John’s Blog

By John Stanley As a consultant, retailers are often asking me how they can increase sales. But, when I put my consumers hat on I�m often exposed to what seem obvious ways to grow the business. The life blood of retail is to get existing customers to revisit a store and also to spend more than they anticipated when they walked in the door. Customers generally have a purpose when

By John Stanley Billy Connolly, the Scottish comedian often jokes about his obsession with �beige� people, people without character who are quite literally beige in their outlook and views on life. Billy�s perspective on people could equally be applied to retail business. Retailing has developed into the hourglass environment, with the �beige� business being squeezed in the middle. Being �beige� in retailing is a recipe for failure. Retailing growth and

By John Stanley I recently worked with a Council who were developing a new library and I was asked in by the Librarians to provide some visionary direction. To maintain confidentiality, I will not name the organisation, but while working with them, it dawned on me that libraries are different to retail establishments, but not for the reasons that first came to mind. Retail Vision When working with retailers, the

By John Stanley The world is getting smaller and ideas move around the world rapidly. One of the challenges as a retailer is mounting and protecting your brand or retail uniqueness. I am often confronted by clients who are worried that somebody will pinch their ideas. My reaction is always don�t worry; they cannot pinch your brand or image. Why not? The brand or retail uniqueness is not the product,

By John Stanley I was first introduced to the Sigmoid Curve many years ago by the garden centre consultant, Ken Allen. I have used it many times since then to explain business development and its relevance today is more critical than it�s ever been. Before explaining the significance, let me explain the theory. Industries and businesses start at �A�. Come up with a good idea or concept at A and

The garden centre of the future �. picture what would it be? I believe it will be a store providing living room ideas to its customers. It would be a store that was organic and curvy, with no straight lines. A place to be inspired by the latest in gardening trends and a place to find solutions to all your garden troubles from trusted retailers. Well let me tell you,

Bridging the Information Gap by John Stanley Retailers invest large amounts of money to get consumers into their businesses with the aim of selling them products. Owners monitor conversion rates, i.e. count the number of customers entering the store versus actual buyers to enable them to monitor success. Team members are encouraged to approach consumers to build relationships and make a sale. But, is the process really working? Many of

By John Stanley I recently worked with a Council who were developing a new library and I was asked in by the Librarians to provide some visionary direction. To maintain confidentiality, I will not name the organisation, but while working with them, it dawned on me that libraries are different to retail establishments, but not for the reasons that first came to mind. Retail Vision When working with retailers, the

A Message From Santa By Jurek Leon My first job in retail was as a professional Father Christmas for a group of retail stores�at the age of 17. On leaving school, I�d come to Australia with my parents on holiday from Scotland and decided to stay for a couple of years to work and study. It was getting close to Christmas and I needed some money to pay the rent.

Christmas Snippets To Share With Your Team By Jurek Leon Make this year a �Ho, Ho, Ho� rather than a �Ho Hum� event. Here are a few snippets from Jurek Leon�s new e-book �The 52 Terrific Tips For Christmas Workbook� to get you started. Focus on your team Christmas can be an extremely stressful time for staff. They are a manager�s customers, so you have to invent ways to care

Trash is Now Fashionable By John Stanley It must be at least a decade ago that I started seeing recycle bins appear in garden centre car parks in New Zealand and Australia. Many retailers found that they were not the success they thought they would be and removed them from the parking lot. But, everything has its time, and recycle bins are now fashionable and trendy. It is time to

Every Man His Shed By Fiona Emberton Retailers have long ignored men and their needs but this situation is fast changing. Men have been seen lurking around shops uncomfortably, often at the door or flipping through magazines. Now, successful retailers are realising that men in general have very different needs as shoppers. We recommend retailers to incorporate the �men�s shed� as part of their layout and the good news is

Garden Centre Retailing is Changing – Living Room Retailing is the Future By John Stanley Plant sales down by an estimated 15%; key consumers commenting on garden centres being boring and gardening as a hobby losing popularity with the new consumer. Is this the decline of the garden centre or a new opportunity for entrepreneurial retailers? One thing is for certain; garden centres are having to change to meet the

Target Your Business to an Age Group, Not to the World! By John Stanley As a consultant working with retailers, one of the first questions I ask a client is can they paint a picture for me of a typical customer. Some clients can be very specific, whilst others just give me a blank look, then follow it up by saying everyone is a potential customer; how can they paint

The Ups and Downs of Horticultural Retailing By John Stanley In July 2005 I had the opportunity to work with garden centres in the U.K. and South Africa. This gave me the chance to take a snapshot of the industry in the winter and summer and at the same time. What was surprising were the similarities in both countries when looking at the independent sector. Whilst I was in the

Nobody Reads Signs and Other Popular Myths By John Stanley People don’t reads signs, you heard people say it, you have had said it yourself. What is the point of putting a signage strategy in your business when nobody reads them in the first place. Let’s look at his popular myth in more detail. Firstly, all retailers have to accept that consumers today are inundated with messages on signs, as

Be a Brave Heart, Now is Your Time By John Stanley I recently experienced one of those strange weeks in retailing that occasionally occur. I was working with clients in the U.K. during the infamous 7/7 week in London. The week started with celebrations and confidence as Londoners realised they had won the 2012 Olympic Games and all that brings to retail businesses. The next day the city was in

Small is Beautiful and Back in Retail Fashion By John Stanley I have just returned from a visit to Chile which gave me an opportunity to study retail trends in that region of the globe. I discovered the hardware stores of my early childhood, stores that were independently owned and full from floor to ceiling with hardware items. A real treasure trove to the hardware fanatic. Alas, this type a

Retailing Comes of Age By John Stanley Have you been to buy any dog food lately? Do you remember the days when you just picked it up in the supermarket and kept walking? Walk into any pet �box store� today and it�s a whole new experience. Prior to purchasing today�s canine�s lunch, you need to know the age and size of your dog. If you don�t know these two critical

By John Stanley Have you been to buy any dog food lately? Do you remember the days when you just picked it up in the supermarket and kept walking? Walk into any pet �box store� today and it�s a whole new experience. Prior to purchasing today�s canine�s lunch, you need to know the age and size of your dog. If you don�t know these two critical facts, the shopping experience

LIBRARIES that sell wine LIBRARIES that sell wine, provide breakfast and have comfortable sofas could be the way of the future, according to a leading international library consultant. John Stanley, who has been consulting for 30 years, said libraries needed to adopt a more progressive approach to meet the needs of today’s users. His comments follow the release of a British parliamentary report which found that local libraries were in

Overcoming Store or Library Blindness By John Stanley Walk into my office and you�ll notice things that are obvious to you, but not obvious to me. This is because I�m so familiar with my office that I�ve become office blind. In retail stores it�s called store blindness and I guess in a library it could be called �library blindness�. We all suffer from the phenomena. We miss the obvious whilst

Advocates are High Earners By John Stanley In previous articles and conference presentations I�ve often talked about getting your consumers to become advocates, hence our popular conference presentation �Ban the Customer and Grow Your Business�. But what is actually happening out there? According to research by Maritz Loyalty Marketing and reported in the St Louis Newswire on February 8th in America, the richer you are, the more likely you are

Changing the Mind Set – A View on the Future of Retailing by John Stanley It is rare to get delegates from five continents and twenty countries brainstorming retail global trends, but this did happen recently at the Pets International Conference in Brussels, Belgium. This topic was clearly focussed on pets, but the outcomes could apply to any retail sector and are worth sharing. In most countries the population is

Third Place Retailing – The New Battlefield by John Stanley On 10th January 2005, McDonalds� USA announced it was entering the premium coffee industry. It would sell premium coffee at a premium price. A business recognised for fast food at a low price point is re-engineering itself to provide an up-market coffee, yet coffee is looked on as the second most common commodity product after oil. Is this an opportunity