1. Embrace the data – Quality Data Will Replace Big Data , Have your POS data start working to provide you with information on lagging lines and to start matching product to customers more effectively.

2. Embrace the tech – The discussion has been resolved; Consumers do prefer shopping via mobile in store and out of the store. The POS has extended to the customer phone, and it’s easy for SMB to respond.

3. Embrace your online presence – Digital shopping can be a destination, and with the dropping cost of ecommerce, online insight to product and inventory is a must have.   

4. Embrace customer engagement – Reset your customer service culture, train associates to provide quality in-store engagement and use your customer preferences and inventory data to provide relevant engagement through social media.    

5. Don’t fear the unknown – It’s about a seamless customer journey. In store experiences and loyalty will get more relevant, the brick and mortar experience will become the secret weapon against big online.

6. Don’t fear payment providers – Payment solutions are becoming more competitive and innovative, the entry barriers to provide multiple payment options are being lowered as consumers demand more options.

7. Embrace Retail as a Service – It’s more than just carrying inventory and selling the product – customers expect more and suppliers want to do more. Endless aisle, pop-up stores within stores and customer preference data will all lead to a more curated retail experience for the consumer.

Got email 2 in the 10 email series and today it suggested I add any customer data into the system, as well as turn on built in features to add customers to the mailing list. This would allow me to generate mailchimp campaigns on demand.

I had customer lists on constant contact, mailchimp, an excel spreadsheet and a note pad. I started by downloading the lists from constant contact and mailchimp after which I entered the names and email addresses from my note pad onto the excel sheet.  The chat support asked me to share the files with them, and after looking at it determined it was  more involved process to combine the data so they asked me to open a ticket and they would create a file for me that I could then import. Which I did.

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The Pierian Mountains are in current day Macedonia and legend has it that they were sacred to the Muses, who were the personification of knowledge and the goddesses of inspiration. What you may ask does that have to do with KPI‘s,  It has everything to do with it and let me begin by quoting the first two lines of “An Essay in Critism” by Alexander Pope

““A little learning is a dangerous thing

Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring:”

As in the water from the Pierian Spring, if you are going to drink from the KPI spring, make sure you drink deep. While shortly I will share with you my “favorite” KPI, I must stress the importance of taking a holistic approach to using KPI’s. Generally one KPI itself should be used to pose questions that will then be augmented or debunked with the use of others, and only after consuming several drinks from various KPIS’s should you plan your course of action. (more…)