The Complete Retail Entrepreneur
Professional eLearning course
It has never been as easy to be a retailer, but it has never been so hard to be a successful one. Strategic thinking, market awareness, brand & product innovation, and the ability to seamlessly blend people & technology across physical and digital channels are essential skills and attributes for every retail leader. These are the competencies that retail investors, owners, executives, colleagues and customers value the most.
‘The Complete Retail Entrepreneur’ eLearning course is the perfect career accelerator for individual entrepreneurs, new retail business owners, and anyone driving commercial change in established businesses. It allows flexibility for you to learn and evolve at your own pace, working around your current commitments and personal evolution plan.
This is not just another online generic business course. Beyond this, it is the most comprehensive retail specific professional learning course. The extra that we know and the extra we can teach you. This course is not just about learning how to use theory & data, but in a way that allows you to build skills, skills that will enhance your everyday & future retail management delivery.
Explore the course modules
Learn more about ‘The Complete Retail Entrepreneur.’ Professional & bespoke eLearning for retail business teams, entrepreneurs and individual executives. Launching soon in the Autumn of 2023.
Available now & launching throughout 2024.
Please contact me to show your interest, or ask any questions…
tim@retailmeaning.com
FAQs: Frequently asked questions…
Personalised learning from the ‘voice of experience.’
The course materials have been exclusively written and prepared by myself, Tim Radley, from working with over 100 international retail & consumer brand clients. Presentations, workshops & training to 1000s of executives, managers, retail entrepreneurs and specialists.
I’ve been working with established retail businesses, new entrepreneurs and start-up brands for 25 years. Over that time I have been making retailers more efficient and commercially profitable, and more ethical and sustainable. I have worked to improve the brand proposition, the product assortment, the inventory & supply chains. To deliver distinct and engaging customer experiences, physical shops, pop-ups, e-commerce, social and digital retailing.
At the heart of my work has always been the belief that great retailing is built around amazing people. From the boardroom to the stockroom, I always strive to make organisations, teams, and individual executives into ‘great’ retailers, through project work, training, workshops, mentoring and eLearning courses.
This experience, knowledge and inspiration is now available to everyone through ‘The Complete Retail Entrepreneur’ eLearning course.
It is effectively like having a consultant review your retail business with you, asking all the (often challenging) questions to check whether the business, or you as an individual, are in the best state to succeed. Rather than being just theoretical, the action pages give practical advice/checklists and actions, including some surprising ones like ‘Plan for the end for your business’.
Pete – Founder & CEO UPskill Ltd. UK
Tim Radley is such a giving individual filled with so much knowledge within Retail. Every time he speaks you learn something.
Louise – Retail expert, trainer & mentor. Ireland
How will you benefit, grow and evolve as a retail leader?
You will learn to think, to analyse, to appraise, and to make better intuitive judgements when faced to act decisively in these disruptive retail times. You will grow and evolve the professional competencies, and the personal attributes, that retail investors, owners, executives, colleagues and fellow retail entrepreneurs value the most.
- Awareness & insight on how and why the consumer is evolving so rapidly
- Understanding of the commercial importance of customer relationship development
- Skills to enable you to build customer connections through brand and product propositions
- Understanding of how to balance and co-ordinate people and technology
- Confidence to invest time & resources into the correct strategies & deliverables for your business
- Abilities to assess and adopt the best and most appropriate practices from established retailers
- Abilities & confidence to be able to employ successfully a digital & disruptive mind-set
- Vision & skills to develop physical shops as ‘Personal Destination Retailers.’
- awareness & direction to deliver brand appropriate & seamless customer touchpoints
- Foresight to move from traditional physical ‘retail location planning’ to immersive ‘customer location planning’
- Authority & confidence to shift retail mind-sets from ‘economies of scale’ to ‘scale on economies’
- Values & empathy to embrace ethical, sustainable and commercial circular practices
- Integrity to create and develop original, honest, genuine ‘authentic retail propositions!’
Who is this course for?
- Retail entrepreneurs and new business owners
- Retail professionals who need new retail thinking and skills to help propel themselves in their chosen careers.
- New brands & consumer goods designers, makers, manufacturers & distributers.
- Executives and managers injecting new retail thinking and processes into their existing businesses
- CEOs and directors needing to refresh their retail awareness, strategies and leadership
- Investors in retail disruption and start-up businesses
- Innovators across retail functions from buying & merchandising to retail estate planning & digital interface development
- Businesses & individuals who wish to continue supporting and supplying the retail industry
Available now & launching throughout 2024 & 24.
Explore the course modules:
‘The Complete Retail Entrepreneur’ is available as a single course, comprising 7 separate modules. The course is delivered remotely through video tutorials, podcasts, real-world case studies, workshop exercise sheets, action plans & infographics. A full support program of one-to-one & group mentoring seminars with Tim Radley is also available.
01 What makes an essential retailer?
How to make yourself essential to customers…
This module looks at how the customer is re-appraising the importance of consumer goods and shops within a wider social context, and our individual situations. Customers are making decisions on what they really need to buy and who they really need to buy from. Retailers must not ‘fail’ their customers.
Everyone in retail is now being asked to conceive and deliver something that is essential to customers. Expectations of how retail executives understand and relate to customers are having to change.
Learn more about this module, buy & enroll
02 Creating customer relationships.
How to build your brand proposition & loyalty…
This module explores how the deeper the customer connection, the bigger the retail opportunities. It examines 3 levels of engagement – basic, advanced and the ultimate relationship. The level of connection is a strategic decision for every brand, based on the customer’s requirements, the retailer’s capabilities, and the commercial and emotional ROI potential.
The one certainty today is that every retailer needs to have a strong and lasting relationship with its customers. It must mean something to its customers, whether that is low price & ease-of-shop, or beautiful products and shared ethical & sustainable philosophies. It must build this with a coordinated brand connection, product proposition and service evolution.
Learn more about this module, buy & enroll
03 Your retail evolution curve.
How to plan your road to retail success…
This module explores the development of customer markets from Virgin, to Evolving, to Saturated. It illustrates how new best practice always gains a competitive advantage, which is then neutralised by those who copy. It explains how each market is defined by the balance of ‘Supply & Demand’ which determines how exceptional retailers need to be to be essential.
What is for sure is that most retailers now operate in Saturated markets, where supply has overtaken demand through extreme competition. To survive you need to be exceptional in everything you do.
04 Building retail functionality.
How to become a great retailer…
This module looks at the retail functions & processes that are now required to succeed and flourish in today’s retail world. It examines the balance of traditional skills such as buying & merchandising and location strategy, with the integration of new technologies, social marketing, omnichannel and the adoption of a digital-first mind-set.
For sure, disruptive & entrepreneurial businesses need to buy-in classic best practice through recruitment and consultancy, whilst traditional operators need to forget, and to invest heavily in new structures, personnel, HR and fast-track IT capabilities.
05 Personal destination retailers.
How to create customer communities…
This module explains what a ‘Personal destination retailer’ is, and why it is the only successful retail proposition for today’s customer. We examine that destination status must be earned through consistency, convenience, authority & trust, whilst brands need to be personal to flourish. We reveal that ‘Personal destination retailers’ can be physical, digital or omni, and from any origin and scale, but they all deliver a special experience for their customers.
The days of ‘Retail Location Planning’ have evolved into ‘Customer Location Planning’ where the retailer needs to go to the customer wherever & whenever opportunities occur. Where destination is simply where the customer is, and the personal relationship is seamless across all touchpoints.
06 Maximising ‘Scale of economies.’
How to sell more to your customer community…
This module illustrates how ‘Economies of Scale’ models are evolving into ‘Scale of Economies’ propositions. We see how high-volume, low-value assortments struggle to sell in saturated markets. To de distinct and successful brands must add value, and they must engage with customers to communicate the value. This is a return to selling for profit, and away from a buying for profit mentality.
We explain ‘Scale of economies’ retailing as the process of retail shops and touchpoints becoming part of the customer community. Brands need to leverage all of their assets to maximise the scale of the customer economy to which they sell.
07 Building ‘Commercial Authenticity.’
How to achieve the next competitive advantage…
This module illustrates how finding competitive advantage has become so difficult for retailers. Any advantage across any function or attribute is now short-lived as a side-industry of benchmarking, analysing, and replication, can quickly deliver comparative assortments, shop designs to any competitor in the market. Even the customer experience, hallowed as the saviour of the high street, can be replicated and copied, creating a flat and sterile shopping landscape.
The next, and indeed, the last competitive advantage will be authenticity, where genuine, honest retail brands can leverage the uniqueness of their origins, their culture, and their people to achieve a unique TRUST.
Why choose ‘The Complete Retail Entrepreneur?’
A trusted voice of experience
The course materials have been exclusively written and prepared by myself, Tim Radley, from working with over 100 international retail & consumer brand clients. Presentations, workshops & training to 1000s of executives, managers, retail entrepreneurs and specialists.
Practical application
This is not just another online generic business course. Beyond this, it is the most comprehensive retail specific professional learning course. The extra that we know and the extra we can teach you. This course is not just about learning how to use theory & data, but in a way that allows you to build skills, skills that will enhance your everyday & future retail management delivery.
Flexible access for life.
After purchase, students can access online courses indefinitely. The course materials are yours for as long as you need them. Follow the module schedules and carry out the workshop discussions and action plan exercises. Go at the pace you want. And have the benefit of being able to go-back to any material to refresh, remind and keep yourself informed and inspired always.
Personalised learning
The eLearning modules can be combined with one-to-one seminars, or team workshops exclusively with Tim Radley. This allows students to progress in a time-structured way with scheduled deadlines and the benefit of ongoing support and personal guidance.
Professional exclusive materials
The most comprehensive retail specific professional learning course. Comprised of 7 modules each containing…
- Minimum 50 minutes of video tutorials.
- Available as MP4 video files & audio podcast files
- Minimum 50 workshop discussion topics.
- Delivered as key learning & workshop discussion sheets
- Module handbook.
- Key learning & workshop discussion sheets
- Action plans with objectives, processes, activities, outputs & next steps
- Real-world best practice case studies
- Essential process infographics
‘The Complete Retail Entrepreneur’ is delivered through video tutorials, podcasts, real-world case studies, workshop exercise sheets, action plans & infographics. A full support program of one-to-one & group mentoring seminars with Tim Radley is also available.
The Complete Retail Entrepreneur
Professional eLearning course
Available now & launching throughout 2024 & 24.
Please contact me to show your interest, or ask any questions…
tim@retailmeaning.com
FAQs
Can I buy the modules separately?
No. You purchase the Complete course, which comprises the 7 individual modules
Do you have any other eLearning courses available?
The Complete Retail Entrepreneur is the only ‘off-the-shelf’ eLearning course.
However, we also create bespoke & customised courses for retail businesses, teams & individuals, upon request.
Please contact me to discuss your requirements
tim@retailmeaning.com
How are the modules taught?
You will work independently through online instructional materials made up of video tutorials, podcasts, real-world case studies, workshop exercise sheets, action plans & infographics.
Does the course include one-to-one mentoring?
There is an option to combine the eLearning with one-to-one seminars, or team workshops exclusively with Tim Radley. This allows students to progress in a time-structured way with scheduled deadlines and the benefit of ongoing support and personal guidance.
How do I access the materials?
After payment all materials are available to access through the learning portal. In addition the materials in the Module workbooks are available to download as pdfs
Is the course available physically in a box?
No. the course is only available online through the learning portal.
How long do I have access to the materials?
After purchase, students can access online courses indefinitely.
Do I get a qualification or certificate?
You will receive a certificate of completion upon successfully finishing a module or the complete course. The objective of the course content is to enable students to gain knowledge & skills to remain confident, competent and relevant in the workplace, and to further their retail careers. The course does not carry any credits towards a university degree or diploma qualification.
Can I get a refund?
Yes. If you are not satisfied with a module or course, a full refund can be processed up to 30 days from the time of purchase.
Do you carry out physical training courses & workshops?
Yes. I have much experience in creating and delivering physical, bespoke & customised courses & workshops for retail businesses, teams & individuals, upon request.
Please contact me to discuss your requirements
tim@retailmeaning.com
Please contact me to show your interest, or ask any other questions…
tim@retailmeaning.com
Discover more modules…
Back to top of page…
Module 01:
What makes an essential retailer?
How to make yourself essential to customers…
This module looks at how the customer is re-appraising the importance of consumer goods and shops within a wider social context, and our individual situations. Customers are making decisions on what they really need to buy and who they really need to buy from. Retailers must not ‘fail’ their customers. Everyone in retail is now being asked to conceive and deliver something that is essential to customers. Expectations of how retail executives understand and relate to customers are having to change.
In this module you will:
- Understand how COVID made the customer question more than ever what was essential to them, including possessions, purchases and retailers
- Appreciate that to be essential to your customers you need to be exceptional
- Realise that there are 2 fundamental types of connection: Functional & Emotional
- Learn the dangers of just being functional. You will need to be super-efficient to compete with the likes of Amazon and superstores
- Understand that there is not any product purchase that does not involve emotional decisions.
- Learn that you should never under-estimate the emotional power of price
- See that a great customer experience must be one that does not allow the customer to fail in their objective for coming to your store
- Appreciate that whatever the type of experience, the QUALITY must be exceptional
- Question how much emotional connection your customer wants with you beyond stocking and selling products
- Understand that loyal customers and their footfall are ‘Gold dust’ – be flexible and empathetic to build ’rounded’ and ‘complete’ relationships with them
- Appreciate the need to respond to changing situations, always…to have the capacity to RESPOND
- Learn that retailers have a much wider responsibility than just delivering sales and profit, if they want to be truly essential
- Consider who brands have a responsibility to. Who is essential to you as an ongoing, efficient and commercially successful brand?
- Learn to assess what resources, skills, facilities you have that could be utilised better for the good of your customer and the wider community
- See the importance of understanding what are your customers biggest problems, and how you can help
Selection of materials from ‘The Complete Retail Entrepreneur’ Module 01
Included in this module:
- 66 minutes of video tutorials.
- Available as MP4 video files & audio podcast files
- 57 workshop discussion topics.
- Delivered as key learning & workshop discussion sheets
- Module handbook.
- Key learning & workshop discussion sheets
- Action plans with objectives, processes, activities, outputs & next steps
- Real-world best practice case studies
- Essential process infographics
Listen to this extract from ‘The Complete Retail Entrepreneur’ eLearning course. Tim Radley explains in Module 01 – ‘What makes an essential retailer?’ why the word ‘essential’ is so important for retailers. Launching soon in the Autumn of 2023.
Buy & enroll on this module now…
Module 02:
Creating customer relationships.
How to build your brand proposition & loyalty…
This module explores how the deeper the customer connection, the bigger the retail opportunities. It examines 3 levels of engagement – basic, advanced and the ultimate relationship. The level of connection is a strategic decision for every brand, based on the customer’s requirements, the retailer’s capabilities, and the commercial and emotional ROI potential. The one certainty today is that every retailer needs to have a strong and lasting relationship with its customers. It must mean something to its customers, whether that is low price & ease-of-shop, or beautiful products and shared ethical & sustainable philosophies. It must build this with a coordinated brand connection, product proposition and service evolution.
In this module you will:
- Understand how the deeper the connection the greater the commercial opportunities
- Learn what it takes to create exceptional customer relationships
- Appreciate the fundamentals required to build the basic customer relationship
- Understand why we want advanced customer relationships
- Learn how to create advanced customer relationships
- Understand what constitutes the ultimate customer relationship
- Learn how to create the ultimate customer relationship?
- Appreciate the glorious road to personalisation
- See how to build a virtuous cycle of personalisation
- Understand how Primark has evolved from basics to beautiful inspiration
- See how Aldi & Lidl are smart at seizing opportunities to be special for the customer
- Fall in love with Hotel Chocolat’s indulgent relationship with its customer
- Learn how Homebase has achieved the ultimate in fast-track collaboration
Selection of materials from ‘The Complete Retail Entrepreneur’ Module 02
Included in this module:
- 106 minutes of video tutorials.
- Available as MP4 video files & audio podcast files
- 73 workshop discussion topics.
- Delivered as key learning & workshop discussion sheets
- Module handbook.
- Key learning & workshop discussion sheets
- Action plans with objectives, processes, activities, outputs & next steps
- Real-world best practice case studies
- Essential process infographics
Listen to this extract from ‘The Complete Retail Entrepreneur’ eLearning course. Tim Radley explains in Module 02 – ‘Creating customer relationships‘ the 3 levels of essential customer relationships. Launching soon in the Autumn of 2023.
Buy & enroll on this module now…
Module 03:
Your retail evolution curve.
How to plan your road to retail success…
This module explores the development of customer markets from Virgin, to Evolving, to Saturated. It illustrates how new best practice always gains a competitive advantage, which is then neutralised by those who copy. It explains how each market is defined by the balance of ‘Supply & Demand’ which determines how exceptional retailers need to be to be essential. What is for sure is that most retailers now operate in Saturated markets, where supply has overtaken demand through extreme competition. To survive you need to be exceptional in everything you do.
In this module you will:
- Understand why your market and your success is defined by supply & demand
- Learn how retail markets have progressed from virgin, to evolving, to saturated markets
- Realise the commercial realities of trading in saturated markets
- See the advantages and pitfalls of how businesses lead or react in dynamic cyclical markets
- Realise that businesses are finite and why to plan for the future and the end of your business
- Learn about the 3 stages of great retailers – from deal-makers to merchants and retail visionaries
- Learn what retailers need to flourish in ‘Virgin Markets’
- Understand why ultimately all retailers must be ‘Merchants!’
- Appreciate that for success in disruptive markets, your mind-sets & your processes are everything
- Learn how new people, with new mind-sets and ideas are driving change in retail
- See what makes Amazon so special, and why it is important to you
- Appreciate why all modern retailers owe Amazon so much
- Study Made.com, and see the dangers of pure disruption
Selection of materials from ‘The Complete Retail Entrepreneur’ Module 03
Included in this module:
- 76 minutes of video tutorials.
- Available as MP4 video files & audio podcast files
- 77 workshop discussion topics.
- Delivered as key learning & workshop discussion sheets
- Module handbook.
- Key learning & workshop discussion sheets
- Action plans with objectives, processes, activities, outputs & next steps
- Real-world best practice case studies
- Essential process infographics
Listen to this extract from ‘The Complete Retail Entrepreneur’ eLearning course. Tim Radley explains in Module 03 – ‘Your retail evolution curve‘ how supply & demand will dictate your fate as a retailer. Launching soon in the Autumn of 2023.
Module 04:
Building retail functionality.
How to become a great retailer…
This module looks at the retail functions & processes that are now required to succeed and flourish in today’s retail world. It examines the balance of traditional skills such as buying & merchandising and location strategy, with the integration of new technologies, social marketing, omnichannel and the adoption of a digital-first mind-set. For sure, disruptive & entrepreneurial businesses need to buy-in classic best practice through recruitment and consultancy, whilst traditional operators need to forget, and to invest heavily in new structures, personnel, HR and fast-track IT capabilities.
In this module you will:
- Appreciate why buying & merchandising are skills that need to be re-discovered
- Understand the need for commercial buying in new retailers where brand image leads the assortment
- See that ‘Merchandisers’ who understand assortment architectures, and ‘Product Buyers/Designers’ who understand taste are still the critical combination
- Learn that supply chains need to be more fluid and reactive, less wasteful and more sustainable
- See the compelling & growing need for integrating vertical teams with end-to-end technologies
- Understand how physical retailing is unbelievably resilient, but it has changed
- Learn the need for a variety of shops in different locations, serving different customers in different ways
- Appreciate that shops no longer ‘just sell’ but are omnichannel hubs, places for the customer community
- Realise there is a re-appreciation of shop staff, and businesses must develop an integrated view of the workforce
- See that retailers must understand individual workers much better, how they benefit the business, and are best placed
- Learn that businesses need to ‘skill-up’ with digital people who understand media, content and words
- See the value of the roles and people that can build loyalty with the elusive new customers
- Understand that organisations must be built built around retail intelligence and marketing
- Learn that efficiency only comes if teams work across functions with less hierarchical structures
- See that ‘Knowing where your product is, all the time’ is essential in a complex landscape of physical & digital shops
Selection of materials from ‘The Complete Retail Entrepreneur’ Module 04
Included in this module:
- 55 minutes of video tutorials.
- Available as MP4 video files & audio podcast files
- 51 workshop discussion topics.
- Delivered as key learning & workshop discussion sheets
- Module handbook.
- Key learning & workshop discussion sheets
- Action plans with objectives, processes, activities, outputs & next steps
- Real-world best practice case studies
- Essential process infographics
Listen to this extract from ‘The Complete Retail Entrepreneur’ eLearning course. Tim Radley explains in Module 04 – ‘Building retail functionality‘ the importance of mixing old retail functions with new mind-sets. Launching soon in the Autumn of 2023.
Module 05:
Personal destination retailers.
How to create customer communities…
This module explains what a ‘Personal destination retailer’ is, and why it is the only successful retail proposition for today’s customer. We examine that destination status must be earned through consistency, convenience, authority & trust, whilst brands need to be personal to flourish. We reveal that ‘Personal destination retailers’ can be physical, digital or omni, and from any origin and scale, but they all deliver a special experience for their customers. The days of ‘Retail Location Planning’ have evolved into ‘Customer Location Planning’ where the retailer needs to go to the customer wherever & whenever opportunities occur. Where destination is simply where the customer is, and the personal relationship is seamless across all touchpoints.
In this module you will:
- Learn what is a Personal Destination Retailer
- Understand they are destinations because they won’t let their customers down
- Appreciate that they are personal in the relationship and the loyalty they generate with customers
- Understand that human contact is still essential to create a feeling of belonging
- Learn how personal destination retailers replicate the personal physical experience & belonging online
- Be aware that you need to be a destination for ‘Customer wins!’
- See the importance of identifying and working on the things that stop you being a destination
- Learn that the shopping experience is not the saviour of physical shops!
- Understand that the digital shopping experience is evolving rapidly into an equally immersive customer experience
- Learn that neither the shopping experience, nor the channel, will define where most customers shop.
- Learn that it will be the quality of individual customer experiences that defines success.
- Appreciate that retail is not a battle between physical and digital. Retail is a battle between retailers
- See how the customer is in charge.
- See how customers demand that retailers will be there for them, whenever & wherever they want
- Learn that today, ‘Retail Location Planning’ has evolved into ‘Customer Location Planning’
- Understand retail is now not about the customer finding you, but about you being able to find your customer
- Learn that you need to in the place where your customer is most ’emotionally’ connected to your brand. That is when they are most likely to buy!
Selection of materials from ‘The Complete Retail Entrepreneur’ Module 05
Included in this module:
- 95 minutes of video tutorials.
- Available as MP4 video files & audio podcast files
- 91 workshop discussion topics.
- Delivered as key learning & workshop discussion sheets
- Module handbook.
- Key learning & workshop discussion sheets
- Action plans with objectives, processes, activities, outputs & next steps
- Real-world best practice case studies
- Essential process infographics
Listen to this extract from ‘The Complete Retail Entrepreneur’ eLearning course. Tim Radley explains in Module 05 – ‘Personal destination retailers‘ what is a ‘personal destination retailer?’ Launching soon in the Autumn of 2023.
Module 06:
Maximising ‘Scale of economies.’
How to sell more to your customer community…
This module illustrates how ‘Economies of Scale’ models are evolving into ‘Scale of Economies’ propositions. We see how high-volume, low-value assortments struggle to sell in saturated markets. To de distinct and successful brands must add value, and they must engage with customers to communicate the value. This is a return to selling for profit, and away from a buying for profit mentality. We explain ‘Scale of economies’ retailing as the process of retail shops and touchpoints becoming part of the customer community. Brands need to leverage all of their assets to maximise the scale of the customer economy to which they sell.
In this module you will:
- Learn about the fundamental shift from ‘economies of scale’ retail models to ‘scale of economies’ retail models
- Understand that to sell and maximise local customer economies, brands need to produce added-value product and deliver exciting and engaging shopping experiences
- Appreciate that there is a vicious cycle in operation where the customer’s voracious desire for possessions is being matched by huge production
- Realise that a changing customer mentality towards less ownership of things is leading to more re-sell and second-hand models.
- See how Gen Zs have possessions without necessarily the ownership.
- Understand that saturated markets with ‘too much stuff’ make it difficult to make easy sales simply by being there.
- See that there is a ‘return to selling.’
- Appreciate that retail sales must be built from the ground up through local & personal relationships
- Learn that ‘Community Conversion Opportunities’ should define the best and most lucrative shop locations
- Learn the 5 fundamentals ways to unlock local customer spending through engagement – commercial, social, environmental, leisure & community
- Appreciate that customers expect all retailers to be involved sustainably in the places where they operate, acting responsibly and helping to protect the environment
- See how local producers, artisans, crafts-people have become retailers blurring the boundaries of buying & selling
- Realise that local and national suppliers have become important once again as they represent reliability, security, consistency and mutual collaboration
- Learn how retailers such as the Co-op have drawn up a Small-business Charter to support local suppliers through non-exclusive contracts, fast payment and education.
- See how Morrisons can control the reality of its assortment by becoming vertically integrated, buying out and investing in its local and national supply chains
- Learn how eBay is gaining commercial and marketing success by returning to its original brand mission…local community, selling & re-selling unique buying propositions
- Understand how, through YouLend, eBay is actively financially supporting its entrepreneurs, becoming an incubator for successful businesses on the eBay platform
Selection of materials from ‘The Complete Retail Entrepreneur’ Module 06
Included in this module:
- 88 minutes of video tutorials.
- Available as MP4 video files & audio podcast files
- 71 workshop discussion topics.
- Delivered as key learning & workshop discussion sheets
- Module handbook.
- Key learning & workshop discussion sheets
- Action plans with objectives, processes, activities, outputs & next steps
- Real-world best practice case studies
- Essential process infographics
Listen to this extract from ‘The Complete Retail Entrepreneur’ eLearning course. Tim Radley explains in Module 06 – ‘Maximising ‘Scale of economies‘ how retailers can unlock the ‘scale of customer economies.’ Launching soon in the Autumn of 2023.
Module 07:
Building ‘Commercial Authenticity’
How to achieve the next competitive advantage…
This module illustrates how finding competitive advantage has become so difficult for retailers. Any advantage across any function or attribute is now short-lived as a side-industry of benchmarking, analysing, and replication, can quickly deliver comparative assortments, shop designs to any competitor in the market. Even the customer experience, hallowed as the saviour of the high street, can be replicated and copied, creating a flat and sterile shopping landscape. The next, and indeed, the last competitive advantage will be authenticity, where genuine, honest retail brands can leverage the uniqueness of their origins, their culture, and their people to achieve a unique TRUST.
In this module you will:
- Appreciate that competitive advantages have been built on incremental operational improvements, but these are short-lived and increasingly rare.
- Understand that on the saturated, expert, level-playing field of retail, brand differentiation, and competitive advantage can only be built on AUTHENTICITY
- Learn that retailers must be honest and genuine. There is no longer anywhere to hide, when the customer can see and listen to everyone’s feedback everywhere.
- See that a business must be honest with everyone from customers to colleagues. In that way the authenticity can then come from everyone from customers to colleagues.
- Understand that TRANSPARENCY is key, and often more important than the reality as long as reality shows that a brand is improving, and has the customer at its heart
- Learn the 4 reasons businesses change for the better…it’s in their DNA, they listen to customers, they fear commercial implications or fear legislation
- See that increasingly legislation is being passed across the globe to punish and exclude businesses that are unsustainable, unethical and mislead customers.
- Appreciate that the honesty and authenticity that customers crave can only be built through a genuine coordinated approach that includes every function of your business
- Learn that every retail touchpoint with customers must exhibit Integrity, Inspiration & intimacy. This combination gives a brand Authority which translates as Trust
- Understand that ‘having meaning to your business,’ and even better, a mission to satisfy the customer is an essential to have genuine authenticity.
- Learn that you must build trust throughout your development by maintaining values and qualities whilst not losing sight of your origins which gave your authority.
- See that brands must always be looking for the next chapter in their story, drawing on historic values but using ‘Influencers’ of the day to generate new stories
- Appreciate the importance of putting your product and your people at the heart of your stories…and your authenticity. The people who make, the people who sell, and the people who buy, your product
Selection of materials from ‘The Complete Retail Entrepreneur’ Module 07
Included in this module:
- 53 minutes of video tutorials.
- Available as MP4 video files & audio podcast files
- 64 workshop discussion topics.
- Delivered as key learning & workshop discussion sheets
- Module handbook.
- Key learning & workshop discussion sheets
- Action plans with objectives, processes, activities, outputs & next steps
- Real-world best practice case studies
- Essential process infographics
Listen to this extract from ‘The Complete Retail Entrepreneur’ eLearning course. Tim Radley explains in Module 07 – ‘Building ‘Commercial Authenticity,‘ what is the final competitive advantage for retailers. Launching soon in the Autumn of 2023.