7 Common Problems and Challenges Facing Retailers. How to Solve Them?

Problems in different industries, not only in retail, motivate to look for opportunities to solve them, develop, and improve. This is constant progress and overcoming obstacles. If you stop for a while, you will no longer catch up with your competitors. Here are 7 of the most common issues in retail and how to solve them.

Issue 1. Decreased brand loyalty

Many retailers give customers a variety of choices. Clients buy both online and offline. They choose where to buy depending on their current needs. And before making a purchase, they weigh many factors, but firstly they are guided by their previous shopping experience. And the company loses customers when it ignores their needs and desires.

Solution

Look for new opportunities to increase customer loyalty. Building effective communication and creating an ideal customer experience works best. Retail chains collect and analyze data on shopping habits and what clients buy in order to better understand how to sell. Marketers track changes in trends and work to help a company acquire and retain loyal customers. The main thing is to find tools to attract customers and do everything so that customers come back and shop with you again and again.

Issue 2. Ignoring in-store operations

One of the biggest mistakes made by retailers is the opinion that everything works the way it works, and that you don't need to go into how the store operates. This attitude towards the store processes affects the attitude toward customers. You will be successful if you stay on top of your business and do not stop there.

Solution

You need a team with practical experience in managing business processes in the store chain to improve in-store operations. The work should be carried out in all departments by responsible persons. It is important to keep on attracting customers and not forget to motivate your employees. When chain owners are actively involved in business processes, they clearly understand what is happening in the stores, respond to challenges in time, and have full potential to succeed.

Issue 3: Poor customer service

The customers don’t buy from you or most likely buy online if they don't have a positive shopping experience. Modern shopping is so diverse that the client has a wide choice of ways and places to buy. This is why poor customer service in a physical store leads to customer loss, and most likely forever. Therefore, it is very essential for every retailer to meet the needs of customers by providing quality service no matter what happens.

Solution

Offer personal services and unique offers. Put yourself in your buyer's shoes and think about what kind of service you’d like to receive and what you pay attention to when shopping.

Issue 4: Neglecting store processes and data analysis

No retailer can adequately assess a business's progress without analyzing processes, data, statistics, and influencing factors. You must know how to analyze a given cycle, and how to organize the process in order to succeed.

Solution

Learn new things. Constantly. Know all the processes taking place in your retail chain. You must be practical and know how products are bought, and sold, where your money comes from, and where it goes. Study, take courses, and read professional literature. And then use your knowledge to make intelligent decisions. Combine hands-on experience with modern technology. Use technologies and applications to analyze data and automate processes.

Issue 5. Lack of effective planogramming

Most chains have adopted planogramming over the past few years as new technologies have emerged. But some companies have adapted from the beginning and continue to develop their merchandising strategies. And there are stores that work with planograms, but the results leave a lot to be desired. Either there are not enough specialists, or a strategy for successful merchandising has not been developed.

Solution

Retailer have to understand the end goal of each process in order to be successful. If this is planogramming, then creating, executing, and controlling planograms should ultimately simplify the layout process, save time, attract more customers, and increase sales. See what your competitors do and build your own success story.

Issue 6. Too much technology and data

Tools for sales, control of the effectiveness of different processes for various directions in the retail chain. The case when different departments work separately without communication and exchange of important data. Chains may also experience a shortage of experienced professionals who can work with different technologies and analyze chain processes.

Solution

Perform an audit of the processes occurring in the network. Find out which processes are critical for your income. Find experienced supervisors for these processes. Set up communication between different departments of the chain and the exchange of significant data. Leave a minimal set of tools that will help you detect problems in a timely manner.

Issue 7. Ignoring product demand and the market situation

Some retailers do not pay attention to what is happening around them. And they make a mistake that can cost the company a lot of money and reduce revenue. Thus, chains can sell products that they intuitively consider profitable or focus only on their own needs. But in fact, a situation arises when the retailer orders products that are not in demand and can not be sold.

Solution

Be aware of new trends, best-selling products and unpopular ones. Analyze stocks. Determine which products are in demand and should be kept, and which should be taken off the shelves. Therefore, you will find top-selling items, and not that you personally like. Your revenue depends on the purchases made by your customers, so the products that your loyal customers buy should come first.

Conclusions

In today's world of retail, physical stores find it difficult to keep up with the latest trends and stay ahead of the competition. In order to attract and retain potential customers, retailers are constantly looking for innovative ways to engage shoppers and offer something better than others.

Everyone makes mistakes, for sure. We hope that you notice them in time and no problem has a negative impact on your business processes.