Cadbury has announced the winners of its Great Retail Ideas Exchange competition, created to celebrate the brand’s 200th anniversary and show its thanks to the retailers who have helped support the brand throughout its long history.
The competition asked retailers to share their best business ideas – anything that helped engage shoppers, drive footfall and sales or helped local communities – to be in with a chance of winning cash. It attracted 700 ideas from across the independent convenience sector.
Ron and Aruna Patel, of Ron’s News in Droitwich Spa, took the top prize of £5,000 with their simple-but-brilliant idea around learning customers’ names to greet them more personally.
Speaking about the inspiration for the idea, Ron said: “This simple idea creates a bond, which becomes a friendship, which in turn brings loyalty and respect. This then passes down through families and generations, and so a bond is created with multiple levels of your customer base, and they in turn reciprocate in kindness.
“I was once asked to describe my work, and my answer was simple: ‘Mine is the only job I know where I can come to work and chat to my friends all day.’ Our motto is: ‘We don’t have customers, because everyone who comes into our establishment is a friend – we’re always pleased to see them.’ With that philosophy, we always look forward to going to work – to see our friends!”
Recent research from the Association of Convenience Stores found that only 7% of shoppers feel like they know their local shopkeepers very well (first-name basis, frequent conversations), which shows the opportunity for retailers to take this personal approach. Although an additional 23% think they know their shopkeepers quite well, this means that only a total of 30% of customers overall think they know their shopkeepers well enough to have friendly conversations when shopping.
Beyond the top prize, 10 additional retailers won a £1,000 prize for their great retailing ideas, and a further 20 bagged £500.
The 700 submitted entries covered a range of topics – from range and display to marketing and promotion ideas, and how to better serve the community. All the ideas can be read in Cadbury’s Great Retail Ideas Exchange booklet or on the SnackDisplay.co.uk website.
