Paula’s attendance at the Store Operations Council in Dallas caused me to go back and re-read our recent Store Report. When you write as many reports as we do, a month or two after publication we authors often get to go back and read these things with fresh eyes: it’s a funny phenomenon, and often times we’re just far enough away from the data for it to “re-grab ” us a little.

The store report was no exception. When it comes to the opportunities that arise from the challenges retailers face, Winners clearly demonstrate their understanding that employees hold the key to an improved store experience.

While only 35% of laggards identify the ability to educate and empower in-store employees via new technologies as a means to make the store more alluring to increasingly educated consumers, 65% of Winners cite it as their top opportunity. Data doesn’t speak much more clearly than this: while few retailers’ sales-per-square foot can justify an Apple Store employee model (a supremely knowledgeable associate every which way you turn), the best performers know they must – with whatever means that they have – learn from and emulate it as best they can.

Customers expect more from store associates than most currently provide, and those who are already leading in sales are investing in increased employee pre-screening, product training, and for those customer questions which can’t be anticipated – the tools and technologies to access the answers required to save the sale. Digging deeper into the data we yielded the following findings:

• One hundred percent of mega retailers (over $5 billion in annual sales) cite the ability to educate and empower their in-store employees via technology as a top-three opportunity. To them, it has become fundamental to staying relevant.
• The largest retailers also have an increased appetite for technologies which allow them to locate and sell inventory from anywhere in their company; as retailer size increases, so does the need to treat inventory as a shared resource: using stores as distribution centers, and online inventory for in-store fulfillment. Eighty percent of mega retailers and 47% of those with $1-$5 billion in annual sales cite this as a top-three opportunity, compared to only 24% of small and 31% of mid-sized retailers.
• Mid-sized retailers are most intrigued with the ability to provide more specific and localized direction to their store managers (46% – second only to their interest in providing a more convenient customer experience). This may be a byproduct of the mid-market’s “growing pains; ” they can only scale for growth once they are confident their store managers are properly positioned to do so.

If you haven’t read the full report, we invite you to do so here.And if you have, well, it might just be a good reinforcement exercise!