Hardware Retailing The Industry's Source for Insights and Information
From surprise OSHA safety inspections to picking the right KPIs to track to overcoming challenges to growth, the pages of Hardware Retailing covered a wide variety of operational topics to help retailers become better and more profitable in 2024.
As the year comes to a close, the editorial staff of Hardware Retailing walked back through this year’s issues and compiled the top articles that tell the story of 2024. On the following pages, read excerpts and key takeaways from these stories, and to learn even more, head back into the archives at issuu.com/YourNHPA to read each full story.
Loss Patrol: A Top to Bottom Look at Protecting Your Operation Against Retail Shrink
Regardless of what specific threats are impacting your operation, retail shrink is a drain on your profits and left unchecked, can grow to a larger problem. Hardware Retailing interviewed loss prevention consultants and independent retailers for insights on the trends in retail loss and how to address them. By understanding your operation’s specific vulnerabilities, you can effectively create the best practices for
facing these new threats impacting retailers of all types and sizes.
Key Takeaways
5 Best Practices to Avoid Paper Shrink
1. Double check quantity and SKUs on packing slips against purchase orders.
2. Have two people involved in the receiving process.
3. Shoot the outs, or scan for out of stock inventory, weekly.
4. Do regular inventory cycle counts, not just once a year
5. Never process a return, defective or adjustment without first recording it through the POS.
5 Best Practices to Deter Employee Theft
1. Use exception-based monitoring to catch theft at the point of sale.
2. Limit who can take out the trash, and use clear trash bags.
3. Build a positive company culture so all employees feel they are a valued part of the team.
4. Conduct unannounced cash drawer audits.
5. Rotate cashiers and change their cash drawer assignments regularly to deter collusion.
5 Best Practices to Address Shoplifting
1. Place high-theft items in highly visible areas where staff can easily monitor them.
2. Greet each customer as they enter the store.
3. Always be mindful of where customers are in the store and continually engage with them.
4. Make sure employees understand company policy for what to do during a shoplifting incident.
5. Have a camera system covering the salesfloor and parking lot so you can document shoplifting incidents.
5 Best Practices to Defeat Cybercriminals
1. Train employees to detect phishing, vishing and other scams.
2. Keep all software updated.
3. Use a password manager.
4. Have a cyber rider on your insurance policy.
5. Store data on the cloud.
UMBRELLA POLICIES: 4 Ways to Season-Proof Your Operation
From ice storms in Texas to wildfires in Canada, weather in North America continues to become wilder, more extreme and less predictable. Whether you rely on the annual Farmers’ Almanac or check the Weather Channel app on your phone, paying attention to the weather is necessary beyond knowing if you need a jacket or umbrella for the day. Weather can wreak havoc on a small business or it can provide a major windfall, so having a plan for whatever way the wind blows is crucial to weathering the storm.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
4 Ways to Post Strong Sales When the Weather Doesn’t Cooperate
1. Instead of trying to rein in something as uncontrollable as the weather, focus on what you can control.
2. Your marketing channels are your best conduits to engage with customers, so take advantage of those
communication avenues to promote purchasing seasonal products early.
3. Establish good relationships with your wholesalers and vendors to be able to pivot if the weather doesn’t follow an average pattern for your operation and you need to deviate from your original purchasing plan.
4. Have a Plan A, B and beyond.
CRAFTING CONNECTIONS: Drive Engagement With Email Marketing
Sifting through an email inbox can be daunting. Consumers are bombarded with thousands of messages, from promotions to urgent deals to breaking news. However, when a company can draw a customer in with a creative subject line and consistent information, it can mean the difference between a delete and a loyal customer. That’s what Cole Hardware, a family-owned operation with five stores in the San Francisco area, has worked on perfecting since it began its email marketing strategy years ago.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
3 Facets of a Successful Email Marketing Strategy
1. Experiment with various strategies to see what engages customers the most online, from testing out the
days of the week to the times an email is sent.
2. Give the opportunity to help develop content for newsletters or social media to the staff who are on the
salesfloor, engaging with customers.
3. Utilize the content from your email marketing to share with followers on Facebook and Instagram.
GETTING EVERYONE TO SELL: Address Your Culture to Drive Higher Profits
A culture of selling is one where everyone in the business, from leadership to front-line associates, all actively work together to meet the same goals of customer satisfaction and sales growth. If that sounds like a slice of retail utopia, it’s not as out of reach as you might think. Hardware Retailing spoke with three retailers who are engaging their teams in achieving sales goals. Their insights offer practical steps for creating a culture of selling where all employees are customer focused, collaborating and contributing to the overall growth and success of the business.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
3 Methods to Encourage Selling Among all Employees
1. Establish clear goals, using KPIs to understand what you want to achieve and why. Identify the big-picture challenges your company faces and then create specific goals to solve them.
2. Create goals for employee behavior. Engaged employees will build loyal customers, which build sales through repeat business.
3. Cultivate a sales mentality. Train employees to recognize opportunities for add-on sales.
WHY RISK IT: Approach Risk Mitigation Like the Big Boxes Do
As an independent home improvement operator, you may not need to report your financials to the Securities and Exchange Commission like your big-box competitors, but you should have a process in place to address financial performance, operational performance and operational risk. To help you navigate a risk assessment in your operation, Hardware Retailing spoke to Scott Reynolds, president and CEO of American Hardware & Lumber Insurance.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
3 Keys to Avoiding Unnecessary Risk
1. Involve all critical decision-makers in risk assessment.
2. Don’t overlook cybersecurity insurance and employment practices liability insurance.
3. Perform a SWOT—strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats—analysis.
THRIVING, NOT JUST SURVIVING: 5 Common Challenges to Growth and How to Overcome Them
As the former college football coach and current sports analyst Lou Holtz once said, “In this world you’re either growing or dying, so get in motion and grow.”
The same adage holds true for the independent home improvement channel. If you’re not growing, you’re likely getting complacent or even worse, declining. But don’t panic—growth comes in different forms and methods, and one operation’s goals for growth do not have to match another’s objectives. What matters is that you are growing or making plans to grow.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
5 Strategies to Overcome Growth Obstacles
1. Seek out opportunities to provide something others currently don’t offer. Rely on what you know and build on past successes in growth, no matter how small.
2. Grow through trial-and-error and a willingness to step out in faith. Don’t be afraid to fail, but rather learn from those experiences.
3. Whatever it looks like, growth should mean staying true to your operation’s values and committed to
customers.
4. Embrace growth that allows your operation to take advantage of scale.
5. Rather than letting fears get in the way of growth, look at the areas you can control.
UNTANGLING THE WEB: How 3 Retailers Approach Unique Online Strategies
Customer expectations around a retail experience are significantly different than they were just a few years ago, and the North American Hardware and Paint Association (NHPA) wanted to find out how retailers have been responding to those changes. In a survey to about 200 retailers representing nearly 600 stores, NHPA asked respondents to share their approach to an online presence, including websites, e-commerce and digital marketing. Some respondents were gracious enough to offer additional insight into their strategies and shared about their distinct approaches to being online.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
3 Keys to Successful E-Commerce
1. A critical piece of a successful e-commerce strategy is accurate inventory and having someone at the company invested in managing that data.
2. Rely on your wholesaler for product information management, or PIM, whether it’s images, product
descriptions or specifications.
3. The search function is a crucial part of e-commerce and is closely tied to the system being able to suggest related products or products frequently purchased together.
AI IS NOW: Bring Efficiencies to Your Operation With This Emerging Technology
From sentient supercomputers taking over space missions in “2001: A Space Odyssey” to a robot helping solve a murder and save the day in “Big Hero 6,” artificial intelligence (AI) has been a main character in pop culture for over a century.
No longer just a scene from science-fiction, AI is a constantly evolving technology that simulates human
intelligence using machines, allowing computers to complete tasks typically only humans can handle.
Depending on which side of the technology spectrum you’re on, this short acronym can either strike fear or conjure excitement. Regardless of your feelings on AI, it’s already here in the independent channel and has shown its usefulness in improving efficiencies within operations. And in these continually uncertain times, any gains in efficiencies that lead to a solid bottom line are welcome, no matter the size of your operation.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
9 Ways Independent Retailers Are Using AI
1. Loss prevention
2. Idea generation
3. Customer service
4. Advertising
5. Content creation
6. Solve problems
7. Cybersecurity
8. In-store services
9. Operational forecasting
FINANCIAL CHECK-UP: Understanding the Numbers That Drive Your Business
Much like a report from your doctor, financial statements provide valuable insight into the health of your business. They can explain some of the aches and pains you might be feeling and uncover hidden issues you should address before they become full-blown problems. Even if the financial health report is good, your income statement and balance sheet can offer direction on the ways to best spend your resources as you grow the business.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
3 Ways to Use KPIs
1. Reference industry benchmarking tools, like NHPA’s Cost of Doing Business Study, to see how you stack up against similar operations and where you have room to improve.
2. Look at each KPI in context and understand what the data means to your business as a whole. Use your KPI analysis to create an action plan for addressing past challenges.
3. Show employees portions of your operation’s finances so they understand the ways they can help the business be profitable.
SAFETY FIRST: OSHA Violation Leads Ohio Retailer to Develop Comprehensive Safety Program
It’s a call no retailer ever wants to get—the Occupational Safety and Health Administration
(OSHA) is on-site for a surprise safety inspection. For Scott Jerousek, owner of Farm & Home Hardware, which operates two stores in north central Ohio, with a third opening by the end of the year, it was more of a wake-up call that led to the development of a comprehensive safety program for the business and a “safety first” culture among his 130 employees.
KEY TAKEAWAYS: 3 Lessons Jerousek Learned
1. If an owner wants OSHA to visit their store to do a consultation, OSHA will not fine them for what they find but will want them to fix any violations.
2. Choose a reliable employee or group of employees to put in charge of overseeing company safety initiatives.
3. Obtain all proper OSHA certifications, implement safety training protocols and properly log
records for all safety training.
