Viewpoint


Don’t Forget the Customer


Christina Grzasko, Managing Director at Anya Media, discusses how merchandising can be the key to retail success.


As I consider the state of retail at present, I cannot help but feel that, despite the state of today’s economy, there is a possibility that this is a retail revolution masquerading as a recession. Businesses that seem to be taking a hit are those who are constantly marking down excessive inventory by 50­70%. I cannot walk down our local high street and look at sale signs without wondering: just how much excess stock was actually bought last year? What makes it seem more disheartening


is that some retailers are skipping merrily through the high street carnage. And it’s at this point that retailers should realise that they have a choice ­ they can either growl at the mention of successful brands, or they could realise that they too can have what the other retailers have. It is within the remit of businesses to replicate the success of those brands, and you don’t need much more than a great bit of software and a change of plan. Currently, as a survey Anya Media


carried out at the Retail Business Technology Expo earlier this year revealed, retailers are mostly taking the former route, the growling one, whilst they are forced into discounting large quantities of stock. Margins are getting battered and it feels like an alternative, successful trading period is just out of reach. Truth is, at least some of the damage


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retailers are doing is psychological. Constant messages of financial Armageddon do nothing for our confidence as retailers and traders, and it encourages us to think that our fortunes are out of our hands. But this hides two genuine certainties: people will carry on buying things whatever happens, and we do have some control over our futures. I cannot change the fact that my customers feel that their available income for my goods is reduced. I can change what I offer to sell them, just as I can buy on shorter order to keep my committed capital down. Likewise, I can get closer to my customers instead of relying on assumptions. By doing so, I will find the type of goods they really want and how they want to buy them. The smallest businesses can go


multi­channel and we can all make agile, customer­responsive activity possible by range planning in such a way as to increase the amount of times we meet or exceed our customers’ expectations.


Contact:


Anya Media T: +44 (0) 845 259 2173 www.anyamedia.co.uk


www.a1retailmagazine.com


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