Reinvigorating Retail through Pop Up Stores
Pop up stores are here and they may be reinvigorating retail throughout the United States.
As a teenager in the 1980s, I spent an inordinate amount of time at the local shopping mall. Roosevelt Field Mall became my home away from home. My sister worked at Macy's. She would drive to work, drop me off to roam the mall, then I'd meet her several hours later for the drive home.
Retail pop up stores back then were kiosks. Small, self-contained kiosks in the central aisle of the mall's corridors. Some sold only items during peak gift-giving seasons: I remember the bonsai tree concession, another that sold crystal pendants during the pendant-wearing craze of the late 1980s. Another etched personalized messages, monograms and the like on silver picture frames, mugs, etc.
Each of these tiny stores focused exclusively on a single them. They differ from today's pop up stores the way your grandfather's Chevy differs from the Volt parked in your garage and recharging from the household current.
Linda Niehm, professor of Apparel Events, and Hospitality at Iowa State University stated in a recent press release, "What we're seeing is in part of a natural evolution of the retail cycle, and old formats are replaced with something more relevant."
Retail is a dynamic industry. It is constantly evolving and changing. Stores evolved from single-category shops (the butcher, the baker, the candlestick maker) to the grocery store and supermarket (with butcher and bakery counters along with thousands of other products) and the department store (which sold everything including candles in one convenient space.) The internet added pricing competition along with an intense focus on fresh new goods; if I can get a pair of jeans from Amazon at a lower price, why should I bother driving to the Gap in the mall to buy a pair?
Enter the pop-up store. These stores take over small retail spaces for short amounts of time - weeks, perhaps - with a themed experience. Vacant stores or unusual structures such as disused cargo containers are transformed into a retail space.
Niehm and colleague Ann Marie Fiore conducted a study in 2010 that indicated that retail consumers like novelty in their shopping experiences. The same old stores in the mall bore consumers; the novel experience of discovering a new brand, product category, or style in a pop-up store may invigorate the shopping experience and draw customers away from their computers to shop on the internet and back to physical retail spaces. Millennials especially are interested in brands that resonate with their values. They eschew large, traditional stores.
Brands are experimenting with pop-ups in unique ways. Bonobos khakis opened pop-up stores in the lobby of an office building and netted $250,000.
Technology offers another way for pop-ups to succeed. Although the small space prohibits stocking multiple colors or sizes, with the touch of a tablet, shopkeepers can order items from their online store to be sent to the consumer. No hassle, no additional steps for the customers, and an easy in-person shopping experience that lets them see and touch the items in person.
Are pop-ups right for you? They may be a passing fad, but anything that can reinvigorate retail offers additional methods for small business owners to sell more. It may be the right time for you to explore pop-ups for your retail business.
Paying It Forward
Do you ever think about "paying it forward" in a business context? Giving, rather than taking, may be a strategy for a kinder business world.
Paying It Forward in Business
This may not be an easy question, but I think it's an important one to ask. So many business people are always looking for what they can get out of a deal that they forget to pay their debts forward.
"Paying it forward" means to do something kind for someone else without hope of recompense. It's not like paying a debt, which returns kindness for kindness. Rather, it's doing a kindness without any immediate pay off.
Kindness. Pass It On.
Last week, I was able to offer words of kindness and support to a fellow writer. Most writers struggle with self-doubt, and I am no exception. During those times when I'm ready to throw in the towel and apply to become a Wal-Mart greeter, friends in the writing community have stepped up to offer a kick in the pants or a shoulder to cry on, whichever seemed most needed at the time. Whether it's someone to commiserate about a yucky assignment or someone to tell me to suck it up and get the job done, I know that I can count on that special group of friends to support me through good times or bad.
One of those friends needed someone to prop her up this past weekend, and I happened to be online when she was sharing how blue she felt about her current work. Her assignments lately had been boring; she felt as if no matter how much she wrote or how hard she worked, she wasn't making enough money.
I encouraged her, and pushed her, and yes, put on my best New York business woman sense via some of my comments. I felt like I was being slightly harsh with her, but I also felt she needed it. Sometimes people need a kick in the pants more than they need a shoulder to cry on.
The next day after my little coaching session with her, she wrote to me, ecstatic. She'd written an article for a publication she'd long admired and sent it in before she had a chance to chicken out. They accepted it the very same day - and she made more money from that half hour of work than she had the entire day before.
I love this story because it reminds me every day to pay it forward -- to encourage, inspire and motivate anyone and everyone I come into contact with. Will I get any immediate benefit out of it? No, but I do believe strongly that what goes around, comes around.
Helping a friend with coaching, giving my time to write an article for an animal charity, sharing a stranger's great blog post...it all counts. It really does. We pay things forward, and in time, they return to us ten-fold.
Customer Service and Product Development
Customer service can be one of your best marketing allies. Listening to customer complaints can help you adjust your product marketing strategy.
Listen to Complaints
A young friend of mine launched an Etsy business this month. I watched from a distance as she carefully photographed and listed her products. She celebrated her first sales...and then came hot on the heels of those first transactions, her very first return.
She was devastated. She took to social media to share her disgust with the person who didn't read her listing. The customer thought they were purchasing one type of item, when in fact she did not sell that item.
Customer Service: The Underused Product Development Strategy
I don't know what the final outcome was of that transaction, but knowing my honest young friend, I suspected she eventually refunded the customer's money and moved on. However, a few things stood out for me in the story, and I thought I'd take a moment to share my perspective on customer service, particularly in an ecommerce or retail environment.
(A note from me first: I worked in retail, in the trenches so to speak, for two years. I ran a successful ecommerce business for over a decade. I managed marketing for an upscale retail store. I have a peculiar love of retail. It's exhausting. It's exhilarating. It's my thing. What can I say?)
4 Tips for Better Customer Service
- Respect: The customer may not always be right, but should always be treated as if THEY believe they are right. In other words, you may have done nothing wrong. You may have provided the exact service they requested. You may have listed the product clearly on your Etsy store. But if they are unhappy, they are unhappy. That is the fact you must deal with - their unhappiness. Try to make them happy, even if they are not right.
- Consideration: Issuing returns should be rare. If you find you are constantly issuing returns, it's time to check your marketing. There's a gap somewhere between customer expectations and what you are offering.
- Integrity: NEVER take your frustrations out on social media. The second you start posting about your customers in any way, the second someone, somewhere, is going to read those comments. I don't care if you set your privacy status to super-duper lock down mode. Word will get out that you talk trash about customers, and they won't shop with you anymore. Don't do it. Just walk away from your computer before you share something you'll regret.
- Marketing: You know the old chestnut about how you get 80% of your business from 20% of your customers? It's pretty accurate. If your customers aren't repeat customers because what you sell isn't conducive to repeat business, they tell others about their experience, and that brings more business to you. Be always on your guard against poor customer service. It can kill your business faster than you think.
Good customer service is often what sets apart similar products. People choose to do business with companies that treat them like valued customers, not like an annoyance. If you have any unhappy customer, accept graciously their feedback, take what you can and leave the rest.
Why Are Stock Photos for Business Websites So Boring?
Stock photos for business websites are boring. I don’t care which website you’re looking at; most feature one or more of the following
- People in gray or black business attire around a conference table
- Hands at a keyboard/calculator
- Desks
- Office buildings
- Binary code to make you think of “high tech”
- Two people shaking hands
Yes, stock images for business sites are boring.
Stock Images for Business Sites Are Boring!
Looking at this list, I notice one thing: a lack. A lack of zest, of creativity, of energy, of daring!
Unless your business is super conservative – and there are few of those left in this world – these photos are boring, clichéd, and (shudder) safe. So safe they blend into the woodwork like beige-painted walls.
Let’s not play it safe, shall we? Let’s be daring. Let’s talk like pirates. Let’s be bold, free, and most importantly – ourselves when it comes to images for our business websites!
Branding Through Images
Branding is more than the logo and colors chosen for your business. Branding actually consists of the spaces in between the tangible, the feelings and emotions evoked by a business. Diving deeply into your business through the feedback from your customers is the surest way I know to find your true brand image. Often what you believe is your brand isn’t your brand, but someone else’s ideas about your brand.
We carry with us the images of all of the things we have encountered throughout our lives, and this colors our perception of “what a business should look like.” Most of us are numb to the images we see daily around us. The billboards, the websites, the signs. We are used to what others think a bakery should look like, or a pet grooming service, or a marketing agency.
My own business suffered from this for years. I had vowed a long time ago not to resort to the old-typewriter look on my website. Too many copywriters, marketing writers and freelance writers use the typewriter as a metaphor for writing. But truly, how many companies hiring us these days even remember what a typewriter was, never mind realize it’s a symbol of a writer? The only industry still clinging to its ancient symbolic roots like this is the caduceus in medicine or the draft horses on the teamsters union sign.
Computer keyboards are, alas, a typical stand-in to demonstrate our finesse as writers, but does this truly exemplify what we do? I am no more a typist than I am a red-pen artist; I write and I edit, I create and I craft, I define and I refine.
But how do you visually express create, craft, define, refine?
My customers tell me they love working with me for the solid, dependable experience I bring to the encounter, the warmth of our working relationships, the feeling that I “get” their business and am able to express what’s in their hearts and minds about their own work. How do you express that visually?
Storytelling Includes Metaphors. So Should Can Your Brand Images.
Storytellers often use metaphors to express feelings. When metaphors become clichéd, they are boring and detract from the writing.
Visual storytellers or web designers must reach for metaphors, too. It’s easy to fall back on boring and clichéd visual metaphors such as hands hovering over a keyboard or concerned people seated around a conference table. Visual and verbal metaphors remain part of the common consciousness because they work, at least on the superficial level.
To truly stand out, however, you must dig deeply for your next metaphor. Your visual images should convey your brand attributes in ways that feel right for your business. My own brand visual includes references to nature; I am at home in nature, whether walking the woodland trails near my home or tending to my garden. It is in nature that I am myself, and in nature that I am most creative, so in nature do I place my business.
The metaphors I’ve chosen echo what clients say and what our company name reflects: oak, a solid wood, one of the strongest, symbol of the great Norse gods and of strength, durability, and power.
As you choose images for your website, consider your brand attributes.
Creativity? Reach for the creative. Think big! Black and white with splashes of color, interesting angles, close-ups or panoramas. Give your audience the unexpected, the jarring, the unique.
Attention to detail is your brand attribute? Think tiny, intricate photos of the weave of cloth, of frost on a windowpane, or cells in a leaf. All of these are available as stock photos you can license.
Professional? Ditch the men in business suits, please. Consider abstract prints, artistic swirls, or something fun. Consider unusual images that reflect your bright shining personality, not the personality of Big Corporate Culture.
Choosing and defining your brand takes time. Once you’ve figured it out, however, you’re well on your way to avoiding the stock photos for business websites that make you sleep syndrome. Be the wake-up call for your industry. Be the leader.
Nice Managers Finish First
It pays to be nice, at least according to a new study from Binghamton University, State University of New York.
In the study, researchers examined the leadership styles and results achieved by 1,000 members of the Taiwanese military and 200 people in corporate America.
The results?
Leaders who emphasized human relationships, empathy, and consideration for the well-being of others achieved better job performance than those who took an authoritarian, performance-only driven approach.
This is welcome news for those of us seeking to bring greater compassion and empathy into the workplace. We've all had those bosses from hell like the editor in the Devil Wears Prada, memorably played by Meryl Streep, who don't seem to care if we get a bathroom break, a weekend off, or a second to eat lunch.
Those bosses - the ones who don't give a darn about their workers but only care about the results - finish last. The ones who care whether their employees have what they need to do their jobs well finish first.
It's like we've told you so all along....
Read my piece on Medium with more information on this intriguing study: Leaders Who Demonstrate Compassion and Empathy Get Better Workplace Results.
Why Customer Service Matters
We've all experienced awful service. We've all experienced good service.
As business people, we all know - or should know- the value of excellent customer service.
How valuable is good customer service? If you improve service by just 5%, according to Bain & Company, profits can increase 25 to 90%.
So with just a little effort, training, and better hiring practices, you may be able to increase profits. Who wouldn't want that?
In this article written for Medium, I share not just the facts about why good customer service matters, but how to achieve it without spending a fortunate on fancy loyalty programs, punch cards, free gift with purchase items and so on.
Enacting a strong customer service policy isn't expensive, but it's not easy. It takes thought, effort, and consistency. When it's done well, however, it can reduce customer attrition (churn) and boost profits.
Again, I ask: Who wouldn't want that?
Read the full article here: The Customer Pays Your Salary - Why Excellent Customer Service Is Vital for Client Retention
Content Marketing Mistakes
I really liked this post from Amy Gynn on Content Marketing mistakes. I see so many of these mistakes, and most of them are easily prevented or corrected. Besides, a good infographic on content marketing deserves to be shared.
Customers Are Won, Not Managed
Far too often I hear company executive talk about "managing their customers." Customers are people who pay your salary, not widgets to be managed.
You can manage expectations, but managing people for profitability is just...wrong.
Let's talk instead about building trust, value, and long term relationships for enduring loyalty. And yes, profits. Profits come after building trust and value.
Today I've published a new piece on Medium talking about how CRM is often used to mean software instead of the relationship itself. You may read the article here: Don't Manage Customer Relationships. Build Them.
Seven Oaks Consulting Featured in Fundera
There's greater interest now than ever before in rural small businesses. Journalist Priyanka Prakash interviews me for this piece on rural small business in the online publication, Fundera.
Rural Small Businesses Earn Better Profits and More Financing
Among business owners, rural areas get a bad rap. But I've found that conducting business in a rural area - thanks to the internet - offers many advantages.
Read the article for the full story. Thank you again to Ms. Prakash for the opportunity.
Walmart Thinks It Can Tell if You're Happy
Last night I read an article in Direct Marketing News which literally made me LOL (for those not familiar with online acronyms, that's laugh out loud - LOL for short).
Walmart is exploring installing facial recognition software to install in their stores to assess how happy their customers are with their shopping experience.
Are you laughing yet?
Because I am.
First of all, shopping at Walmart is never a happy experience. It's mostly neutral with a bit of stress and exhaustion thrown into the mix. I shop weekly at Walmart for groceries (don't just; it's one of only two choices in my tiny rural town). I feel as if I have walked several miles by the time I have found a cart without wonky wheels that spins me in circles, passed the endless center aisle displays of sugar and fat laden junk food, and reached my destination aisle.
Half the time, the shelves look as if a tornado has cruised through, and the other half of the time they've moved what I know should be in that aisle to somewhere else in the store and I spend an awful amount of time playing hide-and-seek with the laundry detergent or whatever it is that I want.
According to Inc., Walmart's facial recognition software will assess your happiness level as you search for the last non-crushed box of graham crackers and if it detects you aren't ecstatic will staff up accordingly.
As if lack of staff makes anyone unhappy at Walmart.
Listen, Walmart, if you really want to make customers happy and not creeped out that big brother is watching them with facial recognition software - which may or may not violate several rights to privacy I have, I'm not clear on that yet - let's get a few things straight.
There are stores people shop at for pleasure and stores people shop at for necessity. You fall into the latter category. Therefore, few people are going to grin from ear to ear when they look at, say, the crumpled blouses on the floor in the clothing aisle or the whirlwind of jumbled cans in the soup aisle.
The expression of unhappiness on my face may be caused by a thousand things outside of a store's control. I may have just had an argument with my spouse and stomped off to do the grocery shopping. I may have realized I am almost out of gas and have to stop for more if I want to make it home. My shoes may hurt because they're pinching my feet. Who knows? Who cares? Who made it your prerogative to assess my happiness, anyway?
There are four places where staffing matters in any given Walmart and you are already failing miserably in most of them. So fix these before buying happiness software, please:
- Registers. Thankfully, our Walmart in Farmville, Virginia, has some of the nicest cashiers around. But for goodness sake, OPEN MORE REGISTERS.
- Fabric counter. Anytime I've wanted to purchase fabric, it's an ordeal. I wait. And wait. And then a clueless person shows up who can't stop to cut my fabric because he or she is a manager or something. If you're going to have a fabric counter, have a button or something customers can press to call help over to cut their yards of felt or whatever.
- Online order pickup. Oh, what a nightmare. What an awful, time wasting, soul sucking nightmare. I order online. It ships to the store. I then wait at an empty counter for 15 - 20 minutes while employees run by on their way to jolly old breaktime and I grow gray and stooped and old waiting to pick up my water filter or whatever I ordered online. Then, someone does show up, and THEY CAN'T FIND THE THING IN THE BACKSTOCK. One time, they lost an archery target on us. Let that sink in. A freaking three foot by three foot archery target box was somehow hiding itself in the backstock area. Fix this, please.
- Stocking shelves. See above - my comment on shelves that look like a tornado breezed through them once, twice, or three times. Restock. Stock again. Then, check your stock. Because you can't sell what you don't have.
Do you know what these four areas have in common? Low tech, low touch solutions.
I'm all for high tech. I love high tech. I love technology in all of its wonderful forms. But the area where Walmart and many other 'big box' stores needs to improve is not in their use of technology but in their use of people or the current staff and resources they have on hand. Scanning my scowl won't make a difference.
About the Author
Jeanne Grunert is the President of Seven Oaks Consulting, a company focused on making customers smile (but not through facial recognition). She helps marketing agencies, publishing companies, and technology businesses with client-centered marketing strategies and content marketing that helps them acquire, retain, and create loyal customers. Visit Seven Oaks Consulting or Jeanne's Amazon Author Page for her fiction and nonfiction books.