Those who can adapt will thrive
I recently facilitated a meeting of a group of more than 100 retailers. Seventy per cent of them were either fearful or concerned about the future of their stores. And so they should be. Retailing is changing – you would have to be blind not to see that. When I started in retailing in the…
But it takes courage to ask for help
“I told myself I wouldn’t cry,” said the woman on the other end of the phone as I asked her about her business. Patiently I waited for her to dry her eyes and compose herself. She went on to tell me how this year has been tough, and now she is struggling to stay afloat.…
Grocers are bringing the farm to the store so consumers can have both the farming and the retail experience at once
Canadians have started to notice that grocers have begun to sell plants in miniature greenhouses. We’ve seen gardens on rooftops, vertical farms close to stores and even some selling gardening equipment to gardeners who are shopping for food. The farm is essentially merging with the food retail spaces we roam as consumers. It’s quite interesting.…
A grad of U of A’s fashion business management program, Frances Heaton gained a deep understanding of the industry and a strong network
Frances Heaton has always loved dabbling in fashion design, even creating her own figure skating outfits as a kid. “It’s like art, but with human bodies, which has always intrigued me.” Fast-forward to spring of 2021, as she becomes one of the first graduates of the University of Alberta’s bachelor of science in fashion business…
Setting a pricing policy and regularly reviewing those prices and strategies allows you to price for profit and success
Have you ever bought something and thought that there’s something not right about the price? Maybe it seemed too cheap or you felt you were getting ripped off. Pricing is tricky and a stressor for many business people. Are we too high and scaring away customers? Our competitors are priced lower than us, should we…
As an online marketer, I spend a lot of my working day (you guessed it!) online. And I try to organize my time so I can be as efficient as possible for my clients and my business. About six months ago, I switched from using the Firefox browser to the Chrome browser as much as…
With sales falling and too many locations, many Subway franchisees are struggling to make a profit
COVID-19 has not been kind to restaurants, as we know. But for Subway restaurants, the problems are much broader. Subway is the world's largest restaurant chain with nearly 42,000 locations, more than Starbucks or McDonald’s. But the chain is shrinking rapidly. It was already experiencing difficulties pre-pandemic and closed several thousand restaurants in North America.…
How to make your DIY photo shoot a success and, most importantly, give you some amazing images to use to grow your business
Photos are an important part of any social media feed. And along with stock photos, you need to incorporate some photos of you, your team, your product, your office, etc. If you aren’t in a position to hire a photographer every quarter, you are going to have to do the photo shoot yourself. That means…
Offer them amazing discounts and perks to make sure they know how important they are to your business, then let them spread the word
Our online customer buying journey is about to come full circle. We’ve gone from someone first hearing about you all the way to a regular customer becoming a raving fan and helping you grow your business. Let’s recap what we’ve talked about in the past few weeks: We started with interest and awareness. Someone already…
Always keep in mind these goals: easy to deliver, easy to implement. That gets purchased over and over
We’ve been working on making sure we understand the entire customer buying experience online. Today, we’re moving onto conversion. We started with interest and awareness and how your customer might hear about you – and what to do once they do. Then we moved to findability and reputation – both online and really important in…