7 months ago, I wrote a blog about the people of RICS and how together we help hundreds of stores each year become experts on their business. Today, I want to reflect on my experience as a Sales Development Representative. When most people think of sales, they think about the sleazy guy who tries to make you leave with their product that day and not take no for an answer. Later, you typically regret the sale and may even come back to return it. As a fellow salesperson, I am sorry that you had to experience this at some point because this is not sales. Although the end goal in sales is to sell a product, there is much more to it. Sales is about delivering value to people regardless if they buy your product. Every day, I talk to retailers that feel like they’re only surviving and not thriving or are becoming first time store owners wanting to share their passion with their community. If we at RICS were simply selling our software, we would not be setting up our clients for success. At RICS, the sales team is defying the stigma. Instead of making you feel like we force you to use our POS, we are simply reaching out to see if we can be helpful. Everyone on our sales team has various experiences in retail ranging from using RICS as the owner of a multi-store shoe retailer to working for large Fortune 500 retailers. Regardless of our experiences, we have one goal: help fellow retailers grow their business and reimagine the way they run their store. I’m proud to be part of an organization that helps retailers be better retailers. Every day, we are always providing the latest and greatest tools to help them be successful such as our recent scheduling reporting upgrade. It’s one of many reasons why over 98% of customers renew with RICS. For many specialty run stores it’s the greatest time of the year, the start of marathon season! And for Indianapolis, that means hosting one of the premier half marathons in the country, the OneAmerica Mini-Marathon. Drawing nearly 30,000 runners in 2016, the Indianapolis Mini-Marathon is the first event of the month of May that kicks off the excitement of the greatest racing spectacle in the world. As proud members of the Indianapolis community and strong allies to the specialty run industry, RICS Software would love to treat our specialty run family to lunch! The day before the mini, May 5th, RICS will be hosting a luncheon downtown near the start line of the race. This will give runners a chance to grab a bite to eat while exploring the race expo and downtown Indy. Are you interested in joining us? RSVP here and we’ll follow up with more details! It finally feels like spring has sprung! More people are spending time outdoors, enjoying the longer days, and warmer weather. How can you get people to pop into your store when they are strolling by? Find what holidays and events that you can use to draw them in.

April Fool’s Day

You better watch your back on Saturday, April 1st! Although it is an unofficial holiday, April Fool’s Day is a long-standing tradition where people play (mostly) harmless pranks upon one another. A few years ago at RICS, someone brought a box of Dunkin’ Donuts into our office and filled it with raw broccoli! What are some of your favorite April Fool’s Day pranks?

Boston Marathon

The Boston Marathon is always held on Patriots’ Day, which is the third Monday of April. This year it also falls on Monday, April 17th. The Boston Marathon is the world’s oldest annual marathon (121 years old!) and is one of the world’s best-known road racing events. If you own or manage a running store, consider having a viewing party or offering discounts on your running gear and accessories. Click here to find out more official information about the Boston Marathon.

Earth Day

Looking for ways to make a difference in your community? Celebrate Earth Day on Saturday, April 22nd! The first official Earth Day was on April 22, 1970. Advertise ways your shoppers can get involved in the community or organize your own event that makes it easy for your customers and employees to make the world a better place. It is also a great way to promote your brand and shows that you value the environment. Did you know that Millennials will be more likely to purchase from brands that share their world view! One small way to participate in the celebration of Earth Day is to have a sidewalk sale and encourage your customers to be outside.

Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day

Did you know that Thursday, April 27th is “Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day”? Well, now you do! This program “encourages girls and boys across the country to dream without gender limitations and to think imaginatively about their family, work, and community lives.” Consider bringing your kids to work with you on this day so they can learn more about what you do, what it is like to have a job, and how you balance work and family. It is a great learning experience for all! Happy April! In a world where staying connected to your customers can make or break a sale, it’s incredibly important for retailers to be thinking about ways to stay in front of their shoppers. When considering purchases, shoppers are using vastly different tools and resources to research and make purchasing decisions. Putting your brand and inventory in front of shoppers on the devices and platforms they are using can help you capture their attention and their sale. But how can you make sure you are connecting with your customer in a way that can help you win their in-the-moment, local purchases? Join us for a free webinar, Staying Connected to Your Customers to Win More Sales, on Tuesday April 25th at 2:00 pm EST to learn how the integration between RICS and Locally can help you broadcast your inventory to reach customers in the right moment. Locally’s Mark Strella and Johanna Rotondo-McCord and RICS’ Patrick Miller will discuss how retailers can capture customers’ attention and increase foot traffic to their store through the intuitive integration. Learn more about how our partnership can help you ensure your inventory is being seen by shoppers who are looking to make purchases in the moment. In this webinar, we’ll break down: Sign up for our free webinar to discover how you can broadcast your inventory through your website, social channels, and brand websites to capture the attention of potential customers. Can’t make it? Sign up anyways and we’ll send you the recording! An upcoming sale, off-site event or special promotion is a great way to increase sales for your store. With a little planning and marketing, you can drive new and existing customers to buy more products in a short amount of time. An increase in traffic in the store also means longer lines, longer wait times to check out and a higher likelihood of customers getting frustrated when trying to make their purchase. As a store owner or manager, you can alleviate some of the frustration and wait time by using an additional POS. A second (or even third, fourth or fifth) POS can be added and disabled from your RICS account at any time and will work on any Windows based computer, laptop or tablet. POSs are issued in 30 day increments and can be turned on in less than a day of reaching out to our team. You can choose to have them automatically turned off in a specified amount of time or leave them on until you call and tell us it is no longer needed. In order to set this up or for more information, please contact an Account Manager at account@ricssoftware.com And just like that, we’re all in on 2017. March is here and that means the promise of warmer weather, more outdoor events, and an improved mood among your customers! So how can you capitalize on the effect warmer weather has on your customers’ moods? Let’s look at a few events this month that can help you increase your foot traffic, while also moving out some of your winter inventory to get ready for new spring inventory!

St. Patrick’s Day

St. Patrick’s Day is quickly approaching and will hit on Friday, March 17th. It’s the perfect holiday to take advantage of outdoor tent events. This event is usually the first of the year that has warm enough weather to move your sales or customer appreciation events outdoors (at least for us here in the Midwest). Consider hosting a sale or customer appreciation event in a tent in front of your store with green beer, discounts on green apparel, and fun runs.

First Day of Spring

Monday, March 20th is the first day of Spring! Get shoppers into your store by hosting an event that lets customers enjoy the outdoors. Consider hosting an outdoor yoga class outside of your shop. After the event, offer customers who attended a percentage off of any of the inventory you’re looking to move out to make room for new inventory! Happy March! We live in a state of technology overload. Everywhere we turn, there is always some new technology that is developed to enhance the way we live and interact with each other. Whether it’s Facebook to keep us connected with our network or the Apple Watch tracking our physical activity. When it comes down to it, one aspect that is shared across all technology is time. As a millennial, I’m overwhelmed by the rapid pace of technology. Once I learn how to use one application, a new one is already out. Fortunately, I’m not alone. Regardless of what age you are, people are constantly competing for your time and it may be difficult to realize who is providing you the most value for that time. If you are retailer, you are familiar with this struggle. With Amazon testing out drone delivery, it is easy to think that you need to partner with technology companies that help you deliver product to your customers. Or with larger retailers using ecommerce websites to increase their sales online, it is tempting to invest in a webstore. While the above technologies are important, at the end of the day, none of them save you time. One of the enemies of retail success is inventory. If you have too much inventory, then you are leaving money on the shelves. If you find yourself with too little product, then you are missing sales opportunities. Inventory is only one aspect of running your business. There are plenty others such as how you engage your customers and what your in-store experience is like. Take a moment to reflect on what you’re doing to use technology to control your store’s success. Where are you saving your time and where are you spending it? We recently held our 6th annual Bunker Chili Cook-Off and decided to open it up to soups and stews as well! With two categories, we had the taste testers vote for their favorite chili and favorite soup/stew. There were many delicious options, with 5 chilis in the running and 2 soups! Congratulations to Patrick Miller, our Solution Consultant, for winning the chili contest and Aaron Randall, one of our Business Development Managers, for cooking up a delicious Cauliflower Smoked Gouda soup. Check  out pictures below from our fun event! Chili Cook Off 5Chili Cook Off 3Chili Cook Off 1 Has your store considered organizing some kind of cook-off? You could have your shoppers participate, or use it as an internal bonding activity! A strong company culture is contagious. When your employees are happy, your shoppers notice and have a more positive shopping experience. What are you doing to promote a supportive, fun working environment? At RICS, we recently implemented a Culture Committee. We meet monthly to plan all-company events to encourage cross-functional bonding and employee engagement. While your store employees probably work more closely together on a regular basis, it is good to get out of the regular work routine and do a group activity. We are looking forward to getting off-site as a company and volunteering or going bowling. It always a nice change of pace and a great way to connect with your co-workers on a more personal level. The workplace, whether an office or a store, should be a fun place! Over the past few weeks, we have welcomed two new members to the Product team here at RICS. Meet Jon and Naush and learn what they are most excited about for their future working here.  

Jon McCain, Software Engineer:

My first week at RICS has been one of relaxation, fun, and drowning by the fire hose of knowledge I don’t have. It’s been a long time since I didn’t have a basic inkling of how things worked, where to start, or what questions to ask. But, here I am after 10 + years at one company now at a new place where I’m doing brand new things. It’s exciting and daunting at the same time. I put a lot of personal pressure upon myself as the approval of others is important to me. I have a new team and I’ve been entrusted to do a job. What better way than to motivate oneself than by getting the chance and the trust from a new team to do your best. Yes, I’ll make mistakes but I won’t fail because failing means giving up and that’s just not what I do. I’m excited to be on this journey and cannot wait to see what amazing things we can do for our customers and in turn their customers.  

Naush Korai, Software Engineer:

I’ve been interning at RICS during the summer for the past two years and it’s great to be back! My favorite aspect about working at RICS is the team’s culture and the immense amount of knowledge that exists here. My goal is to siphon off and absorb as much of that knowledge and apply it to creating great products that speak for themselves. My past two internships here have also given me a solid foundation for the kind of work I am doing now, and it’s great to be able to directly apply that experience. I am very excited to dig deep and start delivering some quality work! We are excited for you both to join the RICS team! It is already the second month of the year! There’s a lot going on in February, so use these events to draw customers into your store to increase sales and loyalty.

Groundhog Day

Although it isn’t necessarily a traditional holiday, Groundhog Day (February 2nd) could be a good excuse to throw a party in your store! Give your shoppers something more than their typical experience in your store. Maybe have a drawing for shoppers where they guess if Punxsutawney Phil will see his shadow and give a gift card to the winner!

Super Bowl Sunday

Throw a party in your store and share some tailgate and NFL-themed appetizers on Sunday, February 5th to celebrate Super Bowl 51! The New England Patriots are playing the Atlanta Falcons at 6:30 PM EST, so the afternoon would be a perfect time to host a party! This would be a great opportunity to get your local community together to shop and eat some good food.

Valentine’s Day

Tuesday, February 14th is the day of love. Help shoppers visiting your store find the pefect gift for their loved ones. Spread the love and consider having a Valentine’s Day promotion the week before!

President’s Day

Monday, February 20th, is President’s Day, which is a federal holiday – meaning many people will have the day off of work and school. Make sure to be prepared for the increase of traffic in your store! What other holidays do you celebrate in your store? Tweet at us and let us know @RICSSoftware. Also, be sure to check out our marketing calendar for events that go on throughout the year! If you’re a footwear retailer, chances are you’ve heard of FN PLATFORM in Las Vegas. It is the largest shoe show in the nation and a part of MAGIC, the world’s largest fashion marketplace. This year, the show is Tuesday, February 21-Thursday, February 23rd. During the trade show, there are educational seminars that cover a range of topics relevant to fashion retailers. As an attendee, you should make sure to check out the different sessions ahead of time and plan which ones you would like to attend. They are a great opportunity to learn ways you can improve your retail business and know what the latest trends are. You can find the schedule here. While you are at the show, you should plan out how you want to allocate your time, whether it’s meeting with certain brands, walking the different floors to see what’s up and coming, or meeting with fellow retailers about their business. FN PLATFORM is located in the Las Vegas Convention Center – South Hall. Are you attending the show? Be sure to stop by our booth #82301 to chat with our leadership team and retail experts and for a chance to win a Surface Pro and other prizes! The NSRA is also hosting an education conference on the Monday prior to the show. To learn more about this retail training workshop- click here. If you interested in setting up an appointment with RICS during MAGIC, please email hware@ricssoftware and we will schedule time during the week for you to connect with one of our retail experts. We hope to see you there! As 2017 is quickly approaching, it’s important for retailers to look at the trends that will take shape in the New Year. Check out just a few of the hot trends you can expect to continue to grow in 2017.

Online spending is skyrocketing

While in-store spending remains steady, most retail growth is coming from online sales. We’ve seen huge online shopping days this year, with Cyber Monday hitting its biggest spending day at $3.45 billion.

Social commerce will become bigger

With Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest all offering mobile shopping options, shoppers are able to interact with their brands on social AND buy directly from their posts.

The Prime Effect

Amazon Prime is creating higher expectations on quick payment options and faster shipping. Shoppers will expect retailers to give them the same experience they have with Amazon.   Last month, I had the privilege of attending the National Shoe Retailers Association’s (NSRA) Leadership Conference  in San Antonio, TX. There I listened to several different speakers, interacted with a diverse crowd of shoe store owner, and enjoyed a delicious meal on the river walk. The Battle of (Ir)Relevancy One of the themes of the weekend was the battle of relevancy and irrelevancy in today’s changing world. Jim Dion, internationally known retail speaker and trainer, started off the speaker series of the conference asking how everyone was shifting their thinking. With technology fueling disruption, it’s never been easier to lose the battle to irrelevancy. To prove it, take a second to think about a local business that has recently closed or even one of Macy’s several stores. No matter the business’ size, no one is safe if you chose to ignore the changing landscape. Fortunately, technology has also given businesses the opportunity to experience growth. Meet Mark Denkler and his wife LaRonda, owners of Vince Canning Shoes. As small footwear boutique owners, they’ve faced many of the challenges that most independent retailers face today. They used RICS reporting tools to help them see upcoming trends and how they could impact their future performance. As Jim said during his lecture, “Where you spend your time, you spend your money.” The Denklers embodied this with their business strategy and is one of many reasons they won NSRA’s highest honor of 2016, the Retailer of the Year Award. Take a moment and think about where your business is at today. What’s relevant? What’s not relevant? People who don’t track performance fear the reality of that performance. It’s one of the reasons why people don’t utilize personal budgets. I challenge you to ask yourself, where does your store stand? There are many holidays to look forward to in December! You can use all the different holidays that are happening in December to celebrate in your store. December is a big shopping season, so make sure your store is prepared, properly stocked, and you are ready for all of  your customers!

Winter Solstice

This year, the Winter Solstice is on Wednesday, December 21st. This day is the shortest day of the year, but it means that the days will start to get longer. What a great reason to celebrate! Encourage your shoppers to come in your store and sip on hot chocolate and eat cookies while they browse all of your holiday sale racks.

New Year’s Eve

You could close out 2016 by having a New Year’s Eve sale (or party!). Get ready for 2017 by doing something fun on Saturday, December 31st. Decorate your store, drink some champagne, and have a classy affair in your store while your customers shop! Cheers to the new year!   The month of November is full of holiday shopping and giving thanks. Take note of all of the big events and shopping days you should be preparing for this month!

Election Day

Tuesday, November 8th is a big day across America! Make sure you fulfill your civic duty and vote and encourage your customers to vote! You could even have a special promotion going for your shoppers who come into your store wearing an “I Voted!” sticker.

Thanksgiving

Like every other year, Thanksgiving falls on the third Thursday of the month. This year, Thanksgiving will be on Thursday, November 24th. Many small businesses close all day Thursday and instead encourage their shoppers to come in on Black Friday or Small Business Saturday.

Black Friday

Black Friday is the day after Thanksgiving and is on November 25th. Be prepared for an influx of shoppers expecting to find some great deals at your store!

Small Business Saturday

Small Business Saturday was an initiative created to encourage people to shop locally and at smaller stores. SBS will be on Saturday, November 26th.  There are many different ways to encourage customers to shop in your store on this day, all you do is have to get a little creative and spread the word!

Cyber Monday

Cyber Monday is a day when many people will shop online to find the best deals. It is on November 28th. If you have an online presence, you may want to consider participating in Cyber Monday and having some irresistible sales and deals. Happy selling! After hosting our ‘Using Data to Make Moves in a Bad Economy’ webinar, we had a lot of great questions! While we responded to each one individually, we thought it might be helpful to answer some of the most popular questions on the blog. Below you’ll find four popular questions attendees had after watching. Q: How do I find data for customers who have purchased a specific model of shoe to let them know about an update? A: In RICS, the report you will use to find this data is the Export Customer Purchase Details report. This report can be found under Reporting : Data Export : Export Customer Purchase Details. To run this report to find a customer who had purchased a specific model, enter the SKU information on the Customer Filter by Purchase tab and enter the time period you want to view. Q: How do I find customers who have not shopped with us in the past 6 months? A. To run this report to find customer who have not shopped with you in 6 months (or any time frame), navigate to the Additional Customer Criteria tab. Under the Limit to Customers with Last Purchase During, choose Selected Dates and enter the time frame where you want to find their last purchase. Q: How do I run the reports you outlined in the webinar? A: The two reports that were used for the data in this webinar were the Sales Analysis Report, which can be found under Reporting : Sales : Sales Analysis and the Export Customer Purchase Details Report which can be found under Reporting : Data Export : Export Customer Purchase Details. How you set the criteria for these reports will depend what type of data you want to view and how you want to view it. Q: What is your strategy around a product exit strategy? How would you plan your buy to ensure you did not end up in the same situation as the sample store did with the Adrenaline? A: My strategy is to: If there was an opportunity for risk inventory (potential excess pairs after the product updates) 30 days prior to update, I would work with the rep on a stock swap or stock buyback plan and work with them to create a markdown strategy to move remaining inventory within MAP policy. Note: There are many different ways to approach this problem, this is just one opinion/strategy. We received lots of great questions, but these were some of the most popular. If you missed the webinar, you can watch it here. If you find yourself with more questions, please feel free to reach out to me at jrichburg@ricssoftware.com. Is support lacking from your current POS solution? At RICS Software, it is our number one priority to ensure you have the right people from our team available to help you when you face challenges running your business. As a RICS client, you get more than our software, you get our people too. You shouldn’t have to worry about being set loose once you go live with a new POS system. You should be educated on how to get the most out of your technology and have access to resources when you can’t figure it out. As a software as a service (SaaS) company, our people are included in your subscription, so that you never have to pay additional fees for getting help or education. It comes with the territory. At RICS, we both design and support our product, so if you have a question or concern about the functionality, we can quickly provide you with an answer. Not only do we have the developers of our product under the same roof as our support, we have former retailers on our team who speak your language. We understand the challenges and pain points that come with running a retail business and we want to help. Our goal is to provide you with a seamless transition from your current system to RICS. We support you every step of the way and want to continue to provide education on how to get the most out of our system. Not only will our onboarding team make sure you are properly trained, but our support team is available to answer questions seven days a week. You can also access our educational library equipped with How To’s, articles, and guides to help you become an expert at using RICS. Let us help support your business needs and don’t ever worry about figuring it out on your own.

“The monthly subscription, regular updates, and support are major advantages [of RICS].” -Tami Butts, Tri-N-Run

To learn more about our services and support, click here. Since beginning at RICS, there’s one aspect that has truly impressed me: the people. For some of you reading this, you might think I’m jumping on the buzzword bandwagon but I’m not. It only takes a few minutes in the office to realize that RICS is different. Before even stepping into the office, my manager, Brett, provided me with several resources to help make my transition smooth, productive, and welcoming. He was more than willing to answer any questions, incorporate my needs into a personal development plan, and handle the daily things in-between. Once I began working, the experience was no different. Not only were my coworkers kind and willing to help but the leadership team embodied the same welcoming spirit. In fact, Jason and Mark, our CEO and CFO respectively, made a point to get to know me over lunch. You might be thinking that this is standard for most employees during the onboarding process and maybe it is. However, while I was soaking up everything I could during my first week at RICS, the part that resonated with me most was the people. Whether it was a Business Development Manager speaking with prospects, the onboarding team setting up a new customer, or the support team troubleshooting with a client, they all exemplified the same people-focused approach. It is one of the reasons why RICS has been thriving since 1983 and has experienced customer retention rates of 98.5% in 2015 alone. This can only be traced back to one reason: people. I believe this is the RICS difference. As I move forward in my role, my goal is to extend that same attitude to each prospect and subsequently, show them why I’m proud to be a RICS employee. October is the peak of the fall season. Will your store be having any fall parties? Are you going to decorate your store with leaves and pumpkins? Since October is a relatively quiet month (in terms of holidays and events), you can use the entire month to gear up for Halloween.

Halloween

As usual, Halloween is on October 31st, which is a Monday this year. Decorate your store with pumpkins, ghosts, scarecrows, spider webs, monsters, or witches! While you may want to celebrate or decorate your store for the entire month, you can use the weekend before to plan something extra spook-tacular. Turn your store into a haunted house at night and get your local community to come and visit. Play haunted music, dim your lights, and encourage your customers to come and shop in the dark! And of course, have some candy available for any trick-or-treaters that come by. Do you own your brand? Most small retail owners will respond yes, of course, but think about the question differently. Do you own and control the elements that make up your brand (design files, vector logos, native Adobe files, photos, colors etc.)? If you hire a freelance designer or design firm to create your brand and marketing collateral, you need make sure you get copies of all their design files.

Why is this important?

As a designer who has worked with numerous small brands, I can attest to the struggle to get the artwork needed to complete a project. It is common to receive tiny logos pulled from websites (fine for some projects, but not for print), images are often low resolutions, and brand standards and design directions are nonexistent. Designers need specific files and a history of your marketing efforts and brand to create effective new marketing pieces. Having these files in an easy to access place is key. Organize your files in a cloud-based storage system such as Dropbox, Google Drive, or Microsoft OneDrive, that you control. This makes it simple to send links to files for future design work and control what gets added or deleted to the folder. Also consider creating a “brand guide” to ensure every designed element has the same style. This can be a very simple outline of colors, fonts, previously designed pieces, signage, and logo variations. Not only will this save you time if you hire a new designer, but this exercise will also give you a clearer idea of your brand as a whole. You need to be emailing your customers on a regular basis. Here are some tips to creating more engaging emails for your retail store.

Use an Email Automation System

Why? An email automation system takes the guesswork and hassle out of emailing your clients. You can create email templates, add custom fields, and setup email sends to specific lists. How to Get the Maximum Effect There are a lot of systems available. MailChimp, Constant Contact, Emma, and Get Response are all good options. Find one that fits your needs and budget.

Build Your Email Lists and Personalize

Why? Having segmented email lists allows you to create different email messages and calls-to-action for different audiences. How to Get the Maximum Effect You can use RICS to export your client list, a list of top customers, or customers who haven’t been into your store for a while. Use this data to your advantage by creating personalized email schedules of offers, sales, and updates. Try personalized subject lines and calls-to-action to increase engagement. You also have to make sure your email is responsive so it performs well on mobile devices.

Reinforcing Your Message

Why? The subject line draws customers in, while your images, content, and design keep them engaged. How to Get the Maximum Effect Make sure your images fit your brand, CTAs are clear, and your message is concise. Give people a reason to keep reading and ultimately a reason to visit your store.