After another tough year we’ve working hard to ensure that 2017 is a year to remember in our little corner of Falkirk with big plans for our Rewards Club and a few final in-store cosmetic tweaks.
by Antony Begley
At the risk of stating the bleeding obvious, 2016 was another tough year in local retailing – and from talking to lots of fellow retailers, I don’t think Woodlands Local is the only store in Scotland to feel that way.
Despite significant investment in the store itself and having had another year’s experience under our belts, when we ran a very detailed analysis of the store’s performance in 2016 there are still quite a few areas where we can make significant improvement.
Don’t get me wrong – there are lots of bright spots among the data with lots to be positive about, but there remain a host of areas where the store could and should be performing better.
December snapshot
December is always an interesting month to look at. Once the sales highlight of the year, it’s increasingly difficult to make December the stellar month it once was. There are highlights, however, including the fact that basket spend was up 5.65% this year in December against 2015, although this is counter-balanced by the fact that average footfall in December 2016 was down by around 6%. Having said that, December also saw the store achieve its highest ever weekly footfall score.
Perhaps most importantly, at the all-important profit level the store did better in December 2016 than in the previous year. Similarly, we were pleased to confirm that our margins remain strong and in December 2016 were on the same period in 2015.
So what are we to take from all of this? Well, it’s clear that we have made progress on lots of fronts and we are in a good place to try to grow in 2017. The store has never looked better, the range is tighter than ever and the Rewards Club is delivering tangible benefits.
But it’s also clear that it’s been a difficult year and plenty of challenges lie ahead. Flat sales and footfall over the year reflect a depressed market and mean that all of the hard work we are doing is only succeeding in helping us stand still. The legacy of the recession continues to haunt the local retailing sector, all these years later, and there have to be serious doubts as to whether the ‘good old days’ will ever return.
Which means we have to keep changing things and searching for solutions and ideas and ways to set ourselves apart from the competition, drive better engagement with our customers and give them real, concrete reasons to visit our stores more often and spend more when they do.
What’s next?
For Woodlands Local that means an increased focus on our Rewards Club, an increased focus on engaging with the local community and a renewed appraisal of the role promotions play in the store, and how we should best manage them to maximise cash profits.
Nobody said it was going to be easy, so there’s nothing else for it to but to knuckle down once more and redouble our efforts to make Woodlands Local an integral part of the Woodlands community and make us indispensable to our customers.
Much of this will centre around the Rewards Club. It’s the single best tool at our disposal for really, truly, deeply understanding our customers – and engaging with them positively on a regular basis. Expect a lot more activity on that front in 2017 as we aim to convert as many of our shoppers as possible to Membership, then use the Club to drive up basket spend and visit frequency.
We are also taking our annual ‘big picture’ look at the entire business, ensuring we’re getting the best deals possible on everything from utilities to waste disposal services.
We will also be revisiting our deals with all existing suppliers to ensure we’re buying stock at the best rates possible.
In addition, we still have some cosmetic work to do in-store to finish off the refit. It’s mainly small signage elements and better quality merchandising and POS, but the post-Christmas period should be perfect for dedicating some time (and cash) to that.
As part of our St Andrew’s Day celebrations at the end of November we had Scottish soft drinks giant Irn-Bru and confectionery gurus Mrs Tilly’s in the store doing a spot of sampling. To reward customers that turned up, we ran a special selfie competition on our Facebook page where customers could post selfies with the Irn-Bru Xtra Can Man and win £25 to spend in-store.
The lucky winner – or should we say winners – were locals Geordie Reid and Paula Clark. Confusingly, it was Paula who took the selfie but Geordie who posted it on our Facebook page. Consequently we had no choice but to give the voucher to Geordie, but he graciously passed it onto Paula – which goes to show that there are still some good folk out there!
Less fortunate was Andy Byers who was the lucky winner of a £75 voucher and a Mrs Tilly’s hamper. Andy had been working on a local construction job near Woodlands for the last couple of months and was in the store every day for breakfast and lunch. He won the prizes by being picked at random in a prize draw open to Members of our Rewards Club who made any purchase on St Andrew’s Day.
Andy happened to be in the store on St Andrew’s Day and was told he was then told he was our lucky winner. Almost unbelievably, however, the very next day he was moved to another job on the other side of Scotland! We’re working hard on getting his prizes to him none the less.
