Embracing the Retail Accordion

Where is the retailer today who joined the business 3 years ago, and where does the retailer who joined the business 3 days before want to reach 3 years later?

When you’re busy counting the sales numbers from each outlet, it’s easy to forget the person sitting inside those outlets. Their growth, journey, and aspirations.

Luckily, retail experts who took the time, found that every retailer follows a cycle in retailing while stocking products. Known as the Retail Accordion theory, this cyclic pattern shows that retailers tend to stock a larger assortment of products in the initial stages of developing the business, and then they shift to stocking a more focused range. But soon afterwards they shift back to stocking a higher variety, and the cycle continues.

This is true for every retail establishment, from general to modern trade. To remain relevant and retain revenue, every retailer goes through this cycle overtime.

So as their partners of growth, how well do you understand in which stage which store is currently in, and how are you helping them scale faster?

Understand what drives the choices of a retailer.

When a retailer tends to stock a wide assortment of products, they likely want to drive more footfalls with a greater products options for customers. Whereas, when a retailer chooses to sell focused products, their goal probably is to earn more profit by buying more stock at low prices and selling at a better profit.

But if you want to know these trends specific to each store, you first need to start capturing every store data and turn it into actionable insights.

With tools like WhatsApp Ordering Bot which lets the retailer self-order anytime, knowing the sales pattern of each store is always just a click away. Additionally, the Tertiary Sales app can also be leveraged by company promoters to capture the exact in-store sales numbers.

Now, you combine these insights with a powerful retail intelligence solution called Suggested Order, and give the frontline salesman the exact order recipe for each store. So when the salesman steps into the outlet, they will know whom to sell more variety to, and whom to send the cash cow products.

To further match the flow of the Retail Accordion, you can empower the sales team with Smart Merchandising which will capture the stock at every shelf, to ensure that shelf space is optimized. Based on the business objective of the retailer, the Smart Merchandising tool will prompt the Auto Replenishment tool to send new product varieties or more SKUs of the same products.

Other technologies such as Trade Promotions Management also plays an important role here. By understanding the journey of the retailer, brands can plan schemes and trade promotions more effectively for each region and even for every store.

So, when the winds of change blow at every outlet, don’t let retailers build a wall. Build them a windmill to help them drive greater growth. To know how to achieve this and more, talk to Bizom, or click below to explore the platform.