Latest stories

We are grateful here at Tower Systems to work with many different retailers in many different settings. Over the years, our experience has evolved. Add two this our own experience running our own shops for more than 26 years and we are resourced and able to offer insights and advice on local retail business management.

I hate going into work. As a friend of ours said these words we knew they had far more weight than if they had been said by an employee. Our friend owned the retail store to which they were referring. He hated going into his own retail business. They had fallen out of love with what they had created and the bitterness they felt towards their business had soured to hatred.

Why do some retailers hate going to work? It is an interesting question which needs exploration before we look at strategies for countering this.

There is usually a trigger – tough economic conditions, personal challenges away from the business, a partner dispute, tiredness… there could be any combination of reasons.  Sometimes, I have seen a reason quite a distance from the business itself.

If you own a retail store and you have reached the point where you hate going into work each day it is important to take time away from the business for an honest assessment as to why you hate the business. Until you can answer the question – why do you hate going into work? – you cannot begin to work on resolution.

Once you know the reasons you hate going to work, think about a series of small and achievable steps you could take to turn the situation around.

No matter how challenging the situation, there are always steps you could take. Focus on these, start work on them and in some instances that alone will be enough to move you through the fog of anger and ill-feeling toward the business.

Breaking a big problem down into small steps makes it feel manageable.

If finding small steps to take does not work, get together with a trusted friend and tell them how you feel toward the business. Ask them to talk with you about the business. Reminisce about why you started or purchased the business. Remember your dreams and hopes. Use the conversation to explore your emotion at the moment you decided to open or purchase the retail business.

If you have the funds, substitute your friend with a psychologist or professionally qualified counsellor to explore your feelings for the business.

We are not suggesting a business coach or mentor here because the ill-feeling toward the business is more often personal and is better dealt with by those with skills on working with feelings.

Understanding your hatred for your retail business is the first step. This will usually, of itself, reveal the first steps you can take to turn the hatred around. Be open to that. Take small steps and see where they lead. The change in feeling toward the business may not be immediate so do not expect too much too soon.

Some retailers we have worked with have felt ashamed of their hatred for their business. The best and toughest analogy we heard was that it was like hating your own child.

A retail store, especially one you created on your own, is like a child. There is no shame to be had in this feeling. So many factors can come into play to get one to this point.

By getting help to understand your feelings and using the understanding which flows from this to develop a strategy you can expect to start to feel better – even if the strategy involves you exiting that business.

If you do nothing, the hatred will be more and more reflected in the business and in your own person. Neither benefits from this.

Banks, and small business lenders, are vitally important for any retail business from day to day trading through to long term funding. A healthy relationship with your bank or lender will be vitally important to keeping the retail business healthy.

Maintaining a good banking relationship can be a challenge for retailers. It takes attention to detail and hard work. Retailers can be often sidetracked in their business days and not remember to take of the banking relationship.

Here are 7 tips which can lead to a better banking / lender relationship and thereby provide the business with protection against damage to the relationship.

1. Be on time, every time. With trading figures, annual accounts and any other regular reports that you bank requires you to provide. Being on time will win a tick from them and ensure that you are not on their businesses to watch and be concerned about radar.
2. Send them your newsletter. If you have a customer newsletter, put your bank manager on the list. Treat them like a customer and through this help drive a better connection between their business and yours. Newsletters go on your file and give local branch employees something to show off if they are talking to more senior people in the bank about businesses they like.
3. Ask for regular meetings. You set the agenda for briefing sessions where you let the bank know how business is going and how you are leveraging your relationship with them. Even informal meetings are reflected in internal banking reports and these can strengthen your position with the bank.
4. Recommend the bank. If the bank is serving you well and you are happy, recommend them to others. Be honest in your recommendation, let your friends know why you like this bank and what they have done for you. Let the bank know when you do this as it helps them see you and your business in a broader light.
5. Invite bank employees in. If you are holding a sales or some other event, invite bank employees to participate. They could be good customers. They will also appreciate seeing the business first hand.
6. Be regular. Banks appreciate regularity – with deposits and with payments.  Try and maintain a regular pattern in your business transactions.
7. Write, update and follow a business plan. This should be point #1.  A well thought out and up to date business plan demonstrates how serious you are about your business.  Having this for bank review meetings will encourage them to treat you more seriously than retail businesses without a plan.

Treat the banking relationship as personal and one which needs to be nurtured each week. The better your communication the better the relationship. Be sure to set time aside for this in your work schedule and to include the bank wherever possible and practical.

The business outcome is flexibility when you need it and access for free advice at times of important business decisions.

Good banks appreciate good relationships with their retailer customers. You will find that they invest more time in businesses which invest time in them.

Here at Tower Systems while we are a POS software company, our advice and help for local small business retailers often reaches beyond what is traditional.

The retiree (or seniors) marketplace can be lucrative for many different types of retail stores. They tend to be loyal and engaged in word of mouth marketing about good retail experiences. They can also be flexible about when they shop and this is where a retail business can really leverage the opportunity. They also network, leading to valuable word of mouth

Before you can market any retiree service or benefit you need to develop a plan for handling the opportunity. What products will be offered and at what special prices? The most common approach is to offer a flat discount to retirees, or seniors as they are called in some marketplaces. This discount is usually between 5% and 10%.

Price is important to the seniors marketplace since they either have a fixed income or are living off finite savings.  They like businesses which help them save money.

You will also need to decide when the discount or other offer is available. Some businesses make the offer available only on certain days, usually the quietest days of the week. Others offer access to the benefits all the time. Think carefully about the needs of the business before deciding when you will provide access to the benefits – focus on the business outcome you want to achieve.

In terms of accessing the benefit, it is common and fair to ask for some form of proof of eligibility. This could be in the form of a drivers license or a seniors card as is available in some locations.  This is a card usually issues by local government.  Sometimes, it is issued by residences.

An alternative is to create your own retiree / seniors card for use in promoting the business. These should be professionally designed and produced. Ensure that such a card is respectful and something these customers would proudly carry. Design the card so that it promotes the benefits you offer – so that it is an extension of your marketing program.

Whatever method you use to identify your retiree customers, it has to be simple to use at the counter for processing the appropriate discount.

To market a business to retirees consider these options:

1. Train employees to offer the discount or other benefits to someone who looks eligible. While this could cause embarrassment, it could also extend the word of mouth around the offer.
2. Promote to retirement villages in the local area.
3. Advise local government authorities that you offer a benefit to retirees.
4. Contact local clubs and organisations likely to connect with retirees.
5. Promote the benefits in-store and in your business newsletter. You want to spread your offer as far and wide as possible, so that retirees beat a path to your door.
6. Visit local retirement residences and offer assistance.
7. Advertise in trailer parks.
8. Look up clubs the Internet – there are plenty of groups, clubs and forums for older folks travelling around. They share tips about places they like.

The value of the retiree market to your retail store will depend on the value of the offer available to them and how widely you promote this. While some retailers see retirees as a chore others see a business opportunity.

Winners are grinners as they say. Shoppers who win from a retail store are happy and they tell their friends. Whether it is a large or small prize, the value to the business of making winners of customers can be considerable.

The best competitions are those where a customer of the retail store is guaranteed to win. That is, there the competition is store specific. While participating in larger national and state wide competitions around products brands and even franchise brands can be good for business, it is the local competitions which provide the best opportunity for local promotion.

Here are some tips on how to use competitions effectively to promote your retail store:

Every competition needs a focus. Promote a specific product or product category or a certain level of spending. Competitions open to anyone without a tactical focus are likely to be less successful.

Make entering easy for everyone. Ensure that the mechanics of the competition – how to enter – are easy and understood. You don’t want to slow down the sales counter or have customers reject entering the competition because of complexity.

Promote well. Promote the competition well in the business from the front window throughout the store.

Encourage participation. Get all employees actively promoting the competition. Offer a reward for the employee who achieves the most entries per hour worked.

Drive impulse purchases. A good competition is one used to drive impulse purchases at the counter. They key here is that the item being sold, the trigger for a competition entry, must be easily understood.

Show off the prize. If possible, show the prize of offer for the competition. This can drive people to engage in the behaviour you are promoting as they more easily understand the opportunity.

Show off entries. If entry in the competition requires shopper activity like drawing or coloring, show off the entries as this will drive more traffic to the store.

Promote winners. Take photos of competition winners, with their permission, and use these in newsletters and on a winners board in-store. This is how you can promote the store as a place where winners shop.

Host and event around the prize draw. Make the drawing of the winner a special event with its own retail hooks to drive sales.

Create a competition calendar. This can provide focus to the competition program throughout the year and ensure that they are a consistent part of the marketing mix.

Engage with suppliers. Call of key suppliers to support the business with prizes for your competitions. This is more easily achieved if the competition connects with specific brands.

Promote externally. Use the competition to promote the business externals in advertising and promotional flyers.

Competitions, regardless of size, can drive excellent results for a retail store. Professional execution is the key from the planning stand right through to the drawing of the winner. Ensure that everyone involved including customers have fun with each competition you run.

Shopping ought to be enjoyable and, preferably, fun. Often, it is the experience itself which separates one retail store from another. This is why every retail business needs to devote management and front line attention to delivering a memorable and enjoyable experience.

One way to provide a memorable shopping experience is to have authentic and in the moment fun – among the sales team and with customers. Here are seven tips for having fun in any retail store:

1. Theme days. Embrace an era which with interest your customers. For example, the 1970s. Dress the store and employees in keeping with the 1970s. Have a couple of items on sale at 1970s prices – to connect the theme with a commercial outcome. Get some stories from the 1970s related to products you sell and place these on display boards in the window. Consider a competition for the customer in the best 1970s costume.
2. Other theme days include: school days, foreign country days where you wear traditional dress from a foreign country, crazy hair day and, of course, more theme days around key decades.
3. Local sports competition. Fully embrace any major local sporting event, choose a team, dress in their colours and dress the store in their colours. Be unashamedly parochial and show your customers your local support.
4. In-store buskers. Find some local musicians you enjoy and who have a repertoire which would connect with your customers and invite them in to play live for your customers. This would bring a vibrancy to the store and provide welcome entertainment for your customers as they shop. The local performers get to reach a new audience and you get to change up the feel of your business.
5. Repurposing day. Host an event where customers compete for a prize for the most innovative repurposing of a product you sell. The idea would be that they take something you sell and demonstrate a use for it in a way which is completely different to what the manufacturer expected. There would need to be a rule that the new use is genuinely useful.
6. The cutest baby. Invite your customers to bring in a photo of whey they were a baby, the older the better. Stick the photos on a wall and take votes on the best. You could change this up with two photos: as a baby and today and get customers to connect the two. Family members will come in to look at the photos and vote. A local store could get a real buzz with a promotion like this. While there is no obvious direct sales imperative, the traffic and word of mouth should drive good business.
7. Stand up comedy in store. Invite local comedians to try out their stand up routines with your customers. While you would need to be careful about content, such an event would show the store supporting local artists and it could bring some fun to quiet retail times.
8. Crazy tie day. While this has been done before plenty of times, you could kick it up with an amazing tie display – collect these from local Goodwill stores, invite customers to donate. As with the theme days idea, interact with customers and offer a prize for the best / worst.

These seven ideas are the tip of the iceberg for in-store promotions. They are designed to kick start your own thinking, to pursue what its right for your specific type of retail business.

The key here is to give everyone who works in the shop permission to have fun, and nurture fun.

Retail is very much about the shopping experience. While good customer service and a friendly shopping experience are vital, sometimes it is the wonderful unexpected experience which can get people talking about a business.

Be bold and have fun.

Selling is the lifeblood of retail, especially local small business retail.

It takes skill, stamina and creativity yet it is often treated as one of the lowest roles in an organization. Smart retailers help their sales staff improve their skills to better serve the business and its customers.

Some salespeople are naturals while others work hard to learn the skills. Everyone, no matter how experienced can improve. Take a moment to consider these five steps to better selling.

1. Be in the moment. Focus on the customer in front of you, listen and respond to their needs. Genuinely care, don’t just act like you care. The personal connection they feel from and with you is more likely to bring them back into the store than almost anything else including product and price. If you are not comfortable with developing such a personal connection then maybe retail is not for you.
2. Understand what you sell. Knowledge is king, even more so in retail. By knowing everything there is to know about the products you sell you make yourself more valuable to the business and to its customers. Good employees spend personal time learning about the products and how they are of value to their customers.
3. Enjoy yourself. Smiles and laughter are infectious. If you are happy your customers are more likely to be happy. Happy customers are more relaxed about spending money. But don’t fake it as fakes can be spotted. Know what makes you happy about your job and embrace this. Never be afraid to bring i bit of your personal self to the shop floor or the sales counter.
4. Know when to be quiet. Some shoppers like to be told what to buy but most prefer to make their own choices. It is important to spot the difference and know when to leave a shopper to make their own decision. Provide the information important to the decision but leave them space to make the decision for themselves.
5. Selling is a service. Too often, especially in busy retail environments, selling is seen as production line work. If this is how it is treated then the experience will be less personal and memorable for the shopper. If you treat it as a service and understand that service does matter, you focus on the service as the point of difference. This change in mindset alone can lead to considerable change in a retail business.

So how to these steps increase retail sales? It all comes down to the service delivered being better than elsewhere: more personal, friendlier, more knowledgeable and genuine. Combined, these attributes make for a unique shopping experience in today’s cookie-cutter obsessed retail world.

Retail employees who see retail as a career will do well for their businesses and for their careers by embracing these steps.