This issue of FCW may just be one of the most powerful when it comes to sharing the voice of the floor covering specialty retailer — it includes the latest news and information from three of our dedicated and exclusive reports and series.
First is the Retail Market Intelligence Report (RēCo), a cornerstone annual issue for 20 years now. This year, more than 1,000 retailers shared their voice — thank you to each of the 1,040 retailers that spent their valuable time to answer some 70 different questions about their own store’s performance and that of their vendors.
This information’s value runs deep. It provides benchmarking for retail business breakdowns — a store’s category breakdown, who they serve and some customer insight among other key data points. Then, it looks at how a store’s partners are serving them in areas such as quality, pricing, claims, availability and more as well as what markets the retailer serves.
It’s one of the most anticipated issues of the year (a close second to the annual Statistical Issue coming up next month) and for that we have to thank our retail readers for their participation. We couldn’t do it without you! And The Wayman Group helps guide this research and compiles the data each year. It is painstaking work so we thank them too!
The Retail Road Trip series is now in its fifth year (a brief pandemic hiatus relegated us to virtual tours but we nonetheless “got inside” retail stores as best we could.) Happily, we rebooted the in-person visits last year and started this year strong with parts of California, Denver and now the Milwaukee area. For this edition, our editors took advantage of being at NWFA held there and built a trip around some of Wisconsin’s leading retailers — eight of them to be exact. We know there are more and we will get there! Our commitment is to bring as many unique stories to light as possible.
The Retail Road Trips are indeed a commitment — our own investment in time and equity — but each meeting we have reinforces the importance of sharing these stories. Because each store has a unique history and serves its market a bit differently than its competitors do. Where will we go next? Stay tuned!
Newer to the FCW library, the Next Gen Leadership series is now in its third installation. These stories too are unique. We know that the industry is in transition, identifying the next set of retail leaders to take it into the future. Many of the retailers we’ve talked to are in their third — some fourth — generation of leadership. How they got there is special because some tell us they came back to their family’s business unplanned and out of a need while for others, it was in the cards all along.
Succession planning has been a hot topic of conversation over the last few years and promoting success stories can inform the path you choose to take. Both the Retail Road Trips and Next Gen Leadership reveal the heart of the flooring industry.
Indeed, this issue has a sharp focus on the specialty retailer and we will continue to serve you as we head into the second half of the year with content that matters to you most. That will include the next (and third) in the Retail Business 101 series that is designed to help with the business basics whether it is attracting, hiring and retaining talent, understanding mark ups and margins or other meaningful and foundational tactics.
RēCo, Retail Road Trips, the Next Gen Leadership series and Retail Business 101 were all developed for you. Do you have a story to tell? Please, let us know — we clearly are eager to share it!
Stay safe. Stay inspired.