments, planning new product ranges, growing our human resources, even contemplating opening new physical shops and online sales channels.
Growth can come in many ways to achieve these crucial additional sales. So, for all of us, it is worth stepping back and taking the time to consider what growth means to each of us, and for our businesses, beyond simply the selling of more products in more shops.
The routes to growth have changed. The customer used to buy products. Then they bought brands. Today, it is the retail proposition that the customer buys, and it is what they buy into.
The retail proposition is the ‘complete package’ that your customer experiences with you. It is a combination of product assortment and customer services, and is delivered as a physical retail shop, a pureplay digital site, or any combination of channels and social media touchpoints.
If you want to grow your sales, you must grow your proposition. And at the heart of your plan for growth, you need to have a definitive plan of how to grow your relationship with your customer.
What is the key relationship you have with your customer? What do you need to grow to develop that relationship into product sales?
If you are in the business of selling products to people relying on your convenience, availability & price, then you need to grow your competence and expertise in delivering those basic foundations of your business.
You need to grow the availability of products, minimise empty shelves, grow relationships with suppliers for add-value, more reliability, consistency and low prices. You need to grow your operational expertise and logistical capabilities to ensure the experience the customer has is always exceptional.
You will grow the loyalty of your customers, through gaining their trust, by always getting the basics correct. Growing assortments and expanding shop portfolios are important, but only if you can deliver them efficiently.
If, like most retailers, you are already developing a closer relationship with your customers, you need to continue to improve your basic competencies, but also to grow ever more into your customer’s lives.
You will need to grow your expertise in understanding your customer, from personal interaction to data collection, analysis and research. And this must be coordinated with growing your process flexibility to become a reactive business, able to respond quickly and dynamically to develop more meaningful services and appropriate products for your customer’s ever-changing lifestyle preferences.
It will be the growth of services and personalisation that will grow sales. It will not necessarily be the size, but the dynamics of change, in your assortment that will generate profit through the tills.
To grow the closest relationships, to develop the most loyal customers, retailers need to empathize with what their customers believe in, above and beyond what they experience and buy in stores.
Retailers need to think like their customers, talk like their customers, grow their own viewpoints, ethical policies and consciences, and to take actions that the customers respect.
Retailers in the wellbeing sector have great potential to grow their visibility and influence across sustainability, supplier conditions, workers rights, regenerative production, carbon footprints, charitable causes, local community collaborations, and all areas of responsible retailing.
These simple, bold and honest customer propositions increase the depth of loyalty of customers.
So, it is always worth considering that commercial sales growth is not always the result of growing product assortments and increasing shop portfolios.
Opening more shops is part of the puzzle but it is complex & expensive. Developing new assortments does present more sales opportunities but must be controlled and professionally curated.
Ultimately, unless we grow our customer relationships appropriately, grow the customer’s trust, their enjoyment, respect and loyalty, then new products and new shops alone will never realise the sales growth we desire.
This year, plan for sales growth, by growing your business enablers, and not just your product deliverables.