Retail
Detail!
With
a retail strategy, customers will start rolling in!
Retailers
are not immune to a competitive environment. To tackle competition,
store-owners employ retail strategies that revolve around
specific consumer segments for different products and brands
that they offer. This has enabled storeowners to build customer
loyalty. The way retailers classify their customers will
determine the marketing strategies that they adopt.
There
are three basic steps involved in classification:
Once
the first two steps have been identified, it becomes easier
to outline a retail strategy. There are three different
strategies that can be applied independently or in combination.
1.
Retail Formatting:
This
term refers to the way goods and products are formatted
in retail outlets. Retail formatting encompasses the Ps
of marketing from place to promotions. A major factor to
consider when formatting is the way a family or an individual
spends leisure time.
Checklist
for Retail Formatting:
*Use
innovative retail formats to enhance the shopping experience.
*Incorporate dining and entertainment options.
*Understand regional variations in consumer attitudes.
*Understand attitudes across the customer life cycle.
*Focus on basics like convenience and ambience!Crosswords,
a leading retailer of books, encourages customers to browse,
has strategically placed couches and seats, serves coffee
in the store, and has author readings.
2.
Retail Marketing:
A
shopping mall or a supermarket is a product too. Marketing
a retail outlet is all about attracting the customer and
leveraging the patronage motive, to enhance the image of
the outlet.
Checklist
for Retail Marketing
*Stock
a wide variety of popular brands, while attempting to build
store brands. Blues Bizzar besides promoting popular brands
like Lee and Levi’s also promote their own brand, “I”.
*Build loyalty by identifying regular shoppers. Offer benefits
and build relationships with them. For instance, Crossword
rewards its regular customers by giving them a loyalty card
on purchases of Rs. 500 upwards.
*Focus on shaping customer expectations, which can be met—Concentrate
on logistics
*Track and segment customers—Concentrate on managing
customers.
*Use technology like Net, E-mail, and Tele-shopping to drive
customers to your store.
3.
Retail Management:
Give
your consumer an “experience!” through proper
retail management. Retailers are spending a fortune on their
interiors to try and give consumers the complete shopping
experience.
Checklist
on Retail Management
*Monitor
customer needs and adapt the retail experience to suit them.
*Use IT to enable front and back office applications boosting
efficiency.
*Use customer feedback and information to drive harder bargains
with wholesalers.
*Focus less on the size of the store and more on the management
systems. Even if the size of the store is less, smart placement
of products is the answer. The King of retailing, Wal Mart,
has used customer-shopping information that it has collected
over the years to construct the customer experience
Competition
in retailing is stiff; a small business owner has to compete
with bigger chains that have marketing muscle and economies
of scale. This scenario is further complicated by the emergence
of e-tailers who are using similar tricks in the virtual
environment.
The
success of a retailer will depend not only on his ability
to gauge the consumer’s mind, but also on how he formulates
and implements marketing strategies. Shopping for the marketer
has evolved into a science that provides vital information
about the consumer, and how it can be used to build and
sustain a brand for the store.
Related Reading:
1.
“Leveraging the Loyalty Card” (1364)
Arti Dua
Business Standard, 26 September 2000
2. “Retail Revelations” (1365)
KSA Technopak Study
Business Today, 26 July 1999
