Agiliron
  • Products
    • Overview
    • Product Tour
    • POS Hardware
    • Detailed Features
    • Overview
    • Multi-Channel E-Commerce
    • Point of Sale
    • Inventory Management
    • Order Management
    • B2C eCommerce
    • B2B Commerce
    • Warehouse Management
  • Solutions
    • Overview
    • E-Commerce
    • Retail
    • Wholesale
    • Franchise
  • Pricing
  • Customers
  • About
    • Overview
    • Developers
    • Partners
    • Careers
    • Customer Support
    • Customer Onboarding
    • Blog
  • Contact Us
Get a Demo
Agiliron Logo
  • Solutions
    • Solution Suite
      • Overview
      • Product Tour
      • Detailed Features
      • Security & Compliance
    • CRM & Front Office
      • Front Office Operations
      • CRM
      • Retail & Mobile POS
      • POS Hardware
      • Order Management
      • Payment Processing
    • Back Office
      • Back Office Operations
      • Inventory Mgmt
      • Warehouse Mgmt
      • Supply Chain Mgmt
      • ERP Software
      • Business Intelligence
    • eCommerce
      • Multichannel eCommerce
      • B2B eCommerce
      • B2C eCommerce

    Featured Solutions

    Customer Onboarding

    Best in Class Customer Onboarding & 24x7 Support

    Payment Processing

    Integrates with Payment Processor of your choice

    Custom Development Services

    Custom Validations, Process Automations, Integrations and more

    For Developers

    Robust REST API, Zapier Integration, Access Control

  • Integrations
    • Online Marketplaces
      • Overview
      • Amazon
      • eBay
      • Walmart (Marketplace)
      • SPSCommerce
      • CommerceHub
    • Shopping Carts
      • BigCommerce
      • Magento
      • Shopify
      • WooCommerce
    • Accounting
      • QuickBooks Online
      • QuickBooks Enterprise
      • Netsuite
    • Shipping & Delivery
      • ShipStation
      • DispatchTrack
      • FBA
      • UPS Fulfillment

    Featured Integrations

    Amazon Business Integration

    Product Sourcing, Integrated Approvals, Vendor RFQs

    Avalara

    Dynamic Sales Tax Assessment & Reporting

    TapMango

    Promotions and Loyalty Programs

  • By Industry
    • Retail
    • Wholesale
    • Distribution
    • eCommerce
    • Franchise
  • Pricing
  • Blog
  • Support
    • Support
      • Customer Support
      • Customer Onboarding
    • Development
      • Developer Tools
      • Custom Development Services
      • API Documentation
  • About
    • Overview
    • Partners
    • Careers
    • Testimonials
  • Contact Us
See a Demo
Retailers

7 Habits of Highly Effective Retailers

June 8, 2017 Agiliron Comments Off on 7 Habits of Highly Effective Retailers
agiliron may post 1 7 Habits of Highly Effective Retailers

Apply these 7 effective habits and improve your business!

 

Every smoker knows that changing bad habits is a difficult task. Stephen Covey, the author of “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People,” also knows that changing your habits is vital for becoming a successful person.

But what about retailers? Can retailers change their habits to run a more successful business?

Most definitely.

That’s why we’ve come up with our own version of Stephen Covey’s book (for retailers): The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Retailers.

 

Bonus Bad Habits! Click here to download the 4 habits of highly unsuccessful retailers

 

Read on to find out what habits you can integrate into your life to get more out of your retail business.

1. The ‘Why’ Habit

Successful business owners know their ‘why’.

Here are 3 reasons knowing your ‘why’ is important:

  1. Mission Statement: Your ‘why’ will help you develop a mission statement that provides direction and purpose when things become chaotic.
  2. Clarity and Purpose: Knowing your ‘why’ will help you visualize your purpose and execute it with complete clarity.
  3. Company Culture: Your ‘why’ will help build a consistent and unambiguous company culture.

Example of a Highly Effective Retailer: Apple

 

Apple’s slogan ‘Think Different’ was created in 1997.

 

Apple is known for being an innovative company because they knew that their ‘why’ was to go against the status quo and create something that is for a ‘different’ kind of customer.

Apple had a vision and a mission and it shows in their products and marketing campaigns

Just check out the Apple commercials from 2006. The ad is simple, impactful, innovative and unique, just like their computers.  


How to Develop the ‘Why’ Habit: Ask yourself the following questions so you can start finding your ‘why’:

  1. What makes you feel inspired?
  2. What are your strengths? Weaknesses?
  3. What factors do you use to measure success?
  4. Where can you add value in the world?

Watch Simon Sinek’s Ted Talks,“Start With Why,” to see more reasons and examples for knowing your ‘why’.

 

2. The ‘Customer’ Habit

Highly effective retailers find ways to make their customers feel appreciated – and that means providing excellent customer service and support.

Here are 3 reasons putting customers first is important:

  1. Branding: Every interaction a customer has with your retail business will shape their thoughts and feelings towards your brand. Excellent customer service and support triggers positive thoughts and feelings from customers.
  2. Customer Retention: Customer retention costs less than customer acquisition. Providing excellent customer service and support are the most effective methods for increasing your customer retention.  
  3. Trust: Great customer service and support increases the customer’s ability to trust your brand as it shows that you’re listening to their concerns and you care about their feelings.

Example of a Highly Effective Retailer: Trader Joe’s

 

Trader Joe’s is not only well-known for their wide selection of unique products, but also for going above and beyond customer’s expectations when it comes to customer service and support.

One evening during a snowstorm, the daughter of an 89-year-old man was worried that he would not be able to access a grocery store for days. After numerous calls, attempts, and failures, Trader Joe’s  came to the rescue.

Trader Joe’s was the only grocery store willing to make the delivery. They even did the delivery free of charge.

Talk about excellent customer service!

How to Develop the ‘Customer’ Habit: Start by understanding the wants and needs of your customer.

Use various methods such as documenting customer service cases, analyzing customer reactions to your campaigns, and developing customer personas.

Click here for Hubspot’s ‘Make My Persona’ tool.

 

Bonus Bad Habits! Click here to download the 4 habits of highly unsuccessful retailers

 

3. The ‘Systems and Processes’ Habit  

Highly effective retailers use systems and processes to create an overall better experience for themselves and the customer.

Here are 4 reasons systems and processes are important:

  1. Efficiency: Systems and processes streamline operations at all stages of the business cycle to improve efficiency.
  2. Scalability: Systems and processes are the building blocks for growing a business.
  3. Cost: Systems and process save time and money by eliminating inefficiencies.
  4. Control:. Managers can use systems and processes to monitor, review, and control each stage of the business process.

Example of a Highly Effective Retailer: Bella Bridesmaids

 

Bella Bridesmaid’s was using paper-heavy spreadsheets to manage their business transactions and processes. Their manual systems was paper-heavy and time-consuming.

That’s when Bella Bridesmaid’s decided to use Agiliron to support everything from online ordering to the automatic generation of POS for designers.

“The true value of Agiliron shines through in the exceptional support and responsiveness we receive when there is a question or need. We are confident we are in excellent hands and look forward to seeing where this partnership brings our business (and more importantly – our bottom line) in the next year.”

– Erin & Kathleen Casey – Owners, Bella Bridesmaids Franchise Group.

How to develop the ‘Systems and Processes’ Habit: Ask yourself, ‘What part of my business process can be streamlined?’ Research solutions that can help improve them.

 

4. The ‘Proud’ Habit

Highly effective retailers are proud of their business and will stand by the quality of their products.

Here are 3 reasons being proud of your products is important:  

  1. Customer Confidence: 100% satisfaction guarantees instill confidence in your customers. It shows them that you believe in your products quality.
  2. Priorities: A 100% satisfaction guarantee shows that customer happiness is your first priority.
  3. Marketing: Guarantees are a powerful marketing tactic as they reduce the risk for customers to purchase your product.

Example of an effective retailer: Mountain Equipment Coop

Mountain Equipment Coop (MEC) guarantees the quality of their products.

How is a customer to know if their hiking shoes are a good fit until they’ve actually hiked in them? MEC understands this problem and allows customers to return any products that don’t meet their expectations.

MEC also provides a guarantee for their employees’ advice and expertise.

If a customer is dissatisfied with the advice they received to purchase a product from an employee, they are able to ask for an exchange, refund, or credit. Furthermore, if their products are damaged or broken, the customer may return them for repair.

How to develop the ‘Proud’ habit: Monitor customer reviews to see the pain points your customer are experiencing. This will give you an idea of where you can improve your products and guarantee customer satisfaction.

 

Bonus Bad Habits! Click here to download the 4 habits of highly unsuccessful retailers

 

5. The ‘Hiring’ Habit

Highly effective retailers hire selectively.

3 reasons hiring selectively is important:

  1. Branding: Employees are your brand’s ambassadors. Select employees who will promote the right image.
  2. Reputation: Good employees who provide great service will reflect positively on your brand’s reputation.
  3. Cost: According to the US Department of Labor and Statistics, “the average cost of a bad hiring decision can equal 30% of the individual’s first-year potential earnings.”

 

Example of a highly effective retailer: Lululemon

Employees at Lululemon are extremely perky and helpful to reflect their brand’s athletic, healthy, happy image. To create such an environment, Lululemon hires employees that have lifestyles in line with their brand’s image.

Interviewers ask interviewees their habits, hobbies, and how they define success to get an idea of the type of person they are.

How to get into the ‘Hiring’ habit: Check out the article 10 Tips to Find and Recruit Superstar Employees so that you can look in all the right places for the right employees.

 

6. The ‘Creative’ Habit

Highly effective retails are able to create new methods for increasing sales.

Here are 3 reasons being creative is important:

  1. New Audience: A creative marketing campaign advertised on new channels can reach new audiences.
  2. Reputation: Putting efforts into making a creative marketing campaign will reflect positively on your brand’s reputation.
  3. Innovation: Innovation is important for any business. Adapting to the times and coming up with new ideas is what will keep customers coming back for more.

Example of a highly successful retailer: Xbox

Xbox’s Instagram marketing campaigns are creative, innovative, and interactive.

Xbox asked gamers to design Xbox controllers with custom colours to debut the Xbox Design Lab.

To show off their designs, Xbox posted ‘flat-style’ photos of the controllers on Instagram with the hashtag #Makeityours.

How to develop the ‘Creative’ habit: Spend time brainstorming your own marketing campaign ideas, or if you have the means, hire a marketing expert to help design a truly impactful marketing campaign.  

 

7. The ‘Thoughtful’ Habit

Habit #7 is not only the conclusion to this article, but also the most important habit.

Highly effective retailers are thoughtful about which habits do and do not bring their business success. Highly effective retailers do not carry on with habits that don’t drive positive results.

How to develop the thoughtful habit: Track, measure, and analyze your efforts to determine which habits are delivering positive results and which habits need to be changed.

Overall, don’t be afraid to experiment with new habits!

 

Bonus Bad Habits! Click here to download the 4 habits of highly unsuccessful retailers

 

  • business success
  • effective habits
  • effective practices
  • retail
  • retail habits
Agiliron

Agiliron | Administrator

Post navigation

Previous
Next

Search

Recent posts

  • 7 Ways to Maximize the Value of Point of Sale Transactions
    7 Ways to Maximize the Value of Point of Sale Transactions
  • 7 Keys to Optimized Warehouse Security
    7 Keys to Optimized Warehouse Security
  • Real-time Inventory Management in a Global Economy
    Real-time Inventory Management in a Global Economy

Related posts

How Brick-and-Mortar Shopping Can Survive in a Digital World: Building on what customers value while spreading some digital magic.
Growing Your Business

How Brick-and-Mortar Shopping Can Survive in a Digital World

April 10, 2024 Agiliron Comments Off on How Brick-and-Mortar Shopping Can Survive in a Digital World

Building on what customers value while spreading some digital magic. Image source With over $5 trillion in E-commerce sales completed each year, online shopping is with us for the long haul. Many retail spaces now stand empty in major cities around the world as leading companies continue to close stores. Some might say the end […]

The Evolution of Point of Sale (POS) Technology: The past, present, and future of point of sale hold unexpected possibilities.
Growing Your Business

The Evolution of Point of Sale (POS) Technology

March 20, 2024 Agiliron Comments Off on The Evolution of Point of Sale (POS) Technology

The past, present, and future of point of sale hold unexpected possibilities. Image source Retail point of sale (POS) is not a new concept. The mechanical cash registers of the 1800s were considered the first true point of sale devices, with materials, payments, and records exchanged simultaneously at the checkout stand. The POS lineage can […]

agiliron june posts 3 How The Right Sounds and Scents Can Drive Sales At Your Store
Retailers

How The Right Sounds and Scents Can Drive Sales At Your Store

June 29, 2017 Agiliron Comments Off on How The Right Sounds and Scents Can Drive Sales At Your Store

“In some cases, the place – more specifically the atmosphere of the place – is more influential than the product itself in the purchase decision. In some cases, the atmosphere is the primary product.” -Philip Kotler When it comes to driving sales in a retail store, ambiance matters. There’s no doubt about it – a […]

agiliron
Software for Retailers, Wholesalers, Distributors & eCommerce Businesses
SCHEDULE A DEMO
Company
  • Products
  • Solutions
  • Pricing
  • Customers
 
  • About
  • Contact Us
  • Sitemap
  • Blog
  • Service Policies
Contact Info
  • 10940 SW Barnes Road #217 Portland, OR 97225
  • sales@agiliron.com
  • 1855-244-5476
Follow Us
  • apple
  • google play
  • youtube
  • linkedin
  • twitter
  • facebook
Certificates
  • pci-dss-qrc
  • amazon-business
  • ebay-compatible
  • walmart
© Copyright 2025 Agiliron - All Rights Reserved.
  • Terms & Conditions
  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact Us