2017I know. It’s barely New Year’s and as retailers, we haven’t had a moment to take a breath. And here I am talking about setting goals for the coming year. Savvy retailers will be able to identify at least three areas where they would like to excel in the coming year. It’s not always about IT. It’s all about business. A simple step can make your goals a reality. Jot down 3 goals on an index card and keep it handy. In the course of your day, you make decisions constantly. Going forward I would like you to look at that index card and weigh whether your choices support those goals? If they’re counterproductive; let it go. Here are a few to get you started.
  1. Pledge to reduce Monthly Reoccurring Expenses by 20%.
  2. Get a handle on shrink numbers. Review inventory reports and make relevant changes.
  3. Disable reports that are no longer valuable. Clogging an inbox with ‘spam’ reports is not productive.
  4. Update the look and feel of your website to match the brick and mortar customer experience.
  5. Offer monthly Lunch and Learn sessions for employees. Emphasize cross-training.
  6. Clean up your data. Archive old inactive email addresses. Make sure opt-out customers are no longer in active email databases.
  7. Take a comprehensive look at the content of your customer interactions. Do your WELCOME emails and Ship Confirmations to customers need a little pick me up? Do you personalize your emails to customers? Do you have a place to set a personalization setting for customers to pick and choose how and why to contact them?
  8. How about your new customer discounts? How do you market to new customers to encourage a return visit?
  9. Is your marketing group engaged in growing your social media presence? What’s the plan?
  10. Do you track the penetration of your sales and email campaign? Are you sure your target customer is still your target customer? Are you happy with the quality of your Business Intelligence?
  We’re interested in your goals and your approach to building your business. Let us know your thoughts and how we can help you.   Happy New Year! JV