Tag: driving sales

Upsell in the air!

Free discount - Retailcoaster.comAmsterdam Airport: time to leave the country! This time not for work but for a once in a life time experience: travelling the world for the next 9 to 12 months together with my wife. Exploring culture, nature and the theme park industry on the other side of the world.

We are heading to the KLM lounge to get some drinks prior boarding. Nothing special to post about the lounge since all services are complementary. Once on 33.000 feet after our breakfast KLM started to increase the Average Transaction Value with their inflight shopping program: Sky High Collection. I fly frequently with KLM and used to see the shopping cart being pushed through the isle after the announcement via the speakers. I always wondered what the average spend onboard was. Actually I still do since I have never seen any passenger purchasing a Mont Blanc watch or KLM merchandise. Of course I have seen passengers on flights like Ryan Air or Air Asia spending on board but that was on food. Continue reading Upsell in the air!

Upsell: Medium or Large?

One of the easiest ways to drive your sales is by implementing the upsell strategy. You should be familiar with upsell since you are facing it on a daily basis! Whether you buy your lunch or you need to refuel your car. Upsell is part of the daily sales tactics which will increase the average transaction value and therefore must be part of your retail strategy. If you never heard of upsell than you can start to improve your business from today. Continue reading Upsell: Medium or Large?

Product Zoning: lost in a department store

Preparing myself for the trip to Asia I was clearing my apartment and found some gift cards from ‘de Bijenkorf’ a premium department store in The Netherlands with shop-in-shop formulas from Nike to Gucci. I needed a pair of sneakers and a Lonely Planet of Indonesia. I was hunting for sneakers quite a while now and visited several sport stores before deciding to go to the Flagship Store in Amsterdam. As usual I checked the webshop first to take a look at the assortment and found some nice ones online. Knowing what I want it was time to pay a visit. Continue reading Product Zoning: lost in a department store

Retail Analytics: time consuming?

One of the most important elements in retail is analyzing the performance. Retail analytics is your key to success..! At least when you analyze the right data and use the outcome the right way.

Working for different businesses the last couple of years I have heard multiple excuses from retail operators why analysis are not executed. The most surprising argument was from a premium aquarium brand in Europe: ‘I do not have the time to analyze and I just need good products’. At that time the retail store performance was down to budget and previous year. The aquarium is part of a global brand and due to the declining trend over the last 2 months Head Quarter starts asking questions why the performance is not meeting the expectations. According to the attraction manager the performance was down due the poor assortment however, in general, the assortment had not been changed verses the year before. But the attraction manager was influenced by sales hosts telling the manager that products are missing for a couple of weeks. This was confirmed by the retail manager which just ended a sales shift at the shop (usually the retail manager does not work at the till however due the current performance the attraction needed to cut costs). When I compared the current performance verses the better trading periods there was an obvious reason why trading was below expectations: 60% was due missing products which were available to reorder however somehow this has not been done. Probably because sales performance was not analyzed frequently and stock was not managed properly. The other 40% was due changes in routing, pricing, promotions and replenishment. If the attraction manager or retail manager did run a proper performance analysis there was no need to cut costs and we could skip the complete discussion on the retail store performance. Most time consuming were the daily discussions on the retail performance. Of which the attraction manager complained about making the circle complete.

I believe investing in Retail Analytics is one of the best investments you can do. Outcomes will give you information what actions you need to take and will unleash the unnecessary pressure of the unknown. I analyzed the performance from the other side of the continent in less than a day. And the attraction gained back their precious time and was ready to hit budget again.

How often do you analyze your performance?

The key elements in retail

Driving sales in Retail starts with the basics. Below I have listed the key elements in Retail for you.

Business Awareness

  • What drives the highs and lows in your business?
  • What is the actual performance vs budget and previous periods?
  • Do you have a clear understanding what impacts your net profit?

If you know what impacts your business you can set up clear actions to improve or maintain the quality of your business. The more data you have the better you can control your store. Tip: Do not forget the non-financial KPI’s. Continue reading The key elements in retail