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Managing Your Bridal Inventory

183:854535881 (Anna Hare) — Wed, 08 Jun 2022 13:16:40 GMT

Managing your inventory and why you need to do it.

Inventory management for a bridal retailer is one of the biggest challenges we will face. From getting caught up in the moment and overbuying to selling off non performing gowns, the whole area can make or break your business.

So how do you overcome these potential minefields and feel confident in the knowledge that your inventory is working hard for you and giving you that all important return on your investment?

BUYING - TIP No. 1

Buy AFTER the show

This is the place to start. It’s so easy to get caught up in the moment at a trade show when you’re being offered prosecco and nibbles and everything is looking so enticing and I am definitely guilty of this too!

But in those circumstances you are rarely best placed to make the right buying decisions, and remember, these decisions will affect how successful your next season in store and so it’s vital that you make considered and confident selections, whilst in possession of all the facts.

Visit all your designers at the show, shortlist all your favourite dresses (I always give mine a score between 0 and 5) and photograph or video them where possible.

Then, when you are back at your store, go through each of your designers gowns, line sheet by line sheet, look at gowns you already have and look at what you’re planning to add to your rails. Eliminate the duplicates, unless the gown you’re replacing is likely to be discontinued or if it is a top seller, where it makes sense to have something similar.

At this point the pressure is off, as is the buzz you get from buying at the show. It means you will make more rational and informed decisions and it will help you to avoid over buying and you can make a decision with your team, which also may not have been an option at the event.

NB Involving your team in buying decisions will result in increased buy in from them, and a more well rounded collection on your rails.

SELLING THROUGH THE SEASON - TIP No. 2

Don’t be a hoarder!

At least monthly identify your best sellers. Talk them through with your team and find out where the trends are going. Have the top 5-10 dresses changed in the past month? Which new gowns are coming up the ranks and which older gowns are dropping out of the top 10?

Look at your idle stock, gowns that are not being pulled and are therefore not repeating. Go through them with your team. Are they not repeating because there is another dress that will always beat them, or are they not what brides are wanting right now?

If a previous best seller is slipping down the rankings give it another 6 weeks on your rails to make sure this is a trend and not a blip, and then give it a OTP (off the peg) price and make sure your team know you are ready to let it go.

Don’t be afraid to sell gowns off the peg throughout your season, remember knowledge is power so keep on top of dress performance and you can be ready to sell a dress OTP when the right bride walks through the door.

PRE DELIVERY SALE - TIP No3

Plan and pre organise for a successful sale .

You now know exactly what styles will be arriving and how long it will be before they are delivered. So at least 2 months beforehand, start to plan for your sale.

Any gowns that have not repeated for 6 months must go into the sale, any gowns that have not repeated for 3 months but have been on the rails for more than 6 months, should also be considered for the sale. Discuss these with your team and assess each one on a case by case basis, don’t be sentimental here! It may have been a best seller a year ago, but if sales have dropped off it will usually be for a reason, maybe a new dress has come in that stylists are pulling, maybe it’s just not a trending style that brides are looking for anymore, whatever it is, let it go!

Once you have you list of dresses, go ahead and make a decision on how much you are prepared to reduced them by. Don’t be shy about pricing them to sell. If a gown is approaching 3 years old and not repeating, then you are in danger of it never selling, so anything you can achieve for that gown will be a bonus and money you can invest in new stock for next season. In contrast, if you know a gown is likely to sell well OTP then take off enough to make it appealing to more brides whilst still making you a good return.

Sample sales are definitely not as attractive to brides as they once were, and so it is up to you to build the excitement and drive the demand via your marketing. Drip feeding brides by email, sending teases that the sale is coming will start to get them interested, and then as you approach the event, (around 2-3 weeks beforehand) start posting images, video and prices (before and after) on your social media, in your email marketing. Add it as a Facebook event and an event on your My Business Google profile. Run polls on your stories, create a highlight on Instagram and basically keep talking about it to build awareness.

Think about how the event will run, how you will allocate appointments and whether there will be rules around the number of dresses that can be tried, the fact they must be paid for in full and taken away on the day etc. and make sure these are clear.

If you can, add a banner to the homepage of your website, and create a page for all the dresses that will be going into the sale.

In short, create as much visibility as you can and don’t worry about ‘over sharing’ as not all your brides will see all your marketing.

If you need any help or support with your inventory management or implementing anything in any of my articles, feel free to get in touch. I offer a FREE 15 minute strategy call , just click below to book.

Retail Metrics: Knowing Your Numbers

183:854535881 (Anna Hare) — Wed, 19 Jan 2022 09:51:13 GMT

The top business retail metrics and why you should track them.

When you opened your store, you had a dream. A dream to create something wonderful for your customers, the perfect destination for them to find their perfect 'something' and for you to live a fulfilled life where work was enjoyable.

I’m certain you didn’t fall in love with the idea of understanding profit margins, corporation tax and VAT, however.

But to run a successful—and more importantly profitable—business, it is vital you have at least a grasp on the key numbers, otherwise, you will not know whether all your hard work is worth it!

This article is not going to be about what is and isn’t allowable against tax, directors loans or dividends, that is what your accountant is for. The retail metrics in this article will be the numbers that you can track, the numbers that will enable you to drive your business forward.

When I start working with a new client, one of my first questions to them is ‘which key numbers do you track each week?’

It is rare that any of them track any of their numbers, but it is so important. It gives you back control, allowing you to spot trends, focus attention on key areas and head off any potential issues before they become unmanageable. The retail sector is hard work, physically demanding, emotionally exhausting and like riding the world’s biggest rollercoaster that you can’t get off…and so you must make it pay to make it worth it.

So which key numbers should you focus on? Well, there are so many, but I would suggest initially focusing on just four. This will get you off to a great start and help you drive your business in the right direction.

YOUR GAP - GETTING THE LIFE YOU WANT

First of all, you need to find your gap. This is the difference between the wage you are paying yourself right now, and the wage you would like to be able to pay yourself. It will become your goal, and without it you are essentially sacrificing your work life balance for very little in return. It is a common problem amongst bridal retailers. Many of them don’t pay themselves even close to minimum wage!

Ask yourself how much your hourly rate is, and if would you be able to employ someone amazing in your business for the same wage. If not…then what do you need to earn to give you the life you want? Add the difference between your current wage and your ‘dream’ wage to your fixed costs, what you spent on salaries and marketing and other overheads in your last year, and this will tell you how much your store needs to take to give you the life you want.

GROSS MARGIN

In most stores who mark up using the ‘times 3’ model, the gross margin (otherwise known as profit) will be a little under 60%.

It is important to point out here that you should always aim to achieve at least a 3 times mark-up (more if possible), and only consider less when you are selling a high value item as your gross profit will be higher, e.g:

Wholesale price £300 x 3 = Retail price £900 = Gross Profit £600

Wholesale price £700 x 2.5 = Retail Price £1750 = Gross Profit £1050

Clearly the 2nd option makes more sense financially, but it doesn’t necessarily mean your business will succeed. In most cases, stores will need a mix of price points in order to command the greatest market share. As a rule of thumb, aiming for a 3 times mark-up should give you a stable business model.

AVERAGE SPEND

Knowing your average customer spend is key—don’t just guess it!

Count the number of sales you have made in a set time frame and the total this comes to. Divide this total by the number of sales in the same time frame, and you will have your average spend.

By understanding your gross margin, your average spend and your gap, you can work out exactly how many sales you need to make in a year to give you the salary you want—all that from just 3 easy numbers.

Setting Your Business Goals for 2024

183:854535881 (Anna Hare) — Tue, 30 Nov 2021 09:30:05 GMT

In this article I highlight the importance of evaluating your business’ performance of the last 12 months, along with the most effective approach when setting targets for the year ahead.

I began the month thinking that my article was going to be about brand mix, and how to balance giving variety and choice to your customer without overstocking and overspending.

But as the weeks have passed, I realised that my own primary focus right now is on setting my targets for next year, so that I know where I am going and, more importantly, how I’m going to get there, and I believe that is what we should all be doing right now.

Why wouldn’t you want to start the year with a set of clear goals and objectives, knowing that without them, you won’t know what success looks like?

Targets are often based solely on the previous year’s performance, and there is definitely an argument for this, otherwise how do we continue to grow? But in order to be meaningful, other factors should come in to play - it’s fair to say that this past few years have pretty much been impossible to predict, and so we can’t easily base our targets on those anyway!

So, when it comes to developing my targets, I adopt a slightly different, more personal approach.

Of course, I include all the overheads of running the business, stock costs, staffing costs, premises costs etc. and I try to factor in the likely increases that will be coming during the next 12 months. For me this year it is staffing costs, (the increase in minimum wage coupled with having a member of staff going onto maternity leave that I need to cover) but I also think we will see a rise in delivery costs and likely increases in dress prices as suppliers have to also cover increased production costs and import duty as a result of Brexit.

Then I look at my personal goals and cost those out. This could be a simple as paying yourself a little more next year than you did this year, or something more directly rewarding, like taking you and your family to Disneyland! The ‘what’ isn’t important, what is important is that it matters to you and will improve your life in some way.

By doing this, it means you are actually invested in achieving your goals, it gives them meaning and foundations based on you personally and this in turn drives you to achieve them.

Now you need to look back, I have actually used 2019 figures for this exercise this year, because I feel happier basing my targets on real numbers achieved for a full year, but you can use 2020 or 2021 if you’d like to, what’s important is that the targets you’re setting are based on fact, that way they will be realistic and are therefore more likely to be achievable.

Stick with me here, I know it’s not exciting, but you’ll feel such a sense of achievement once it’s done, you’ll be happy you did it!

As a rule of thumb you should aim to increase sales by 10-20% on the previous year, but remember, you are the one setting the targets and so they can be as stretching or conservative as you like, just make sure they will challenge you and move the business forward, whilst hopefully also giving you a better life this year than last year. It’s also vital that they are not too high and impossible to achieve, as this will simply demoralise and demotivate you and your team and the targets will become meaningless as you’ll stop trying to hit them.

The final thing to consider is which are the important numbers to track, if you read my previous ‘Knowing your Numbers’ article, you may already know where I’m going with this, but I believe there are just 4 key numbers you need to track and apply a target to, and the rest will fall into place as a result:

1. The number of items sold

2. The number of brides seen (1 ^st appointments)

3. The customer’s average spend

4. The conversion rate

These numbers are effectively the only ones that matter, of course you can add any others, add on sales, reviews, storage etc, are also useful track, but keeping it simple will mean you are more likely to keep on top of it.

You may wish to add total revenue too, but steer away from including balances in this, as they will give you a false impression of success.

The 4 numbers above are what will keep you focused on the right activity.

Make sure you have a target for each one, preferably weekly, but monthly at least and share them with your team. Give each of your stylists their own target too, simply a percentage of the overall store target pro-rata’d for them is all that’s needed. They then know where they fit and what they contribute to the store’s success, helping them feel empowered and valued. You may choose to reward them on this too of course, but that’s another article for another day!

Now you have your targets set, all you need to do is work out how you’re going to reach them…if you need any help or support with that or implementing anything in any of my articles, feel free to get in touch at anna@yourretailcoach.co.uk

Also. if you’d like to download the free spreadsheets that will help you track and measure you store targets for the coming year, just drop me an email and request the downloads and I'll pop them over.

Let’s get planning, and make 2022 your best year ever!!

Myth Busting Multi Channel Marketing

183:854535881 (Anna Hare) — Thu, 03 Jun 2021 14:51:07 GMT

Some marketing jargon sounds complicated...but don't be intimidated...because it really isnt!

Multi-channel marketing put simply means every way in which your customer can become aware of your business.

It could be from something as obvious as your shop window, or more complex marketing pillars like a re-targeting campaign.

When you’re thinking about ways in which to market your business, think about the places that your perfect customer will be, where they will be most likely to see what you want them to see and how to draw them in.

Some of the key multi-channel marketing pillars for a bricks and mortar retail store would be:

• Store front/window

• In-store feel/experience
• Website & Re-targeting
• Email/Communication
• Social Media

When thinking about the above, it is vital that you view it from your customers eyes, think about your ‘customer journey’ throughout and every single touch point that they may have with you.

Below are some thoughts on how this can work for each element.

Store front/window

This is literally the window into your world.

Is it on brand? Does it feel inviting? Is it drawing your customers attention for all the right reasons? For example, it needs to be clean, and well presented, your windows should be cleaned outside at least every fortnight and monthly inside. Your exterior paintwork should be neat and tidy. This is all subliminal to your customer, they don't even realise they're noticing the cobweb or the grimy window, but they are, and it is forming ytheir opinion of your business. It will affect their decision about whether or not to even walk through your door. It’s that age old expression, ‘first impressions count’!

Also does it reflect continuity of your brand and/or any social media campaigns you're running? For example, if you're featuring a product on your socials...make sure it is in your shop window, it's not rocket science, but the 'thread' should be there.

In store feel/experience

This is vital, but remember your customer may not get this far if your other marketing pillars are not doing their job properly.

Again, follow your customer journey once they arrive at your store, from the moment they walk in. How does it really feel to be a customer walking into your shop?

Never has the way the store looks and feels been so important to our customers, it's now rare for a customer to choose to walk into a shop as opposed to buy online, and so we must make it worth the effort...we must create a destination...an experience for them to enjoy and immerse themselves in, one which they will remember and want to repeat.

Have you created a brand image, a signature theme that runs throughout all your marketing, starting in the store itself? Your brand image should tell one cohesive story and help your customers quickly identify you in your marketing elsewhere and they should be able to relate to it. When they walk in, they should recognise areas of the store that they have seen on your social media platforms and website, it should be believable.

Website & Re-targeting

It has never been more important to have a fully functioning and effective website as almost 100% of your customers will visit your website before they actually walk through your doors and so it is essential that it is doing the hard work for you.

You have approximately seven seconds to grab a customers' attention before they think about moving on.

Your homepage needs to do this before they have to scroll and it must get across these 4 key points;

who you are
what you do
why they should choose you
and what they should do next (call to action)

When writing your content, focus on the customer and not on you. Avoid using ‘we will’ too often and instead say ‘you will’. This language will engage with your customer and they will begin to believe that they can relate to you.

Does your website allow customers to sign up to your newsletter? Or, is there a means to capture their data so that you can then effectively re-market to them in the form of email or text? This can work really well if you are giving your customer something in exchange for their prized email address, a discount off their first order often works well.

They will then be on your list and so you can keep in touch with them about any events happening in store, any exciting news you may wish to share or just to say hello.

Ever felt like your phone is listening to you? You visit a website to look at a toaster, and then when you next Google something the toaster you looked at before pops up alongside your search, or in your Facebook feed? It’s not witchcraft, it’s re-targeting, and it’s pretty straightforward. If you’re not able to do this yourself then ask your web designer to help you add your Google and Facebook pixels to your website header. Then when a customer leaves your website your paid ads will start to ‘follow’ them.

I have personally found this to be one of the most effective and financially efficient ways to spend my marketing budget.

Email/Communication

Whether you choose to email weekly, fortnightly or sporadically, all your emails should have a consistency to them. Use consistent language, your logo and brand colours, create a template to make it easier for you and make it instantly recognisable to your customer. Don’t overload their inbox but do make them feel valued and nurture them. They may join your list 2 or 3 years before they re ready to buy, but providing useful and interesting content will mean you will more likely be front of mind when they are.

Social Media

It feels a little like a swear word right now doesn’t it? It swallows your time and your energy, it can be exhausting and at times it feels impossible to come up with new and interesting content. But right now, it is one of the most fundamentally important ways to market to your customer. Almost all our customers will be on Instagram, many more on Facebook and many of those will have Pinterest pages, and so for the time being it really is worth all the effort.

There are a couple of things you can do to make it easier on yourself… if you don’t have a business account, switch to one, then you can see your data which is helpful to work out when best to post and what kind of things your customers engage with.

Secondly, use a scheduling tool like Planoly. This way you can sit down for a couple of hours once a week and set up all your posts for the rest of the week… it’s a game changer!

Multi-channel marketing is a huge topic and one that takes a considerable amount of work to get right. There are no magic wands to wave and no quick fixes, but once you get them right, you will begin to see a steady increase the number of sales. In many cases, you are already doing it, like with your shop window display and your store 'feel', everything else simply enhances that.

It can feel daunting and a llittle overwhelming, so it is worth tackling it one step at a time and if you would like any help or tips on where to start, do just get in touch.

The Golden 10 Minutes

183:854535881 (Anna Hare) — Sat, 14 Nov 2020 16:26:31 GMT

When your business gets a new lead or enquiry - how long does it take you to get back to them?

An hour? A day? A week?!

Here are some eye watering statistics: If you call a lead within 10 minutes of them enquiring with you (submitting the form/requesting the call etc) - you have a 92% chance of getting hold of them - AND your conversion rate will typically be double the norm.

If you call a lead just 30 minutes after the enquiry, that drops to 65%.

If you wait two hours (which most people would consider to be a great result!), you’re down to a 39% chance of them ever answering the phone and your conversion rate is where it’s at now. Imagine how low the number drops after just one day or even a week... (it’s scary!).