Episode 16
The Simple Fixes Retailers Ignore… That Drive Real Profit
If you’ve ever wondered why your shop looks busy but your bank account doesn’t agree, this episode will feel uncomfortably familiar — in a good way.
Today, Kim Hulse and I pull back the curtain on the small, boring-but-brilliant changes that real retailers have made to genuinely shift their margins. We’re talking about the fixes most businesses overlook because they’re too busy firefighting, guessing, or simply doing things “the way we always have.”
Across several case studies — from a sports shop drowning in choice, to a boutique losing money on basics but over-buying on fashion, to a multi-million-pound family business stuck in chaos — we show how simple decisions around stock, suppliers, store layout, pricing, and team rhythm can unlock thousands in profit.
Not by spending more. Not by rebranding. Just by tightening the fundamentals.
You’ll hear:
• The stock mistakes that silently drain your cash
• How supplier conversations (yes, real ones) can improve margin
• Why basics matter more than you think
• The danger of “I’ll just buy it because it’s pretty” buying
• How small stores lose sales simply by missing key information in-store
• What to fix before investing in marketing
• Why January is the best month for a quiet reset that pays off all year
• The difference between promotions that lift margin and promotions that burn it
And, importantly, why retail rewards momentum — not perfection.
If you want 2026 to be calmer, more profitable, and far less chaotic, start with the basics. One small change at a time.
Transcript
Learn from those who've done it when it comes to maximizing profits, even
Speaker:with the backdrop of a challenging high street.
Speaker:My name's Clare Bailey and I'm joined today by Kim
Speaker:Hulse. She's done an episode before, you may have heard it. So
Speaker:welcome. Kim. Hi, nice to see you again.
Speaker:Lovely. Well, today we're going to be sharing insights into some of the real
Speaker:businesses we've worked with who've made very simple
Speaker:changes that have actually all added up to huge value. And they're
Speaker:changes that pretty much any business could easily make too, without too much
Speaker:investment. As a bit of background, Kim and I have spent a number of years
Speaker:working together and we spent far more years than we'd care to admit
Speaker:working with retailers and consumer facing businesses. And that ranges
Speaker:from delivering customer service to supply chain projects, store design to
Speaker:stock control, fixing issues and improving processes. So what
Speaker:we want to do is share our examples of things that genuinely have worked for
Speaker:real businesses so that you can turn the tide on spiraling costs
Speaker:impacting the industry and make your 2026 a really great
Speaker:year. So let's dive straight in.
Speaker:Kim, you go first. Let's hear about one of your case studies from a
Speaker:retail client and share some of the things that they did to make a real
Speaker:difference. I'm going to talk about a sports shop.
Speaker:They loved their products, they were selling their enthusiasts
Speaker:in sports. That meant the range was really wide
Speaker:and the range needed more structure. There were so many amazing,
Speaker:brilliant things you could stock that sometimes it was a bit bewildering
Speaker:to select the product that was right for you.
Speaker:Brilliant brands, brilliant products. But we needed to curate it. So
Speaker:we looked at which brands to keep, which brands to
Speaker:discontinue and again, curating the product
Speaker:range, making sure that what was in stock
Speaker:was right for the market size, the customers coming in
Speaker:and ultimately the sales and margin that we wanted to achieve.
Speaker:We also talked to suppliers. It was quite a new shop. So
Speaker:relationships are really, really new and it's sometimes
Speaker:quite daunting. Talk to suppliers, you think they hold all the cards.
Speaker:But working with the shop owner in talking
Speaker:to the suppliers, getting to know them, their brands, where their
Speaker:focus is, and sharing what our needs and
Speaker:aspirations were for the year meant that we ended up
Speaker:with better payment terms. We had goals we
Speaker:could aim to, if we reached certain volume in purchases,
Speaker:then we could release better cost prices. So we had an incentive to do
Speaker:really well. We created joint promotions with them and
Speaker:we got marketing support and reps out from experience
Speaker:day or from being a Bit more open to
Speaker:conversation rather than going in and just being
Speaker:told this is what you're going to get. Other quick
Speaker:things really, we built a good, better, best structure.
Speaker:We looked at making sure the best sellers were never out of
Speaker:stock and also understanding with suppliers
Speaker:where we needed to put our money in terms
Speaker:of size, runs, colorways, what would really work and
Speaker:what would really deliver for us. And
Speaker:then finally we looked at promotions. What would work with the
Speaker:promotions? It will drive sales and margin
Speaker:promotions, yes, sometimes it's about stock clearance,
Speaker:but often it's about margin growth. So we worked on strategies
Speaker:to deliver that. So it's accumulation of lots of
Speaker:things delivered in an integrated way.
Speaker:I'll share one of mine next then. It's one of my favourites. It was a
Speaker:boutique in Litchfield, a high end womenswear brand. They had
Speaker:quite a low customer base, mainly within the local catchment area. Although
Speaker:with it being relatively touristic, they did pick up other people as well.
Speaker:I mean they had a remarkable 700,000 turnover from a small shop
Speaker:and from the outside it looked like it ought to be making a lot of
Speaker:profit. But the problem was underneath there were some issues
Speaker:in the way that their stock and ranges were managed, which meant that the
Speaker:owner was barely drawing a salary at all. Now in terms
Speaker:of the backdrop, they had things like American vintage brand. That was their
Speaker:basics. Of course they're quite high end but it was things like jeans, jumpers,
Speaker:cardigans, vests and they're kind of year round product, seasonless
Speaker:staples. But unfortunately due to the buying patterns
Speaker:and the reactive nature of buying, the owner kept running out.
Speaker:On the flip side, they had really high end high fashion pieces.
Speaker:Certainly in Christmas and New Year they were stocking things like Vivian Westwood for party
Speaker:wear. I mean beautiful products, very high ticket but
Speaker:really dependent on the season. And after New Year's Eve it
Speaker:was cost price plus VAT to clear and that lost them a lot
Speaker:of margin or ended up with a lot of cash tied up in
Speaker:obsolete stock that they couldn't bring out the following year
Speaker:because obviously with it being a more fashion led retailer, it had to be
Speaker:gone. They did have an epos and what we did was I sat
Speaker:down with the lady and we looked at what she needed to ask of her
Speaker:data in order to make the decisions that would drive the business.
Speaker:So we reviewed the epos and it was full of thousands of reports. I mean
Speaker:you could disappear into anything and everything, but there wasn't a clear suite
Speaker:of favorite reports that helped the day to day. So we set up
Speaker:a Favorites folder of reports. And I told her to ignore all the other stuff
Speaker:unless she was bored and had insomnia, quite frankly, because it was just way
Speaker:too much. It's a bit like
Speaker:Google Analytics really from that once we were able to look at
Speaker:actual data that really mattered and we did do a couple of customer reports,
Speaker:we were then able to look at the stock profiles and immediately identified these problems
Speaker:of selling out of the basics and overstocking on a high fashion.
Speaker:So we're able to track the life cycle of the sell through rates
Speaker:and identify both margin erosion from the heavy
Speaker:duty clearance, but also lost sales opportunity from the period
Speaker:of outer socks because you could track the sales line and then it dipped to
Speaker:zero and then stock came back in and it came back up. So obviously you've
Speaker:missed a whole chunk of time there. That's evidently lost money
Speaker:and potentially lost customers because if they come and they expect to buy something
Speaker:and they don't, they leave and maybe they'll never come back. So that
Speaker:was part of it. And we rebalanced basic versus fashions. She was
Speaker:really scared about buying heavy. I explained to that actually she was losing that
Speaker:much margin by not being in stock. If she was theoretically
Speaker:in her mind's eye, overstocked. Because these were relatively
Speaker:unseasonal products, it didn't really matter, but losing the
Speaker:sales did. We tightened up the intake, planning on the seasonal stuff
Speaker:to create more of a when it's gone, it's gone. Similar to
Speaker:your sportswear retailer. We spoke to the suppliers about phasing orders so we could
Speaker:have more frequent replenishment if something did go crazy. Like they had
Speaker:a couple of summer and winter autumn ways in cardigans and jumpers and so they
Speaker:might suddenly become very popular and they wanted to know that they could top up.
Speaker:But yeah, effectively the results was there was an immediate turnover and
Speaker:margin uplift from full availability on the basics that filled all
Speaker:the gaps of the outer stocks. There was a sense of urgency around the
Speaker:fashion, so people bought at full price because they knew if they didn't they'd miss
Speaker:out. That in turn meant that there was a high sell through
Speaker:rate. In fact, it sold well in advance of the end of season. But that
Speaker:was okay because that was what people wanted to know would happen. And it brought
Speaker:about much less clearance. And ultimately at the end of the project,
Speaker:instead of making practically zero profitability
Speaker:and making no drawings on the business at all, they in the first
Speaker:year managed to go from nearly zero to 40,000 a year. And then that
Speaker:continued to grow as the processes became established since
Speaker:then, they've sold successfully because they've now got a profit profile that
Speaker:appeals to a buyer. So that's my example.
Speaker:Kim, have you got another one? Yeah, it's one that you
Speaker:and I worked on. Really Swift retailer. They
Speaker:were really disappointed with sales. They
Speaker:had a lot that was great, but they just
Speaker:wanted everything reviewing to work out what they could
Speaker:do to drive sales and margin. So we
Speaker:started with an audit. We looked at their store layout and
Speaker:reimagined that for the way that the shopper would
Speaker:browse the store. And then we looked at their merchandising techniques,
Speaker:making sure that everything popped and looked good. Point
Speaker:of sale was lacking both in terms of pricing and information.
Speaker:And you and I both know that customers will often walk out a store if
Speaker:they can't easily see the price rather than ask someone. So having the
Speaker:right information to help sell the product was critical. We made
Speaker:some recommendations for the shop window to make
Speaker:that passing footfall pause and actually come in.
Speaker:And we looked at their promotion plan and
Speaker:their promotion, pricing and promotion plan.
Speaker:There were some product ranges where the price architecture wasn't
Speaker:quite there. And a few tweaks meant that we could
Speaker:encourage people to trade at the range. We also
Speaker:introduced some bundle deals where there were quite low value
Speaker:items. And encouraging people to to buy more with
Speaker:3 for 2 really made a difference. There was also a
Speaker:bit of emotional attachment to some products.
Speaker:So we looked with a fresh pair of eyes on what the product was.
Speaker:We looked at the slow movers and questioned why they were
Speaker:staying if they weren't adding to the narrative or the brand and they weren't
Speaker:adding to the bottom line. Then we created a sell through
Speaker:strategy to get rid to make space for products that really
Speaker:would contribute to that brand and to sales
Speaker:online. We reviewed their website. We treated
Speaker:that as a opportunity that really wasn't being
Speaker:harnessed at the moment. So we reviewed their products, their
Speaker:navigation, their SEO and
Speaker:we made that traffic really surge forward
Speaker:and helped grow online sales as well as physical sales.
Speaker:Within three months, I'd seen a 25% uplift in
Speaker:footfall online and we'd see an increase in
Speaker:sales in store. And actually the product range was
Speaker:simpler, the offer was simpler and it was a
Speaker:nicer environment in store, a more engaging experience
Speaker:in store, which meant sales grew. I mean, I seem to remember that we
Speaker:also looked at something that so many small businesses overlook, which
Speaker:is optimizing their Google business profile so that when somebody
Speaker:searches for the thing that they want near them, they
Speaker:might come up at top of search. Because Google Business Profile with the map
Speaker:is really powerful. And I seem to remember that helped drive the footfall too,
Speaker:because in a touristy gifting type environment, people don't necessarily
Speaker:know you're there and they might go looking for the solution
Speaker:to their problem near them, which I think's been proven to be really
Speaker:popular term of searcher in the last year or so. And
Speaker:local search is just growing and growing in
Speaker:importance. But a lot of us, we set up
Speaker:Google Business Listing and then we took it as done and don't look at
Speaker:it again. And having that refresh using
Speaker:the fields that perhaps weren't there when you set the account up,
Speaker:or actually your product and your services have grown, you've got so much more,
Speaker:you can tell. Definitely put it in your diary to review every quarter.
Speaker:Yeah, I mean, that's powerful, isn't it? And it is proof in both of these
Speaker:cases that those small changes, well delivered,
Speaker:actually make real results.
Speaker:Which leads us onto another business that we both worked on.
Speaker:And it was something that I see quite often, the family
Speaker:business that had outgrown itself. And we see it all the time,
Speaker:brilliant founders, loyal customers, decades
Speaker:of hard work and building something from the ground up. But
Speaker:because they started as entrepreneurs, they outgrow
Speaker:their own systems. And like I say, you and I both worked on
Speaker:this one. Yes, it's a classic. We've always done it this way,
Speaker:Trapp. And sometimes it's a case if they really want different ways
Speaker:of working. And sometimes there's a little bit of reassurance that actually a
Speaker:lot of what you're doing is right, but
Speaker:amplified by a lack of structure and a management team
Speaker:who are creative and entrepreneurial but don't necessarily have the
Speaker:disciplines in retail that you
Speaker:might want. You can really unlock another
Speaker:surge in sales growth by putting some of those processes
Speaker:and retail thinking into the team once
Speaker:they've got to that size where they really need to grasp that
Speaker:to do the next stage of growth. Well, exactly. I mean,
Speaker:they'd done so well, they'd managed to grow considerably over
Speaker:the years. And I guess they invited us in to help them establish what
Speaker:was stuff they needed to keep and what was stuff that they
Speaker:needed to add and establish those, I guess, professional processes, but
Speaker:not overburdening them with too much heavy
Speaker:corporate stuff because it has to be fit for purpose. They're still an
Speaker:independent, they're still a family business, but they'd achieved a seven million pound
Speaker:turnover and their ambition was to reach £70 million without
Speaker:professional processors. That could scale with them,
Speaker:then that was never going to happen. And actually, the areas we looked
Speaker:at and workshopped with the whole team over several
Speaker:intensive days looked at areas where some of it
Speaker:was about product management and marketing and
Speaker:retail knowledge and giving them the
Speaker:insights and the decision frameworks to help them manage their
Speaker:range. So an example is lifecycle planning,
Speaker:understanding the life cycle stages of a product, from
Speaker:introduction to decline to obsolescence. You
Speaker:manage your product differently. You apply different
Speaker:decisions to the buying phase, the stock management,
Speaker:the pricing, the promotions, how much you're investing in
Speaker:marketing. All changes at different life
Speaker:cycle stages. So we help them look at
Speaker:understanding how you could classify which life
Speaker:cycle stage a product was in, the signs that a product is
Speaker:shifting from one stage to the other, and generally what
Speaker:kind of decisions you might make for those kind of products in each
Speaker:of the life stages, and they found that invaluable. We also
Speaker:talked about range frameworks, the product range,
Speaker:some brilliant products in there, but talking about good,
Speaker:better, best, and how you can position your
Speaker:ranges against each other to give a narrative and to
Speaker:help the customer decide which is the best product
Speaker:for them by giving them options and
Speaker:comparisons. Then it really helps a
Speaker:customer walk away with a product rather than
Speaker:being overwhelmed with too much choice. What we found as
Speaker:we unravelled all of this, didn't we, was that actually it was
Speaker:inextricably linked to stock. They got containers on the water, they'd
Speaker:not got management processes in place to track the inbound delivery
Speaker:systems. So alongside the life cycle and the range,
Speaker:they hadn't got control of the supply chain. So they
Speaker:needed to look at processes and systems and communications,
Speaker:moreover, to manage the stock so that things were arriving
Speaker:in the proper flow. We saw a situation that had arisen
Speaker:whereby products that had been doing really, really well went out of stock for
Speaker:as much as three or six months. And then of course, it came back in
Speaker:stock and the world had moved on. Yeah, it's really hard and it was
Speaker:interesting. So we talked about those Monday morning
Speaker:meetings, those range review meetings, and how different
Speaker:departments get involved in different stages so that we can
Speaker:avoid those major stockouts, and so that the marketing aren't
Speaker:creating a huge campaign, investing money into a campaign,
Speaker:when actually the shipment's still on the water and is delayed.
Speaker:So working out how each team could bring
Speaker:their knowledge of what's actually happening and their insights and
Speaker:expertise help them make better decisions
Speaker:on a company level rather than in a department
Speaker:level. We also talked about pricing architecture.
Speaker:Again, it's. Where are those sweet spots in terms of price
Speaker:points, between good, better and best, where are the price points that will
Speaker:encourage someone to trade up or add something else to
Speaker:basket? And again, they found that really helpful. When
Speaker:you've been in retail for quite a long time, I think
Speaker:sometimes you don't realise that there
Speaker:are promotional mechanics that you can use that are really
Speaker:advantageous, that sometimes if you're newer to retail,
Speaker:you don't necessarily reach and think about them.
Speaker:So we went through about 10 different
Speaker:ways we could use promotions with purpose, from
Speaker:focusing attention on key products to promotions that
Speaker:increase basket spend, promotions that fostered
Speaker:loyalty and increased repeat purchases, and
Speaker:promotions that actually drove margin because of
Speaker:how we manage the promotion that gave value to the
Speaker:customer, but also to the retailer.
Speaker:Exactly. And you know, I remember that talking to them, the one
Speaker:thing that they weren't joining together was
Speaker:understanding how they could drive a sales uplift and
Speaker:then drive perhaps a better price with the supplier,
Speaker:because they weren't having the meetings you talked about with your
Speaker:sportswear retailer, with their suppliers. They weren't
Speaker:negotiating, they weren't doing forecasting, they weren't talking about
Speaker:phasing or shipping plan because they weren't really holding onto
Speaker:their data and understanding their goals. And obviously suppliers have a
Speaker:really big insight into the total market view anonymized, but they
Speaker:can talk about trends and what they're seeing and so on. So one of the
Speaker:things that linked so well into this whole thing, because obviously
Speaker:everything of this is inextricably linked, was that they then sort of
Speaker:had that light bulb moment where supplier negotiations going in
Speaker:prepared and sharing your data with them helps the supplier to be able
Speaker:to come back and say, oh, I wouldn't promote that then, because actually
Speaker:from our global data, we would see an uplift here or there
Speaker:anyway, so it would be a waste of margin to promote. However, this product
Speaker:might see a dip at that time in its seasonality, so that might be a
Speaker:good time to promote. And it's that insight that you can get from really building
Speaker:those lovely relationships with your suppliers. Absolutely.
Speaker:And your suppliers are your friends. My first question, any supplier
Speaker:meeting is, how's business? What's happening in the market? What can you
Speaker:share and sharing your data and understanding
Speaker:it between you? They want you to grow. If you grow,
Speaker:they get more sales. Of course you should work together.
Speaker:Exactly. I mean, they've got. They don't have shops of their own, do they? They
Speaker:need somebody to sell their stuff. And I think you touched on it. But when
Speaker:we did these sessions, what really became clear was that There'd been this fundamental
Speaker:breakdown in team communication because the team had grown so much.
Speaker:And there was also a lack of role clarity in the early days because they
Speaker:were a tiny business first starting out, they were entrepreneur, they could just
Speaker:gather around somebody's desk and have a chat, solve an issue and crack on.
Speaker:But that was now rather inefficient because there were too many involved in the process.
Speaker:And it wasn't the entrepreneurial quick chat and a fix. They were now at a
Speaker:scale which needed them to have clearer roles. And you know, like you said,
Speaker:the meetings, the comm structure and rhythm and routine around
Speaker:team updates. So everybody felt informed, valued and a contributory
Speaker:part to everything that was going on. And what they weren't doing
Speaker:was looking at the right KPIs either. So they didn't really know what they
Speaker:should be measuring to know that things were going well. And I recall
Speaker:that when we set them up with sort of that meetings planner, sort of like
Speaker:the quick and dirty weekly round the table update with actions
Speaker:assigned to fix immediate issues right through to more strategic
Speaker:senior management board level meetings around what the direction and purpose and future
Speaker:looked like. You know, when we talked around stuff like that, I remember in the
Speaker:workshops you could see this wave of relief coming over some of the faces
Speaker:when they suddenly realized this would help them move away from the panicky
Speaker:firefighting and confusion to something that was more clear
Speaker:and planned and calm and in control. It was that
Speaker:rhythm of working and it meant you could get the job done. You could go,
Speaker:actually that's going to be a Monday morning conversation or this is
Speaker:something I need to get up from my desk and go and talk to someone
Speaker:else about. Now there was much more process. They
Speaker:knew what to raise, when and where and with
Speaker:whom. And it just meant everybody felt more
Speaker:informed and just a more effective
Speaker:working relationship with everybody. I mean, obviously at 7 million
Speaker:pound business, they're willing to invest in themselves for their growth. Not everybody's quite
Speaker:reached that stage yet, but at least it gives some kind of insight into the
Speaker:things that can be done to just take you forward to your
Speaker:next level of growth. It's worth thinking about what you do before
Speaker:you invest in certain activities and before you jump
Speaker:into any ideas of growth. Because in the way we did with these
Speaker:workshops, you need to make sure your house is in order to.
Speaker:It's like, you know, you have to have the proper ways of working,
Speaker:you have to think about growth, but it's going to potentially
Speaker:backfire if the basics aren't right. So true.
Speaker:The basics every time have got to be
Speaker:nailed. If your offer's wrong, pricing's off, your
Speaker:shop's messy, E commerce is clunky, slow.
Speaker:Why would you pay to drive footfall and traffic if you're not going
Speaker:to convert? Because your product price promotions offer
Speaker:isn't right. Things need to be done in a sequence.
Speaker:Number one, the right range. Have you got the right products
Speaker:with the right breadth and depth of stock for
Speaker:customers to buy? Just the right amount of choice.
Speaker:Are your pricings and promotions right?
Speaker:Making margin actually pays all your bills. So you've got
Speaker:to get your pricing promotions right to make sure you're bringing enough margin
Speaker:in to enable you to market yourself more.
Speaker:Be on brand, be competitive, get your promotions right.
Speaker:And actually we're more discerning customers than we've ever been.
Speaker:Service has to be right every time. And that's not
Speaker:just welcoming someone in store, the service goes
Speaker:right through to digital as well. Is your website
Speaker:easy to use? Are you finding things straight away? Is
Speaker:that delivery delivered on time? Is the information, information
Speaker:about returns easy to find? Your service
Speaker:has to be there every time. Of course
Speaker:your shop environment needs to look and feel
Speaker:good. It needs to be somewhere people want to being and spend
Speaker:time and dwell. It's got to be easy to navigate
Speaker:and it's got to be easy to find the information you want to help you
Speaker:make that purchase. And I've touched on digitals,
Speaker:but number five would be get your digitals right.
Speaker:So that's your EPOS system. I still know shops that write
Speaker:down their sales on a pad using pen and
Speaker:paper and I just can't wrap my head around
Speaker:how they know what's selling well, what they need to
Speaker:order more of and how, how can they be responsive to
Speaker:emerging trends that the data will show you? So
Speaker:make sure you've got an EPOS system, you've got a website
Speaker:that's easy for you to manage but also easy for the
Speaker:customer to buy from. Then when your product,
Speaker:pricing, promotions, service in
Speaker:store feel and all your back room
Speaker:stuff is right, then you can tell the world you're here, come and shop
Speaker:with us. Get the order wrong and you're investing
Speaker:time and money in marketing. That's not going to convert into sales.
Speaker:Yeah, that's really valuable because I mean there's so many places I've seen that
Speaker:it all looks great on paper. But you look on Google to look at their
Speaker:opening hours and you turn up because they say they're open and they're closed. I
Speaker:mean, how much of a Service fail is that there's
Speaker:one area, and I'm a particular geek on this, I have to
Speaker:admit, and it's about the supplier management, things like the stock
Speaker:levels, the supply chain, that's where your hidden profit levers are. But a lot of
Speaker:people, I don't think it's particularly sexy because it
Speaker:sounds analytical and data driven, which is probably why I like it. It's a
Speaker:bit like doing a stock take. Nobody wants to do one, but it's really important.
Speaker:But I think you touched on it above as well. Some retailers behave as though
Speaker:they think the suppliers are their bosses, but actually they
Speaker:depend on the retailers to sell their products
Speaker:to consumers. Unless of course they were also selling direct consumer, but
Speaker:very few of them are. So I think that's such an important area that's
Speaker:well overlooked. I was with a client this morning
Speaker:who promised to do a stock take first week of January, but
Speaker:they actually had a supplier with them at the time.
Speaker:And it's a two way street because it gives the supplier an
Speaker:opportunity to find out directly from the coal face, what are
Speaker:customers thinking, what's the vibe on the high street,
Speaker:what's the consumer sentiment and what are the
Speaker:shops telling them? So suppliers get
Speaker:information and useful facts from
Speaker:retailers as well. But what we want to
Speaker:focus on is making sure that that relationship is good.
Speaker:So we don't want unsuitable minimum order quantities where we're
Speaker:being asked to accept too much stock at the wrong time.
Speaker:Often suppliers will put pressure to accept deliveries early because
Speaker:it's out of the supplier's warehouse and yes, it's as close to the customer as
Speaker:it can be. But as retailers we want to manage our cash
Speaker:flow. So talking to your suppliers about what the minimum
Speaker:order quantities should be for you and what your
Speaker:delivery phase cycle should look like for you is
Speaker:really good so that you're managing that risk together
Speaker:and working through it together. I think you can add
Speaker:to that in that a lot of the payment terms require smaller
Speaker:retailers to pay on dispatch, whereas they sell to bigger retailers
Speaker:on sort of 60 to 90 day terms. So actually at least you've had
Speaker:some chance to sell some of the stock and bank some of the margin before
Speaker:you have to pay for it. But that's not the case with the smaller businesses,
Speaker:all the risks on them. So being the supply chain geek,
Speaker:my advice is to master all the aspects that affect your stock
Speaker:levels, which will include things like intake planning that comes to
Speaker:phasing deliveries. When do you actually, according to what you think your sales
Speaker:patterns will look like, need drops of stock and talk to the suppliers
Speaker:about it. And if they have to send a minimum order quantity
Speaker:because it's an economic order quantity, then discuss with them about
Speaker:some kind of preferential payment terms because they're going to have to understand
Speaker:that that's more stock than you need. Then you also need to think
Speaker:about sell through targets. So if a seasonal
Speaker:product, for example, and that applies to technology these days because there's always the next
Speaker:best thing in TVs and smartphones and
Speaker:laptops. So you need to know that you're going to be able to sell through
Speaker:before the next best thing lands so you don't end up with a
Speaker:load of clearance. So you need to think about what your targets are there.
Speaker:Sensible stock cover calculations. So understanding from the
Speaker:suppliers. Delivery lead times I order on week one for delivery on week two,
Speaker:or I order on week one for delivery on week eight. Therefore you need to
Speaker:have different cover calculations in place so that you don't go out of stock between
Speaker:deliveries. Then that links to helping the
Speaker:suppliers understand why you need phased buying. And this is something you
Speaker:need to touch on in any kind of negotiation to talk about.
Speaker:Actually, in some cases it might be worth paying a little more
Speaker:the extra delivery drop in order to have a smaller
Speaker:and more just in time delivery in order to keep your cash flow in the
Speaker:business and minimise risk. Or for basic products
Speaker:that are every day, day in, day out, not particularly seasonal, it might be
Speaker:worth agreeing that you'll take a larger order which ties up your cash
Speaker:flow and your capital, but on condition that there's a discount
Speaker:and just one renegotiated minimum order
Speaker:quantity, whether it's up or down and according to the price you get.
Speaker:Might be able to outperform marketing campaigns in terms of
Speaker:things like injecting cash flow and the cost of the
Speaker:risk of out of stock and obsolescence.
Speaker:Absolutely. You know, supply chain isn't glamorous. It's where margin
Speaker:can leak. Like me.
Speaker:Yeah, you got it. Fix your timing, your phasing, replenishment.
Speaker:It means you can get where you need to be, but keep on top of
Speaker:the data. The data will tell you how you need to plan.
Speaker:So from that, obviously there's a lot of lessons learned and advice there.
Speaker:I'm thinking now we're not far off January, we've got to get through
Speaker:Christmas. But January is one of the best months to reset
Speaker:perceptions. It's when everybody joins the gym, makes resolutions. New
Speaker:year, new me, New year, new business, new year, new focus, New year, new
Speaker:goals. All that Jazz. So what about low
Speaker:cost, high impact ideas and making those
Speaker:small changes that are going to make a strong impact, not trying to do
Speaker:everything at once and suffering overwhelm. That's the sort of thing we want
Speaker:people who are listening to this today, who perhaps have independent high street consumer
Speaker:facing businesses across the board. That's what we want them to think about, isn't it?
Speaker:So why don't we take turns? I'll give you one about
Speaker:visibility, clarity and credibility and that's
Speaker:curb appeal. Make sure your windows are clean,
Speaker:your signage is there, you've got a lovely,
Speaker:brilliant shop window. Get rid of old point
Speaker:of sale in your in your shop window that isn't relevant anymore.
Speaker:Clean, tidy, brilliant design. You've
Speaker:instantly got a shop that's signaling confidence.
Speaker:I actually remember seeing Valentine's promotions that ended on the 14th of
Speaker:February, still in a store on the 21st. And I just thought
Speaker:you can't be bothered to change your signage. But you know, banging
Speaker:on the same drone for your visibility. And I may have mentioned it before,
Speaker:the Google business profile, it's basically a digital shop front. You've got the
Speaker:opportunity to put things like hours, if there's parking, photographs
Speaker:of product, photographs of the team because people buy from people
Speaker:teasers. You can put the right content in, you can encourage
Speaker:reviews, have FAQs, it's really rich and
Speaker:that helps with visibility and trust and credibility
Speaker:to bring people to the store. And once you've got them to
Speaker:the door, why not take the opportunity to reset your
Speaker:layout? Obviously you've got housekeeping, you're stripping out the
Speaker:Christmas clutter, you're separating clearance from your
Speaker:new products, you're refreshing hotspots
Speaker:and you've actually maybe got some decompression zones. Think about what
Speaker:have your customers asked over the last couple of months. If
Speaker:they're all asking, where are the jellycats? I can't find them. And that's telling you
Speaker:you need to bring them out a bit more and really showcase some.
Speaker:So reset your layout, but also think about how customers
Speaker:are shopping and what clues they're giving you for how you can set it out
Speaker:differently. Review what sold and why.
Speaker:So a short, sharp look at stock, what's flown out,
Speaker:what's stuck, which suppliers helped and which
Speaker:suppliers worked. Note it all down now while it's
Speaker:still fresh. Get your team to give their insights too.
Speaker:And leading on from that, actually, the stuff that's stuck and
Speaker:the stuff that flew, links to your stock and cash flow reset.
Speaker:If there's stuff that's still stuck That's a bit of a tongue
Speaker:twister. You need to clear those slow movers. And I actually have a view
Speaker:that to a point, clearance is expected, Boxing Day sale and
Speaker:so on. But a week or so into January,
Speaker:there is the potential to distract a possible full price
Speaker:shopper from spending at full price. Buy that stuff. So
Speaker:perhaps put it on an ebay clearance channel or wherever else that
Speaker:you could potentially consider to take it away from the
Speaker:shop floor at a point in time so it isn't distracting
Speaker:people from spending on the new range, the new product and at full price.
Speaker:The other thing I've mentioned, phasing intake, avoid
Speaker:panic buying. I mean, other than in the case where it's high season, high fashion,
Speaker:high cost, like the Vivienne Westward example, you don't want people to think,
Speaker:well, I've got to buy it now because it won't be available. You want
Speaker:people to feel like when I go here, they always have what I need,
Speaker:if it's a core basic. And all of those activities are going to free up
Speaker:cash for backing the winners that make you the most money.
Speaker:And then January, you know, not every
Speaker:retailer is absolutely set on Christmas and
Speaker:seasonal, but a lot are. But January is
Speaker:a great time to reset that team focus.
Speaker:So go back and have a look at the why. Why are you
Speaker:here? Why are you helping your customers? Why have you got the products
Speaker:and services, services that you do offer?
Speaker:Deliver them with conviction. Just have a team huddle
Speaker:and then finally, communication. Focus
Speaker:on telling your customers what's new in store. Give
Speaker:them some clarity on what your brand's about, what's coming
Speaker:up. It's not about, here's the next discount
Speaker:and we're on clearance. It's about, this is what
Speaker:we've got. We've got something that resonates with you, that will help you
Speaker:enjoy what you enjoy doing or help you
Speaker:solve a problem. It's not about having deep pockets, it's about
Speaker:having the time to take stock of where you are and where you want to
Speaker:be. Which actually leads us onto, once January's
Speaker:sorted, what actually is going to matter most for
Speaker:2026 and ongoing in terms of how
Speaker:retailers tackle the prevailing backdrop of,
Speaker:let's face it, some challenging economic circumstances.
Speaker:Times are tough. You know, I see
Speaker:posts like, you know, heads down, let's see you on the other
Speaker:side. And it really is a case of get your head down,
Speaker:get your basics nailed, product price
Speaker:promotion and integration. Make sure your digital
Speaker:and your physical stores work in tandem so that
Speaker:you are working really well and Delivering
Speaker:as much value as you can from the messages you're putting out
Speaker:across the channels. Deliver real consistency.
Speaker:Make sure all the areas in store, online, social
Speaker:media, Google, business listing, they all tell the
Speaker:same story and deliver it always
Speaker:with the same exceptional service.
Speaker:And even if you don't feel that confident, you know it's that
Speaker:fake it till you make it. Sometimes people can smell
Speaker:confidence and sense confidence, so present
Speaker:that to the customer and they'll be confident too. It's a bit
Speaker:contagious, isn't it? I mean actually, shall we
Speaker:dive into some top tips and top takeaways and you go first?
Speaker:Yep. So for January I said get the basics
Speaker:right. So that's pricing architecture with purpose, you good,
Speaker:better, best pricing. Having margin
Speaker:that works with you, having logic behind your margin.
Speaker:Plan your promotions and understand
Speaker:what will trigger you going into promotion so that you're not
Speaker:just going into reduced prices because it feels
Speaker:a little bit slow. Look at your life cycle discipline
Speaker:and always, always offer value to your customer.
Speaker:For me it's about the geek stuff. Supplier
Speaker:management is a kind of a make or break thing, especially
Speaker:when prices are under so much pressure. So looking at the lead times,
Speaker:which leads of course the stock price profiles, the minimum
Speaker:order quantities, bear in mind delivery costs are ridesync.
Speaker:So if it's a low risk product, fewer deliveries of higher volume,
Speaker:if you've got storage spaces worthwhile. But negotiate and
Speaker:phase in order to protect your cash flow and
Speaker:your availability so that customers will always find what they want
Speaker:to buy in your store. Which kind of leads into.
Speaker:Another hot potato for me is data driven decision making. If I,
Speaker:if I said this once, I've said it probably 200 million times. If
Speaker:there's been enough time in my life to have done that, having the weekly KPIs,
Speaker:the stuff that you have to look at and just have a quick check and
Speaker:if your EPOS allows it, having exception reports that say
Speaker:if it goes 15% either side of my target, I want an
Speaker:immediate alert, something clever like that. But it's not that
Speaker:complicated in most modern systems and it's easy
Speaker:for your supplier to set up if you don't know how to as a one
Speaker:off. But also looking at monthly stock performance reviews,
Speaker:your margin, looking at supplier performance, things like complete and on
Speaker:time delivery. It's not about having vanity
Speaker:dashboards that say oh aren't we brilliant? It's about actually picking the
Speaker:KPIs that provide you with the levers that you can pull
Speaker:to change something that makes a positive difference.
Speaker:Absolutely. They tell A story which will lead to action.
Speaker:So my suggestion for 2026 following
Speaker:on from that is collaboration, not isolation. Today,
Speaker:my local retailers, I've got a ladies wear
Speaker:shop collaborating with the lingerie shop. They're doing a
Speaker:joint two day collaboration which is just
Speaker:phenomenal. They're both using each other's
Speaker:customer base for cross pollination. It'll be a
Speaker:triple win for both of them and the consumers. So look at
Speaker:landlords, local makers, your community,
Speaker:any organisations that bang the drum about your high
Speaker:street and your neighbouring retailers. Collaborate.
Speaker:Absolutely. In 2026, have courage
Speaker:in terms of retail competency, get making those
Speaker:decisions if something's failing, cut it.
Speaker:Invest where products are working and push it.
Speaker:Have a look at what you're focusing on and maybe do less
Speaker:things well rather than spreading yourself too thin.
Speaker:So price properly, evolve
Speaker:deliberately and where you can stand
Speaker:out in your marketing, be confident and try and stand
Speaker:out from the crowd because being courageous in your
Speaker:decisions and in your marketing will pull attention
Speaker:in from customers. And then finally,
Speaker:plan ahead. Even if it's actually, I'm only going to promote if
Speaker:sales do this. Have a think about what you're going to be
Speaker:promoting. Plan your window displays and think about
Speaker:what products you're bringing in when. Yeah, I mean,
Speaker:it's clear that the quieter months when everyone's paying off their Christmas credit card
Speaker:debts are the perfect time to plan ahead. An area which I know
Speaker:you and others of our team do a lot of work with our clients with,
Speaker:is defining the promotional calendar whereby you look at the
Speaker:year ahead. You look at things like school holidays, major sporting events,
Speaker:religious festivals, local activities and so on,
Speaker:and, and map all that to what matters to your
Speaker:customer and help to be able to then design things like
Speaker:events, window refreshes, even store
Speaker:layout and social and email content, because that all
Speaker:then flows through into what you've been saying about
Speaker:you don't have to discount to promote. You can spotlight, highlight or just put something
Speaker:in the window or double face it, which means to the non
Speaker:retail lingo speakers, you might have a product on the shelf
Speaker:in one area, but you might have it on a shelf in another area with
Speaker:a complimentary product or in a very highly visible place.
Speaker:I think that getting that right keeps that
Speaker:excitement and it keeps you front of mind. And people will start to say,
Speaker:whenever I go there, it's always really interesting. They've always got something new to look.
Speaker:At and it helps your plan, whether you're ordering your
Speaker:own stock or you've got someone in the team can do that. If you can
Speaker:see in your promotional calendar that you're going to do a huge promotion
Speaker:on this product in April, you can make sure you've got your
Speaker:stock in place to do that and you can sell through
Speaker:another product in the lead up to it, so you've got the merchandising space
Speaker:to actually put that promotion on. So. So it's thinking
Speaker:ahead and having a plan, knowing you've got purpose that
Speaker:will give you confidence in your plans as well. And promotions,
Speaker:as you say, aren't always discounts. It can be trading up, it can
Speaker:be spotlights, it can be bundles to boost basket size,
Speaker:themed product groups, loyalties to bring customers back
Speaker:in a little bit more frequently. Clearance is
Speaker:separate. That's about cutting deep
Speaker:discounts to clear the stock quickly to
Speaker:generate cash flow that you can put into new lines to
Speaker:clear space that your new products can take to sell.
Speaker:So for quiet periods, it's about strategy. Review your
Speaker:range, review your promotions, identify your suppliers,
Speaker:look at your trade show so you can look at sourcing trips.
Speaker:Have a look at how your promotions, your displays, your buying
Speaker:and your marketing will all align so that when you're
Speaker:busy in that mid and peak season, you're
Speaker:leaning on the plans you've already put in place
Speaker:100%. And I mean, I know, Kim, you've
Speaker:said things before. Evolution beats revolution. It's a
Speaker:cliched saying, but it's actually very valuable. From your point of view, why
Speaker:is that so key? Small, regular improvements
Speaker:add up. Sometimes we like change, but we're creatures of habit.
Speaker:So if we're slowly evolving as a retailer, then we're bringing our
Speaker:consumers with us. And those small
Speaker:changes, we kind of accept them as the retailers make them. So
Speaker:small regular improvements means you're constantly changing.
Speaker:You're constantly scanning the environment to see whether next opportunity
Speaker:or next idea might be. So constant
Speaker:adaption is key. Adapting to
Speaker:consumer behavior, to new digital tools, to what's happening
Speaker:in a community. Retail. The only
Speaker:constant in retail is change. Retail is always
Speaker:changing, always has and always will. So
Speaker:keep that steady innovation and
Speaker:evolution going. Keep up with your market and your
Speaker:customers and that consistent understanding
Speaker:where your retailer is, understanding your brand and what you do,
Speaker:and adapting to current needs that'll build
Speaker:resilience into your business. I mean, there are some things in
Speaker:retail that will never change. People want to buy things.
Speaker:The things that we sell need to represent value, quality and
Speaker:appeal to the people that want to buy from us. And jumping
Speaker:on the bandwagon of the next big thing with technology
Speaker:isn't necessarily going to fix the fact you're out of stock. So
Speaker:the core basics we've talked about will never change,
Speaker:per se. The way we go about them might. But,
Speaker:yes, I do believe in incremental change and the Japanese
Speaker:philosophy of kaizen, the continuous improvement
Speaker:and the avoidance of wasted activity. Well, I
Speaker:think that's us done for today, Kim. Thank you. Honestly, I
Speaker:think this sums up a fairly significant part of everything we've ever learned
Speaker:from fixing retail, although there's a lot deeper to go into.
Speaker:Fixing retail isn't magic, it isn't theory. It's just
Speaker:about making the right decisions at the right time in the right order to deliver
Speaker:results. So I would urge anybody listening in the sector to
Speaker:pick just one thing from today. One thing. A small win, an
Speaker:overdue improvement, and then take another one
Speaker:and another one. One change at a time. And that will give a
Speaker:cleaner, clearer, confident start to 20, 26.
Speaker:And like you say, retail rewards momentum,
Speaker:not perfection. So start small,
Speaker:start now and build from there. Any final words from you, Kim?
Speaker:You've summed it up beautifully. Keep momentum, have
Speaker:confidence in your decisions, get your basics
Speaker:right. Brilliant. Well, thanks again. We've been Claire Bailey, the retail
Speaker:champion, joined by Kim Hulse, and you've been listening to Retail Reckoning.
Speaker:Yeah. Retail Reckoning.
Speaker:Retail Reckoning. No space for
Speaker:dusty shelves. Retail
Speaker:Reckoning owns the floor.
Speaker:Sa.
