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See benchmarks - and five year trend charts! - for the six key ratios every retailer must monitor. See how your store compares.
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Opening a store?
Adding stores?
RetailStartup.com
Opening a store?
Adding stores?
RetailStartup.com
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I'm Tired of the "Error" Part
I can eventually learn retail math by trial and error. But frankly, the "error" part can be very costly! ROI Membership is a great value.
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Start now! Just $24.95/month
Total Access: Members-Only Collection
M2M |
On-demand, 24/7, whenever you need it.
All for just $24.95 per month.
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Time to Focus on Your Most Profitable Customer
Most retailers are facing difficult choices in 2010: where and how to cut back. Many have no choice but to cut expenses, cut inventory, go out of categories, or even close stores.
The challenge: how best to choose? What to cut, and what to keep?
At The ROI, we believe these tough owner choices can be guided by knowing just who is your best - that is, your most profitable - customer. This economic climate offers a great opportunity for you to do to your customers what they have done to you for years...shop around for them! Be very selective. You must lose the ones that are not good for you.
Remember, the retailers who will continue to survive in 2010 and beyond are those not with the most profitable locations or merchandise, but the most profitable customers.
Read Love Your Best (Most Profitable) Customer. Let The ROI help you discover how quickly you can get the facts for yourself. And it may cost you nothing extra! Indeed, with today's POS systems, you may already have the data available to you. What better time to turn that data into strategic management information you actually can use to help your business survive?!
Time to Focus on Your Most Profitable Customer
Most retailers are facing difficult choices in 2010: where and how to cut back. Many have no choice but to cut expenses, cut inventory, go out of categories, or even close stores.
The challenge: how best to choose? What to cut, and what to keep?
At The ROI, we believe these tough owner choices can be guided by knowing just who is your best - that is, your most profitable - customer. This economic climate offers a great opportunity for you to do to your customers what they have done to you for years...shop around for them! Be very selective. You must lose the ones that are not good for you.
Remember, the retailers who will continue to survive in 2010 and beyond are those not with the most profitable locations or merchandise, but the most profitable customers.
Read Love Your Best (Most Profitable) Customer. Let The ROI help you discover how quickly you can get the facts for yourself. And it may cost you nothing extra! Indeed, with today's POS systems, you may already have the data available to you. What better time to turn that data into strategic management information you actually can use to help your business survive?!
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| How-To Articles for Retailers from The ROI
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| Love Your Best - Most Profitable! - Customer What’s the best way to increase sales and profits? Sell more to your “best” types of customers! Today, it is not enough to have profitable products. Instead, we must find—and nurture—our most profitable customers.
The eighty/twenty rule of thumb is no doubt at work in your store: eighty percent of the volume is generated by twenty percent of the customers. (Of course, these percentages are not exact, but you see the point.) The more you know about that “twenty percent,” the better you will become at focusing your entire operation—buying, displays, advertising, special events, etc.—on your “Best Customer” and her preferences. read more ... |
| What DO Customers Want? Most specialty retailers are quick to claim that they provide outstanding customer service. Indeed, for many shoppers, customer service is what sets apart the specialty retailer from the big-box stores or discounters. But think for a moment about the person on the receiving end of this “good customer service”. Yes, we mean your shopper. What constitutes “good customer service” for her? And would each customer have the same answer? Really? read more ... |
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| Love Your Best - Most Profitable! - Customer What’s the best way to increase sales and profits? Sell more to your “best” types of customers! Today, it is not enough to have profitable products. Instead, we must find—and nurture—our most profitable customers.
The eighty/twenty rule of thumb is no doubt at work in your store: eighty percent of the volume is generated by twenty percent of the customers. (Of course, these percentages are not exact, but you see the point.) The more you know about that “twenty percent,” the better you will become at focusing your entire operation—buying, displays, advertising, special events, etc.—on your “Best Customer” and her preferences. read more ... |
| What DO Customers Want? Most specialty retailers are quick to claim that they provide outstanding customer service. Indeed, for many shoppers, customer service is what sets apart the specialty retailer from the big-box stores or discounters. But think for a moment about the person on the receiving end of this “good customer service”. Yes, we mean your shopper. What constitutes “good customer service” for her? And would each customer have the same answer? Really? read more ... |
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The Members-Only Collection
The Members-Only Collection
| Take the Voo-Doo Out of Your Store's Advertising “I know half my advertising budget is wasted. I just don’t know which half.”
— John Wannamaker, Department Store Magnate
Retailers of every size and stripe share Wannamaker’s frustration. Because some retailers don’t understand advertising, they try a variety of advertising approaches throughout their business lives. One is simply to refuse to play the game. Those people quickly become former retailers. read more ... |
| "Value" for Today's Retail CustomerWe’re told that the Chinese symbol for chaos is the same as the symbol for opportunity. If so, it’s an appropriate symbol for retailing. The more flexible you are and the more your operation delivers the "value" that today's customers seek (hint: it's not just low price anymore!), the more likely you will be counting yourself and your operation among the success stories of tomorrow. read more ... |
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| Take the Voo-Doo Out of Your Store's Advertising “I know half my advertising budget is wasted. I just don’t know which half.”
— John Wannamaker, Department Store Magnate
Retailers of every size and stripe share Wannamaker’s frustration. Because some retailers don’t understand advertising, they try a variety of advertising approaches throughout their business lives. One is simply to refuse to play the game. Those people quickly become former retailers. read more ... |
| "Value" for Today's Retail CustomerWe’re told that the Chinese symbol for chaos is the same as the symbol for opportunity. If so, it’s an appropriate symbol for retailing. The more flexible you are and the more your operation delivers the "value" that today's customers seek (hint: it's not just low price anymore!), the more likely you will be counting yourself and your operation among the success stories of tomorrow. read more ... |
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| MORE Tools & Resources in the Members-Only Collection
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Now. Learn Basic Retail Finance. At your own pace. 24/7.
Profits & Debt Management - Financial Statements - P&L's - Balance Sheets - Inventory Management (@Cost or @Retail) - Turnover - Buying Plan Budgets - GMROI - Cash Flow - pro formas - Ratio Analysis -
Integrated Retail Financial Plans
The ROI's Online Seminar on Retail Finance Basics is an interactive, self-paced course. By retailers, for retailers. "All it takes is a little desire."
- Learn how the income statement and balance sheet must work together.
- Learn how to do inventory buying plans (Open-to-Buys) at either cost or retail.
- Learn how to do a retail cash flow, one that reflects your buying plan.
Includes interactive content, self-quizzes, printable worksheets, extra how-to articles by retail experts, and a special case study featuring Helen and Irving Surviving of The I. M. Surviving(?!) Company.
Take a Feature Tour 
Feature Tour opens in a separate, pop-up window. Please disable pop-up blockers.
No retailer really wants to pay for bookkeeping or accounting. But it's necessary for two reasons: (1) to accurately satisfy the I.R.S.; (2) to accurately show where the business has been and where it is now.
This second reason is essential for what REALLY matters: doing better in the future!
The ROI has developed The Screening Test for Retail Bookkeepers. As an ROI Member you may download a free copy of that test to use as you interview prospective bookkeepers.
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"Green Is In"
As New York Times columnist Tom Friedman said, "Green is the new Red, White & Blue." Just because we choose to travel less to conserve, we don't also have to quit learning. Use The Retail Owners Institute from wherever you are. Grow your financial astuteness - and really become green!
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Retail Owners...
Need a New Strategy?
Customized • Timely • Objective
(more info...)
Retail Owners...
Need a New Strategy?
Customized • Timely • Objective
(more info...)
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