Despite months of heavy rain, poor weather and suppressed footfall, we’ve been working hard to get the store ready for when a bit of better weather arrives.
by Antony Begley
As all retailers know, it’s hard to under-estimate the impact that an extended period of consistently bad weather has on sales. We’re learning that first hand at Woodlands Local as a year’s worth of hard work, improvements, significant investment and innovation have for the last six months basically been undermined by, well, rain.
It’s actually been quite a revelation how hard poor weather hits the business. We undoubtedly have given more customers more reasons to visit the store more often than ever before over the last year, yet footfall remains flat and sales remain inconsistent. And it’s crystal clear to me that the single biggest factor driving that is the fact that it pretty much hasn’t stopped raining in Falkirk for the last few months!
We can deliver all the incentives in the world to draw customers to the store – and believe me, we’ve tried – but it all comes to naught if they look out the window and it’s coming down in buckets.
All we can do from here is knuckle down and get ready for the spring, and hopefully some sunshine. We can’t say we’re not prepared for it.
Data driven
The big psychological problem here, of course, is that we spend a lot of time analysing a huge volume of data coming out of the store. The RS EPoS system we use is highly capable and delivers us massive amounts of very detailed reports, updates, trends and highlights literally every day.
It’s great being able to see that amount of insight and truly understand the business from top to bottom and back to front. The downside of that is when most of the data we’re seeing isn’t telling us what we want to hear.
A year’s worth of investment and hard work has delivered insignificant sales growth and very little impact on footfall. It can be frustrating to see that, disheartening even, but like every other retailer we have to pick ourselves up every day and stay true to our strategy of continually improving the store and continuing enhancing the customer’s experience.
It doesn’t help that 2014 was a bumper year: great weather throughout much of the year and a raft of huge sporting and social events. Repeating the numbers of that particular year was always going to be a toughie, but it’s one thing understanding that 2015 was going to be flatter and an entirely different thing to see it playing out like that day by day, week by week, month by month.
Team spirit
One particular challenge we face at Woodlands Local is keeping the team in the store driven and focused.
We give the senior team a good degree of information on the performance of the store so when they see consistently downbeat numbers it’s easy to see why can begin to wonder what they’re doing wrong.
But like all teams, we need to work together to keep building the platform for when the good times (and weather) return, as they surely must.
So despite a disappointing year we’re continuing to invest and develop the store, which can be painful at times – financially and emotionally – as I’m sure most retailers can understand. But it’s all about keeping the faith and ensuring that the entire team keep their eyes on the prize.
Our latest commitment is to renew all of the shopfloor shelving and replace the flooring; it’s another big commitment but once it’s done it will effectively mean that we have refitted the entire store. Our customers value the fact that we’re investing in their store and we are confident that this will stand us in good stead in the future.
Once that’s done, it’s all down to working with the team to drive store standards as high as we can get them and delivering a fantastic experience for our customers every day. If we can achieve that – and the sun makes an occasional appearance – we will start to see more solid and consistent growth.
Bring it on!
A word from the editor… of the Scottish Sun!
Scottish Sun Editor Gordon Smart (pictured) showed his support for Woodlands Local by leaving his office in Glasgow to get behind the till at Woodlands for a morning last month. Smart welcomed shoppers, served them, and of course tried to ensure they took home a copy of his newspaper!
