I always advise retailers to review the customer journey and the marketing mix, as this is one of the biggest challenges for all brands and innovators. Where are sales coming from now, vs. last year (if not for you then for your competitors), and do changes need to be made to reach sales and profit targets? How much time and budget are you spending on new customer acquisition compared to the ‘retention, loyalty and advocate’ end of the funnel, that’s generally more profitable. I work with a range of sizes of businesses, from the largest retail names to business coaching brand founders, and I consistently see too much time and money spent on new customer acquisition. The challenge for retail generally is to increase brand awareness and reach without impacting their path to profitability. A focus on loyalty is often the solution.

Re-connecting with the customer is also crucial, particularly the loyalty customers you have, what they are saying about your business, and how can you improve, checking they are also aligned with your target customer profile is also worth your attention. Lapsed customers can provide a good opportunity to learn more about your business: why have they lapsed? have they moved on or are they easy to win back? Either way there is a lot to learn here.

My number one piece of advice is to consider if you are still relevant. It’s crucial to review your innovation, and positioning within the market to ensure you are still aligned to consumer needs and the way they want to shop. This is why retailers lose market share, and in uncertain economic climates this is when we see the most drastic increases and drops in market share. This is where my passion and skills lie, to help businesses stay relevant, from working with thousands of brands over the years as a buyer I saw brands become an

overnight success and others where sales dropped off of a cliff. We all know which position we would rather be in!