Tag: data

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Retailing in a Recession: Part Two

retailing in a recession

Although we aren’t in a recession, we want to give all retailers the tools to succeed if there is one. In part two of our series, we cover how customers can spend more in your store.

Recession Tip: Find the Needs-Offer Gap

A great way to retail in a recession is to get customers to spend more. Easy right? All you have to do is give them what they want. The challenge lies in figuring out what they want (and no, unfortunately it isn’t more of what you’re already selling). Enter the needs-offer gap.

To identify your needs-offer gap, you’ll need more than data. Unfortunately, data will only tell you what is selling, not what could be selling. However, if you do the work to identify your needs-offer gap your store will reap the benefits.

Take this example. A retailer was experiencing a decline in apparel sales. They could have limited the apparel they were offering and expanded their accessories and handbags (which were selling), but this would have led to over serving. Instead, the retailer looked at why their customers shopped elsewhere for apparel. They found out their customer base wanted “clothing for the right occasions, in the right styles, at the right price, and with the right fit.”

This led to the retailer evaluating their merchandise initiatives. By introducing new brands, offering more wear-to-work options, and expanding mix-and-match basics, the retailers saw their margins improve.

For more information on the needs-offer gap, check out rule number two in the Harvard Business Review’s Five Rules for Retailing in a Recession. And stay tuned next week to learn more on good versus bad costs in part three of our Retailing in a Recession series.

If you’re looking for more information to guide you in owning a retail business, subscribe to Creative Retailer today. Already a subscriber? No worries—join our Facebook group for insights and dialogue from industry specialists like you. And don’t forget, you can always purchase single issues if you prefer that instead.

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Creating a Customer Avatar

customer avatar

Why do your customers chose to shop with you? If you don’t know the answer to this question, practice the below exercise to keep differentiating yourself from the pack.

What is a customer avatar?

A customer avatar represents your ideal customer. Creating a customer avatar is important because they are the type of person that purchases your products.

To design your company’s avatar, consider your customer’s demographics, characteristics, hopes, and fears.

  • Demographics: What is your customers age, location, gender, job status, education level, economic status, etc.
  • Characteristics: What are your customers habits, skills, and skill level? Are they in the market for bulk fabric at low costs, or artisanal fabrics for a range of crafts? These are two very different types of customers.
  • Hopes: Your customers hopes are the benefits they receive from your business. Are your customers experienced quilters, or wanting to learn?
  • Fears: Your customers fears intersect with your business’s solutions. How can you address your avatars pain points?

Customer data points

We already have demographic information on over 29,000 quilters thanks to the 2021 Quilter’s Survey. The average quilter is a retired female in her 60’s. She already knows how to quilt and starts nine to 11 quilts a year, working on them about 6 hours a week. She shops based off fabric choices and location (around 30 minutes away) and has increased her online shopping about 30%.

To get your business’s demographics, check out your social media analytics, or consider adding Google analytics to your website for additional data points.

Inspiration for this post came from “Customer Avatars and Generosity Marketing” by Flossie Arend published in the October 2022 issues of American Quilt Retailer. Next week we’ll cover the second part of this post: marketing to your avatar.

If you’re looking for more information to guide you in owning a retail business, subscribe to Creative Quilt Retailer today. Already a subscriber? No worries—join our Facebook group for insights and dialogue from industry specialists like you. And don’t forget, you can always purchase single issues if you prefer that instead.

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State of Hiring

hiring

With talks of a recession imminent, many employers are reviewing hiring. Nobody can predict the future but something else can provide context: Data. Read on for some of HireVue’s insights.

Who is HireVue?

First, you’re probably wondering who HireVue is and why their data matters.

To start, HireVue is a company that connects businesses to candidates by providing video interviewing software, conversational AI, and pre-hire assessments.

Now, about their outlook. There are a lot of really smart people who say a recession is imminent and there are other really smart people who don’t think that’s the case.

CEO of HireVue Anthony Reynolds believes “the economy will continue to be strong, if a little wonky.” Below are the data points Reynolds reviewed to come to this conclusion.

Hiring Statistics: Pros

  • There are 2 job openings for every 1 person unemployed
    • These numbers are global and come from HireVue’s 800+ customers
  • HireVue customers sent 17 million chat and text messages
    • Up 1.4 million from last quarter
  • Government hiring has tripled since 2020
    • More specifically, public sector hiring increased 17% since last quarter
  • Skills assessments are up 700,000 from last quarter
    • Compared to only 50,000 last quarter

Hiring Statistics: Cons

  • Interview volume is down slightly from 2.1 to 1.8 million
  • Hourly positions still have a worker shortage

Conclusion

In summary, this blog post could have a completely different tone in Q3, but only time will tell. The past two years have been difficult for all small businesses and yet you’ve remained resilient. What’s a little more to keep us on our toes?

If you’re looking for more information to guide you in owning a retail business, subscribe to American Quilt Retailer today. Already a subscriber? No worries—join our Facebook group for insights and dialogue from industry specialists like you. And don’t forget, you can always purchase single issues if you prefer that instead.

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Know Your Break-Even Point

break-even point

Knowing your break-even point helps you to plan for the long-term. Plus, the more data you have, the better you can run your business. Check out the below to find out just how much it costs for you to keep your doors open.

Determining your break-even point

A break-even point tells how many sales you need to cover expenses (or where it breaks even for a given period). By knowing your break-even point, you can determine how viable your quilt shop is, and if it’s getting weaker or stronger.

The equation for calculating your break-even point (or really when your revenue equals $0 profit) is:

  • Revenue = Cost of inventory (goods) sold + Other expenses + Profit
  • For the equation:
    • Revenue = Sale price per unit x Number of units sold.
    • Cost of inventory (goods) sold = Cost of inventory per unit x Number of units sold (keywords are inventory and sold. Not what’s sitting on your shelves).
    • Other expenses = Sum of all non-variable expenses (or rent, utilities, payroll, insurance, taxes, etc.)

For break-even purposes, profit is $0. If you want a margin of safety, simply chose the number you want as a net and plug that into the equation.

Determining daily business costs

Once you figure out what your break-even point is, you can determine how much it costs to operate per day.

Most quilt shops separate this into two categories: fixed expenses per day and variable expenses per day. Some of these expenses include payroll, rent, utilities, and more. Knowing all of these equations will help you make smarter buying and selling decisions.

Inspiration for this post came from “Know Your Break-Even Point” by Jacob Curtis published in the June 2021 issue of American Quilt Retailer.

If you’re looking for more information to guide you in owning a retail business, subscribe to American Quilt Retailer today. Already a subscriber? No worries—join our Facebook group for insights and dialogue from industry specialists like you. And don’t forget, you can always purchase single issues if you prefer that instead.

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Developing New Contacts

New contacts

Has your email list remained stagnant? Check out these tips to increase your customer contacts.

Define your market

The first step to increasing your contacts is to define who you’re going after. This will not only save you time while you do outreach, but also help determine what channels you use for messaging, and what sort of content to include in your pitch.

Build your contacts list

The first step to building your contact list is easy; start with who you know! Ask for referrals and offer discounts to new clients.

Networking is also a great way to expand your customer base. Networking is difficult, but you’ll find that when you put yourself out there, people are willing to help. Attend webinars, trade shows, or join a local business organization.

Finally, pick up your website and social media game. This is where defining your market will help your outreach the most. Have a lead? Go to their website and search for emails. Want to find leads? Go to a search engine and see if you can pay for data that will provide those emails for you (and save you time as well).

Follow up

Continuing on with online outreach, follow up once, then follow up again. Include enticing calls to action or create scarcity but letting them know that time or space is running out.

This is where a CRM (customer relationship manager) really comes in handy. A CRM is a software solutions that helps to track your contact activity. Not only will you be able to track who’ve you’ve contacted, but you’ll be able to identify priority leads as well.

If you’re looking for more information to guide you in owning a retail business, subscribe to American Quilt Retailer today. Already a subscriber? No worries—join our Facebook group for insights and dialogue from industry specialists like you.

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Evaluating Bookkeeping Tools

Small Business Bookkeeping Tools

Automating your bookkeeping processes is one of the smartest moves your business can make. Check out these tips as you begin your research to find the best tool for you.

What are you looking for?

The suite of bookkeeping solutions is lengthy, so before you begin your research, identify your highest priority needs. Some platforms allow you to track inventory, others sales tax, and others receipts.

As you begin your research, determine your budget. Also determine your highest priority needs. Don’t look at solutions that aren’t within 25 percent of your budget, or solutions that don’t cross off your must-have checklist.

Ask the right questions

If you’re thrown into a sales process to determine the best solution for your needs, don’t be blinded by their bells and whistles. Ask these questions to make sure you’re getting the best solution for your business.

  • How secure is your API?
  • How do you back up your data?
  • Are there any other costs to this platform?
  • How quickly do you respond to questions?
  • What pain points do similar clients experience?

And remember, you want a solution that’s going to grow with your business. Once you go through this process, make sure you do it right.

Inspiration from this post came from Hubspot.

If you’re looking for more information to guide you in owning a retail business, subscribe to American Quilt Retailer today. Already a subscriber? No worries—join our Facebook group for insights and dialogue from industry specialists like you.

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Cybersecurity

Cybersecurity

With more time spent online, cybersecurity practices are more critical than ever. Check out this list to make sure you’ve got your business is safe.

Passwords

Train your employees to use strong passwords and require them to change their passwords every three months. Better yet, implement multi-factor authentification, or check with your bank and other vendors to see if they offer that option.

If employees use a shared laptop, create different accounts for each employee and encourage each employee to protect their account with a strong password.

Finally, make sure your business is using a secure, encrypted, and hidden WiFi network. Set up your wireless router so it does not broadcast the WiFi name and make it password protected too.

Cybersecurity

Installing a firewall on each of your computers is essential, and there are free versions online too. If employees work from home, make sure they have a firewall installed on their home computers as well.

Back up your data as frequently as possible. Per the FCC, critical data includes word processing documents, electronic spreadsheets, databases, financial files, human resources files, and accounts receivable/payable files.

Lastly, limit employee access to this data. Employees should only be given access to systems they need for their jobs, and shouldn’t be allowed to download additional software.

Hardware

Update your systems regularly and run antivirus software after each update. Also make sure you use a different computer to process payments than you use to browse the internet.

Nobody wants to be in a position where they have to pay someone because of a lack of online security. Start with these practices to protect your business from cyber attacks.

If you’re looking for more information to guide you in owning a retail business, subscribe to American Quilt Retailer today. Already a subscriber? No worries—join our Facebook group for insights and dialogue from industry specialists like you.

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Tips for Going Live on Facebook

Facebook live

If you’re like most of the world, you’ve received notifications from Facebook alerting you that one of your friends or the pages you follow are going live. Jump in on the action with these tips.

Promoting your Facebook live

Video is becoming more popular, and live videos get 3 times more interaction than other videos on social media. Promote your Facebook live event before it takes place, and post about it across all social media channels.

When you chose a date and time for your event keep in mind what works best for your followers. Looking at previous engagement data should help you make this decision.

Try a test run

Test run your Facebook live event before the scheduled date and time so you can avoid formatting problems. Try to get this right as watchers will stay on the video three times as long as they would other videos (nobody wants watchers to leave for silly reasons, such as shaky video).

Some things to consider include: lighting, production quality (will you be shooting in your store? Or in front of a blank wall to minimize distractions?), and whether or not you should shoot vertically or horizontally (vertical shooting can sometimes make you look too close to the camera).

Interact with your followers

Remember, Facebook live is to engage with your audience. This means you should be adding context constantly throughout your video so any new followers who jump on know what you’re speaking about.

Interact with followers by addressing their comments as they appear. This will make your stream feel like a two-way conversation, which may explain why live videos drive ten times the amount of comments compared to other videos.

Wrapping up the event

After the event is over, check your data. How are the results compared to other posts? Take the time to respond to any comments you may have missed, and encourage people to continue to comment if they’re catching the video after the event is over.

Interested in learning more? Use this checklist to help you get started with your first Facebook live.

If you’re looking for more information to guide you in owning a retail business, subscribe to American Quilt Retailer today. Already a subscriber? No worries—join our Facebook group for insights and dialogue from industry specialists like you.