Chart your promotions and marketing to see how profitable they are

The latest CBI survey shows retail sales growing for the 6th month in a row, but figures weren't as bullish as perhaps expected.

38% of respondents said sales were higher than a year ago

22% of respondents said sales were lower than a year ago

This equates to a balance of 16% - well below the anticipated figure of a 43% balance.  Retailers said they expect business to improve next month with the World Cup and (hopefully) Summer weather.  The CBI said that despite the slowdown, the fact that growth again, for the 6th consecutive month, was encouraging.

What did you experience last month?

What factors influenced this?

My main learning from this is to closely monitor your promotions and see how these impact your sales and profitability.  A simple spreadsheet will do the trick, where you can plot sales and profits against certain promotions with reference to certain times of the year, proximity to payday weekend, weather conditions.  I would say a day-by-day spreadsheet with a space at the end to note external factors will give you all the reference data you need to be able to lamb your future promotions, sales and other marketing activity.  Don't think that your competitors won't have all this information to hand to help their business - it's the norm, even for small stores.

Ensure you act and react like a professional business - the technology is there to assist you in making these decisions and your operation will run better for having the correct information at your fingertips.

Not everything can be bought on the High Street - MP3 version of Stay Gold