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Shops that Pop – Continued

see the relevance of developing out their website and/or Facebook small retailers, including jewelers but other specialty retailers, too,
pages. These elements are your storefront on the internet main and bring back your learning into your business. Take a vacation
street. designed specifically to learn from other businesses. Make notes on
everything you see, what you like and what you don’t. Then once
Many retailers who do have a website have not taken the time to
you are back, walk into your store and try to see it as a customer
update or do a makeover, and those sites are 5 or 10 years old. They
does. Look at your store from the outside in. Most of the time,
are not relevant today. Small retailers must have a website that is
we get too involved to see what is right before our eyes, but your
modern, contemporary and fresh looking.
customers are always looking at your store objectively. Warts and
And please don’t make the mistake of using a Facebook page as
all. You need to see your business in the same way your customers
your only presence on the internet. Invest the time and money it
see it.
takes to develop some type of website presence. I believe that is
Don’t get too wrapped up in the details. Putting the time and
more important than a Facebook page and it will give you a higher
effort into Identifying the challenges and pain points in your
delivery of customers.
business means you are on your way to correcting them. Small
When I do surveys of small business owners and specialty retailers,
business owners are problem solvers, and many times when they
I always ask them what it more important, a website or Facebook.
see or identify a problem, they try to find or provide a solution to
Facebook might be less than 20% effective in most cases, where
fix it immediately. Sometimes the best solution isn’t immediately
a website is 45% more effective, or more than twice as important.
obvious, or the immediate solution isn’t the best solution. Take your
Think of your website as a digital catalog of who you are, your
time to identify the pain points first. Then look at them objectively,
brochure and a yellow pages listing, all in one.
and try to find a solution or solve the problem from there.
JHJ Mag: What do you think the top shopping trends of 2018 will
be and why?
About Pamela Danziger:
Pam Danziger: I think if you are worried about the outside trends
and not the ones in your own business that is a problem. Assess As founder of Unity
your own internal trends and marketing opportunities. Take the Marketing in 1992, Pam
time to examine the trends in your own business, and focus more leads with research to
heavily on those as opposed to what is going on outside. provide brands with ac-
tionable insights into the
There are key performance indicators in every business that act as minds of their most profit-
indicators of the health of your business. These are not the same able customers. She
for every business, but you need to take a look at your own business is also a principal with
critically. Don’t worry about competition. You can’t change it, Retail Rescue, which of-
the only thing you can change is what goes on within your own fers focused and effec-
store. Create and focus on goal setting for your store, and then make tive consulting, training
decisions and choices based upon what you decide. and mentorship in retail
management, marketing, sales and operations.
If you truly want to create a retail shopping experience for your Pamela is a member of the renowned Leaders in
customers, then examine your assets (including people, products Luxury + Design panel recognized by The Home
and store environment, and use them to design an experience that is Trust International. She received the Global Luxury
unique to your store and your customers. Award for top luxury industry achievers presented at
If you want to incorporate the current trends of customization the Global Luxury Forum in 2007. She was named to
and personalization that are becoming more widespread in every Luxury Daily’s Luxury Women to Watch in 2013. She
industry, then you need to determine how you translate those trends is a member of Jim Blasingame: The Small Business
Advocate’s Brain Trust and a contributing columnist
for your customers. People say they want to do their own designs, to The Robin Report and Forbes.com.
but do they really know how? They need experts to guide them in
A prolific writer and blogger, Pam is author of eight
developing the final product, and that would be you.
books, including Shops that POP! 7 Steps to Extraor-
Another set of trends I am seeing is in authenticity and backstory. dinary Retail Success. It reveals the secrets to craft-
Everyone is talking about that now. But sometimes you can be very ing a retail shopping experience that’s irresistible
successful in going against the trends. Figure out what business you to high value shoppers with examples from jewelry
want to be in, and then be the very best you can be, by bringing key retailers included.
values into your business, and offering them to your customers. As a luxury market expert, Pamela is frequently
JHJ Mag: Any final thoughts or words of advice for our readers? called on to share research-based insights with audi-
ences and business leaders all over the world.
Pam Danziger: There is so much that you can learn from other
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