Christmas is Coming
Once more, morning air turns chill with the nip that pumps adrenaline into the hearts of retailers everywhere, nudging, "Christmas is coming, Christmas is coming." This is a year to be a grown-up, to do homework and to analyze our assortment with an open mind. What worked in 2007 is yesterday's lesson. This is a year of quantum evolution. We're all learning again how to do what we do in a new economy. We come a little wiser from a boom economy, learning to prosper now, with a wholly changed set of rules.
Boomers are done buying at their former rate; the next generations bring a different mind-set to the table.
If it's fresh, fun and inexpensive, it's selling well -- especially with a dash of humor. Well-engineered tools are paying our rent this autumn. So are greener products as a sense of environmental awareness now moves into the "givens" of successful engineering.
It's a year for everyone, right up and down the supply chain, to learn again how to delight and surprise our customers; how to let them teach us what they want us to be; and to learn again how to sell, stock and inventory now. It's been a year for nuts-and-bolts mechanics: controlling inventory, forecasting, technical evolutions, predicting where we need to jump in and out, looking at supplier stock outages (re-sourcing key items out of stock too often, getting out of what is not paying rent…). A year to be a grown-up.
A comparatively flat year also brings the opportunity to look at so many of the projects that have lain on the to-do list for too long, from repainting to reorganizing to fixturing and signage, and improve sell rates with better, tighter presentation. And to step forward to train everyone to deliver an ever-better customer experience.
It's been a year to hone and winnow our assortment (a grocery friend calls it "evicting nonpaying tenants") as we move shelf space to fresh new looks, to focus on staying in stock of core pieces, and culling those items that have not turned in too long, or are not turning well enough.
Aggressively re-pricing the slow movers and learning what we always need to be in stock has worked well: our shelves are moving to faster-turn items, customers are excited by great deals on those "keep us humble" buying decisions (and we're glad to have the shelf back).
Training the fall's crop of high school employees, we remember again that the joy of retail is the people; and that we need to learn to serve another generation that comes through the door with a whole different set of expectations. Learning is fun.
In 2009, we've seen more movement in our vendor list (top 100 suppliers) than ever before, as some well-branded companies have really struggled and lost ground, and some timely unknown companies surge to the fore. We're all playing closer to the vest ...
We're all discovering again how to deliver what our customers want -- experience and assortment and display -- and looking to step forward into our next iteration.
It's a year to think again about the "givens" of our business, a year to question and grow. Change brings the opportunity to make things more as they ought to be, it's work and fun in equal measure, and Christmas is a-comin' ... and the joy finding the perfect match for the folks we love.
With hard work, though, and a dash of luck, Santa will roll right along also! We're listening for those reindeer. By Laura Havlek, Sign of the Bear, Sonoma Calif.
You are certainly right that the new generation has a different mindset... They are not going to easily give up their trust. They will have to be sold and not told to to buy.
Posted by: Ron Jakubisin | October 01, 2009 at 06:09 PM