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New University Retail Seminar Announced: 22nd February 2011
Retail Seminar: Planning, budgeting, reviewing and analysing commercial performance.
Seminar Aims
•To enthuse, motivate and train university retailers to deliver business plans and budgets and to assess their own commercial performance.
•Provide time for individual reflection to build practical action plans for use on their return to their unit.
Seminar Content
Suitable for retail managers and their sales team requiring development in this area, the seminar will cover:
• Business Planning
• Budget Setting
• Commercial Performance Analysis
Throughout the seminar there are hands on activities to put new skills to the test and to assess the delegates understanding, as well as time for individual planning & reflection work. This will ensure delegates develop actions plans to get them started on their return to the unit.
Seminar Quality
Written and delivered by Anne Clewley, the planning of the seminar has been completed to City & Guilds standards for course planning and delivery.
Each seminar is monitored through delegate feedback to ensure the seminar meets the client’s needs and also to ensure the seminars are developed and improved as required. Feedback will be published on the University Retail website.
Seminar Price and details:
Fee: £160 per delegate including VAT, refreshments throughout the day and seminar materials.
Date: 22nd February 2011
Time: 9.30 to 16.30 (registration from 9.00)
Venue: Trident Centre, Warwickshire College, Poseidon Way, Warwick, Warwickshire, CV34 6SW.
To book: Please email Anne at ahc@consultretail.co.uk
Carbon Footprint – the effect on university convenience stores
The reduction of our carbon footprint is a subject of much debate and target setting. The large supermarkets and retailers have set targets to reduce their footprints. Marks & Spencer want to be carbon neutral by 2012 and Tesco are adding carbon footprint to their product labels.
When working with a university convenience store this week I was informed that the target they were working to was a reduction of 20% by 2012. The retail team have been asked to reduce both the distance their products travel and the number of deliveries onto campus.
This has led to reviews of several areas. For example they have plans to increase storage capacity to increase the amount of stock held on campus and strategies to reduce the number of suppliers used.
Whilst these will go some way to reduce the carbon footprint they have the potential of hitting the bottom line. For example, there will undoubtedly be an increased amount of capital tied up in stock as well as the potential for a reduction in margins as a result of the need to switch supplier. For internally run convenience stores the effect of these actions will start to add up.
Conversely by moving in line with the major supermarkets it could be argued that the positive impact on the brand and its image will outweigh some short lived effects on profit performance.
I would love to hear your thoughts on the subject and what other university retail teams are doing to reduce their carbon footprint. Please do let me know!
Stock piling old product? Clear the decks and move forward.
A few years ago I worked with a fashion retailer whose business was failing fast. Sales were dropping like a stone, stock and debt levels were soaring.
The stockroom on site and an external warehouse were overflowing. During sale this product would be dragged out only to pack it back up at the end of the sale period.
They would sometimes run short term events of stock clearance, to no avail. The sale prices or reductions were the same each sale, each year. The business owner was not prepared to reduce the stock below cost; he was not prepared to make a loss.
However he was prepared to keep paying to store it. The knock on effect to business was that the “open to buy” figures were in fact an overdraft. There was no available cash to buy new season, fashionable stock. This fashion retailer was going out of fashion and out of business fast.
In the current climate I have been working with businesses in similar situations. Businesses hanging on to stock, sure that in the next sale it will shift, sure when things pick up again the stock will sell through. All the time the product is getting dirty, damaged and dated. Not only will it damage reputation and image, its value is plummeting and it is sucking further resource from businesses that are struggling to stay afloat.
Some of these businesses are university organisations, holding stock of old branded clothing and gifts. With stockroom space at a premium and shops with limited sales floor footage this stock is holding units back from their true performance.
So as with the fashion retailer I would offer this advice – accept that you have already made the loss, accept that it is never going to sell and it will only drag your business down further. Your customer is sending you a message; ignore it at your peril.
Reduce the price right down, create an event around its sale and let it go. It will free up space both front and back of house and it will supply much needed capital to allow you to procure fresh stock and move forward.
Retailers on campus? They wouldn’t, would they?
One of the first questions many universities and student unions ask me is whether retailers, brands and independents, would really want to operate on their campus. Conversations start with “of course no retailer would want to operate in our environment we’re too small and are only open for 30 weeks.”
So let us put that question to rest first of all. Yes, retailers do want to operate in your environment and yes, they do want to work with you, even in a recession.
The questions that should be asked are: What will suit your customer best, what would be a ‘best fit’ for your institution and do you want to work with a third party?
When this is established you can consider whether independent retailers or large brands are the best route and again which would be best suited to your customer.
There are pros and cons to each option and these must be considered with your individual organisation, and therefore customer, at the heart of it.
Be clear about the values that are important to your organisation and which you would want to ensure were also embodied by a retail partner.
Be prepared to work in true partnership. Some retailers new to the university campus need more help than others to navigate through the academic year.
There is no one size fits all, but be confident that whether it is an independent or a brand you seek, there are retailers waiting to sign up.
For further support on how to decide on the best route for your retail operation, or for help on finding retail partners, please do call me.
Re-structuring a retail business – a quick tip
At recent Higher Education conferences there was a re-current theme. Universities and colleges across the UK and Ireland are cutting costs and many are looking to re-structure the commercial arms of the organisation.
I spoke to a few who had just re-structured and more who were about to. Posts within retail are being made redundant and roles re-defined.
Often a review of a retail operation will throw up tasks that are no longer required. When re-aligning responsibilities you need to ensure every base is covered. There is always the risk that some activities are either duplicated between roles or worse fall between the gap of job profiles with no-one accountable for their completion.
But how do you ensure that within a new retail structure all the necessary tasks are covered? With so many of you working on this at the moment I thought I would share one quick tip which may help, whichever stage you are at.
I worked with 2 major corporate retailers through times of re-branding and company re-structure. We used a great tool to help us – the post-it.
Working with your team, write down on post-it notes individual tasks that are carried out within your business. These can be tasks that are done several times a day or once a day, week, month, quarter etc. Think through the processes involved in serving a customer, running the shop, handling stock, completing administration, analysing the business. Every individual task needs to have its own post-it. Stick them up onto the wall.
Discuss each task and ensure that the tasks before and after that particular one have also been considered.
You can then start to group the post-its. Consider each task, each post-it and group them together where they are similar or require the same skill set. This can not only start to form the basis of your new structure, it can support the drafting of new role profiles and also ensure that every single task is covered.
If you would like to know more or would just like some help with your re-structures please do get in touch.
Create a Buzz!
Have you been at a market and noticed a throng of people gathered around one stall?
Have you walked through a public garden or square, like Covent Garden, and heard or seen a crowd not knowing what is beyond them?
Have you ever gone into a shop with a sale and then noticed a crowd of people gathered around one rail which you can’t see.
However busy you are, if you are like me, you probably just have to sneak a quick peek. Just what is it that everyone else is looking at? What am I missing? It has attracted a crowd so it must be great, right?
I was recently at an exhibition and am delighted to say I had a steady stream of people coming to see me, often patiently waiting for me to finish talking to someone else. Having worked though a small queue I came to a lady at the end, who seemed genuinely thrilled it was her turn. “What is it that you do?” she said. I explained. “Oh, that’s interesting” she said when I had finished. “I wish I ran a shop. I would definitely ask you to work with me. I only came over because everyone else seemed to be at your stand.”
It reminded me of our need to be involved, our need not to ‘miss out’ on the action. Creating a buzz around your business draws people to it like moths to a flame.
So what is it that we can do to create a buzz around our retail businesses?
Firstly make sure you have something to offer that sets you apart from the competition and then let people know. Never let an opportunity go by to shout about what you do, your product, your services and why you are different to the rest.
If you know your customer intimately you will know what will excite them and deliver them to your door. If you run out of ideas, ask them!
Shout about new products, rave about new staff, enthuse about the latest launch; deliver regular changes to excite and build anticipation such as to windows, in store displays, promotional hot spots, in store competitions; carry out tastings, events for loyal customers, organise giveaways with supplier support…I could go on and on. Universities and colleges are in a better position than many to make this happen.
Create a buzz consistently and you will ensure you not only draw a crowd but you stand head and shoulders above your competitors.
Open Days: For a bright future – delight your visitors to sell your brand.
The sun is shining and the Open Say summer season is well and truly upon us.
Commercial arms at universities, colleges and student unions up and down the country have been weighing up the opportunities to sell versus the need to deliver for the customer and the overall organisation’s brand image. Not forgetting the need to find the fine balance between service and profit.
Alongside the schools, colleges and departments the university caterers, retailers and accommodation teams attempt to find accurate business forecasts based on academic department estimates. These estimates, often propagated by the marketing department, can be far removed from the reality on the day.
As with any other retail outlet or shopping centre once all the event promotion and marketing is done you are left in the hands of the customers themselves. On campus, your visitors are your customers.
Indicators such as weather can prove a fickle calculation. It is certainly a prominent feature in all retail reviews I’ve ever been to. One week hot weather can bring customers to the high street in droves, the following week the same weather keeps them at home in the garden…it is all a question of degrees…
One thing is for sure this is a day when everything about your organisation, about your brand must be seen at its very best. Whether your campus is in rain or wind your brand must shine out to these prospective new students, to stand head and shoulders above the rest.
Every touch point of the event, of the journey around campus, of the navigation of the day must be a fantastic experience leaving the visitors with warm feelings and an emotional connection with your organisation. When the crunch comes between 2 courses at 2 separate establishments, the experience of the Open Day itself can be all there is between registering for the course or not.
The work I do with any retail outlet can be applied to the entire Open Day event, or in fact any campus event you run. Put yourself in the shoes of the customer and look at their journey in detail, experience what they experience and ensure you and your team are delivering to truly delight the visitor.
This is run of the mill for many campus teams, but this could be the first or the last of many university visits for the potential students or it may be the only Open Day your visitors will experience. They must be served with all their needs, and served with a flourish!
If you always put the customer first and put them at the centre of every decision and you will ensure the forecast is very sunny indeed.