Green speaks great sense!

As a champion of SME retailing it is not often that you will find me agreeing wholeheartedly with Sir Philip Green, but in a piece written by Glynn Davies in the Retail Bulletin he gives advice about keeping ahead in the world of retail. His advice is as pertinent to a smaller operator as it is to one at his level of operations.

Speaking at the World Retail Congress in Barcelona he is quoted “Far too many people are driving down the price route but there will need to be differentiation...with newness and speed to market. Be competitive but also offer something different. To get people to shop in your stores you need to have something different.”

I have said as much in these blogs in earlier postings - it is essential in the economic climate that is developing that margins are maintained - clearly you need to be competitive, but that can be achieved by having that unique sales proposition rather than simply by being cheapest. It is often overlooked in SMEs that retail marketing is not simply advertising and merchandising it is about researching the product, securing a solid supply chain with mutual benefits and ensuring that the product on offer is a 'must have'; It is about having motivated people who understand the product on the shop floor interacting with the customers; it is about value for money, not about cheapness!