10 min
Trump's Out, Biden's In - What's It Mean for Retailers | Retail Today With Bob Phibbs, the Retail Doctor Retail Today with Bob Phibbs, The Retail Doctor
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- Management
Hey everybody. It's Bob Phibbs, the Retail Doc. Thanks for joining me this afternoon. You know, the big news was that the election is over and now, what for retail? I've been answering that question all day and I thought I would quickly share some of my thoughts with you, because particularly in the U.S. we have had an awful lot of interest from both sides and the news media, trying to get us to guess what's going to happen and what's next, and has gone back and forth for days now. But honestly, for months we have been dealing with this and what we are noticing as we look forward is that there's going to be an increased pandemic response. That should be good news for retailers because people who feel safer are more likely to go out and spend their money. It's that simple.
We have noticed that around the world as lockdowns have been threatened, as people have ended up finding that they're accounts are growing by leaps and bounds, that people get nervous. We do not like to shop when we are nervous. Fortunately, that's what the game is right now. Number two is people are drawn by another round of stimulus. Hopefully, that's going to help. That certainly helped retailers before and we will look forward to having stability in the supply chains in the near future. That's another thing that we have to be thinking about, what is possible because when we look at the future and be drawn to what could happen in a good way, it tends to affect the way that we run our businesses.
I want you to be thinking as a retailer, is that people want to feel familiarity not friction. We are tired of being drawn into the race by two people who don't know us, of being told what we should think and feel, and no matter what side you're on, and I am trying to be respectful of both sides, to understand that people are going to be coming back to a familiarity of feeling. That's why the holidays are going to be so important. That's why I think we could be on the cusp of a new hedonism because people have not been spending their money and they are going to look at friends and family differently, and how can they show their love?
My question to you as a retailer is, what's one thing you can do to create an inviting, comfortable place for anybody to be in your store? The danger of so many retailers right now is we let people's personal lives get entwined on the sales floor and I think that's really dangerous. You need to be able to pivot conversations, and you need to realize that what did it take for this person to leave their home where they may have felt safer, to actually go out in the world, whether they are wearing a mask or not, but to go into your brick and mortar store? We do not want to hear more headlines. We don't want to hear more division. We don't want to hear more chaos. What we want is the familiarity that comes with shopping, and the reward that comes from discovering something we didn't even know we wanted, but taking it home with us.
I understand that retailers have got an omnichannel experience that we are trying to experience and I get all of that, but as stores reopen, that training of what you should be like and what you should not be like, has to be foremost in your managers' minds instead of just doing more tasks and moving more merchandise from over here and sweeping this and cleaning that. We have got to end up realizing you're going to have to come up with a feeling when people come into your store and your brand. If not, it's going to be determined by your employees who might be feeling more vulnerable, who might be feeling less secure, more secure, doesn't matter, but you can't afford to have that Wild West of feelings on your sales floor, because people shop who are hopeful. It's that simple.
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If you love what you heard on Retail Today, connect with Bob by visiting retaildoc.com or send a message to bob@retaildoc.com. Thanks for listening!
Hey everybody. It's Bob Phibbs, the Retail Doc. Thanks for joining me this afternoon. You know, the big news was that the election is over and now, what for retail? I've been answering that question all day and I thought I would quickly share some of my thoughts with you, because particularly in the U.S. we have had an awful lot of interest from both sides and the news media, trying to get us to guess what's going to happen and what's next, and has gone back and forth for days now. But honestly, for months we have been dealing with this and what we are noticing as we look forward is that there's going to be an increased pandemic response. That should be good news for retailers because people who feel safer are more likely to go out and spend their money. It's that simple.
We have noticed that around the world as lockdowns have been threatened, as people have ended up finding that they're accounts are growing by leaps and bounds, that people get nervous. We do not like to shop when we are nervous. Fortunately, that's what the game is right now. Number two is people are drawn by another round of stimulus. Hopefully, that's going to help. That certainly helped retailers before and we will look forward to having stability in the supply chains in the near future. That's another thing that we have to be thinking about, what is possible because when we look at the future and be drawn to what could happen in a good way, it tends to affect the way that we run our businesses.
I want you to be thinking as a retailer, is that people want to feel familiarity not friction. We are tired of being drawn into the race by two people who don't know us, of being told what we should think and feel, and no matter what side you're on, and I am trying to be respectful of both sides, to understand that people are going to be coming back to a familiarity of feeling. That's why the holidays are going to be so important. That's why I think we could be on the cusp of a new hedonism because people have not been spending their money and they are going to look at friends and family differently, and how can they show their love?
My question to you as a retailer is, what's one thing you can do to create an inviting, comfortable place for anybody to be in your store? The danger of so many retailers right now is we let people's personal lives get entwined on the sales floor and I think that's really dangerous. You need to be able to pivot conversations, and you need to realize that what did it take for this person to leave their home where they may have felt safer, to actually go out in the world, whether they are wearing a mask or not, but to go into your brick and mortar store? We do not want to hear more headlines. We don't want to hear more division. We don't want to hear more chaos. What we want is the familiarity that comes with shopping, and the reward that comes from discovering something we didn't even know we wanted, but taking it home with us.
I understand that retailers have got an omnichannel experience that we are trying to experience and I get all of that, but as stores reopen, that training of what you should be like and what you should not be like, has to be foremost in your managers' minds instead of just doing more tasks and moving more merchandise from over here and sweeping this and cleaning that. We have got to end up realizing you're going to have to come up with a feeling when people come into your store and your brand. If not, it's going to be determined by your employees who might be feeling more vulnerable, who might be feeling less secure, more secure, doesn't matter, but you can't afford to have that Wild West of feelings on your sales floor, because people shop who are hopeful. It's that simple.
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If you love what you heard on Retail Today, connect with Bob by visiting retaildoc.com or send a message to bob@retaildoc.com. Thanks for listening!
10 min