Moving Forward: Leading Retail Brands Do Well. Not Just In Good Times

It is without doubt that the virus outbreak has brought a serious crisis upon the retail industry. For many retail brands this meant a strong decline of revenue, even leading some to come to the difficult decision of declaring bankruptcy. On a more personal level, many may have been confronted with the loss of their job. While all of these circumstances are incredibly difficult to handle and overcome, facing challenges should never stop us. Instead of remaining paralyzed and unable to act, we need to look past this, and start to make plans and move forward.

Challenges help us to grow. While this is a spiritual principle for some, it is also a proven concept that change management firms and personal development coaches teach both on a personal and company level.

Going one step further, a challenge always has several sides to it. If you look at the same difficult situation from a different angle you might be able to identify opportunities. So here is the driving question: Is it possible to use the current threat and convert it into something positive for your brand?

At 5 Star Plus, we believe that it is not only a must, it is in fact our responsibility as managers to spin the situation around strategically until it is possible to gain leverage from it. Whether it’s by improving the overall business model, or creating a stronger market position, the overall result comes from the actions made by the brand today. 

We owe it to ourselves, to our companies, and to our teams, to remain functional and keep creating positive impact.

So again, how can brand managers change their perspective and come out leading after the crisis? While there are no limits to creative leadership, here are a couple of examples how you can strengthen your retail brand:

1. Strengthen Personal Relationships with VIP Clients
People spend more hours at home and appreciate personalized service even more than usual. Sales consultants in stores have additional time since less customers visit the stores. While sales are low, focus more on personal interaction with your most valued clients with the help of digital means. This will help to improve loyalty while the market is down and increase your market share and revenue once spending picks up again.

2. Develop Digital Services
This could be full new services or small add-on services in addition to your standard product range, like the offering of professional styling advice through digital means. You should also review your omnichannel strategy and how digital channels might substitute physical ones in times of crisis. Having this will give you flexibility and resilience in times of crisis in the future.

3. Think of New Products
The mindset of consumers has changed during Covid-19. Topics that have become more important are sustainability, honesty/trust, quality, family, and health. How can you leverage these themes for your products, new collections or marketing campaigns?

4. Stabilize and Streamline your Base
Review your set of processes and operational structure. Does everything make sense the way you are doing it? Are there areas of excess bureaucracy that can be removed? This is a good time to train and empower your frontline staff.

5. Review Your Brand’s Positioning and Marketing Message
Is this still in line with the original mission & calling your brand had, when you were filling a niche and servicing to a need in the market, something that only your company would be able to do? Use the time to re-adjust your brand positioning and re-align your marketing messages to this crisp new vision. Then adapt your retail store design concept accordingly and make sure you engage customers in the brand’s story and lifestyle.

6. Sustainability
Use the additional time you and your team have on hand to digitize your documentation, and delete paper usage from your operations. While this should be done foremost with the value of environmental consciousness at your heart, you can also write about it on your social media and promote your business as an environmentally friendly brand.

7. Create Transparency as a Brand
In times of crisis, transparency and honesty are key. This applies to communication within organizations, but also to a brand level. Be as transparent as you can, and keep communicating. If this was not one of your strengths in the past, ensure to do so now.

At 5 Star Plus Retail Design, we have used the quiet months in early 2020 to develop new digital and virtual services. Knowing that our clients needed to push sales while most of their retail stores were closed, we wanted to help them facilitate sales transactions with new virtual retail spaces through which customers would still have their usual physical experience but then could also purchase products.

What are the measures that you have decided to take? What are your plans to make the best out of challenging 2020? We look forward to hearing from you.