Innovation is what keeps your business fresh: it’s the newness that keeps existing customers engaged, and the spark that catches the attention of new customers. Without it, your business can be left behind.
Put simply, modern consumers expect more when they shop, and the market is changing faster than it ever has, so brands need to know how to match their customers’ expectations, or risk losing out to competitors who do.
What’s the best way to do this? Listen to your customers, analyse their behaviour, and give them what they want (and more) before they even know they want it; in other words, innovate.
Innovation can:
- create sales growth
- differentiate you from the competition
- grow your customer base
- improve operational efficiency
- reduce stock holding, and ensure you have the right product mix
- increase brand awareness and visibility
- improve the customer experience through personalisation (analysis shows that shoppers are willing to pay more for this)
- create unique experiences for your customers
- give you agility so you can respond faster to trends and market changes
In other words, innovation can help your business in every area; it’s about research, discovery and experimentation.
For big players, it’s a huge part of the corporate strategy, but they often find it hard to make changes quickly. On the flip side, small businesses are often at the fore of new ideas, but can sometimes lack the experience to successfully get new ideas off the ground.
As a retail decision-maker, I would urge you to have an open mind and invest in innovation to adapt to the continually changing market. There is no overnight fix, but focusing on incremental improvements will get you to your goals faster and ensure your business reaches its full potential.
Real innovation is about making the right decisions at the right time; in other words, strategy matters.
Do you need help to innovate? Is your business facing challenges?
Whichever area you’re looking to shake up, I can help you build your ideas in to your business in a way that makes operational sense.
Here’s how:
- Sign up to my FREE weekly newsletter “In The Loop” and I’ll send you practical strategy advice (no fluff here), case studies, and all the resources you need to know about to keep your business ahead of the competition.
- Sign up to my Business Health Check and I’ll analyse your business as it is, and identify where you could grow or change before problems arise.
- Sign up to my Strategy Intensive and I’ll help you create a business strategy that captures your goals and turns them in to an actionable strategy that will give you the confidence and clarity to move forward with ease.
- Contact me for other services including competitor analysis and market research.
Timing matters, so don’t take your eye off the ball.
“Let’s collaborate, I’d love to help you innovate.”