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Tips for Effectively Managing a Retail Store

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Key Takeaways

  • Retail store management focuses on customer service, operations and sales.
  • Train staff regularly to ensure product knowledge and service excellence.
  • Use inventory tracking tools to maintain stock levels efficiently.
  • Set clear sales goals and monitor team performance.
  • Foster a welcoming environment to encourage repeat business.

 

Managing a retail store requires a wide range of skills. Stores must be efficiently staffed and stocked, employees should be helpful and committed to excellent customer service and the store should be beautiful and inviting. This article gives an overview of managing a retail store and tips to make your store inspiring and profitable.

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An overview of managing a retail store

What goes into managing the store? It requires a balance of behind-the-scenes work and customer interactions to create a successful store.

Here are some basics of what goes into managing a store:

  • Hiring and training staff:Your employees should be able to complete transactions, stock goods and answer customers’ questions. When hiring employees, seek candidates who have good customer service and problem-solving skills.
  • Taking inventory:You’ll need to order goods before they run out and ensure that everything arrives on time. This involves regularly taking inventory to see what’s selling well.
  • Stocking shelves:Customers appreciate visual appeal, and you can create this by neatly stocking shelves, designing eye-catching displays and keeping goods organized.
  • Managing finances:At the end of each day, count the money in cash register drawers and balance ledgers to ensure transactions are correct.
  • Marketing your goods:Actively market your products regularly via social media, advertising campaigns or special sales.
  • Providing excellent customer service:Greet customers warmly, find solutions to their inquiries and make the experience fun and helpful.

Important areas when managing a store

Retail stores have several key areas where you should focus your attention. The management of stores is more effective when you put time and attention into these areas.

Customer experience

Top-notch customer service is important to get people to shop longer, spend more and come back to your store. Customers expect employees to be friendly and helpful. It’s also about the overall experience customers have from the moment they step through your door, with 73% of consumers saying this is the most influential factor in their buying decisions. The experience is even more important than the price and the quality of the product to those consumers.

Your employees play a key role in creating this positive, memorable experience. When training employees, teach them how to respectfully treat customers and make the experience personalized and enjoyable for customers. Have new hires work with customers right away with your guidance. Hands-on learning will help them quickly learn what quality customer service looks like.

Here are some ways to improve the customer experience:

  • Convenient, seamless experiences: Customers want a seamless experience that makes shopping quick and easy without a lot of extra steps. Contactless payment options and ordering online for in-store pickup are two examples. Making your checkout process fast and simple is also helpful.
  • Personalized service: Personalized customer service can also improve the retail customer experience. Train your employees to focus on each customer individually and read the signs they give about how they want to shop. Some people might want a lot of guidance from a salesperson, while others prefer shopping on their own.
  • Unique in-store experiences: Another way to set your store apart is with unique in-store experiences. You might offer samples, do demonstrations, let customers try out products or offer free consultations.
  • Store appearance: People judge retail stores by physical appearance, so presenting your store well can impact the customer experience. Ensure your store is always clean and organized. Adding decorative touches that fit your branding can also make the environment more appealing.

Visual merchandising

The way you set up your retail store can affect how customers shop. Visual merchandising affects the customer experience and can impact how much customers spend.

Here are some tips for visual merchandising that can improve your store:

  • Spruce up the storefront: Create an interesting storefront to draw customers into the store. Some retailers hire artists to create visually stunning storefronts that stand out from other retail stores.
  • Promote hot items: Highlight new merchandise, a promotion or a sale. Make a prominent display of items you want to push, and use signage to convince customers to buy those items.
  • Use product grouping: Display related items together to encourage bigger purchases. Putting similar items together helps people imagine using them and makes them want the full collection. The items might have a similar use, price range or color. For example, in a kitchen store, you might display a pot, utensil set and spice set together. In a clothing store, you might create a mannequin display showing your newest running shoes, best-selling athletic shorts and a running belt.
  • Engage senses: Shopping is a heavily visual experience, but you can make it more memorable by pulling in the other senses. Choose background music strategically to help customers slow down and stay longer. Create a signature scent that you use in the store to create a scent memory for customers. Display products that customers can touch.
  • Make it unique: Create unique displays that make customers pause. Truly unique displays might be interesting enough to get customers to take pictures and post them online. This can earn you word-of-mouth advertising.
  • Change it up: Customers like variety, and seeing the exact same displays every time they shop at your store can get boring. Fresh, new displays shake things up. Instead of going to what they need automatically, customers might stop and explore the new displays.

Inventory management

When managing a store, inventory management involves more than just counting the merchandise you have on hand. Keeping popular items in stock is important, and managing your inventory helps you do that. Customers will get frustrated quickly if the things they want are always out of stock.

The way you display your inventory is also important. Logically organized inventory makes it easy for customers to find what they want. Tidy, organized shelves eliminate chaos and create a more relaxing customer experience that makes people want to stay.

Using inventory management software can help you better control your inventory. Inventory software integrates with other software, such as your point-of-sale program and accounting software, to automate inventory management. These programs help reduce human error and speed up the inventory management process to make managing a retail store more efficient.

Streamlined store operations

Keeping up with the multiple operations tasks in a retail setting can be overwhelming. Identifying every task that needs to be done in a day and creating checklists for those tasks can help you stay on track.

Create a daily schedule of store activities to show what needs to be done at certain times of the day. For example, the hour before you open might be reserved for straightening inventory, tidying the store and prepping the registers.

Automating as much as possible can also help you manage the store more efficiently. Integrated software solutions are an example. A point-of-sale program that integrates with accounting software helps you automatically record transactions.

Software programs can also help you make predictions to help with scheduling, ordering and other retail management tasks.

More tips for managing a store

Here are some additional tips that can make you more successful at managing a retail store:

Get feedback from employees and customers

Throughout the year, get feedback from your employees and customers. You can provide survey materials, such as a suggestion box, or send email surveys with special discounts for customers who complete them. Ask customers what they want to see at the store, how their experience was and what they thought about the customer service they received.

For employees, ask them what could be improved at work and what should stay the same. You might also ask customers for feedback on ways to improve service, product selection or placement of items. Always make sure your employees know that you want to hear what customers are saying.

Give positive feedback to employees

To increase employees’ job satisfaction, motivation and morale, give them positive feedback. Tell them specifically what they did well and why it positively impacts the store. Let them know their hard work is noticed and appreciated.

Stay organized

It’s important to stay organized, whether you’re creating work schedules, ordering inventory, managing finances or helping customers. Find a system that works for you, whether it’s a digital planner or management software.

Plan ahead

Always plan ahead for the next season. For example, if you manage a clothing store, make sure to order clothing items for both the current season and the upcoming season.

Likewise, create your employees’ work schedules as soon as possible. They’ll appreciate knowing their schedule well in advance, so they can make plans around work.

Retail store FAQs

Here are some of the most frequently asked questions about retail stores:

How can I motivate my employees?

Motivate employees by giving them positive feedback or incentives, such as bonus pay or extra paid time off. An employee of the month program can help employees provide better customer service. Before starting the program, set clear expectations for how an employee of the month performs.

What qualities should I look for when hiring a retail employee?

When hiring retail employees, look for key characteristics that will help them work well with customers. Employees should be outgoing and enjoy talking to customers. They should have upbeat personalities and be able to problem-solve quickly. When lines get long, they should think of ways to get customers checked out faster while still providing quality service.

How should I organize my products?

Visual merchandising is important in retail. Keep your most popular products in the front of the store, and find a visually pleasing way to display them. For example, you could organize items by type or by color. Keep your aisles wide and free of clutter.

Make sure people of all sizes and abilities can easily move through your aisles and access items. Have employees offer to grab items that are out of reach or too heavy for the customer. Offer to assist the customer with bringing large items to their vehicle.

Should I also sell items online?

To stay competitive, you may want to sell goods online. Many retailers also offer items for customer pick up or delivery to homes or businesses. This is a great way to show customers how accommodating your store is.

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Indeed’s Employer Resource Library helps businesses grow and manage their workforce. With over 15,000 articles in 6 languages, we offer tactical advice, how-tos and best practices to help businesses hire and retain great employees.