5 New Rules of Retail

By Rieva Lesonsky

It’s no secret that the face of retail has been changed by the recent recession, as well as by emerging technology and a more sophisticated consumer. What habits will customers take with them going forward into 2011 and beyond?

A new study from Leo Burnett’s Arc Worldwide division, Re-Imagining the Retail Store, takes a look at what shoppers demand from retailers today. The study highlights five key findings:

1. Technology can help, but humans must be in charge. While in-store technology can enhance the customer experience, there needs to be a seamless transition between the physical and virtual store. More important, technology is no substitute for knowledgeable, helpful service from a real person in the store—and thinking that it is can irreparably damage your relationship with customers.
2. Shoppers are fickle. It’s hard to earn shoppers’ loyalty these days, and even harder to keep it. The recession has changed how people approach retail shopping. They’ve lost confidence and trust, and in a time when everything seems to be changing, they aren’t hesitating to change even long-held shopping habits. That’s why it’s essential to understand consumers’ expectations and deliver–every time—or you can easily lose their business.
3. Price is important, but it isn’t everything. A low price gets customers to consider you, but if the product, service or experience is low-quality, customers won’t buy. Customers are seeking value—not cheap goods. And because today’s customers have become used to not spending, if you don’t give people enough reason to buy, they’re perfectly happy looking elsewhere–or not buying at all.
4. Break the rules. Retailers can take one of two tacks to succeed: Excel within your store archetype, or break out and create a whole new store format that delivers a unique experience.
Which strategy will you choose?
5. The basics matter more than ever. Too many retailers are seeking a “magic bullet” to improve sales. Deals, Groupons, or Facebook won’t help if you don’t have the basics in place. It may not be sexy but, in reality, many times success comes from simply getting the basics right. And with customers being pickier than ever these days, providing the basics of good customer service is the very least they expect your store to do.

What are you finding to be the “new rules of retail” at your store?

Image by Flickr user Lululemon Athletica (Creative Commons)

This entry was posted on Friday, December 17th, 2010 at 10:30 am and is filed under Sales Process, Small Business. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.


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