Current Event #6: Customer Centricity

Walmart is always in the retail news. Whether they're building more stores, remodeling old stores, or having labor issues while trying to run the store, Walmart can keep themselves in the retail headlines and although I've tried to steer away from their news (because there are other retailers!), it's been hard and in this case, inevitable. The new platform that Walmart is launching is...interesting. An article from retailingtoday.com says, "Walmart has entered a new relationship with SymphonyIRI Group, through which the two will develop a solution that supports the retailer's customer-centric initiatives". The article goes on to explain these initiatives will be for web based customers and will, "deliver unique, custom, Walmart-focused shopper insights, while supporting Walmart's collaborative planning process by providing a dedicated shopper insights portal of user-friendly, customizable reports shared between Walmart and its supplier partners". I couldn't help but compare this site, which will be called Customer Advantage (not very creative, aren't there plenty of loyalty cards already called this), to the Sears managemylife.com site. The managemylife site is primarily for CUSTOMERS to use both before and after purchase. It is solely for their purpose to get more information on their products, manufacturers and manuals. The Walmart site however, is for suppliers and manufacturers to better understand growing customer needs. While this in the long run may help the retailer focus on more customer centric programs, it seems like the same thing every other retailer has done through the loyalty cards (studying shopping behaviors)


I asked one of the merchandising girls at work about her opinion on Walmart launching this site. Her first point was that Walmart is late. She said that plenty of retailers already have these sites (to my dismay she didn't know about the Sears site!). She also said that she didn't know if Walmart customers actually want/need the site. Her issue was that Walmart customers have a love/hate relationship with the retailer (I can agree) and that if this kind of site, which would be watching shopping behaviors and sharing those behaviors with many third parties was known about, then customers may have be uneasy about shopping with Walmart, particularly online (where most shoppers are already weary). Her second point was that she didn't think Walmart was very customer driven. I asked her about the "Great low prices, everyday" mantra and she said that the low prices cannot trump the customer un-friendliness in store. She's ultimately not at all impressed by Walmart's attempt.


I personally think that although the Walmart site may seem beneficial to suppliers and manufacturers to know information about the Walmart customer, its simply online. If the online AND store customer centricity does not translate than the site could possibly be a waste. Maybe a loyalty program in-store too, would help the situation but then again, Walmart is such an easy retailer to just go too. Some customers may go more than once a day in which case Walmart knows where its loyalties lie. I'm skeptical that the site will actually benefit customers directly (like the Sears site is specifically for them to use). While many of the in-store customer service attempts by Walmart may appear catered to the customer (money services, returns, etc.) the actual treatment of customers tells otherwise. The site seems to benefit Walmart more so than the customer. If this is going to be a common conception for the site, it won't help Walmart's reputation...at all. 

Source: Retailing (2011, July 25). "Walmart, SymphonyIRI to introduce Customer Advantage platform" Retreived on July 25, 2011 from http://www.retailingtoday.com/article/walmart-symphonyiri-introduce-customer-advantage-platform

Week 6: The Retail Biz'

Throughout my internship, I've learned so much about the retail industry and myself. Honestly speaking, retail was the last thing I wanted to go into except if I was selling my own stuff, of course. It just didn't seem appealing: long days, horrible hours, angsty customers, un-inspired employee's, and I wanted nothing apart of it. Now, I have a bit of a different perspective on it. I can honestly say that after about 10 weeks of working in the retail industry, we have a love/hate relationship. There have been times when I'm more than ecstatic to go out on the sales floor and interact with customers. There have also been times when I get out there and have a customer or fellow employee bite my head off for something I probably couldn't even control. Through that all, I'd rate my performance a 10 all around. No matter how my day was going, I'd always make sure to do whatever I could for my management team and for our customers. I by no means know everything about Sears processes or retail in general but my knowledge of the industry has expanded so much from what I knew coming in. My image of the professional corporate industry has also changed. The whole "upitty" judgement I had made on the corporate sector couldn't have been more wrong. My own image has even changed for the better. Lastly, my communication skills have had a very positive change. I've learned to speak up more and voice my opinion despite what I think others may say and for the most part, my assertiveness has helped me.


Sadly, but truthfully, during my internship I feel my greatest abilities lie in *shivers* office work. Seriously though, when I'm in the Human Resources office answering customer calls and listening to customer problems as they come in, I feel like I'm actually doing something that affects their perception of the Sears brand. It's really a good feeling to have a customer come in so angry and then you can do something to calm them and satisfy their need. Most customers feel like employees aren't listening or can't understand their issue but a sympathetic person that can do something to remedy the problem goes a long way!


I definitely need improvement understanding and relating corporate metrics to the customer and employees. Of course, I understand we're in business to make money. For example, Sears pushes credit. Employees struggle to get credit applicants all the time and their jobs are stressed by it. The customers don't want credit cards all the time! They especially don't wanna be pushed to applying for one during checkout. I don't understand why the amount of credit applicants and approvals trumps the happiness of employees and customers. I need to improve my understanding of overall corporate metrics and how those metrics positively affect the store level. I also need to improve my resiliency from a bad day, particularly not being able to make a customer happy. I often bring home the feelings I have for customers and worry about it when I can't make a customer happy. I know that if I don't separate the two, in the retail business, I will have a sour experience.


My best experience by far was the trip to Chicago! I learned so much and met a ton of friends that had the same interests as me. I also have enjoyed seeing the Kardashian line unravel. From the launch to actually getting the product in the store, it has been really exciting seeing the Sears brand transition to a more trendy look. My worst and about the only bad experience of my internship has been getting chewed out by customers and thinking I would get in LOTS of trouble for it!


My biggest fashion lesson learned: Never wear heels to work in a department store. Toms shoes are your friend.

Current Event #5: Labor

While some of Sears' biggest competitors like Walmart and more recently Target, are having labor disputes, it seems that the retail industry is getting this sentiment across its biggest businesses. In the article, "Target's Honeymoon Could be Over" there is talk of labor unions arising among Target employee's and the comparison to Walmart's labor disputes. The article says that like Walmart, Target "pays workers similar wages of between $9 and $11". While Target is significantly smaller than the Walmart brand, the attention of the labor unionization is not small. The article says, "Over the past year, Target has followed Wal-Mart by shifting more of its workers to part-time...Some employees say their hours have been cut from 30 per week to fewer than 10. Part-timers must bank at least 20 hours a week, on average, to qualify for benefits.". 


With all of these labor problems apparent, it seems likely that if employees are not happy with pay, hours, etc., they will fight back.  It took me by surprise that Target and Walmart are paying their employees $9-$11 while Sears is around $7.25-$10.51. It also surprised me that as I was looking up information on labor disputes within Sears, I couldn't find any information after 2007. While there seems to be a great deal of dissatisfaction within the store with positions and pay (mostly at the cashier level), it isn't translating to such the degree of Walmart and Target, which is great for Sears but I'm wondering if it is just a matter of time. I asked a cashier who has been at the same level for 25 years what he thought about his overall satisfaction with Sears as a retailer. He told me that basically the older Sears employees are neither happy or angry with the company in regards to treatment, pay, and benefits. It's the younger employees who think they deserve more than they get and that in turn makes the older employees frustrated. 


To an extent, I believe that. Just from my personal experience, I think that many of the older employee's thought that I was just some college kid, making more than them for doing nothing. Now, of course, that sentiment is gone because they have seen my work ethic and etc. However, I think (particularly for Sears), the employees who have been there for their whole lives and still making minimum wage will, soon enough, begin to realize they are worth more than that. This same issue was brought up at the internship conference and in essence we were told that corporate would be working on the issue of competitive pay in the business to ensure that employees are satisfied with their jobs. These new unionization problems may not be an issue with Sears right now, but I do think that if they aren't taken care of quickly, Sears may be the next big company in the light. 


Source: 


CBSMinnesota.com (2011, July 14). "Targets honeymoon could be over" Retreived on July 16, 2011 from topix.com/business/retail - http://minnesota.cbslocal.com/2011/07/14/targets-honeymoon-could-be-over/

Week 5: Chicago

My four day stay in Chicago is over and I was sad to go. The weather was AMAZING and so was the Sears corporate offices, Hoffman Estates. I learned so much about the company and got a real feel for the culture (which is more concrete at the corporate level than the store level). Everyone is so energized and excited for the transition that Sears is going through and open to our ideas and insight which was so refreshing! At the store level, none of that translates. Of course, some core values have made their way down but for the most part the store (more so the cashiers and sales people than management) is not passionate and the "mojo" is inconsistent. throughout the store. We all were able to give our insight and the corporate people really seemed to listen! It was nice. =) The CEO, Lou D'Ambrosio gave us a 45 minute talk he is hilarious! We also heard from directors and heads of all of the business industries Sears is in, including automotive, home improvement, appliances, and electronics. My favorite of course, was the director of apparel and home fashions, John Goodman. He was beyond fab! We went to spiffy dinners, had limo's, and stayed at a decent hotel, except it was in the middle of nowhere! I also had lunch with two of the buying interns that work in corporate and can I say, jealous?! I met so many people that I know will develop into lasting friendships. 


Here are some pictures from the trip. I'll add more in my project.

                                               One of the pretty glass/mirror covered buildings.

                                                      There were three floors of a sample store!

The atrium of one of the buildings in Hoffman.

Analise, a Kmart intern from Seattle.

                                                           The famous Kmart "blue light". 
Through all the merchandise directors we had speak, apparel had the most exciting news! Along with the Kardashian collection, they will be rolling out more celebrity collections at all locations. Right now, SOME of the Kmart and Sears stores have the Audrina Patridge, Selena Gomez and Sofia Vergara collections. Soon, all the locations will have their corresponding collections for more consistency. They are trying new vendors and brands to make themselves more relevant which I'm really looking forward to seeing. In addition to the classics that Sears sells in general to their older customer base, they are really branching out to the trendy and trend driven consumer which I think will pay off in the long run. The prices for some of these new collections however, is a bit questionable. Although they bear the name of a celebrity, I think a dress for example, $150 isn't going to resonate with the Sears customer. Hopefully, they are marking up just to mark down, otherwise I don't know how well the collections will do. Honestly, if I'm going to buy a dress for almost $200, it wouldn't be at Sears. I did ask about the price decision and I was told that the prices are set by the level of quality. I haven't seen any of the clothing firsthand so I don't know if the quality is much better than the house brands. 




I really do think I gained valuable insight at the conference though. It was very engaging and definitely made me more confident in the route the company is going in. The experience was truly amazing. As for next week, I'm looking forward to using some of the knowledge I gained at corporate at the store level. Especially because many employee's including managers have never been to Hoffman so I really need to be grateful and share everything that corporate shared with us. 

Current Event #4: Diversity

I remembered a story a few weeks ago about a Muslim woman suing Abercrombie and Fitch because they fired her for wearing her hijab at work. After reading full story, I realized that Sears may be one of the retailers that is lax with their dress code when it comes to this issue. We have many employee's at my specific store that wear their religious and ethnic garb without any consequence from management or corporate which I greatly appreciate from Sears. 


I asked one of the visual girls, Fatiway, who is Muslim how she felt about the Abercrombie issue and the supposed equal opportunity laws. Her take on the situation was that it was obviously unfortunate. She said her experiences have always been positive when it comes to working in retail and her religious observations. "I've never had a problem with wearing my garb at work. If anything, Sears has been very accommodating with me wearing my head wrap of any color. They treat it like an accessory that would be on anyone else."


It's detrimental for any company to deny someone employment or reprimand them for their religion. I cannot fathom why Abercrombie would even try it as if their reputation can take it! If things like this continue to happen within retail, there are certainly going to be more stringent laws and potentially less employees who would even want to work in the sector. 


Just from hearing what Fatiway had to say and experiencing the Sears culture myself, I can tell they are extremely open and diverse. We even do "potlucks" once a month for good customer reviews where everyone brings a food. I'm very grateful that my first retail experience could be with such an accepting company! 


Source: 10tv.com (2011, June 28). "Muslim woman sues Abercrombie and Fitch over hijab". Retrieved on July 9, 2011 from  http://www.10tv.com/live/content/local/stories/2011/06/28/story-new-albany-woman-sues-abercrombie-head-scarf.html. 

Week 4: Retail Life

Busy, busy, busy! Apparently the life of someone who works in retail NEVER stops. I mean, I knew the ups and downs of working in retail but gosh!


The upside, I have made plenty of friends at work. Me and the national trainee hit it off pretty well and we hang out in and out of work. The downside, everyone at work calls us twins (because we're always together) and when one of us does something, its assumed the other one knows what's going on. I don't know how to feel about it. 


Anyway, I love my coworkers! One of the cashiers is adamantly insisting that I date her son because she doesn't like his girlfriend. It's the highlight of my day, everyday! I've also seen that many of the employee's have very specific opinions about management which is interesting because I don't see the same aspects of it that they do. Overall, I think I understand the working dynamics and for the most part I like them. 


Although I can't take pictures in the store, we have the new ad for the Kardashian Kollection out now! It's basically an aisle pole kind of ad. 



I think its fitting for the collection as a whole but 1. We only have one sign up, in one aisle. Who's gonna see it?! 2. The sign is dark and for the most part blends in with Sears apparel surroundings. 
I really think there could have been a more creative way to advertise the collection instead of using the same sign we've been seeing since the launch proposal. I know everything in the collection isn't going to black, and if it is we need to do some accents to bring more attention to the "young" in the collection. Really though, Sears is not very fashion oriented when it comes to these things. We have a visuals team but from what I've seen, they focus on dressing the mannequins and setting ads in the juniors department. I think that's because the other clothing lines provide the signs to us, but this Kardashian Kollection is specifically for Sears so it would make sense for them to have some say!


I'll attempt to "sneak" and take some pictures in store. I'll definitely be taking some pictures at the intern conference in Chicago next week! I'm really excited! We'll be visiting the Sears Hoffman Estate and have a lot of network opportunities. Until then!  

Current Event #3: In denial

A few days ago, Zacks Investment Research published a short article about the top 5 companies in the department store industry based on relative performance. The analysis was based on recent trading activity on stocks that have the potential to outperform. Guess who wasn't on the list? 


The list in order was as follows:
1. Macy's
2. Kohl's 
3. Saks
4. Nordstrom
5. Dillard's 


Again, Macy's is kicking Sears' butt! It's number one on the list with a mere loss of 0.57% compared to Sears' lost of 2.6% in the last quarter. I asked the corporate trainee, who expects to be an assistant store manager in about 6 months, what she thought about the future of Sears in comparison with other department store retailers. She said, "I'm not worried about it. Sears is still a Fortune 500 company. So we're doing something right"


Despite the Fortune 500 company designation, it's obvious companies are doing something BETTER than us. For example, Walmart who ranks number one on the Fortune 500 list and Target at number 33! Although Macy's is a little lower on the list at 107, consumers are preferring them over us. I'm starting to think everyone is in denial! Everywhere I turn, someone is telling me that Sears is near bankruptcy...no one shops there...Sears is old news.


All in all, I think everyone is in denial. No one that works at the store level is worried and maybe they don't have reason to be. However, if all these companies continue to flourish without us doing anything, we will have something to be worried about!


Bibliography:


TOP 5 COMPANIES IN THE DEPARTMENT STORES INDUSTRY WITH THE BEST RELATIVE PERFORMANCE (June 23, 2011). Retrieved June 25, 2011. From http://www.zacks.com/research/get_news.php?id=174l7435.   

Bon-Ton and Sears Post 1st Quarter Losses (May 20, 2011). Retrieved June 25, 2011. From 

http://departmentstoreretailing.blogspot.com/2011/05/bon-ton-and-sears-post-1st-quarter.html.