Efficient Retailing Wins Economic Woes

Businesses are having to employ innovative strategies to navigate and survive the economic climate, and struggling retailers are are finding new ways to succeed.

For the retail sector, there are a number of approaches to beat the odds stacked against them, and one of these has to do with cutting back to basics and becoming more efficient. Yes, a simple thing like better efficiency goes a long way in improving the bottom line.

For one retailer in Maple Grove, MN who owns a guitar shop, they carved themselves a niche market and use their online store to boost sales, with customers from 85 countries buying merchandise online. They also took time to get organized and become a more efficient business.

“It’s been very apparent for some time that the economic climate was changing dramatically,” said Stephanie, a decorative art historian who designed the space. “We saw it as an opportunity to get organized and become a more efficient business, without letting go of our values for quality and uniqueness.”

The couple kept the ad budget small and worked the e-mail list to promote private concerts, special deals and benefits. In December, they turned the heat down 2 degrees in the front and 4 degrees in the lesson rooms, and saw their energy bill drop $150.

Cory slowed inventory purchases to conserve cash and started bundling products together to sell as packages. He said they long ago gave up trying to come within quarters of prices offered by mass merchants, such as Guitar Center, on basics such as strings.

Businesses like this are working smarter, not harder, to not only stay afloat but increase profit. Another retailer who owns a men’s clothing store found creative ways to reach customers, including cross-promotions. The store holds special events that help drive in customers. The change began with thinking like a business person instead of a sales person.

Dorsett [Keith Dorsett of Elsworth] said it took him the better part of the year to stop thinking like a salesman and start thinking like a businessman. This year, he plans to hire a consultant to come in every six months and assess the business.

Hiring a consultant or expert in your business industry can have a great effect on helping a business with new strategies and with becoming more efficient in running their business. Although the business executive may know their product, they must also know how to manage operations better; streamlining work, cutting out unnecessary actions, and building a better, more solid foundation.

Now, managing operations of business has another meaning and doesn’t always mean supervising the activities of operations or the running of the business. All to often business owners get wrapped up in operations rather than organization. Yet it’s the organization and re-organization part that drives a business forward.

Therefore, in looking for creative ways to navigate through the current economic landscape, look at rethinking your strategies toward improved efficiency. That is, after all, where cutting back to basics begins.

Reference to this article from Minneapolis Star Tribune