Purpose, community, sustainability & value, by Adam Rose

Adam Rose, academic, retail specialist and charity/small business supporter and consultant

One thing is constant about retail – it’s always in change

Perhaps that’s why we all love it! Delighting customers, achieving results, working as a team, improving processes – it’s a great industry for making things happen. But of course it’s not without its challenges – the cost of living, worries about society and the environment, building stronger relationships with customers, concerns about being able to manage workloads and resources and getting the right stock to the right location – probably all sounds familiar I’m sure.

These challenges and achievements are tackled and overcome by retailers big and small for profit or good causes alike. You have to in order to keep going. It might be quite easy to argue that the big high street retailers have the resources to overcome these challenges and be able to take them in their stride.

And the smaller or non-profit retailers? Much harder as resources are stretched. Therefore it’s an amazing testament to charity retail, and all those that support this type of retailing, how well you have thrived in these most difficult of times – and seem to be getting stronger.

But wait – let’s look at those metrics, qualities and challenges again.

  • Cost of living
  • environment
  • engagement
  • societal concerns …

The growth and achievements of charity and non-profit retail perhaps should not come as such a surprise. You are equipped with all a consumer wants:

  • Value
  • Building communities
  • Continuing product life, helping us all be more sustainable
  • and you do it all for great causes – purpose.

My retail career and background (and that of friends and colleagues), is with the big profit players. Driving results, change, improvements and engagement. Great to be involved in and hugely rewarding. My academic and industry connections and resources keep me aligned with what is evolving and changing in the sector. So I am well versed in what their capabilities are.

However, to complement this, in quite recent times I was fortunate to experience charity and non-profit organisations up close and get to understand the passion, energy and qualities of some amazing people. And what struck me is what a wonderful blend of those skills and qualities, but also those attributes across Value, Purpose, Community and Sustainability that makes the charity shop / site an amazing place to shop – it’s all there.


A broad and compelling message

I have yet to see, though, a broad and compelling message of those four attributes all pulled together to call out what must be (subliminal or not) the reasons why people want to shop with you more and more.

Consider those messages and qualities when planning your next marketing campaigns and customer messaging and tap into what are very powerful calls to action. Blending those messages all together could have some striking results and might turn the heads of customers that don’t cross your threshold and bring a comforting reminder to those that do.

What I think we will find in 2024 is the big guns will continue to work out how they can attract in the same way. Value has always been there, Sustainability is growing in importance and at pace , Community building with customers is now a science but perhaps real Purpose/good causes might always be a challenge. You can also be sure they are focusing on all these areas and have many of the resources and investment in innovation to make ground – and to do so efficiently. They have to….

I predict we will see more and more messaging and initiatives from the mainstream retailers gathering momentum on all four fronts this year. Make the most of these as much as you can but perhaps also consider how you might not just attract more customers with great messages but how you can still make good strides behind the scenes.


Stock and customer ‘journeys’

I have been fascinated by the processes and decisions being made constantly at charity retailers around price, stock management, allocation, marketing and engagement. I call this the stock and customer ‘journeys’.

  • What’s it like to move around your business as an item of stock?
  • Where do I go, how often am I handled and processed, categorised and priced?
  • How does a customer feel when visiting a store or website?

There may be some significant efficiencies to be made in these journeys – helping with timing/pace, costs and accuracies perhaps, maybe you can influence the location to help a customer and stock meet. Systems and technologies are always improving, logical and efficient methodologies being deployed, innovations made.

Along with the challenges and rewards, improvements and innovation are constants in retail too. You can be sure the big profit companies are focusing on all of these all the time. Maybe you need some help with your business? I’d love to explore if I could help your ‘journeys’ – and that of your stock and customers too.


Delving a little further into technology

Another call to action in 2024, while I have your attention – the rising prevalence of AI across all our daily activities (work or otherwise) continues to move at quite a pace. Embrace this – don’t fear it – and don’t see it as complex tech for the young or digitally savvy minded or as super expensive investments.

This capability can help manage information, processes, communication and research. It helps already in day to day activities and can and will be adopted in business – marketing, logistics, key analysis, customer engagement to name but a few. I am learning about this myself (I am still a novice!) but I encourage you and your teams to start your journey if you haven’t already.

AI tools and interactions will be as common as emails and our Google searches very soon. Take a look at:

  • ChatGPT, Bard, Perplexity or Claude and ask anything you like! Think of these like advanced Google search tools
  • Midjourney, Leonardo or DALLE for images generated from your text … yes, type away and see your image come to life
  • Presentations? Canva, Gamma, SlidesAi or Beautiful
  • Business data, analytics – maybe Microsoft Co-Pilot can help

Or maybe it’s a video, a podcast, a marketing blog – the resources are endless. AI will be commonplace in the home, the workplace, the classroom and the shopping centre before the year is out. It sits behind much website functionality already. Embrace it!!! I would add that you should find a free version of all these capabilities and tools.


So, in summary

If not on your radar already, think about how well placed you are to attract and engage your customers – existing and new – as you offer VALUE, you adopt SUSTAINABLE practices by extending product life, you build COMMUNITY and you do it all with incredible PURPOSE and for great causes. And maybe have a think about those customer and stock journeys too. Perhaps after a little peek and play with AI…

Long may you thrive and stay ahead of what other retailers are after. They don’t have the unique and amazing blend of qualities that you have. I hope this gave you some food for thought. If you’d like to talk more please get in touch.

Adam Rose, Retail Practitioner and Consultant
adamrose.home@gmail.com