The Resilient Retail Game Plan - retail insights, retail trends and best practices

Before you place one more Christmas order, stop and ask a different question. Not "how much money have I got left to spend?" but "is my stock actually ready for Christmas, and where are the genuine gaps?" Hi, I'm retail strategist and founder of Resilient Retail Club, Catherine Erdly.This episode is brought to you by our sponsor Capify - business funding made simple. Find out more at capify.comI said this was going to be a four-part Get Set for Christmas series, but there's one thing I didn't dig into properly, and it's the thing that quietly decides whether your Christmas is profitable or just busy: the stock itself. The trade shows are done, the catalogues keep landing, the reps keep calling, and every new range looks like the one that's going to make the difference. The temptation to keep buying is enormous, and it's easy to justify because Christmas matters so much.In this episode I walk you through how to work out whether your stock is ready, and I mean properly ready, by category, not just a list of bestsellers. I show you the check that reveals when something is badly out of line (the one where jewellery is 40% of your sales and 10% of your stock), the question almost everyone forgets to ask about what they want left on 31 December, and the calculation the Stock Doctors run for every client that turns a vague budget into a specific gap to fill. I run the numbers on a worked example so you can see exactly how £6,000 on the shelf, £2,000 on order and a £10,000 sales expectation become a real buying budget.By the end you'll know how to tell a genuine gap from a gorgeous distraction, how to buy strategically rather than opportunistically, and how to come out of January with cash in the bank instead of a stockroom full of problems. If you've ever bought something because you loved it rather than because your business needed it, this one's for you.Chapters00:00 Stop before you buy anything else for Christmas01:31 Your buying budget isn't a pot of money02:20 Look at last Christmas by category, not by bestseller04:45 Sales mix vs stock mix: the 40% / 10% test06:30 Set a realistic Christmas sales target07:50 What do you want left on 31 December?09:55 The balance-back calculation (the £5,000 example)12:36 The 80/20 rule, and what to do if you have no data15:04 Nine questions to ask before your next order Resources mentionedFree Get Ready for Christmas guide and planner: https://www.resilientretailclub.com/christmasStock Doctor, my done-for-you stock management service: https://www.resilientretailclub.com/stock-doctor/Episode 316: Christmas planning first steps: https://www.resilientretailclub.com/podcast-episode/christmas-planning-for-independent-retailers/Episode 317: Christmas cash flow planning: https://www.resilientretailclub.com/podcast-episode/retail-cash-flow-planning-for-christmas/Episode 318: Your Christmas product range: https://www.resilientretailclub.com/podcast-episode/how-to-plan-your-christmas-product-range/Episode 319: Christmas promotions: https://www.resilientretailclub.com/podcast-episode/christmas-promotion-ideas-for-independent-retailers/All episodes of the Resilient Retail Game Plan: https://www.resilientretailclub.com/podcast/Connect with me on LinkedIn: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/catherineerdlyMentioned in this episode:Capify

The biggest Christmas mistake I see is not ordering too little. It is trying to stock everything.Hi, I'm retail strategist and founder of Resilient Retail Club, Catherine Erdly.This episode is brought to you by our sponsor Capify - business funding made simple. Find out more at CapifyEvery year I watch independent retailers try to turn themselves into a one-stop shop for December. More lines, more categories, more just-in-case. And every year the same thing happens. The money goes out across everything, the shop looks busy, and the sales still land on a small handful of products you could probably have named back in August. It is not about having everything. It is about having the right things. The reason most of us get that wrong is that we plan Christmas as though it were one single, homogeneous block of spending.It is not. Your customers are not walking in to buy "Christmas". They are on missions, and every one of those missions has its own budget, its own timing and its own deadline. The Secret Santa buyer and the Christmas Eve panic buyer are not the same person, they are not spending the same money, and they will not be in your shop in the same week. In this episode I walk through the buying missions that actually make up December, roughly what each one is worth, and when each one turns up. Once you see them written down, the gaps in your range become uncomfortably obvious.Then I get to the part that quietly decides your whole December: your hero products. The small group of lines that will carry the majority of your Christmas sales, why identifying them now changes how you market, price and reorder everything else, and why your strongest one probably does not look remotely festive. By the end you will know exactly which lists to make this week, which gaps to fill before the autumn trade shows, and where the room is to try something new without gambling your peak season on it. Press play and I will walk you through it.CHAPTERS00:00 The one-stop shop mistake, and what to do instead01:16 Think like a Christmas shopper: the missions people are actually on06:11 Hero products: the 20% that will carry your Christmas08:51 Filling the gaps, and the 20% where you get to have some funLINKSFree Get Set for Christmas planner: https://www.resilientretailclub.com/christmasAll episodes of the Resilient Retail Game Plan: https://www.resilientretailclub.com/podcast/Catherine on LinkedIn: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/catherineerdlyParts one and two of this series: episode 316, Christmas Retail Strategy: Why August Decides December, and episode 317, Retail Cash Flow at Christmas: Four Ways to Ease the Squeeze.Episode 309 with Hannah Bartlett on Christmas trends: https://thechristmasinsider.com/Find out more about Stock Doctor: https://stockdoctor.netSay hello on Instagram: @resilientretailclubMentioned in this episode:Capify

The retailers who have a brilliant Christmas are not the ones working hardest in December.Hi, I'm retail strategist and founder of Resilient Retail Club, Catherine Erdly.It is the middle of August, and I know that for a lot of you the word "Christmas" right now produces a small internal flinch. But here is the uncomfortable thing about peak season: by the time December arrives, almost every decision that will determine how it goes has already been made. The buying, the sales plan, the staffing, the storage, the marketing calendar. Every one of those is a retail management decision, and every one of them gets made weeks or months earlier, usually in a rush and usually on instinct. The effort you pour in during December is real, but it is spent inside a retail strategy you built in August whether you meant to or not.In this episode, the first of four I am running across the next month on getting ready for Christmas, I want to talk about where you actually start. Not with this Christmas, but with last one. There is an exercise that every large retail business I have worked in runs religiously, and that almost nobody in indie retail ever does. It takes about half an hour, it uses data you already have, and it will tell you things your memory absolutely will not, because we are all very good at quietly editing out the worst bits of the last peak season. I will walk you through the questions it should answer: which products were really carrying your Christmas, what surprised you, what you were too timid on, and which bits of your small shop marketing genuinely earned their keep and brought you repeat customers.Then I want to talk about the two things that turn that review into a plan: choosing one clear goal for this Christmas instead of trying to fix everything at once, and being honest about whether your business can physically cope with the Christmas you are hoping for. That second one matters most if you are scaling a retail business, because retail business growth is wonderful right up until the week you cannot fulfil it. Demand you cannot fill is expensive and stressful, and it is far easier to see coming in August than in the last week of November.By the end of this episode you will know exactly what to sit down with, what to look for, and what to have decided before the next one, where we get into the cash flow to fund it all. Press play, then go and grab the free planner.CHAPTERS00:00 Why a great Christmas is decided in August01:12 The Lessons Learned exercise big retailers never skip05:37 Choosing your one Christmas goal07:18 Capacity planning: can your business actually cope?LINKSGet Set for Christmas planner (free): https://www.resilientretailclub.com/christmasAll episodes: https://www.resilientretailclub.com/podcast/Catherine on LinkedIn: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/catherineerdlyMentioned in this episode:CapifyHome and Gift Association is our sponsor this monthhttps://www.homeandgiftassociation.org.uk/

A retailer I once worked with was selling children's clothes by the hundred. When we finally costed everything properly, she was making about 50 pence an item.Hi, I'm retail strategist and founder of Resilient Retail Club, Catherine Erdly.Most of us build a product business the sensible way round — get trading first, worry about the back end later. And that is the right instinct at the start. But somewhere along the way the sales data ends up living in Shopify, the stock data lives somewhere else entirely, the costs live in your accountant's software, and when you finally put the three side by side, none of them agree. This week I'm joined by Stacey Dorrian, who I've known since we were the two senior merchandisers at Coast, and who has spent 25 years since then working in retail data. We talk about what actually happens inside a growing product business that has never built any structure underneath its numbers.We get into the questions most retailers never stop to ask. Are you recording your cost of goods anywhere at all? Is your best seller genuinely your best seller, or just your busiest product with the margin quietly stripped out of it? Are you staffing, stocking and reordering a corner of your business that isn't earning its place on the floor? And if you're carrying eight, ten, thirteen thousand lines, how would you ever know? Stacey explains why a sales report only ever answers one of the four questions your data is capable of answering — and why the other three are where the money actually is.I also share the moment that retailer realised she had never had a sales problem at all, and Stacey walks through exactly where she would start if your numbers are currently a mess and the whole thing feels too big to open. By the end you'll understand why gut decisions get more expensive the bigger your order quantities get, what "sales is vanity, profit is sanity" really costs you in practice rather than as a slogan, and the three things to fix, in the order to fix them. Press play to find out where to begin.CHAPTERS00:00 The signals your shop is missing04:40 The four questions your numbers can answer06:15 Sales is vanity — the costs nobody records12:02 Where to start if your numbers are a messLINKSApply for Stock Doctor: stockdoctor.netAll episodes: https://www.resilientretailclub.com/podcast/Catherine on LinkedIn: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/catherineerdlyLSE Data Analytics Career Accelerator (mentioned in the episode): lse.ac.ukMentioned in this episode:Capify

I’ve had retailers with 18 years in business tell me the same thing after just a few months working with us — and it isn’t what you’d expect.Hi, I’m retail strategist and founder of Resilient Retail Club, Catherine Erdly.Most of us are convinced we’re on top of our numbers. Shopify pings with every sale, we know our best sellers by heart, and we watch the sales roll in. But in this episode I dig into the uncomfortable gap between looking at your numbers and actually understanding what they’re telling you to do next — the difference that quietly decides whether your stock is working for you or slowly working against you.I walk through the questions most retailers never stop to ask. Is your best seller selling fast enough, or should you be buying twice as many? Are you carrying twice the stock you actually need? Is one category — or even one supplier — secretly funding your whole business, or quietly trapping your cash? If you’ve ever felt like you’re “all over your numbers” but still can’t confidently answer what to buy, what to clear, or what to plan for next, this one is for you.I also share the shift that’s helping retailers get more sales from less stock, free up cash they didn’t know was trapped, and walk into their busiest months without panic-buying — plus how to tell whether you need a Stock Doctor, an accountant, or both. By the end, you’ll know exactly why collecting data isn’t the same as making decisions, and what to do about it. Press play to hear how.In this episode00:00: The confession every experienced retailer makes02:36: Rear-view mirror vs sat nav: how to actually read your numbers04:53: What we look for when we analyse your stock07:52: Stock Doctor vs your accountant — and who this is really forUseful linksFind out more about Stock Doctor: https://stockdoctor.netConnect with me on LinkedIn: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/catherineerdlyMore episodes & resources: https://www.resilientretailclub.com/podcast/Mentioned in this episode:Home and Gift Association is our sponsor this monthhttps://www.homeandgiftassociation.org.uk/Capify