The Key Components of Retail
About 15 years ago someone asked me three questions about retail operations:
- What is the most important thing about retail?
- If I were to develop a retail program, what should I include in it?
- What would be the #1 item in terms of retail?
I responded with a bit of a metaphor: When you ask a realtor what’s important about a building or a home, the answer has always been three things: location, location, location.
Having had my own retail stores, managing others and expanding one to multiple states, then becoming part of the executive team of one of the largest retailers in the world, I learned that retail also has three key components.
They are: merchandising, merchandising, merchandising.
It’s all about the merchandise.
- What is the merchandise?
- Where is the merchandise from?
- Who is the merchandise for?
- What story does the merchandise tell you?
- What are you telling me about your merchandise by the way it is presented?
- What will I gain by buying your merchandise?
It is all about merchandising no matter how you look at it.
We continue to see more retail stores and space opening up. While I encourage you to think about location, from my perspective, location is not as relevant as the merchandise you will put in the store.
Are you solving a problem or filling a need for the community? I must also mention that being a destination store is important… but that is a topic for another day.
BEFORE YOU GO
We see our blogs as opportunities for dialogue. Please share your thoughts as comments.
- What story does your merchandise tell?
- Who is the likely buyer?
- Why should customers come to you for their merchandise?
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#entrepreneurship #retail #leadership #merchandise #farisalami
