Well it’s been a long, crazy 18 months for all of us both personally and professionally and for the most part, we’ve all been in some sort of “survival mode” just to keep our heads above water with many aspects of our businesses. I’ve done more video store tours and consultations this past year than I ever thought possible and as we worked our way through the stores, I started hearing many of the same comments regarding your merchandising.  

Things like, “oh, please don’t pay any attention to this part of the store, we’ve just been piling things up there since COVID,” or “Nobody’s really been browsing in the store so we really stopped worrying too much about how things looked around here” came up frequently.  

Retail showrooms got converted to receiving areas, shoe fit areas became a quick place to store inventory and apparel sections became extra cluttered and almost unshoppable as less and less people were visiting in person.  

Now, thankfully, we seem to have the worst of it all behind us and despite all of our fears of consumers never wanting to leave their house again to shop in-person, we’re actually seeing quite the opposite — customers are making exceptional efforts to visit local retailers both to keep their own sanity intact and also as an act of solidarity with community members and small business owners. It is an effort to band together and support them the best way they can — with their wallets.  

At The Running Event I hope to get you re-engaged with some of the most critical merchandising best practices that may have slipped off your radar since COVID.  I also want to give you some new ideas to take home on how to freshen things up and create some unique, inspiring experiences for your shoppers.    

Both loyal and new customers of yours are coming out to shop again and are looking for new reasons to continue supporting your business and to keep coming back for more. Let’s give them the experience they’re craving.