The Resilient Retail Game Plan

2020 has been a year like no other for retail. With the pandemic ongoing and the uncertainty surrounding what a post-lockdown December looks like, consumers are in a bit of a holding pattern, and as small business owners, we have to expect the unexpected. We will see a Black Friday boom or will there be more in-person purchasing once lockdown is lifted? With everything so up in the air I want to spend episode 18 of The Resilient Retail Game Plan looking at what current research indicates about the festive selling period and how you can use my five key takeaways to be as prepared as possible when it comes to securing your customers Christmas spending this year. We’ll look at the increase in online traffic for both purchases and gift research and the importance of putting your best foot forward when it comes to building your business’s digital presence; we’ll look at trends in spending across demographics and how, positively, the piece of the purchasing pie being given to small businesses is actually growing; and we’ll also cover the key purchase drivers of protecting, connecting and distracting and how you can leverage those themes to best market and share your products with your customers.

In my many years of experience working for and dealing with creative product businesses, and of the many tactics and strategies people use to shift their products, I’ve found that stock clearance is one of the most misunderstood and misused. Stale stock traps money in your business, takes up valuable space, and can be a drain on you mentally - so how do you deal with stock that’s not performing? In episode 17 of The Resilient Retail Game Plan, I want to give you my five top tips on how to have a sale. We’ll analyze your stock and look at how to plan a few short and sharp clearance events across key periods in the retail calendar; we’ll take a look at your messaging and how changing things up and being bold will get your customers ‘adding to basket’; and we’ll also discuss plotting out a promotional plan and the importance of meeting the legal requirements when it comes to offering discounts.

As a creative product business owner, the run-up to Christmas can be stressful. There’s so much to do, plan, consider, and manage and it’s all too easy to become overwhelmed and lose focus during this important selling period. In episode 16 of The Resilient Retail Game Plan, I want to focus on mindset and give you my best advice on how to come out on the other side of the holidays with a successful sales season and your sanity. We’ll look at how everything ultimately comes down to prioritizing and time management - from asking for help and getting adequate rest to creating a ‘To Don’t’ list and putting RGAs (Revenue-Generating Activities) and 'Brown Bananas' at the forefront of your Xmas selling strategy. With the Coronavirus pandemic and state of the economy casting so much uncertainty over this key part of the year for retail businesses, I also go over the importance of looking after ourselves through acts of self-care and how we can support each other by looking to our communities both inside and out of the business world.

It’s easy to get overwhelmed in the hectic run-up to Christmas. As the winter months run away with us, it can sometimes feel like you’re constantly on the back foot trying to put an ad-hoc Xmas strategy together, and that was before you had a global pandemic and a national lockdown to contend with. So, in episode 15 of The Resilient Retail Game Plan, I want to go through a couple of points that will help you set some plans into action. We’ll look at how you can keep your customer base engaged through a cycling variety of messaging that best showcases your products; how you can identify and leverage buying habits to your promotional advantage; and we’ll discuss the importance of timing and targeting discounts to help shift sales and seasonal stock.

Though you might be feeling deflated and frustrated upon hearing the news that we’re in for a new month-long lockdown, we have the advantage of having gone through this once already and can use the benefit of that experience to get prepared for the challenges ahead. Christmas isn’t canceled, I believe it’s all to play for - so, in this special bonus episode of The Resilient Retail Game Plan, I’ll share some practical tips to help keep you and your creative product business moving forward. By not panicking, staying positive, and going to your community for support, you’ll be able to put yourself in a strong position where you can review your sales forecast, brainstorm new sales strategies and plan out your promotions and product practicalities to help ensure you have a successful sales season this Christmas.

As a creative product business, there are many ways that you can get products in front of potential customers, and it’s thanks to the ever-growing reach and growth of technology that digital marketplaces have become a major component of the shopping process. From ‘Amazon’ to ‘Not On The High Street’ and from ‘Etsy’ to ‘eBay’, third-party marketplaces appear to offer a lot of advantages in the form of increased traffic and exposure to new audiences, often with enticingly reasonable commissions and fees, but it’s important to remember that you’re not really in the business of selling, you’re in the business of acquiring customers, and that building relationships and creating repeat business and super-fans is the path to building a resilient retail business. So, in episode 14 of The Resilient Retail Game Plan, I run through the pros and cons of using these marketplaces; the considerations for you to make before committing yourself and your stock to multiple digital outlets; and the expectations on you as a business owner once you start working with a third-party platform.

Todays episode is a little bit different - a little bit of a rant, if you like! Starting a business is often a minefield in terms of your self belief and it’s very easy to get seduced by a lot of the quick-fix messaging that we’re exposed to on social media. We’ve all seen them - the Facebook ads promising you a roadmap to a six-figure business, promoted content that claims to guarantee you eye-watering profits in just a few weeks or months. I’m certainly not immune to these tactics, and it’s not to say that every one of these offerings is nefarious or that they don’t offer something valuable, but on the whole these schemes or courses won’t actually deliver on what they promise. Every business is different - they each grow and evolve at a different rate and much of that is down to you, your tenacity and the quality of of your products, so in episode 13 of The Resilient Retail Game Plan, I’m going to run through the reasons why these buy-in blueprints and masterclasses are fundamentally flawed and how, with a little support and personal persistence, you can get to where you want to be without searching for silver bullet.

Last year I conducted a survey where I asked about 50 small creative product businesses a wide variety of questions, ranging from how they managed their costs to what sort of turnover they were producing. One quite startling figure that arose from this research was that a whopping 75% of the business owners I surveyed did not pay themselves from their creative product business! Paying yourself is something I’m really passionate about. Yes, it makes sense to keep money in the business to help it grow but if you’re not paying yourself from your business then how much freedom and flexibility, as a business owner, do you really have? You shouldn’t be working for your business, your business should be working for you. In episode 12 of The Resilient Retail Game Plan, we’ll look at a number of key points that will help you start paying yourself as quickly as possible. We’ll look at reviewing profit margins and the importance of understanding the fundamentals of your business costs, as well as developing a cash-flow forecast from your sales plan and taking the fear out of taking money out of the business. We’ll also discuss the importance of controlling the biggest cost in your business - your stock; and how even if it’s just buying yourself a coffee every morning that paying yourself is essential to stop your business from devouring every bit of cash available as it grows.

In mid-September, I ran the Resilient Retail online summit, which was all about getting ready for one of the most important sales touchstones of the year - Christmas. The summit featured 10 sessions across 2 days presented by an amazing range of industry experts with backgrounds and experience as diverse as email marketing, PR, wholesaling, and social media. So, with the festive season not far off, it is in Episode 11 of The Resilient Retail Game Plan that I want to run through and expand on what I consider to be 9 key takeaways and common themes from these sessions, to help get your creative product business ready for Christmas 2020. We’ll take a look at the importance of how you show up for your business, online and off, by sharing the ever-growing story about you and your products with your customers. We’ll discuss how to get prepared, for not only the festive period but pre and post-Xmas, and we’ll also talk about strategizing, doubling-down on your business plans and further identifying your ideal clients to help build loyalty at a time when your business is at it’s most visible - and that’s just for starters! 2020 has been a rough year but people are determined, more than ever, to have a good Christmas, so tune in for some great advice, from the best professionals in their fields, that you can use to help increase your sales this season.

In episode 10 of The Resilient Retail Game Plan, I want to get you moving from being a reactive to a proactive creative business owner, and that all starts with setting targets and goals as part of a robust sales plan. A sales plan is the first building block needed for many of the elements that are required to run your business effectively. Even making a simple outline with a few select targets can allow you to clearly see your goals and give you the information needed to correctly forecast and manage your stock and cashflow. We’re not looking at exactly how much money you’re going or are intending to take each week, month or year, but will discuss the importance of creating both realistic and aspirational benchmarks to help drive your business forward; not falling prey to ‘comparisonitis’, and recognizing and celebrating your target-driven sales successes to keep you motivated and your business growing.

Social Media is an inescapable and vitally important channel through which to reach and connect with your customers. With the right mixture of content and posts, you might see great results in a short space of time but it’s important to remember that Social Media is not a sales strategy, but just one device in your selling toolkit. In episode 9 of The Resilient Retail Game Plan, I go over the approaches, challenges, and benefits of using social media to sell your creative products. We’ll look at how to take the feeling of sleaze out of selling by changing our mindset around sales; we’ll further identify our ideal customers by working out where and who they spend their time with online, and I’ll give you a breakdown of how fostering deeper connections with and providing value to your customer base through a balance of different content and posts will help promote your brand and sell your products.

There’s so much to do once you start your own creative product business! When you’re in charge of doing everything and find yourself juggling so many responsibilities it can be hard to see the big picture, especially when it comes to sales. That’s why in episode 8 of The Resilient Retail Game Plan, I’m diving into the ONLY four ways to grow your sales. From ‘Sales Funnels’ to ‘Super-fans’, we’ll start at looking at how to get more people aware of your business through tools like SEO and social media; improving your conversion rate by streamlining the shopping experience; persuading increased spending through great customer service and by leveraging transaction analysis; and how to grow loyalty and create repeat customers by building relationships through acts of co-creation and personalised perks.

Whether you find yourself bursting with business ideas, think that you've spotted a gap in the market or are simply just tired of the 9 to 5 and are ready for a change, starting a creative product business can seem like the perfect option - but it’s not without its challenges and a steep learning curve. So, in episode 7 of The Resilient Retail Game Plan, I want to give you 5 things you need to know before starting your product business that will help you take your ideas, passion, and excitement and turn them into a reality. We will take a look at how key demographics and ideal customers profiles can help you to get clear on who your customers are; the importance of connecting with the ‘why?’ of your business by questioning your motivations and direction; the manufacturing channels that will help get your products to market including where and how to best display and sell them; and the realistic expectations and commitment it takes to build a resilient retail business that is both rewarding and profitable.

Profit is the engine that drives everything you do, so if you don’t price your creative products correctly you can’t hope to last very long or to build a resilient retail business. Underpricing is a common trend I see afflict budding entrepreneurs and small businesses alike, where various elements, often including a lack of confidence or belief in you and your business, means you start charging less than the market value for your products. In episode 6 of the Resilient Retail Game Plan, I'll walk you through how you can identify whether you are, indeed, underpricing and then how to use the ‘Value Triangle’ to set a price that’s justified, not only through customer research and feedback but by conveying quality to your customer base and creating desirability in the marketplace.

Stock management can make or break product businesses. It’s all too easy to fall victim to ‘shiny new stock syndrome’ and bulk buying discounts, where you end up overstocking your business and creating a “stock monster’ that reduces your cash flow to a trickle. In episode 5 of the Resilient Retail Game Plan I cover the four key rules for stock management - having a plan, ordering the right amounts, trialing and repeating, and clearing as you go. These tools will help you feel strategic, in control, and give you more time to focus on the important things within your business - creating and curating a line of products you and your customers love.

If you want to sell more as a creative product business you need to be as passionate as I am about those products at the centre of your business - why else start a business if you’re not going to create fantastic products?I always say “The best sales strategy is a great product strategy” and this involves a number of approaches - from the way you interact and relate to your customer base to revising, refining, and renewing your product lines. So, join me in this episode of The Resilient Retail Game Plan as I outline the tools and methods that will help you to find your niche and to steadily grow your business through the strategic management and ongoing evolution of your own fantastic products. Businesses mentioned in this episode:Bibblyboo bibs https://www.bibbilyboo.co.uk/Vintage Sister https://vintagesister.co.uk/

Profit margins are like the foundations of your business so it’s very important you pay close attention to them and that you’re fully aware of how much money you’re making every time you make a sale. In this episode, I go over how to breakdown your costs and how to use those figures to become a more profitable and resilient retailer. We’ll cover the simple calculations (which I've included below) that’ll give you a clearer picture of how your business is operating and discuss the importance of questioning and challenging yourself to make your products more profitable without harming the essential essence of your offering. I also cover blindspots and common mistakes that business both big and small make which hurt product profitability, the importance of valuing your time in regards to scalability and discuss how harnessing opportunities created through shipping and sales channels can help you keep more of your hard-earned money. Profit Margin Calculations: Calculating a profit margin - non-VAT registered business (Selling price - product costs)/Selling price Product sells for £20, costs £8 to make, profit margin (£20-£8)/£20 = 12/20 x 100 = 60% Calculating a profit margin - non-VAT registered business ((Selling price/1.2) - product costs)/(Selling price/1.2) Product sells for £60, costs £18 to make, profit margin ((£60/1.2)-£18)/(£60/1.2) = (£50-£18)/£50 = 32/50x 100 = 64%

Retail isn’t in trouble, boring retail is in trouble. Witnessing the collapse of behemoths like Debenhams can certainly knock your confidence, but don’t be deterred. The challenges we’re seeing facing legacy retailers today are a result of decades of change and are part of a new cycle for the industry. In this episode of The Resilient Retail Plan, we’ll take a look at the birth of the big chains in the 1950’s through to today where artificial intelligence, big data, algorithms, last mile tech, and augmented and virtual reality are all part of a toolset that big retail are trying to use to survive in a world where personalised shopping and experiential retail are leading the charge in customer engagement - and how you too can leverage those tools, using your own unique voice and personal touch to stand out in the marketplace.

So, why am I here and why am I talking to you about the retail industry? Well, first - a little background. After graduating from Warwick University with a degree in International business back in 2000 I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do. After numerous, uninteresting interviews with consulting firms, and from previous experience on the shop floor, I knew I wasn’t cut out for a career in retail management. I instead found my home in Merchandising. Numerically and creatively-led, in working with products and creating long term strategies I was afforded the opportunities to work in the states, handling 400 million dollar budgets for Talbots; from 2008 I worked on the UK high street with the Austin Reed Group and Coast; and in 2015 landed my dream job of running stationary at Paperchase (because who doesn’t love stationery?) However, after 17 years, a decade of which I’d been a full-time mother, juggling the stresses of supporting a struggling industry with the demands of family life, I made the difficult but exciting decision to step back, let go and start my own business. It was at this point that I began researching why the retail industry was indeed struggling. From identifying the effects of the 2008 financial crisis on consumers to studying changes in technology I came to understand that my expertise and experience in merchandising uniquely positioned me to assist clients in an ever-changing world. And that’s why I’m here - to share my insights with you! Whether you’re operating out of an office, on Etsy, Facebook Marketplace, Instagram or at a market stall you are an important and growing part of the retail industry and I want to help you to not only make money, to trade profitably, control stock and to price correctly - but to plan and strategise for the future and become a resilient retail business!

Welcome to the Resilient Retail Game Plan.A podcast for anyone wanting to start, grow or scale a profitable creative product business with me, Catherine Erdly.The Resilient Retail Game Plan is a podcast dedicated to one thing - breaking down the concepts and tools I’ve gathered from twenty years in the retail industry and showing you how you can use them in your business.This is the real nuts and bolts of running a successful product business, broken down in an easy, accessible way.This is not a podcast about learning how to make your business look good, it’s the tools and techniques that will make you and your business feel good.Confidently plan, launch and manage your products, and feel in control of your sales numbers and cash flow to help you build a resilient retail business.