Article on retail gazette website By Wayne Usie, Senior vice presidentof Retail, JDA Software

Just reading through retail gazette website when I came across this article-

http://www.retailgazette.co.uk/articles/41412-building-the-nextgeneration-retail-operating-model-five-things-every-retail-ceo-needs-to-know

This brought up 2 key areas for me-

1-You must know your customer

Through all your customers interactions with your brand, you need to know what your customer is doing. Your High Street presence is the face of your brand but your customers will interact with you via your website, mobile website, apps and social media amongst others.  The more of these you can track, then the more you can tailor the experience to your customer.  Having log-ins for your website, tracking in your apps and loyalty cards will enable your systems to follow your customers browsing history as well as purchase history.  Allowing reviews of products via your website sees how your customers use and recommend your products.  Interacting with your customers on social media allows you access to their profile and their friends.  This information can prove invaluable.  Use it wisely.

2-You must know your own proposition

These two areas go hand-in-hand.  You must know in exact detail what you offer your customers.  From this detail you must ensure that all your team know your proposition and can talk about it with confidence to every customer that walks through your door.  Some of the UK retailers that have disappeared over the last few years tried to be too many things all at once - Woolworths, Comet, JJB Sports to name some high-profile examples.

Your customers must know why they are walking through your door. Your team must know how to interact with them.

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