Here is a list of 15 more-or-less useful retail facts: 1. People spend 2.3 seconds on in-store brand decisions. 2. Just over 90% of shoppers make unplanned purchases. 3. Shopping list use is up substantially (65% say they use one). 4. Gen...

A contrarian observation this week: Tom Peters posted a short video on the Problem with Perfection (1min, worth watching.) (Now we have long taught service personnel who do our Customer Service training that it is impossible to exceed expectati...

The title is a quote by Etienne Hajdu, and it reflects his view on sculpting. Retail too, is an art, and we are inclined to forget that sometimes. Sometimes it is what is NOT there that makes a retail experience memorable. In fact maybe, as allude...

On a consulting assignment recently, I was introduced to Kikki. This is just a little list of life lessons that one of the part-timers at a jewellery store stuck on to the wall in the office – and updated with little lessons learned; or R...

A female begins fascinating a male by smiling at him, raising her eyebrows to make her eyes appear more child-like, quickly lowering her eyelids while tucking her chin down in an effort to bring him closer. After averting her gaze, she will almost in...

Marketing consultants will tell you that meeting your customers’ needs is the most important thing. HR consultants will tell you your people (employees) are the most important resource, and you should figure out what they want. In my view...

Are there hidden messages in advertising? Did the movie patrons really buy more popcorn when the cinema operator slipped a secret message into every 16th frame? Consumers are paranoid about being manipulated and no evidence exists to suggest that su...

Do you get it? It spells CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE. The difference is that in the headline it is Customer Experience by Accident – and the right way, the way we expect it, is Customer Experience by Design. · Do you understand the differ...

Some things just happen. Pockets for instance. Let’s take the kind I am most familiar with: men’s pants pockets. Are your pockets too short? If you do stick your hand in your pocket, chances are that you will find that it is just right...

This week I will keep it short. I will condense 27 years’ experience into one simple sentence that captures everything I know in this one statement: Find out what he customer wants, and give it to them. That is it. I wish I could make eye-co...

This is a slightly longer post than usual, but if you stick with me the rewards are great, because ‘people’ is the ultimate competitive advantage and avoiding these common pitfalls will save you money and bring great happiness to your sta...

The best price to charge is the one where you make the most money (profit). There is a simple formula for this. There is one little trick (prerequisite) to it and that is you should know the price elasticity of the product. (If you don’t know h...

As you read this, I am in Tasmania, one of the few places we have not yet had the opportunity to visit. (Hopefully with my wife of 25 years on the pillion of a beast of a motorbike.) If you know my story, you will know that I am not a native Austr...

There two strategies you need to be familiar with if you want to run a successful retail organisation that can be summarised with the FIFO acronym. The first, I wrote about here. It is about creating happy workplaces. And how hard it is to apply t...

Do you actually know what the definition of ‘retailing is? Do you know the origins of the workd ‘customer’? You might think I am now getting all academic on you , but trust me there is nothing more practical than what I am going sha...