The retail industry has been forced to confront several external challenges in 2022, including but not limited to labor shortages, supply chain disruption, rising inflation, and geo-political turmoil. These challenges have made profitable growth elusive for many organizations, particularly legacy brick-and-mortar chains. However, times of transformation and disruption such as today present an opportunity for brands to rise above the competition and win new customers as well as the loyalty of existing ones. To do so, retailers must meet and frequently exceed customers’ expectations for a seamless, quick and easy purchase journey, no matter the sales channel.
We have produced a resource that will help them accomplish that goal. Total Retail’s annual curation of the 50 best tips of the year, which appeared throughout 2022 in various content mediums, including our newsletter (Total Retail Report), website, podcast (Total Retail Talks), and Virtual Exchanges, feature solutions to retailers’ challenges, both internal and external.
Total Retail’s editorial team carefully reviewed each piece of content we published this year in an effort to identify the 50 very best tips of 2022. These tips cover virtually every facet of running a successful retail business, from customer experience to marketing to supply chain to technology, among other functionalities. Each tip offers valuable insight that readers can implement into their businesses, leading to more efficient, effective and profitable organizations.
Here’s a sampling of just some of the tips that you can expect to find in the full report:
- Be no-mouse friendly. Some people with disabilities rely on keyboards to use their computers. If a website makes it difficult or impossible to navigate and interact with the site without a mouse, it will be impossible for them to purchase anything. — Jonathan Avila, Level Access, “7 Ways to Make Your E-Commerce Site More Accessible to Consumers With Disabilities,” Jan. 18
- Work-life balance is very difficult, but it starts with work-life empathy. If you want to categorize that as something, that’s really flexibility. You can’t always judge what’s going to happen in life. We all have challenges that come up, problems with our homes or with our cars, or kids or loved ones. Don’t confuse activity with accomplishment. Try to have empathy with people’s lives that happen outside, the other two-thirds of time you spend away from work. — Daren Hull, Vera Bradley, August Virtual Exchange, Aug. 18
- Finding the right shipping strategy — one that’s both attractive to customers and profitable — takes careful calculation and testing. Running a two-week A/B test that alternates subsidized and unsubsidized shipping for site visitors is a smart way to learn how free shipping affects conversions vs. site visitors, cart abandonment rates, gross margins, and more. Even simply turning free shipping on and off — alternating days — for two weeks will provide similar data. The point is to capture information about customers’ buying habits and analyze the data to find the impact on the bottom line. — Mitchell Nikitin, Via.Delivery, “Will Free Shipping Boost E-Commerce Sales Enough to Be Profitable?” Feb. 7
Retail executives can use these tips to jump-start their businesses into action. The chosen tips are meant to drive top- and bottom-line gains and are prescriptive in nature. While not all 50 may be applicable to your business, there’s certainly enough here for everyone to find value. Make it your New Year’s resolution to begin incorporating these tips into your 2022 business processes. The return yielded will be worth the time and effort invested.
Furthermore, these tips are meant to be shared with your colleagues and peers within the retail industry. These action items very likely may extend beyond your role within the company and touch many parts of your organization. Take a holistic approach and recognize the value that sharing these best practices, irrespective of job function, can have on the overall business.
Total Retail’s mission is to be the retail executive’s source for content and community. It’s through annual reports such as our 50 best tips of the year that we hope to fulfill that mission. Enjoy these valuable insights and best wishes for a prosperous 2023!
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