Ian Cheshire rightly champions the credo of ‘self-help’ – a tendentious but apt mantra for our leading do-it-yourselfer – for all retailers in these difficult times.

Ian Cheshire rightly champions the credo of ‘self-help’ – a tendentious but apt mantra for our leading do-it-yourselfer – for all retailers in these difficult times.

Recently, Ian recommended “taking the DIY approach and creating your own growth rather than waiting for a rising economic tide to do it for you”.

Self-help, he said “can take many forms […] It can mean more multichannel, more product innovation, looking abroad for growth, doing more direct sourcing […] or an improved customer service to create a point of difference.” This last point was strongly endorsed by Lord Kirkham in his column last week.

This strategic advice is universally relevant, whether you’re intent on bolstering your fitness or buttressing your survival.

But the tactical should now arguably outweigh the strategic, for the strong and the struggling alike. As Ian said at the end of his column, “self-help is all about the ability to execute well – the principles are simple, but hard to deliver”.

This is why Retail Expertise, whose advisory activities are largely strategic, has linked up with the expert tacticians at RPS (Retail Performance Specialists www.rps-global.com) in recognition that focusing on retail execution, in detail and in practice, is one of the best ways currently to help retailers transform their performance.

Cost-cutting measures are, of course, essential; but sales must be driven harder through productivity improvement on the retail floor. Retailers will never cost-cut their way to growth and the race to the bottom can only be stemmed – or better reversed – through productivity.

RPS avow that even minor improvements to a store’s floor KPIs (conversion, average transaction value, items per sale, sales per hour, etc) can yield incommensurately larger increases in sales. They have demonstrated that a 1% increase in conversion rate, for example, can yield as much as a 10% increase in store revenues. To accomplish these improvements, a floor KPI management tracking system needs to be institutionalised in retailers’ performance processes, and managed at an individual store level, to impress KPI metrics’ importance on those who have the largest impact on sales – the frontline store managers and individual colleagues.

Experience shows that many leading retailers today, even if they do have the system to track retail floor KPIs (and many do not), don’t know how to correct the evident deficiencies.

It’s all about productivity of people, stock and space. And systems like the RPS ‘science of moving numbers’ are proving comprehensive tools to leverage shopfloor KPIs through empowering individuals and making them accountable.

As Ian Cheshire revealed, his favourite new phrase is: “In theory there’s no difference between theory and practice. But in practice there is.” Not all strategies are theoretical of course, and medium-term strategic vision must not be forsaken for short-term remedies. But now’s certainly the time for some practical, tactical action.

  • Michael Poynor managing director, Retail Expertise