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9 Pieces Of 2020 Advice For Retailers & Their Key Business Partners

9 Pieces Of 2020 Advice For Retailers & Their Key Business Partners
As the new year hits, we asked MnRA friends to share advice for retailers and their key partners. Here are the top pieces of advice we selected:
 
TREAT EMPLOYEES LIKE GOLD
"Create a premium brand. Keep your product and service fresh and the best. Treat your employees like gold and tell your customers how much you appreciate them. Leave them feeling always like they have found the best kept secret."
- Insight from Roberta Bonoff, founder, Envision It!
 
GROUND YOURSELF IN CONSUMERS’ EXPERIENCE EXPECTATIONS
"Ground yourself in the consumers’ experience expectations. How do they want to interact with your brand, then meet them there. Ask yourself how their behaviors and expectations will change, then adapt."
- Insight from Marisa Kinney, Sr. Director, Global Retail, Red Wing Shoe Co.
 
CREATE ONE-OF-A-KIND PRODUCTS & EXPERIENCES THROUGH PARTNERS
"The most successful retailer and supplier partners in 2020 are the ones that work seamlessly together to create one-of-a-kind products and experiences that draw in their consumers. Seek out the partners that you are best able to work with to bring these visions to life!"
- Insight from Juli Lassow, Owner & Principal, JHL Solutions
 
EXECUTION IS ALL YOU
"Focus on execution. Don't fool yourself into thinking execution is something other people in your organization will handle. Require absolute clarity at the intersection between your brand (website or staff) and your customers. Strategic initiatives without flawless execution yield no value."
- Insight from Flora Delaney, President, Delaney Consulting
 
PROACTIVELY SEEK CUSTOMERS
"Look for opportunities to be proactive on generating incoming business versus waiting for customers to walk into your stores. Go get them."
- Insight from Scott Plum, Founder, Minnesota Sales Institute, LLC
 
HARNESS THE POWER OF NEUROSCIENCE
"Harness the power of Neuroscience and Psychology to boost sales and marketing. Neuroscience and Psychology have revealed many insights on how consumers make buying decisions. Those insights can help retailers sell more at lower cost. Watch this 17-minute TED Talk on the unconscious buying decisions:"
- Insight from Terry Wu, President, Neuromarketing Services
 
ADD YOUR VOICE TO YOUR LOCAL COMMUNITY CONVERSATION
"Get active in your local business community! It doesn’t take much. Call your local chamber of commerce or business association and be a part of the conversation shaping the community around you."
- Insight from Savannah Sepic, Government Relations Manager, Minnesota Retailers Association
 
MAKE YOUR LIFE EASIER BY WRITING DOWN YOUR PHILANTHROPIC PLAN
"It’s not easy, but tell your customers the story of your philanthropic efforts and the organizations you support. And develop a giving strategy and process (it only has to be a few sentences but write it down!) that aligns with your favorite causes to make it easier to say yes and no to charitable requests in 2020."
- Insight from a small business owner
 
TAKE POLITICS OUT OF THE 2020 ELECTIONS
"The trick to surviving the 2020 elections is focusing on people and ideas, not politics. Politics today seems to be all about winners and losers. People and ideas are how we will advance Minnesota and our communities."
- Insight from Bruce Nustad, President, Minnesota Retailers Association

 

 

on Monday, 06 January 2020. Posted in Retail Operations

Store Best Practices For Social Distancing: In-Store & Appointment

Store Best Practices For Social Distancing: In-Store & Appointment

Note: Click here for important re-open guidelines, samples, and templates!

Retailers across Minnesota are implementing impressive measures to make shopping as safe as possible for customers & employees.

Click here to access the State COVID-19 Preparedness Plan (safety plan) template.
Click here for Q&A and updates to the State COVID-19 Preparedness Plan (safety plan).

To assist retailers, here is a collection of social distancing best practices:

  • Use signage at the door, throughout the store, & over your public address system to remind customers of 6 foot social distancing.
  • Evaluate your space and adjust customer flow accordingly.
  • Encourage use of curbside pickup & delivery.
  • At checkout (including self-checkout) & in areas of congestion mark out social distance spacing.
  • At checkout extend space between the cashier & customer with markings or a physical barrier.
  • If practical ask a customer's permission to touch their products or allow a customer to position products during check out.
  • Have employees make a special effort to engage customers to help them find products efficiently & remind them to practice social distancing.
  • Clean & disinfect high-touch surfaces regularly and make hand sanitizer & related products available to customers and employees.
  • Communicate your temporary policy on reusable bags to customers before they arrive at the store or at the door.
  • Thank customers and workers for their focus on safety.


Just added!

SAFE Retail

Target is sharing it's lessons learned and best practices to assist other retailers as they open up. Click here to view Target's S.A.F.E. Retail framework, including examples, templates and checklists.


Click here to download a PDF of this flyer.

StoreBestPacticesCOVID 19

Share your best practices at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and visit mnretail.org/covid-19 for more information.

on Monday, 30 March 2020. Posted in MnRA News, Retail Operations

Statement By Minnesota Retail Association President Bruce Nustad On Shakopee Gift Card Regulation Taking Effect Saturday, May 18, 2019

Shakopee retailers remove third-party gift cards from shelves amid graduation gift-giving over concerns the City ordinance conflicts with business partner agreements and raises the potential for a clerk to be cited with a misdemeanor crime

While the Shakopee Police Department has said it is not the intention of the City to issue citations this weekend, we take complying with the new law seriously. The reality is retailers were only given 11 days to implement changes and that simply isn’t enough time to train each and every employee, change point of sale systems, and re-write operating procedures to ensure the proper checks and balances exist. While retailers do check identification in some instances, there is no routine situation today where the name on a card is verified as the same on a valid government-issued identification.

Out of concern that front-line retail workers could be cited for breaking the law, a number of Shakopee retailers have removed third-party gift cards from their shelves. The last thing a retailer wants is any employee mistakenly selling a regulated card, which would be a violation of the law and be punishable as a misdemeanor.

In addition, as expressed to the Council at its May 7 meeting, the Shakopee ordinance may conflict with agreements between retailers and their business partners. Some retailers have removed cards from their shelves out of concern that the City’s action may lead to a breach of their agreements.

These cards are an important convenience to customers, especially as Minnesotans celebrate graduations and other special occasions this time of year. We hope retailers can get these cards back on their shelves soon, but the City has put some retailers in the position where that won’t happen until there is no risk to employees or liability with their business partners.

Retailers in Shakopee have taken steps to reduce fraud, including moving cards and increasing employee training. It’s unfortunate the City chose to pass this regulation as opposed to continuing to work in partnership with retailers. Our concerns remain that shoppers will take their business to a neighboring community and career criminals will use fraudulent credit cards to obtain other high-value items.

# # #

For interviews, contact:

Bruce Nustad
President, Minnesota Retailers Association
(651) 288-1640
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Written by Bruce Nustad on Saturday, 18 May 2019. Posted in Retail Operations, Policy & Politics

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