Online retail sales were roughly 18 billion dollars during 2011 in Canada and are growing by about 15% a year (that's likely a higher growth rate than your stores). While that's great news for online retailers, it's a troubling fact for brick and mortar retailers. What's even more troubling is that all too many brick and mortar retailers are actually driving their customers to shop online!
Huh? ...Why, you might ask, would they be doing that? Well, it's completely unintentional, but it's happening every day in the malls, the power centres and downtown cores. And, it's easy to see why.
Walk into too many stores today and look around to find someone to wait on you (good luck!). Then, keep your fingers crossed that when you do find someone that they will have enough product knowledge to actually help you. Then, buy a lottery ticket if you think the odds are great that the salesperson will have the selling and service skills needed to actually drive up the value of the sale while providing an even better shopping experience for you!
For many retailers, their solution to maintaining profitability has been to slash floor coverage and training. The result has been an erosion of the shopping experience in far too many stores. The idea (half-baked) is that staff just aren't all that important and are nothing more than an expense.
While expenses may drop, so too does the shopping experience. For your customers, if the shopping experience in your store has been cut to the bone, then why should they bother to shop in your store? They can get the same 'experience' from shopping online while sitting on their couch in front of their computer. If you've reduced your store experience to being just about product and price, with a few fancy displays thrown in, let's hope you have very deep pockets. The depletion of the shopping experience will be matched by an erosion in sales and margin. In essence, you've (unintentionally) driven your customer to shop online.
The good news is that more and more retailers 'get it' and are beginning to raise the bar on the shopping experience they provide. These retailers are increasing floor coverage and investing more heavily in sales and management training. The results they are seeing from increased sales, margin and overall staff performance validate their decision to recognize the importance of staff to the shopping experience.
Your customers are more knowledgeable and demanding than ever before. This places more pressure on your front line teams to perform better. In the battle for sales and margin, your staff have never been more important.
So, are you driving your customers online ... or are you driving sales?
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