Indie retailers can survive – even thrive – during the holidays




For independent retailers, the 800-pound gorilla again this holiday season is Amazon.com. Just when you think the onslaught of online shopping tactics Amazon uses may be starting to slow down, they roll out new ways to shop — offline. A prime example is Amazon’s pop-up stores in Whole Foods.
Independent brick and mortar retailers are hoping to survive, especially during the holiday season. Here are three tactics that I recommend:
- Join a community. FromShop Small Saturday to Independent We Stand to the local Chamber of Commerce, join the community that resonates best with your values. Interact on social media, sign up for newsletters, make the most of free resources offered. As an independent retailer, many times your business demands more than you can handle and marketing gets pushed to the side. This is where Shop Small Saturday can work to your advantage. With free marketing materials available online at shopsmall.com and an active group of Neighborhood Champions to support you offline on Shop Small Saturday, become an active participant in the Shop Small movement.
- Use a QR code. QR codes are starting to be used for augmented reality and are called AR codes.Get a QR code for your business at a free online site. Place it on your marketing materials. Make it easy for a shopper with a smartphone to learn about you and your products or services. Getting traction on your QR code is important and sets you up to expand your marketing with AR in the future.
- Viewshowrooming and webrooming as your allies. “Technology may be changing the surface of the game, but the underlying strategies to win remain the same,” according to the National Retail Federation’s “2017 Holiday Planning Playbook.” It’s a simple fact that shoppers use their smartphones for both online and offline shopping. Be sure to leverage the smartphone to your advantage with an active online presence and outstanding offline customer experience.
These are just a few ways to use online to enhance the offline shopping experience and increase your opportunity to survive this holiday season.
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Holiday Pop Ups at Whole Foods – Engadget
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About Shop Small Saturday – American Express
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AR-Code, a Fast Path to Augmented Reality – Medium
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Keeping Offline Retail Alive – Simply the Best
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS: Which of the suggestions in the article do you see as most important for small retailer success during the holidays? What would you add to this list?
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27 Comments on "Indie retailers can survive – even thrive – during the holidays"
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Co-founder, RSR Research
President, Max Goldberg & Associates
The suggestion that’s missing is, provide unbeatable personal service and a unique in-store experience. Small retailers can do this better than chain or online stores. Provide the human touch that shoppers crave during the holidays.
Strategy Architect – Digital Place-based Media
Agreed Max. Play to the strengths of easier shopping and a personal touch. A smile, hello and “how is it going” go a long way in differentiation. Focus on conversion.
Co-Founder
Agreed Max and Lyle. Communication with the customer, especially post-purchase, seems to be valuable to consumers. Max, shifting gears a bit to e-commerce as opposed to brick-and-mortar, would you say that staying in touch with the customer post-purchase is also very beneficial to provide unbeatable personal service?
President, Max Goldberg & Associates
In an ideal world, staying in touch with the customer post-purchase would be the capstone of a successful personal service experience, but few small retailers have the time and resources to accomplish this.
Founder | CEO, Female Brain Ai & Prefeye - Preference Science Technologies Inc.
Yes, the human touch! Personal and meaningful.
Consultant, Strategist, Tech Innovator, UX Evangelist
I don’t see any of these suggestions as viable. Independents can only win business by offering a USP (unique selling proposition) that adds value where others, including Amazon, cannot.
We’ve discussed this a lot at RetailWire, but service offerings and knowledgeable associates are a big start. Local reputation is important too but takes time to build. Local chambers typically offer nothing but lip service. I predicted the death of the QR code even before the press started hyping it and I now officially do the same for AR codes — they will be a non-starter. Showrooming is alive and well and the only way to counter it is the value-add through service and knowledge (as I stated), the same tactics to make webrooming possible.
Founder, CEO & Author, HeadCount Corporation
To be successful this holiday season, independent/small retailers should focus on delivering a personalized shopping experience. All retailers, and small ones in particular, need to realize that every shopper that enters the store has expressed an intent to buy. Small retailers should make an extra effort to personalize the visit by thanking visitors for stopping by and then engaging the shopper to understand her needs/interests. A more personal connection creates a sense of obligation — this is something most shoppers won’t get online or in big box stores. And finally, execute the basics: have ample inventory of the items you believe will sell best; align staff schedules to store traffic and focus on converting every visitor into a buyer.
President, Integrated Marketing Solutions
I have no problem with Karen Herman’s suggestions, all are sound advice. For those indies that are store-based, the key is getting customers to visit the store to experience outstanding customer service. There are a number of strategies that indies can test during the holiday season:
However, the key to long-term indie success is not waiting for the holiday season to survive. To thrive, indies need to be adapting to changing customer patterns. Mobility is the portal for the future. Indies need to optimize websites and offers for mobile phones. Social media is a way to engage customers throughout the year. And social is not just Facebook. For some businesses, Instagram and Pinterest can be even more powerful, especially if they feature happy customers experiencing indie customer service and using products.
Vice President, Strategic RelationsHamacher Resource Group
Indies can indeed survive the holidays with creativity, commitment and customer care. I’m definitely a fan of showrooming and turning that approach into an opportunity rather than an obstacle. “Personal shopping” may be another way to help separate independent operators from their less-connected rivals. Finally, consider offering curation services with other independents in the community to cross-sell, cross-promote and build a better holiday shopping basket. Amazon is not the only one who should be making recommendations, indies can do this too based on personal knowledge rather than algorithms.
VP of Marketing, Bamboo Rose
I agree — the most important tactic for small retailers to succeed during the holidays is definitely to leverage digital showroom technology. The retail industry has been slow to adopt innovative backend digital technologies, which is holding them back from being able to compete with e-commerce giants like Amazon. By leveraging the right retail tech, retailers can use virtual showrooms to save time and money on overseas buying trips and compare product options and pricing across multiple suppliers to find the best deal.
Communication and community integrations are also important — retailers need social, connected and collaborative approaches to product development to deliver quality products just in time for the holiday season.
Senior Retail Writer
Community is one of the greatest strengths of indie retailers. Building your network year-round is so important for success. But I’m going to say out of the three suggestions in the article, having an active online presence to handle showrooming and webrooming will be most critical to an indie’s financial success. For many time-strapped customers, if they can’t check your website ahead of time to find out what you have in stock, that could be a lost sale.
I would add that having an effective digital marketing strategy is critical for all indie retailers. For brick-and-mortar retailers, an engaging social media presence can help drive traffic to your store. For e-commerce sellers, it can help drive traffic to your website and distinguish from other retailers.
Of course, once shoppers are in your brick-and-mortar store, they should receive top-notch customer service and a personalized product selection. But as Ken said, we’ve touched on that many time on RetailWire. 🙂
The one I would add is create a Facebook livestream shopping channel. This accommodates tactic number one, joining a group and tactic number two, placing a QR code in the background of the livestreaming session. Hold an iPad to read the chat questions coming in and paste the link to purchase in the chat session.
Global Retail & CPG Sales Strategist, IBM
All of the ideas in the article are great. Online commerce is the one way indies can “punch above their weight” versus the giants in the biz. Shoppers have no idea how big or small your organization is if you create the right presence online.
Co-Founder
Well said, Ralph. Online is a great way for smaller retailers to create an impressive experience for their customers and compete with the larger players. Also, there are so many third-party tools out there that smaller retailers can leverage to streamline the online experience for their customers. Would you agree?
Marketing, Dor
Managing Director, GlobalData
I agree that independent retailers can do well. However, my advice would simply be to be different.
If an independent retailer isn’t adding any unique value — whether it be great service, interesting products, special community events or something else — then it will be forced to compete on price. When you’re up against the giant chains, that’s a slippery slope.
I think Karen Herman’s three suggestions are spot on. Most importantly, they are the type of low cost/high yield marketing ideas that nearly any small to mid-size indie can easily implement. They range from tech-driven to old school community involvement. While extremely difficult to compete with big box retailers and Amazon, indies have an advantage of being niche, community retailers that people still enjoying shopping. AmEx has recognized this through their Shop Small Saturday initiative and these indie retailers would benefit greatly by taking advantage of this opportunity.
Owner, Tony O's Supermarket and Catering
CEO and Disruptive Retail Specialist, Gustie Creative LLC
Tony, I really appreciate your comments here. The scenario you describe exists in many parts of the US and is an important discussion to have. With this article, I focused on community and free marketing resources for independent retailers. Reach out to me if you want to discuss in detail.
Owner, Tony O's Supermarket and Catering
Thanks Karen. I’m speaking honestly about the circumstances being in these types of towns, and have been doing this for many years. I know all the proper marketing tactics and am involved heavily in my community. Unless someone actually is on the ground floor of this scenario, it is difficult to explain how it affects independents, especially in my business, as food margins are being shredded to pieces. Either way, it is my fight, and after winning the NGA best deli/prepared foods this year, which I’m proud of, it simply doesn’t resonate much here, as it would in a different area. But it’s OK, I’m working hard and living well and feel blessed, so Happy Thanksgiving to you.
Principal, KIZER & BENDER Speaking
Retail Transformation Thought Leader, Advisor, & Strategist
My recommendations would be slightly different (although all the ones mentioned are good, except maybe QR codes!):
Be unique and be relevant! An independent store may not be able to win on price, but absolutely has to win on great service and that’s an enviable experience to differentiate. That keeps customers loyal and coming back to the store. You need knowledgeable associates to accomplish that. Then, find the unique products consumers in your community want that they’ll be interested in coming to the store to shop rather than search on Amazon.
Chief Amazement Officer, Shepard Presentations, LLC
Small businesses should “band together” to create a larger reach. Cross marketing/promoting through other retailers will extend reach and introduce new customers to the retailer.
The best thing a small retailer can do is blow the customer away with an amazing and personalized customer experience. That’s two separate areas. Amazing service is one. Deliver service that only can’t be matched by a big box store or online retailer. Then personalize the experience. Ask questions, make suggestions … get to know your customer, in a way that (again) can’t be matched by a big box store or online retailer.
Recognize that holiday time is an opportunity for you to build a relationship with new customers. Don’t let someone who has never shopped with you before become a one-time buyer. Prepare now for the rush and strategize what happens after the holiday season.
Principal, PII - Retail
CEO and Disruptive Retail Specialist, Gustie Creative LLC
So true, Mike. I’m an Android fan and my Samsung S8 QR code reader is lightning fast and gives me options to browse the site, share or send content with one click. I work with a company that creates AR Codes and the potential for certain retailers is significant. Thanks for commenting.