Retail Display Bins are an Effective Tool for Moving Clearance Products
Retail Manage--Productivity and Developing Your Team

Retail Display Bins are an Effective Tool for Moving Clearance Products
By  Christopher Weis   

Some products sell, and some products don’t. When they don’t they wind up on retail clearance. But what if they don’t even sell on clearance? Retail store owners sometimes become frustrated when they have trouble moving their clearance stock. The assumption is that the product is so poor it won’t even move at a discount price. But there may be more to it than that.

Retailers often wonder why some drastically reduced clearance items sell better than others. But sometimes it just comes down to how well you present the product to your customer. Retail display bins work well because they remove the product from the ranks of the regular merchandise. The customer sees that the product has been set aside and the retailer is able to use signs to indicate that the bin represents a good value.

Stocking clearance items in store aisles alongside your regular priced merchandise may cause a bigger issue than most retailers realize. By putting clearance items next to related items at regular price, retailers actually can devalue the product category in the customer’s mind. Why would they want to buy a ten dollar widget, when one of comparable appearance and quality is selling for $3.50 on clearance right next to it?

Here are some tips for retailers when using retail display bins to sell clearance products:

Use signs to indicate Clearance: All shoppers love a good deal. And some shoppers specifically seek out clearance sales. Take advantage of these two truths by using signage to clearly point out your clearance items to price savvy customers.

Think Variety: If your store is large enough, have retail display bins on hand for every department. There are a lot of clearance products that can be successfully displayed in them: DVD’s, CD’s, T-shirts, stuffed animals, underwear, and automotive funnels just to name a few.

Keep Your Distance: Remember, don’t imply equality between your regular priced merchandise and your clearance priced items. Appearance creates impressions, and putting clearance priced items right next to regular priced items creates the impression that they are equals in everything except price. It is important to stock clearance items in the proper department for organization purposes. But be sure they stand alone.

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Retail Manage--Productivity and Developing Your Team
By Craig Cook  

Retail Managers have a lot of information to process in the course of one day. They must decide what to act on now and what to save for later. Most of us are still expected to sell, be a leader and a team member at the same time. Depending on your management style and work ethic you may find yourself having more to do then time in a day. Letting go of some tasks may be a hard pill to swallow, but giving your team some of the control will free up some time for you to complete more important action items to achieve strategic goals, while developing a stronger team. As a manager your sole purpose for existing is to create sales. Therefore you should spend most of your time moving towards and creating that reality, not doing the same old thing every day.

Should it Be Done Now?

Priority (Now) vs. Goal Accomplishment (In between!) vs. Task (Later)

As all Retail Managers know, there is always something happening or changing at the last minute creating havoc in your life. New programs, promotions, meetings, conference calls, someone calling in sick and the list goes on as you know it. These are priority items which may need attention right away.

In between havoc and control are your goals. You are paid to create sales. "How" you do that are the actions you take every day relative to the respective goals. Managers must spend the most amount of time on these items as possible.

Tasks, your every day routine items. Tracking payroll, sales, statistics, maintaining organization and control of your environment and such. Preparing for meetings, conference calls and store visits from your boss all are routine tasks which should be done after priority and goal action items.

Who Should Be Doing This?

The first question you should ask yourself every time you do something is, "Should I be doing this?" Next, "Am I the right person for the job?" Then, "Is this moving me towards accomplishing my goals" and lastly, "Who would be better suited to do it and when?"

You may have to take some time to give clear instructions or training on the task at hand but consider it an investment of your time versus wasting your time when you do the task yourself. Next time this task must be completed you can point and shoot. Delegate it and move on!

The benefits are many. You have someone doing the task for you and they know more because of it. If you were to leave your store right now, would the ship sail forward or sink? Your ability to develop your team is a measurement of your leadership. You owe it to your self to do the things every day that accomplish your goals while developing your team.

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