Consumer services are continually going through changes that are determined by both technological and financial trends. As the economy goes, so go the consumer trends that affect your business. To keep up with all the consumer services industry changes, you have to follow retail industry news as well as general economic trends nationwide.

Subscribe to the best sources of retail & consumer services information available on the web and through merchandising publications. Look for emerging trends in other industries such as the housing market and the national employment picture to predict coming consumer services trends. Find your retail and consumer services news and trends from a variety of sources to get a complete picture for your business planning.

1. Get news feeds from websites for retailing professionals.

2. Subscribe to valuable publications for retail and consumer services.

3. Join your local association for industrial goods retail vendors.

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Get alerted to consumer services industry news

The trends that affect distributors for retail, merchandising experts and global economies also will affect your retail services. Watch for economic and technological trends that can help to streamline your in-house operations while keeping you apprised of general research updates.

I recommend: Keep up with all the news that’s affecting consumer buying decisions by regularly visiting Chain Store Age and its sister publication Retailing Today.

Look for in-depth retail and consumer services sources

Take time to read in-depth merchandising reports and magazines that cover the industry further than the headlines. Watch for the articles that provide information that can help drive your own business decisions. Credit markets, billing and online advertising are changing the way retail & consumer services operate. Subscribe to print magazines that cover these emerging trends in retail.

I recommend: Gerson Lehrman Group provides industry analysis of most of the consumer services and how the headlines are affecting the industry. The Financial Times has a consumer retail division that provides a global overview of important news and headlines.

Participate in trade groups for retail stores

Join other professionals in the consumer services industry to share your experience and to build relationships that can help you stay ahead of the news. Many retail vendors participate in retail trade groups where you could find special deals from the suppliers as well as opportunities for sales leads for your products and services.

I recommend: You can get involved in local chapters while getting national retail news at the National Retail Federation. Get retail related news stories and articles from the National Association for Retail Marketing Services.

Tips & Tactics

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  Attend trade shows and conferences for merchandise suppliers that provide useful seminars and industry reports as well as noted retail speakers who are experts in retail sales forecasting.

When it comes right down to it, there are three basic ways to grow a business, especially a retail enterprise:

1. Find new customers
2. Sell more frequently to existing customers
3. Sell higher value items to existing customers

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Use market research to identify prospects

Are your best potential customers within a certain driving distance of your store? Of a certain income level? Have children of a particular age? Or do they have something else in common?

I recommend: Use mailing list brokers like InfoUSA, Americalist, AccuLeads, or Dunhill to figure out how many potential customers you have and to rent lists of target prospects. Then design, print, and mail materials like postcards or flyers to entice shoppers into your store.

Use a point-of-sale system to better manage your company and its information

These computerized cash registers can track overall sales patterns and individual customer purchase histories.

I recommend: Request a free quote for a point-of-sale system through BuyerZone. Microsoft makes a great case for automating your business in this article, including suggesting its two POS systems, but Hewlett-Packard and several other vendors have quality systems, too.

Hold a special event to attract attention from customers and the media

Raise the profile of your store while giving old and new customers a reason to come spend money with you. Alert the media two or three weeks before the event if it's an open-to-the-public affair and you may get even more exposure.

I recommend: Promote your event with Evite.com, which not only sends clever invitations to the customers on your e-mailing list (you do have one, right?) but also provides good ideas and notices of nearby events on which you can piggyback.

Use customer relationship management software

It provides a way to build an e-mail customer list, get a handle on sales trends and identify actionable demographic information.

I recommend: SalesForce offers the most widely used CRM software, scalable for all size businesses.

Expand beyond your brick-and-mortar store

In addition to selling through a retail store, explore other ways to market your wares, such as online, to customers worldwide.

I recommend: Register for an eBay, Amazon, and Yahoo! seller account to expand your customer base beyond your current Zip code.

Tips & Tactics

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  Create, or regularly update, a database of customer names, addresses, and emails so you can communicate with them and alert them to upcoming events and special deals.
• •  Introduce a frequent-buyer program to reward your best customers, make them more loyal shoppers, and to entice everyone to spend more.
• •  One of the keys to attracting and retaining customers, which enables your business to grow, is attracting and retaining quality employees who care about customers, are friendly, knowledgeable, and hard-working.
• •  Although it seems counter-intuitive, becoming known for specializing in a particular type of product will help you grow your business faster than having no specialty at all. Find a niche.

During troubling economic times, both consumer services and the retail industry can face a lot of cutthroat competition for survival. Owners of retail or consumer service businesses need all the tools they can fit in their tool kits, and that includes the right education and training to ensure their survival and continued success. The critical nature of regular training becomes clear when you consider the American Society of Training and Development findings that showed companies performing training on a regular basis posted shareholder returns 86% above firms that didn't increase training and 45% higher than the market average.

Don't pass up the opportunity to improve your (and your employees') knowledge and skills in performing retail & consumer services through education and training programs. Fortunately, you can find several sources of retail and consumer services management education and training to meet your needs. This guide focuses on three sources:

1. Training and education for retailing professionals offered by professional organizations.

2. Contracted training and education programs for retail industry and consumer services industry.

3. Online courses and degrees for the professional retailer.

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Find education/training offered by professional societies for consumer services and retail stores

Whether you provide retail services or consumer services, look for the professional organizations within your industry to find excellent training and education opportunities.

I recommend: Even retail vendors and distributors for retail businesses can benefit from the education/training opportunities provided by professional organizations. The International Cosmetology Association, American Society of Travel Agents and the International Housewares Association represent just a few professional trade organizations that provide training programs, conferences and/or trade shows for members.

Invest in contracted training programs for your retail company

Moving merchandise keeps your business alive, but training and consulting companies can help retailers, vendors and distributors improve their management, merchandising and sales processes for success, even during a turbulent economy.

I recommend: Check out the programs offered by FentonWaltz Retail Training and Consulting, whose clients include businesses like Things Remembered, Hibbett Sports and COMPUSA. The Friedman Group offers customized training in store management, advanced sales management, recruiting/hiring certification and coaching. Consider registering yourself and/or your managers for the three-day retail management workshop put on by DMSRetail. The workshop includes sessions dealing with retail performance metrics, using business intelligence in retail operations, best practices and a 16-step formula to maximize sales and profits.

Consider online education programs in retail management offered by universities and colleges

For your own professional development as a merchandiser and the future success of your business, think about taking classes to enhance your knowledge base. Or pursue a retail and consumer services management education and training degree program that will help take you and your business to the next level.

I recommend: Besides Strategic Retail Management, the University of Phoenix offers several online classes dealing with retail management. They include Retail Marketing, Product and Brand Marketing, Retail Operations: Supply Management, Retail Operations: Technology and Finance and Retail Personal Management. Visit World Wide Learn and click on the links for universities offering a bachelor's degree in retail management for more information on specific programs.

Tips & Tactics

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  If you own a retail and consumer services franchise business, check with their corporate office before seeking outside sources of training, since they will likely supply much or all of the training and education you need for your particular business.

Retail goods and consumer service providers are constantly walking a thin line, balancing profits and good business planning with the need to attract customers. Businesses in the retail and consumer services sectors use a wide field of research and statistics, much of it compiled by government or university research organizations, to guide their decision making. Brush up on these vocabulary key words to help you understand how retail and consumer business decisions are motivated and made.

Action Steps
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Fiscal Year

A fiscal year is the unit of time, composed of 12 months, over which a company budgets its spending. The fiscal year may or may not coincide with the calendar year, and is set at the discretion of the company management. In retail businesses in particular, the fiscal year may be chosen to allow the year-end closing and inventory to be performed at a time that's most convenient for the company.

I recommend: InvestorWords.com explains the concept of a fiscal year, gives examples of how a fiscal year would be identified, and illustrates why having a fiscal year that does not coincide with the calendar year can be beneficial to companies.

Q1

Q1 is the abbreviation often used to refer to the first quarter of a fiscal year. Q2, Q3 and Q4 may be used to refer to the second, third and fourth fiscal quarters of a fiscal year respectively. For example, Q3 2008 would be the third quarter of the fiscal year 2008.

I recommend: Investopedia defines a fiscal quarter and gives the most common months designated by Q1, Q2, Q3 and Q4. Retail and consumer services businesses alike use fiscal quarters to report their earnings and measure dividends to stockholders.

Consumer confidence

A measurement of consumers' optimism that is often used to forecast buying trends, along with present and near future economic conditions. Consumer confidence indexes provide information to help steer business and marketing decisions in the retail and consumer service markets.

I recommend: The Congressional Budget Office explains consumer confidence and gives examples of consumer confidence indexes.

Survey Research Center

The University of Michigan's Survey Research Center compiles and publishes a widely used measure of retail and consumer confidence, the consumer interest index.

I recommend: The Survey Research Center at the University of Michigan Institute for Social Research explains what is measured in its surveys and how surveys are conducted.

Consumer price index

The consumer price index is a measure of the cost of living for urban consumers and is commonly used to measure inflation, which in turn is used as a guide for setting retail prices and adjusting consumer service business practices.

I recommend: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes the consumer price index every month, with free charts, news releases, tables and reports available on its website.

Personal consumption expenditures

The personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index, published by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, gauges consumer expenditures on goods and services.

I recommend: The U.S. Department of Commerce Bureau of Economic Analysis explains the PCE and what it measures.