What is the Retail Management Process?
The process of retail management has evolved from managing a physical store in one location to handling retail outlets around the world, concentrating efforts on virtual shops or online shopping. The retail management process, as we know it today, entails several key concepts in the fields of business administration, finance, and marketing. Here is the end-to-end retail management process to help you get started in the world of retail:
1 Identify the problem you want to solve
Every thriving retail business usually came into existence by solving a real world problem. Success in retail starts by focusing on the problem you want to solve, not on the solution you want to offer. Through intentional problem-solving with the help of root-cause analysis techniques such as the 5 Whys method, retail management wannabes can dive deep into the problem, so they can offer better solutions to solve them.
Another step in this part of the retail management process is competitive analysis or competitive research. Strategically collecting and reviewing information about the retail business’ competitors can help retail managers determine what about the problem they aim to solve has yet to be fully or easily solved. Finding out what your competitors do can provide a different perspective on solving the problem, giving you an advantage to do what they cannot do or have not yet done.
2 Understand the people you want to help
Once the problem to be solved has been clearly identified, the next step in the retail management process is market research, or gathering information about the consumers’ needs and preferences. At this point in the retail management process, the goal is to validate the reality, impact, and value of the problem you want to solve to the people you want to help.
To aid retail managers in understanding their customers deeper, practice empathy mapping, or the collaborative visualization used to articulate what you know about a particular type of customer, and create a customer journey map, or the complete sum of experiences that your targeted customers go through when interacting with your retail company or brand.
Having a deep understanding of the people you want to help enables you to know them better than they know themselves; ergo, you can be best positioned to reach them out, promising and delivering on the solution that can best solve their problem or fulfill their desire.
3 Develop and test your product or service
After knowing exactly what problem you want to solve and who you want to do it for, data-driven and well-informed product development can take place. In developing your product or service, supply chain management (e.g. sourcing and procurement) becomes crucial.
You want to make sure that in this part of the retail management process, you have the high-quality materials for the most reasonable price, so you can make your product or deliver your service in the most cost-effective way.
Anything new has to be tested in order to measure its effectiveness, and your product or service is no exemption. Test results can help you discern the strengths and weaknesses of your products or service, leveraging on what you can do best to solve the problem of the consumers. Getting feedback through customer satisfaction surveys can help the retail management improve the product or service by aligning with their customers’ wants and needs better.
4 Promote your retail brand, product, or service
With all of the planning and preparations, it is only at this point in the retail management process that the company or brand can launch, offering its real world problem-solving solution. Marketing, or the strategies for presenting offerings that have value for customers, including advertising, the activity of placing online and offline store advertisements, should be employed to drive awareness toward your products and services, generating sales from your target audience.
Pop-up shops, retail collaboration, and special in-store events can also help attract customers and drive sales. Other retail sales strategies include effective communication training for your store employees, curating your best stocks to provide consumers with the best transnational purchases they can make, and cross-selling or up-selling for improving customer retention or encouraging return customers.
5 Always ensure continuous improvement
If retail managers really think about it, there is actually no end to the retail management process as they should continuously improve how they do business in order to thrive in the market. The retail management can know what to enhance about their operations when they simply adopt an agile approach to retail, taking an informed risk of how to boost retail sales, doing more of what works, and learning from what doesn’t work.
Without continuous improvement, any retail company or brand will not survive. Retail managers can try expanding their product or service offers, re-targeting their audience, and more, depending on the size of the company, the stage of growth they’re in, the customers they’re helping, the problem they’re solving, and the product or service they’re offering.
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