Passion sets you apart

☀️ Good Morning, this is Points of Sale: the newsletter written exclusively for independent retailers. It takes 5 minutes to read and is packed with tangible insights to run your store more effectively. Written by a retail veteran with 30 years under her belt. Got something on your mind? Hit reply.

In today’s newsletter:

• Building hype for fall

• A retailpreneur’s best advice for your store

• A new AI tool to inspire your creativity

• Jumping on a viral trend

• Good links for the long weekend

🍂 Building hype for Fall

You’ve been in fall mode for months, but your customers haven’t. As summer closes, properly introduce your collection before diving into transactional marketing emails. Give the context behind the collection. Explain why brown is making a come back. Why blazers are taking center stage... Tell your customers what’s behind the new suede over the knee, high heeled boots and the return of patent leather loafers.

Some recent examples from my inbox from Elyse Walker and Santa Fe Dry Goods below:

🔑 The retailpreneur

This week we talked retail with Lisa Haggerty, the iconic owner of Well Heeled boutique in Stowe, Vermont. Lisa is a former nationally ranked figure skater, dual Harvard degree holder (undergrad and business) and a retail connoisseur.

Well Heeled is one of my favorite boutiques, they offer a curated collection of shoes, clothing, and accessories in a charming converted farmhouse. Lisa lives right on the property, so she literally wakes up and breathes retail. With 20+ years experience, Lisa dropped some real knowledge on building customer loyalty, hosting events, and winning retail strategies.

Highlights from our conversation with Lisa:

• Reimagining Trunk Shows: Don’t wait for a designer or vendor to create a trunk show - you can do virtual trunk shows or themed events showcasing your own inventory. Think "winter boot bonanza" where you pull out all boot inventory and make it easy for customers to shop. Any excuse to get people in the store and interacting with product builds connections and community. When vendors are there, Lisa says use it to level up your product knowledge. But don't let them pressure your customers into purchases that aren't right - you know what they’ll actually wear - keep their long-term trust over a quick sale.

• Passion sets you apart: Lisa stressed passion, expertise, and genuine relationships are critical, especially in the first 5 years as a new business. Take time to share what makes your collection standout - the people, processes, and details that aren’t obvious to the eye. They’ll appreciate your knowledge and passion which will help you build genuine connections.

• Inventory: Wrangling inventory is a beast. To manage it, Lisa logs every single item as soon as it arrives into her point-of-sale system that integrates with her accounting software. This gives her real-time visibility into what is (or isn't) selling.

• Streamlining Communication: With Instagram DMs, Facebook messages, texting, and more, the volume of customer communication channels can feel overwhelming. Lisa suggests implementing a CRM from the start to organize interactions across platforms. Way harder to centralize later! We recommend trying a tool like Endear.

🪄 Creative content made easy

I was changing my cover photo on X / Twitter and decided to ask Dall-E for "a street of shops painted in a pointillism style inspired by Yayoi Kusama". I was delighted by the below result.

Try generating unique images for your socials, postcards, or merch. Describe your store in words and let Dall-E (link) create a one-of-a-kind image like mine below:

💡 Jump on a viral trend

Chandler from post.script, a bright and colorful gift shop in in San Francisco with a whimsical assortment of eclectic brands (like Areaware, Poketo, Baggu) takes a fun approach to TikTok / Instagram below. She jumped on the viral Wes Anderson style video trend, an aesthetic that perfectly aligns with her quirky offerings. Don't shy away from trending video formats - participating in hot social media trends is a creative way to highlight your products and spaces.

post.script.sf

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🔗 A few good reads & listens:

• Unleashing the power of first party data in retail, a listen with an interesting bit on tiered loyalty programs (link)

• The value of the merchandiser, a listen from The Retail Whore Podcast (link)

• Think small with your upsells as consumers become more price sensitive (link)

• Selling on TikTok? Beware they might be killing ecommerce links to third-parties (link)

• Bubble braids, cat eye lashes, and biab nails top the back to school trend report from Spate Beauty (link)

• Chanel’s terribly chic and on-brand pop-up (link)

Thanks for reading. Talk next week.

xx

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