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As the world continues to awaken from retail hibernation due to COVID-19 what has become obvious is that alternative ways of doing business are becoming more mainstream. Prior to March of this year not many would have even thought of “curbside pickup” as an option. Today it’s a perfectly acceptable form of delivery if it makes the customer feel more secure.
Many retailers have been migrating their messaging from print to social media quite effectively for some time through the likes of Facebook Instagram and email blasts. Though e-commerce has been around as long as the internet not every independent retailer was convinced of its rightful place as a genuine selling option – until recently. Although most stores have long had a website of some sort “website” for many meant only a static informational site.
The economic shutdown earlier this year forced retailers to reconsider their internet presence. Stores that had shopping carts redesigned them and stores that didn’t rushed to develop them.
I asked three retailers – who each have different levels of internet experience – to share their stories of how and why their e-com business came to be.
Rick Ravel owner of Austin-based Karavel Shoes put it this way:
“On March 24 2020 the City of Austin shut down all retail stores. We laid off most of the staff. One of our buyers suggested that we update our website to include e-commerce. During a two-week layoff period we put together an e-commerce site using Shopify as our web host. The site became operational on April 9. Prior to this time we had resisted having e-commerce due to cost in both time and money – to build and maintain for personnel to manage the site and having sufficient inventory to satisfy expected demand.
“Earlier at a vendor’s retailers meeting
We heard speakers who were helping retailers put together e-commerce sites and explaining the reasons why to do it ‘now.’
We decided it was time to develop our site but our brick-and-mortar sales growth kept us from proceeding. When the pandemic hit everything fell into place. Karavelshoes.com is now up and running. Most of our sales are coming from our own customers. We have not marketed the site outside our own customer base but that is the next step in our marketing plan.”
Mallory Dabney owner of Heyday in Bozeman MT offered this:
“Watching our e-commerce business evolve over the past few years has been very rewarding. During the COVID shutdown I found myself grateful that we had put in the time to build our online store when we had. Heydaybozeman.com was created as our marketing efforts reached a “dead end” for the customer experience – we’d send an email and you couldn’t click-thru to transact; our Facebook posts were inspiring and beautiful but the experience ended with the photo. It was a missed opportunity. Additionally Bozeman was becoming a growing tourist destination. We often heard our customers asking how they could continue to shop with us from home.
“Initially the online store was an afterthought to our brick-and-mortar store. We didn’t give it much consideration when making buys. Sales generated from the online store were considered a bonus. It wasn’t until we invested in Facebook advertising that we began to notice a shift.
“In June of 2019 we hired a full-time e-commerce manager since we were seeing the percentage of online sales continue to grow. With growth there are challenges. Staffing fulfillment and inventory management were all systems that were heavily taxed due to the overwhelming surge of online activity during the shutdown. Our online volume was up an average of 300% over online last year. We see a huge potential for the online segment of our business. Moving forward
Ward
We will better manage our online inventory and treat it as a separate location for allocation and buying.
Todd Mason’s Experience
Todd Mason owner of Town & Country Shoe Outlet in Lancaster KY summarized his experience this way:
“Kentucky shut down all non-essential retailers in late March and reopened on May 20 with two months of lost revenue in walk-in sales. Fortunately we had begun our website – townandcountryshoeoutlet.com – development on Shopify in Quarter 3.”
Ritchie Sayner
Case Studies
Ritchie Sayner Building an E-Commerce Business: continued on page 13 Published in the September/October 2020 issue of Shoe Retailing Today Copyright © 2020 National Shoe Retailers Association Tucson AZ www.nsra.org. All rights reserved.
NSRA.org Players
His strengths were not Jordan’s strengths and vice versa. Their co-leadership resulted in their building a team of outstanding players who were in sync.
Family Business Parallels
How does this relate to family businesses in NSRA? There are many parallels in Michael Jordan’s intense leadership behaviors that can be noted in family business entrepreneurs. These relate to his relentless toughness competitiveness and a lack of showing vulnerability which can be viewed as weakness. By adding a co-captain who was able to relate to the players – young and old – and who spent time developing them the team became unified towards a common goal.
Are There Parallels?
So in thinking about your family business I invite you to think about any parallels with “The Last Dance.”
- First: Does the leader have weaknesses that might cause a team to not win?
- Are there other leadership structures and development plans that can be implemented to help the next generation thrive?
- Could a co-captain take some of the burdens off the leader giving the leader more time to focus on business questions beyond the day-to-day (such as expansion eventual leadership succession how best to train new workers building relationships with new vendors)?
Next: At What Point Does a Business Need a “Co-Captain”?
Who on your team is potentially that person? What characteristics and experience does that individual have that will allow him/her to mentor others? To “balance” your leadership style? To reach people who may be either in awe or fear of you as the boss? Is that person interested in co-captaining with you?
Next: How Do You Introduce a “Co-Captain”?
Other staff members need to know how much authority is vested in him whether he can serve as their liaison with you whether he is being groomed to take your place.
Evaluate Your Captaincy
Love for basketball – or for business – may help someone become an excellent performer. But personal performance isn’t always enough. “The Last Dance” showed us that brilliance can show itself as tyranny that leads a captain to become “defective” – so take the time to evaluate your own captaincy and ask yourself if a co-captain might be a helpful addition to you or to your employees or to both. If the answer is “yes” start grooming one.
Carol Wittmeyer Ed.D. is professor emerita at St. Bonaventure University and teaches at Loyola University of Chicago. She is also a founding faculty member of NSRA’s NextGen initiative.
Michael Jordan of 2019 with completion in Quarter 4. It was quite labor-intensive but we were looking for much more than a static page and felt the time investment would be worthwhile to take advantage of the integration between RICS and Shopify.
“We had no idea of the storm ahead nor how the website would likely save our business. With the combination of good Search Engine Optimization (SEO) content for organic search and a solid e-commerce agency that has focused on Google Shopping we captured 20% of our previous year’s month sales in April then 30% in May.
- “While many of the items sold were
Discounted it greatly helped cash flow during these tough times and it has also proven to be a great outlet for moving sale items quickly. Clearly these were incremental sales as the majority were shipped out of state! During the pandemic we focused on everyone in quarantine and walking and running footwear proved to be the big winners. We have every indication that the online trend will continue throughout the year and are projecting a 25-30% increase in top-line sales.
The Future
Online shopping has grown from about 1% in 2000 to what could be close to 18% in 2020 according to a recent EMarketers forecast on U.S. retail sales. Clearly COVID-19 has changed the way people shop. “Brick-and-mortar retail sales are expected to drop by 14% – and may take up to five years to return to pre-pandemic levels” says EMarketers adding “Amazon leads the way in online sales grabbing a 38% share of the market followed by Walmart at 5.8% and Ebay at 4.5%.”
According to recent data compiled by Coresight permanent store closures are estimated to reach as high as 25000 in 2020. If that seems like a misprint it’s not. Perhaps even some people reading this article may not be able to overcome the financial hardship heaped upon the retail community by the novel coronavirus pandemic. Those who do survive have discovered ways to reinvent themselves similar to the stores showcased above. Survival is the true essence of entrepreneurship that endures in the blood of the independent retailer. For those that did weather the storm and lived to sell another day there is no place to go but up.
- Ritchie Sayner is with Advanced Retail Strategies LLC an affiliate of Management One.
- Sayner’s book Retail Revelations: Strategies for Improving Sales Margins and Turnover (2nd Ed.) is available on Amazon.
- He can be reached at advancedretailstrategies.com.
Sayner continued from page 11
Summary
The article discusses the significant shift in retail practices due to the COVID-19 pandemic highlighting how retailers have adapted by embracing e-commerce and alternative delivery methods like curbside pickup. It features stories from retailers who successfully transitioned to online sales noting the challenges and opportunities they faced. The article underscores the enduring spirit of entrepreneurship among independent retailers who have reinvented themselves to survive the pandemic-induced economic challenges.
“On March 24 2020 the City of Austin shut down all retail stores. We laid off most of the staff. One of our buyers suggested that we update our website to include e-commerce.” – Rick Ravel Karavel Shoes
Real-World Examples of E-Commerce Adaptation
The shift towards e-commerce has been a critical adaptation for many retailers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Here are some real-world examples of businesses that successfully transitioned to online platforms.
- Karavel Shoes in Austin Texas quickly developed an e-commerce site using Shopify during a two-week layoff period due to the pandemic shutdown. This pivot allowed them to continue serving their customers even when their physical store was closed.
- Heyday in Bozeman Montana had already established an online store prior to the pandemic which proved invaluable during the shutdown. Their investment in Facebook advertising and hiring a full-time e-commerce manager contributed to a 300% increase in online sales.
- Town & Country Shoe Outlet in Lancaster Kentucky began developing their e-commerce site in anticipation of future needs which became crucial when the pandemic hit. Their site helped capture a significant portion of sales during the shutdown demonstrating the importance of a robust online presence.
