“Things You Learn Shopping”
My wife and I were recently in the Southwest of the UK and we went shopping. We went into a fashion store in one town attracted by the window display. All the merchandise was their brand. My wife tried on 6 items and ended up buying 4. She would have bought all 6, but in some cases the sleeves were too long to ignore.
While she was trying things on, I chatted with the store manager. She told me that a lot of customers had issues with their sleeve lengths. It was a recurring reason people did not buy items they liked. I asked her if the people at head office ever asked the stores for their opinion on the lines they carried and she said never.
I get this response quite often in stores and it always amazes me that retailers can be so dumb. I used to work for a major department store. Although I was at headquarters, I spent time in stores with shoppers. I quickly learned that if you asked the store staff how well a line was selling, they could answer you immediately, and if it wasn’t selling they could tell you why too. All you needed to do was ask. Over the years I have done this many times in client stores and I always get the same response. Quite often the reasons why items aren’t selling are fixable. Listening to your store staff is a really easy way to grow sales and the retailers that ignore this are missing a trick.
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Posted by Brian Hume
14th April 2025
