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Why is it?

Why is it a person who runs a retail store wakes up in the morning, after sleeping on their

advertised bed, on their advertised mattress in their advertised pajamas.

They will bathe in their advertised tub, shave with their advertised razor and shaving cream, have breakfast with their advertised juice, cereal and toast….toasted in their advertised toaster,

put on their advertised branded clothes and quickly glance at their advertised watch.

They will catch the news on their new advertised flat screen that they purchased at a their heavily advertised store.

They will ride to work in their advertised car, sit at their advertised desk and write with their

advertised pen or utilize their advertised computer, tablet or phone.

Yet it’s ironic that when they’re approached to advertise their business, they say advertising doesn’t pay…..until the business fails and then they’ll gladly advertise their sale and liquidation

of his business……

WHY you ask they are advertising now?

So people will come and purchase/liquidate their "advertised" assets.

Why is it?

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I found this snippet of advice years ago when I was trying to get retailers to advertise their stores to increase their sales velocity. In today's home furnishings' retail environment this has become even more relevant with one word driving they path towards retail failure or liquidation....TECHNOLOGY. Technology before the sale, Technology during the sale and Technology after the sale. We call it the Brick to Click Solution. Everything about Advertising has changed, especially in the last 5 years. Retailers were, and many still are, focused on traditional "outbound marketing"; TV, radio, newspaper, etc., to get their message or promotion out to the masses with the "hope" someone will see the message, like that message and do what they wanted. Come to the store and buy something. That strategy is failing...miserably, and we can see that with the overabundance of failures in the retail and brand sector of our business and many others. Why all of these failures you may ask? Lack of capital, poor planning, bad merchandising, too much inventory and so on. To compete in today's economy, most retailers state they have to be MORE consumer friendly, train their sales people better, have a strong community presence and so on. All of this is true, BUT if consumers don't know you exist, all of these efforts are a waste of time, resources and capital. This is where "In-Bound Marketing" takes over. What is In-Bound Marketing you ask. It's being everywhere today's consumer want to find you, where they want to find you and how they want to find you I believe the number one reason our industry is failing revolves around one word: TECHNOLOGY. TECHNOLOGY has changed everything in retail and because brands and retailers have been slow, or non-existent in embracing it, we have become quickly irrelevant in the consumer's mindset and as such, many will soon be extinct. TECHNOLOGY has changed everything, from how we find a brand/product to how we interact with these products and how we choose to consume or purchase these products. Here's what you need to do. Step #1 - BEFORE THE SALE - MANUFACTURERS NEED TO "STEP UP" AND GET WITH THE PROGRAM. Many manufacturers in our industry have hundreds, if not thousands of SKU's they sell. In the old days...and even today, they use catalogs to show a picture and then the sales rep would "write an order" and probably call it in or Fax it in. Sound familiar?

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Manufacturers need to standardize and "push out data" to their retailers, who in turn can push it out to the 75% plus of consumers that are "looking for it" online, every day. This is a process that should be done daily, weekly and/or monthly. The data should be updated and "cleaned", eliminating discontinued product, adding new product, specials and more to make the "total" selling process "easy", from rep to retailer to consumer. They haven't done this and it's killing our brick & mortar retailers! Step #2 - RETAILERS NEED TO INVEST HEAVILY IN A WEBSITE AND OMNICHANNEL

MARKETING If you don't have a great website, loaded with brands, products, pictures, content and an e-Commerce platform allowing consumers to buy online as well and in-store, you will fail in today's wired economy because

75% of consumers will NOT even know you exist! But to have a great website, we need to go back and start with the manufacturers and how they have not embraced TECHNOLOGY.

But this is only the first level where TECHNOLOGY has changed everything. Consider these facts where TECHNOLOGY drives every aspect of the retail pathway to purchase. Don't forget, and search engines do not see pictures...just words/content so pretty websites that lack content, fail miserably.

15% of furniture sales are made online. This is expected to grow to over 32% in 5 years (Business Insider Intelligence (March 2014)

“71% of customers expect to be able to view in-store inventory online.” (Forrester)

75% of consumers exposed to home furnishings' traditional advertisements later look-up the advertiser "on-line".

76% of home furnishing shoppers rely on the retailers website.

65% of home furnishing shoppers were NOT sure what retailer they would purchase from when they searched products/brands.

70% use mobile phones in-store to research and accompany their shopping experience. (Google)

77% of smartphone purchases happen in the store, not later online.

By 2016, 86% of all digital shoppers will be mobile shoppers as well

* Items 3-8 are from (Google)

STEP #3 - EMBRACE & IMPLEMENT TECHNOLOGY AT THE CASH REGISTER AND BEYOND Once you've attracted the consumer, now the real hard work begins. How do you manage the complete selling process? Do you have a POS program that manages the complete supply chain process?

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I'm not talking just about placing orders and taking delivery, I'm talking about having complete control of your business...knowing what's happening, when it's happening, where it's happening and how it's happening...instantly. That requires TECHNOLOGY.

Knowing your business - 24/7....instantly;

Purchase Orders; Expected deliveries, in stock, out of stock, custom orders

Vendor Management; product info, orders, returns, balances

Shipping & Deliveries: Tracking shipments and delivery dates. Maintaining control of back-orders.

Employee Management: Employee scheduling, commissions, team activities

Customer Management - CRM; Organizing your customers, tracking, negotiations and sales. Managing appointments, email marketing and more.

Omnichannel Marketing; where consumers are coming from, where they spend the most time and how to maximize that channel on your website, social marketing and more.

And then we start the cycle all over again, every minute of every day. That's how we compete with online retailers like Wayfair and Amazon....TECHNOLOGY!

And if you don't embrace TECHNOLOGY in every aspect of your business, you will become irrelevant- sooner rather than later. Think Levitz, Blockbuster, Montgomery Wards, Borders and countless others that were comfortable with their business model and got ambushed by the new consumer who embraces TECHNOLOGY in everything they do.

Are you scared yet? You should be!