> Page 28 Notes & Cents
> Page 30 Women of NAMM
IN THE TRENCHES I CYPH SHAH CREATING RETAIL RESOLUTIONS T he rebirth of a new year is an opportu- nity to revisit and overcome the pla- teaus we previously place bulk orders for hundreds of pieces multiple times this year. Now, it’s become a com- mon thing my customers stop in for. Life-changing money? No, but evidence of the snowball effect at work. For the analytically inclined
faced. As business savants, the opportunity to engage new year retail resolutions can be a vital source of lifeblood in the re- tail ecosystem. For most of us though, as the shine of a sparkly new year fades, so does the com- mitment we placed into these resolutions. I have a hack to overcome this holiday hurdle. First, let’s set the foundation. Transform- ing the root of your default interaction with these goals is available by understanding this premise whole-heartedly: Incre- mental growth does not bear fruit to linear returns. Rather, it’s proven to provide exponen- tial returns. Let that sink in so you internalize the value in that. Remind yourself of that notion for just a few moments during your morning routine. This way it can autonomously present it- self while you’re making micro decisions later in the day. Now, pull back a bit further on the lens. Try to recall all the improvements you passively told yourself you wanted to make during the course of the year. Evaluate your retail space. You’re going to need to trigger your memory, so bite down on some leather and think about your pain points.
out there, have you been won- dering what would happen if you incorporated more busi- ness intelligence tactics? Spot- ting trends in product sales or deficiencies in your choice of quantity to stock on orders can be a welcome lighthouse when in search of land. Understanding what to look for when com- paring quarterly sales reports can be a useful asset to your methodology. Or better yet, fig- ure out a unique way for your business model to use ChatGPT to do the heavy lifting by creat- ing the perfect prompts. You might even have a little R&D project on your hands that one of your employees would have fun with. The possibilities of AI are literally limitless at this point, and for $20 a month, it’s hardly a SpaceX-level capital investment. Perhaps you don’t have the solutions in mind just yet but you can easily spot the problem areas. This can take shape in something like poor inventory tracking that leads to canceling online orders, or a certain skillset your team lacks that’s caused aggravating setbacks but weren’t monumental
“The opportunity to engage new year retail resolutions can be a vital source of lifeblood in the retail ecosystem.”
Maybe you’re tired of turn- ing customers away when they request a specific niche item you don’t stock. You’ve already considered the potential in on- boarding some of these products into your inventory but never got to it. For us at Astro AVL in
Glendale, California, that was a really simple countertop prod- uct. Chroma Caps are used for DJ equipment to give artists the opportunity to customize the look of their gear. While they only sell for a few bucks each, I’ve had one customer
26 I MUSIC INC. I DECEMBER 2024
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