Retail TNT

Management has been playing a key role in the development of a country, company or individual since ancient times. Even in the contemporary era where professionals like Edward Bernays can affect the growth or decline of a business, candidates with the dexterous management techniques can create space for a particular business. Management integrates the whole business process thereby making it more streamlined. This in turn, results in an efficient output and overall growth in the market. Retail being one of the standard sectors stands an evident lay in the field of business management.

Well, a career in retail management is well- paid and highly demanding. A candidate with a degree in retail management is well-matched for the following profiles:

– Visual Merchandising
– Retail and sales
– Stock Management
– Logistics and Warehousing

Industrial sectors like hospitality, automobiles, banking, FMCG, Travel, etc. are keeping candidates with a degree in retail management as their first preference.

Scope of Retail Management

The retail sector is all set to grasp domestic and international recognition. It not only acts as a platform for the beginners but, also stands as a booming career opportunity for high professionals. With giant brands like Reliance, Lifestyle, Levis, Coco cola, etc. the retail market is growing every day to bring more and more aspirants in the field. Though these outlets bring a common man at ease by widening its career scope still, strategizing and managing things out there in a retail sector is not quite an easy job to do. So, special courses are developed and designed in various renowned management institutes to train the aspiring candidates and make them face the competition in the real world.

The career growth in the field of retail management is unmatched and incredible. You can easily earn your heart out, if you possess this degree from a good management institute. It not only exposes you to the special needs of the industry through a unique pedagogy of learning but, also equips you with the tools to tackle real life business issues quickly and skillfully.

On a very simple level, guided selling kiosks are computerised kiosk machines that are located in retail stores to help customers to make decisions about purchases. Guided Selling ensures an optimal buying experience by intelligently walking customers through a set of key questions to determine the customer’s specific requirements, preferences and priorities. Guided selling helps consumers get to a targeted list of products based on their answers to a series of questions shown on the kiosk screen.

Guided selling kiosks are great for customers because they provide access to information, available products and product information as a catalogue would, but they can also include previous customer’s product reviews to help the customer make an informed decision.

You might assume that most customers nowadays research their purchases online before visiting the retail store. However; according to the Government statistical bulletin ‘Internet Access – Households and Individuals, 2011’, only 77 per cent of households had Internet access, rendering 33 percent of households unable to research purchases at home. Therefore; guided selling kiosks provide a premium buying experience for all customers but provides a key tool for those households without internet access.

Guided selling kiosks are also fantastic for companies. A guided selling kiosk can easily be branded and integrated into the store environment and the information that the kiosk holds can be updates quickly and easily from a central computer, all perfect for the company from the running side of things.

However, guided selling kiosks also increase sales whilst lowering costs. Guided selling kiosks provide a dynamic user experience that consumers control the length and depth of their online consultation, ensuring that each prospect receives product recommendations with the appropriate level of preparedness; guiding customers to a buying decision thereby increasing the likelihood of conversion. Furthermore, because the your retail outlet provided the guided selling kiosk and information, the customer feels confident with the transparency of the information provided, which in turn makes them more likely to make that purchase from your store.

Whilst at the other end, the kiosk cuts down on costs because specialist sales people are no longer need. Since customers, dealers and sales representatives have direct access to all relevant knowledge and information, the dependence on others, such as technical specialists, is reduced.

Additionally, guided selling kiosks can strike whilst the iron is hot, taking chip and pin payments for goods and up selling extended warrantees on electrical goods whilst the customer is still accessing the kiosk. This pay at the kiosk service can be packaged as a ‘quick service’ or a ‘discreet service’, but essentially makes the conversion before the customer leaves the kiosk.

Many of the large branded companies are seeing the benefits of guided selling kiosks and more and more are being installed into retail stores. Not only are guided selling kiosks increasing sales in store, but they are also retaining customer information for future marketing campaigns and providing customer satisfaction feedback and product reviews to assist and build the confidence of future customers.

KaChing KaChing, Inc is a progressive, publicly traded e-commerce company dedicated to offering the best brand name product selection at everyday low prices.

They recently announced that the Phase 1 tactical pre-launch of their emergence as the world’s largest online shopping community and retail chain store has been successfully completed. The phase II rollout has begun and they are starting to build out their national footprint of Independent Store Owners (ISO) who will offer millions of products and thousands of named brands at everyday low prices to customers across the nation. They have already identified and established Independent Store Owners in over half the states.

Phase II will integrate KACHING KACHING’s tier 1 merchandise partners into its co-branded proprietary online storefronts, allowing KACHING KACHING to maximize the viral aspects of the Internet. As they roll out their retail chain of online stores, it will provide a totally new shopping experience for both Independent Store Owners and the mass market consumer.

I see 3 powerful forces that are combining into something that could be very special and could actually change the online rules. Internet retail sales generated 150 billion dollars in the U.S. last year and it’s been growing by 20% a year for the past 12 years. People just marketing to other people sold 100 billion dollars in products and services worldwide last year and has a 25% growth rate. Online social networking is still the number 1 growth area in online marketing.

This company plans to exploit all 3 by having 100,000 licensees up and operating within the next year. Creating such a vast network that it becomes a force unto itself, and will likely capture a significant portion of the online retail space.

The two founders are Ron Loveless, who was selected by Wal-Mart to design and launch Sam’s Club, and was its first CEO. Also, Bob McNulty who is the developer of the first successful online shopping site, Online Shopping.com. Bob is the CEO of KaChing KaChing, Inc.

A KaChing KaChing store is an online store that is part of a nationwide chain of online stores. KaChing KaChing is NOT an online-mall. KaChing KaChing is NOT an affiliate program. KaChing KaChing DOES sell products directly from manufacturers and distributors which store owners earn up to 10% commission on the purchase price of each item sold. Real Product. Real People. Real Money.

For the first time since Shopping.com and Amazon.com, you have the opportunity to become a retail store owner in the most explosive sector on the Internet, E-COMMERCE.

Retail sales on the Internet have grown at a blistering pace of 20% a year for the past 12 years and now exceed $150 Billion dollars of annual online sales in U.S. E-Commerce is doubling every 4 years. For the first time on the Internet you can become a real online retail store owner and buy and sell products directly from manufacturers and wholesalers.

This is a HOME BASED business that you can grow full-time or part-time by marketing your store on the Internet, or to friends and family. You can also save up to 10% off everyday low prices on personal consumption, and earn up to 10% commission on the gross revenues for each item sold to others from your store.

This is the very first retail chain of online stores serving consumers on the Internet. KaChing KaChing instantly enables you to sell over 2.5 million brand name products at great low prices.

If the idea of owning an online retail store stocked with millions of products that you promote online, plus getting up to 10% of the purchase price back in commission appeals to you….go to the link under author for more information.

Get a theme/brand/niche. One of THE most important things in marketing is that you have to occupy a place in the heart of your customers. There are many words spent on talking about what this means, but for the time being I will keep it brief. This means that you need to ANCHOR your brand to an emotion, a thought or a competitive advantage. Tom Peters calls it a UPOV*8, ie a Unique Point Of View in 8 words or less. It has to be something that sets you apart from the rest, can be easily defined and creates an AURA around you. Everything you then do has to REINFORCE this.
Greenpeace protect the fragile earth
Aston Martin Beautiful, Luxurious, Serious Drivers
McDonalds Fast food, low cost, good service.

2. Atmosphere. Anyone who is familiar with The Wizard will know about using multiple Thought Particles to create an atmosphere. In a retails store this part is critical.
Use lighting; colour, spot, candle, globe. Create effects, dazzle, subdue, highlight.
Use Smells; Floral, food, leather, Grass. Awaken the senses.
Use colour; Complimentary (Violet & Yellow, Indigo & Orange). Antagonistic
Use sound; Loud, soft noise, music, fast, slow
It is up to you to come up with the rest.
Singapore Airlines, the smell has been patented
Stores, the lighting is sparse, and standard

3. PZAZZ Create steam, drama, velocity. Hire, fast working ferocious staff/Actors who fight/rollerbladers/gymnasts/circus clowns. It is like those funny home videos, you just cant help but look.

4. HIRE Good Salespeople This really should be rule number one, because it is that good. You are defined by those who work for you. Get the right people on the bus (http://www.jimcollins.com/). Use your brand to hire people that “FIT”Always make room for good sales people.

5. Define yourself That is you, the owner. In the military they have stripes that define who you are. A wise man once said to me, “what is the point of being somewhere, if no one knows you are there.” Wear, use, have a bright red tie. Die your hair. Dress like a Mime. Your team and customers deserve to notice who you are.

6. Business Names must be obvious – a good practical point. Dont call yourself “Daves” because no one will know what you sell. Give yourself a name that both defines what you are and what you do. Look through the dictionary. Find words that sum up what you are about.

7. Business Location Location Location!! You can not underestimate the benefits of a good location. High Visibility, good foot traffic, access to distribution centres. Pay for a high traffic location, it is VERY cheap advertising.

8. Invest in good Signage Get someone to design your sign and shop front WELL. It is extremely important when setting up the store.

9. Share your vision with everyone – All your employees, regular customers, friends and family should know what your store/business is all about. It should be reflected in the brand, the smell, the products and the processes. Make it visible, make it a slogan, make it count.

10. Handle complaints immediately and thoroughly – Make sure you take complaints on board. They are constructive critisim. Even if you think the perpetrator is a fruit loop, he may be saying what everyone else is thinking. Tom Peters talks about talking to the lunatic fringe. From these comments, you may be able to improve service in leaps and bounds.

11. Give something back Most companies are starting to get it. Pick a good cause and get behind it. Sponsoring local sports teams is good. Planting a forest is better. Leverage is the key. Make sure you publicise what you are doing. Dont turn it into a marketing campaign, but make sure everyone in your sphere is aware of it

In this tenth and final part of a series of articles about how to survive as a small retailer, I will summarize the main points from the articles and have a look at what the future holds.

Retailing is one of the toughest businesses there is. The reason is that, although trade may be steady, it is a low margin business. This means you work long and hard for little reward. You are in a market where the customers are very knowledgeable about the products they are buying and the have a preset idea of what range of price they are prepared to pay. You are in a business where “the big order” never comes. All you can do is grow your business steadily and hope that a superstore doesn’t open over the road and steal your customers. If you seriously struggling as a small retailer, the first thing to ask yourself is “am I ready for the fight?”. If you have doubts, it may be time to quit right now. On the other hand if you are up for it, by working to your strengths as a small retailer and by hanging in there, the rewards may be better than you imagined.

Some people bemoan the demise of small stores and blame the large chains for their downfall. Superficially this is true, but this is like Yahoo! blaming Google for its downfall (should it ever happen) or radio stations blaming television for losing audience and advertising revenue. I suspect that few of the people who want small stores kept as museums would be prepared to support them by buying goods from them if they are given the choice of better value for money in a chain store over the road. So get real. Forget blaming the opposition. You need to do this for yourself. You never know, you

may one day expand your business into a large chain yourself – and then the little guys may all blame you!

If you are struggling as a small retailer then the most obvious thing you need to do is to change what you do. Some changes may be low cost and easy, others may require you to invest in the business and will mean a lot of effort and commitment. The key thing is to compete with other stores by working

to your strengths. The greatest strength a small local retailer has is that it is small and local. Large chains cannot be small and, although an individual branch is local, it’s primary focus is to the company and not the community it serves. Large chains will never be good at buying local products. Fragmenting buying power from localities is a contradiction of the way large chains are structured. They buy in bulk for a large customer base spread over large areas – that is why their prices are competitive. On the other hand, a small retailer can forge links with local producers. There may be a factory down the road that makes toy cars (OK then, a factory down the road that imports and packs toy cars that are nowadays made in China). You may also have a local dairy that sends their milk to a large store chain but may be happy to sell you a few pints each day. Explore your locality – you may be surprised at what you discover, and the bargains that you can negotiate by going straight to the source rather than through a wholesaler. Offering your customers local products is a good way of demonstrating one of your greatest strengths and having your own unique selling point (USP). You may even be first in the queue for new product trials. This will give your store a very specific and potent USP.