Promote the Promotions: The Role of Knowledge in Retail Promotions, Execution and Outcomes

Author

By Jim Hughes

Your seasonal sets, sales promotions, and discount strategies are only as strong as your ability to execute them in-store. Your retail promotions are only as good as your front-line store teams and their ability to execute. Now, throw in the fact that hourly employee turnover is four times higher in retail than in other industries – the challenge of delivering promotional outcomes, and a consistent customer experience, seems all but impossible.

So, what’s the solution?

Focus on those retail execution strategies that drive outcomes rather than fixate on outcomes alone

Too often, the focus is on promotional outcomes without truly knowing what got you there. It’s tempting to make snap judgments based on positive data, such as those stores that met desired sales or promotional outcomes. Without the knowledge of what activities led to these results, there is no knowledge gain on what actions delivered these results. As the number of stores and departments you support increases, this only exacerbates the challenge.

Instead, let’s flip the script: it’s knowledge that leads to outcomes. Identify those key activities that, when executed properly, provide clear, concise, and exciting promotions that capture your customers’ attention. Make sure your in-store employees are empowered with the knowledge to properly set promotions and capture the results. It’s with this knowledge – planograms, sets, activity execution, and backend validations surveys – that consistent promotional outcomes can be achieved.

Communicating promotional value to employees – and making sure that translates to your customers

Knowledge in retail is traditionally a top-down trickle process from executives to regional/district managers to stores – which is very command and control. By changing this approach, and making communication bi-directional, you empower all teammates to be a part of the solution. Design and development of your seasonal sets, retail promotions, and discount strategies are still driven by ‘corporate.’ But achieving desired outcomes is all about retail execution strategies, with an emphasis on execution. It is those activities that can be easily verified (tasks, photos, videos, and surveys) that deliver a better shopping experience that results in improved average sales transaction (AST), units per transaction (UPT), and overall store performance.

Empower your store associates to promote in-store promotions. Let them communicate back what is working and what areas need improvement. Create bi-directional collaboration between executives, regional/district managers, and in-store staff to enhance your collective IQ storewide. By having the ‘knowledge’ as to why certain departments and displays are successful – and others are not – you can take informed corrective action to drive desired outcomes. This enables you to focus on those activities that drive desired outcomes rather than the traditional one-size-fits-all, all-stores-and-departments approach.

To effectively communicate your promotional objectives, focus on what information and knowledge is required to deliver your desired outcomes. This can include:

• Are discount messages clearly communicated?
• Are signage set correctly?
• Are products tagged appropriately?
• Are displays merchandised correctly?
• Are the promoted products available to your shoppers?

Breakdown each activity into those knowledge nuggets that can be captured to understand why, or why not, your desired promotional outcomes were achieved. If you have a 30% off rack, is it easy for your shoppers to understand what the price was, is now, and why it’s an exceptional deal?

Bridging the activities gap: what knowledge capture drives desired outcomes

As the number of stores, departments, and promotions scale up, appropriate training of in-store teams becomes all but impossible. What is possible is to integrate the right technology for bi-directional communication of those activities that are required to deliver defined outcomes.

Take the guesswork out of promotional execution by establishing clear activities that, when executed, brings your promotional vision to life.

Although there are innumerable retail task management systems available, they universally lack the knowledge-to-outcome loop required to facilitate both continuous learning and drive ‘collective IQ’ across all team members. Here are a few proactive steps you can take to achieve consistent store execution.

Step 1: Design your playbook – Bring your best minds together to build a playbook on how to execute your promotional initiative, including direct guidelines for executives, regional/district managers, and in-store staff.

Step 2: Share knowledge – Deploy your playbook storewide so that all team members can gather the appropriate activities required to deliver your promotional strategy.

Step 3: In-store execution – put your retail promotion strategies into action, with easy-to-access insight into expectations around signage, displays, value messaging, and more.

Step 4: Track outcomes – continuously track and monitor initiatives, with a focus on what activities drive desired outcomes such as increased margin recovery on promotional sales and better sell-through rates.

Step 5: Validate – Inspect what you expect. Take advantage of visual validation software tools to check in on in-store execution and make quick course corrections as needed.

Keep employees in-the-know with ReStore for Retail

Your hourly employees want to do an excellent job promoting your promotions. They just need the tools and knowledge to do it.

ReStore for Retail delivers a virtual store management platform that drives operational excellence, gives district managers day-to-day visibility across stores, and streamlines communication from executives, RMs, DMs, all the way to associates.

No matter what outcomes you’re trying to achieve or how many stores you’re overseeing, we’ll make sure your message stays on point – and that it’s communicated effectively to your employees.

Want to learn more? Sign up for a demo today.