An iconic brand in the retail arena, Sears has been observing a drop in retail sales in a large number of stores that it has. Towards the end of year 2011, it announced the closing of 120 locations that saw a drop in sales by 5.2% in the 8 weeks ending on Dec 25th. This is after closing 171 stores in the US since 2005 when Sears and Kmart merged. The retail chain has been seeing 18 quarters of reducing sales.

Sears obviously needs to take a hard look at their retail strategy and make some pertinent and hard changes. According to this article, the belief is that the new retail strategy needs to marry in store tactics with the latest technology to be able to get the maximum benefit. If the new management that took over when Kmart and Sears were merged feels that they have been providing good service, then one only has to look at a video taken by a retail blogger. The mystery customer went to various departments trying out products without meeting any store personnel. He passed various employees that did not even acknowledge the customers presence, let alone greet him. There were hardly any customers present in the store as well. It therefore did not come as a surprise that all products were marked at 50 to 60 percent discount.

Store Maintenance
Retail marketing experts state that a retail outlet needs to spend at least $8 per square foot per year to ensure adequate maintenance of the floor. It is estimated that in comparison Sears spends about $1.9 per square foot per year. There is obviously no doubt that with this kind of spend, the Sear stores are likely to lack luster and even cleanliness. It has been noted that many of the Sears stores are dingy and dark. Increasing store spend to the recommended amount and ensuring aspects such as proper LED lighting, point of purchase displays, can help customers feel better about the shopping experience. Go to Sears in Plaza las Americas in Puerto Rico, now that is a nice store!

Innovative Sales Staff
Sears staff is in no sight and when you find one, they’re not really helpful. The need therefore is to first bring back the basics in and then build on them to create sales staff that is engaging. Sales personnel to greet everyone who enters the store, trained sales people who take interest in customers by assessing their needs and customer service as a priority for sales people are essential. Instead of asking “How may I help you?” how about saying “Now that’s a lawnmower that will have your neighbors talking”.

Mobile, social, one step ahead
Retail brands are leaving no stone unturned to connect with their shopper using wireless connectivity, smart phones and social media too. Getting mobile number details from loyalty program members and using them as an entry point for contests and sweepstakes can help integrate platforms. Social networking platforms such as Twitter and Facebook need to be used extensively. Local updates can also be posted using Google Places so that relevant news can be supplied to customers. Being afraid of what the customer will say on these social platforms is not going to help. Accepting feedback positively and managing the issue can help turn over a new leaf.

Product Research
Retail is all about having the right product, at the right place and the right time and at the right price. Sears CEO Mr. D’Ambrosio recognizes this which is why now sales staff and other employees will be carrying iPads to record many customer interactions and feedback given. They’ll also invest in online portals and make sure all feedback gets centralized and understood in order to make better decisions regarding product selection.

Business Intelligence
In retail when there are numerous categories, thousands of brands and millions of sku’s, there is a huge need to use business intelligence software to understand the manner in which the customer is swinging. BI products can look at trends in sales across various regions, stores, customer demographic profiles, seasons and external information related to the category and arrive at how the market will move. With Mineful for example, they can analyze large amounts of customer data and offset emails and triggers to make sure to interact with customers with the right offering and at the right time.

Using these in store and technology innovations can help Sears get back on track. The decline has continued for too long and unless it pulls up its sleeves to get the house in order, it may never recover.

Companies that realize the value of customers use various customer loyalty strategies to retain customers. These marketers seem to believe that a slight show of effort to resolve a problem can ensure that 82 to 95 percent of the customers can be retained.

While there are always long term strategic decisions that a brand takes in order to engage clients and build a long term relationship with them, there are various loyalty techniques that companies take in order to retain the customer who is just about to surrender a credit card, stop a phone connection or go to the competitor.

Some of the interesting customer loyalty strategies that marketers use include:

- Discounts on progressive purchases – This is often presented in the form of a discount voucher each time a purchase is made and the voucher is always applicable for the next purchase to ensure that the customer keeps coming back.

- Special services and personal touch for long term clients – When done with a genuine attempt to understand the client, these may sometimes work for a while. Such services involve making the customer feel special by offering personalized service that the client will appreciate. Along with product customizations, these techniques tend to give the kind of respect that the customer of today demands.

- Database intelligent marketing or client contact management – Using personal details of the client to make contact periodically and offer other relevant products and services is also another technique that marketers adopt. Timing is everything, so make sure to interact with the right message at the right time.

In an ideal world, retailers would like to use surveys to gain a better understanding of satisfaction and preferences for different types of customers — for example, plus-size women, do-it-yourselfers, or fitness enthusiasts. Mineful has engineered a fast, low cost solution to this problem. Mineful enables retailers to integrate survey data with information about customers including purchasing patterns, demographics, market segments, and location. The result is a clearer picture of different market segments.

Here’s an example of how a retailer might use this information. Suppose a retailer wanted to know if the sales staff in some departments or stores needed additional training. A customer satisfaction survey might ask questions such as:

• Did your salesperson seem knowledgeable?
• Did your salesperson help you select a product?
• Was your salesperson able to answer your questions?

Mineful allows the responses to these questions to be easily integrated with data about what customers purchased. Then the retailer can see which departments need more highly trained staff. The retailer could also determine which types of customers need the most assistance.
Survey data integration can also help a retailer see how customer satisfaction differs by market segment. For example, a survey might ask:

• Did you feel you had a broad enough range of products to choose from?
• Were you satisfied with the overall quality of the product selection?
• Were products displayed in a way that made shopping easy?

When responses to these questions are integrated with sales data, it will be easy for a retailer to see which markets are being served adequately and which departments need to redesign their product displays. Other survey questions might help a retailer identify which segments of their customers are more concerned with quality than price, and vice versa.

If a retailer attempted to ask for this information as part of a survey, it would create two problems. First, respondents might not be able to provide accurate information about such things as how often they shop or how much they typically spend. Second, asking for such information would make the survey considerably longer, and the longer the survey, the less likely it is that people will complete it.

Once a survey is completed, Mineful makes it easy to display the results. Users can create charts and graphs with just a few clicks. They can choose to display results using survey dashboards. Dashboards are visual displays of data that are easy to interpret. They can be adapted for different users to make them even more effective. For example, regional sales managers might see customer satisfaction charts for several stores, store managers might see charts for their own stores, and department managers might see charts for their own departments.

This approach to sharing survey results can help employees at all levels stay focused on the customer’s satisfaction, wants, and needs.

Online surveys have transformed the field of market research. Retailers in particular are discovering how the latest internet survey software can provide valuable insights into how customers make decisions.

Going Beyond Sales Data
Traditionally retailers have relied mainly on sales data to determine their customers’ preferences. While this approach certainly has merit, it leaves many questions unanswered. Would customers prefer different brands if you offered them? Would they visit your stores more often if their shopping experience was more pleasant? Would they come more often if stores were open longer hours? These are the kinds of questions that online surveys can address.

A simple “Where would you go to buy…?” survey can give you a good idea of how customers think of your stores. In this type of survey you give customers four or five options — your store and three or four of your competitors. Then you ask a series of questions. If you operated a department store, you might ask: