Running Great Stores

A seasoned specialty apparel, jewelry, and home boutique was facing permanent closure when COVID-19 hit. In business for over 30 years — 17 in the current location — the store was closed under governor’s orders and bills were mounting. I came in to guide the owner through a rapid reinvention of service offerings. While the store was closed, the owner achieved a 80% sell-through of spring assortment; created a new custom product offering that grew business to reach a new customer; increased social media following by 140%; and brought three team members back from furlough. After reopening, the store has a wider customer base and continues to grow annual volume.

A financial services provider that worked primarily with e-commerce retailers wanted to broaden their offering to brick-and-mortar stores. They lacked the knowledge and resources to execute the project in their tight timeline, so they enlisted Running Great Stores. I kicked off the project within a day. A few weeks later, the initiative was fully underway at several multibillion-dollar retailers. Results were immediate: a 39% increase in AOV. I created a full toolset that could be used for future rollouts as well as training templates customized for each brand. The project required cross-functional partnership and brick-and-mortar store operations training to include stores in their digital mindset. The adoption by store associates was excellent, resulting in strong results for the financial provider.

A 580-store chain needed to maximize the customer experience and minimize their store payroll while ensuring associates were scheduled properly to grow conversion. Store managers lacked the technology and know-how to optimize scheduling and payroll. Using analytics to demonstrate where payroll was being overspent and misspent, I introduced a solution that would create efficient schedules that could drive results. Once schedules were optimized using traffic and sales, the stores had to reevaluate their team availability to meet the demands. Within eight months, the new scheduling system provided better coverage than ever and the company saved $6 million on payroll.