Retail pricing mistakes happen when the customer is charged the wrong price.  You need to charge a price you can make a profit on.  Of course, this means that a retailer must be extremely aware of their pricing strategy to ensure that their pricing is done accurately and in a timely manner.

Failure in this seemingly simple matter can lead to all sorts of problems, from unintended “loss leaders” that sap profits, to confused customers who become indignant if a wrong price cannot be honored.

Here are six pricing mistakes that retailers should avoid:

1. Phony savings

A recent story about JC Penney illustrates one of the top pricing mistakes for retailers: placing price tags that are higher on top of originally tagged items that were lower.

Nothing makes customers madder than peeling back a price tag, in this instance, a men’s short sleeve shirt on sale for $13.99 marked down from $20 with an original price tag under showing it originally sold for $10. Outfit your price-changers with a razor blade if necessary to scrape all of the other prices away – no one wants to emulate J.C. Penney.

2. Mispricing

While a POS system will charge the correct price when scanned, the customer will demand the posted price on a mismarked item. Customer service demands that you comply but your staff has to be trained to correct this situation immediately on the entire inventory of the item still in the store.  If they don’t, you risk losing your profit margin on every one of those items sold.

Likewise an item that is correct in the POS system, but holds a higher price on the shelf could cripple your turn of that line. The fix? Always have someone spot-check.

3. Markup Errors

Figuring the markup on a product is not particularly difficult, especially since every smartphone has a calculator. Finding someone to do it responsibly and correctly is another story. Over- and underpricing occurs if the storeowner or manager does not figure out the correct selling price when they order the item.

4. Magnified Perception of Worth

Sometimes you get a great deal on a line and you aggressively mark it up. It pays however, in both inventory turnover and gross margin, to charge a price similar to that of comparable products from other vendors.

There’s usually a reason you got a great price on something – your vendor knows something you have yet to discover – it doesn’t sell.

5. Under Perception of Worth

Pricing an item under keystone because it won’t move at the price it should be marked to deflates the hope you’ll be profitable on the product.  You did the work in finding the product, paying to ship it there, and showcasing it in your rented retail space; you should also reap the reward.

Pricing too low means when you have to put the item on clearance, you are paying customers to take it away.

6. Failure to Stay Current

Sheer laziness accounts for many of the mistkaes that occur with pricing merchandise. Don’t let it stop you from checking your current costs at the vendor level and updating your prices on reorders as necessary. Otherwise, you may end up discounting yourself out of the market by undercutting your profit margin.

Wrong pricing is one of the most common (and often hidden) mistakes that can cripple a retailer.

How your employees should be greeting a customer is a frequent topic among retailers.

Today, RetailWire discussed What is the Significance of a Smile? The topic was based on a report from the UK, The Lost Art of Loyalty which found:

59% said a smile and a friendly hello was the most common reason why consumers feel loyal towards small and independent retailers.

That’s good.

But only 54% of small and medium-size businesses stated their business employed this practice.

That’s bad.

Or is it?

Sales managers can tell you one thing has remained constant for generations; a friendly salesperson sells more than an unfriendly salesperson.

A lot more.

The old saw of hiring “friendly people” is great advice. Except that what you consider friendly and what your employees may feel is friendly can be worlds apart.

And when you add into the mix their feelings about having to sell, well you may be expecting your employees to dig a ditch when all they are coming to work with is a knife; they are ill-equipped to do the job at hand.

So you might decide to require employees to smile at every customer. You might put it in your handbook. You might post signs at the register to SMILE.

So now they are to dig the ditch with only a knife and smile while they are doing it.

Nothing destroys chemistry in a store quicker than phoniness.

Let’s back up a minute…

You have to start with why smiling is important – it should be an outward expression of an employee’s willingness to serve.

While you can prevent some of that during your hiring, ultimately if you are concentrating on the appearance of friendliness over the intangibles of being friendly, it just won’t work.

From the luxury shopper to the dollar store shopper – everyone can spot a phony right away.

Yes, you can foster friendliness among your retail sales crew by introducing your best customers to your new hires and you can go out of your way to introduce them to each other, but ultimately, you have to be willing to pay to train the employee the process to build rapport.

You wouldn’t expect an employee to:

• Cut hair without scissors..
• Make a dress without a sewing machine or
• Deliver a refrigerator without a truck

You would need to supply the tools your employees needed but didn’t have.

In short you need to be willing to supply the shovel before you expect the ditch.

So many retailers are struggling right now trying to increase conversion rates, attract customers and sell their best merchandise. Yet the competitive advantage of retail sales training continues to be lost on all but a handful of companies.

That’s why I’ve taken my retail sales training online and made it affordable for any size retailer to teach the soft skills of retail. You can find out more about SalesRX here.

Should a smile be required when your employees greet your customers? No.

Once they receive retail sales training and more tools to create an exceptional experience, they’ll do that naturally.

What does great customer service look like?

When done right, great customer service creates and exceptional experience and shouldn’t really look like anything. It should let the customer know that for those few minutes, they are the most important person in the world. They are treated with an open heart by the employee who is open to meeting new people, sharing something about themselves and helping someone. All of that should be so seamless that all the customer thinks when walking away or hanging up the phone is Boy! That was an exceptional experience!

What are brands actually selling?

A feeling. The best brands can be captured in a few words, much like a movie’s main theme. For E.T. it was get home, for most detective films it’s find the girl. For consumer brands like Ralph Lauren it’s an idealized Americana, for Prada it’s the luxury lifestyle, for Eddie Bauer it is the spirit of adventure. Brands that you can’t quickly pinpoint the feeling they are selling will struggle.

What are the positive results of a great retail location?

A great location in retail is the difference between success and failure. You can lease a shop 100 feet off the main drag in your hometown to save money, but you’ll give that savings back in promotions, ads and a constant drive to get people in the door. Leasing a killer location next to a busy restaurant will only help you if you can be all the hours it is open.

What are retail sales techniques?

Much like the outline of a book, retail sales techniques tell the retail associate how a sale should progress from greeting the customers, building rapport, showing them around, presenting the merchandise, closing the sale and inviting them to return. These retail sales techniques insure a thoroughly satisfying shopping experience. Without retail sales training, employees look at sales as hit or miss.

What are three ways to approach a customer at a retail store?

• Smile before you do anything.
• Meet their eyes.
• Say, “Good morning.”

What is something I should know about opening a retail store?

It will take longer to become profitable than you first think; make sure you have enough money. You don’t want to be looking at every customer like they have to buy something or no one will.

What attracts customers to a retail store?

Customers want to be where it is busy. New stores and newly remodeled stores attract customers, just like new merchandise. That’s partly why location is key but also why it is so important to train your employees to move throughout your store. Shoppers want to see they won’t be the only ones in that store.

What is easier to increase, sales or foot traffic?

It is easier to increase sales because sales are not dependent on getting more customers, but on getting more out of the customers you already have.  Marketing stops at the front door, and there is little a retail employee can do to alter foot traffic. But once a customer steps through your brick and mortar doors, a well-trained salesperson can increase conversions dramatically.

What is a five-finger employee discount?

Employee theft. The five fingers of the hand take the merchandise and hide it; i.e. steal it.

What is merchandising?

Also referred to as visual merchandising, this describes how you arrange the products in a retail store. It could be everything from the display fixtures and signage to the type of products and how they are displayed.

I know there are more questions out there, so please post yours on my Facebook page.

The truth is, Millennial generation employees leave managers, not companies. If you are wondering why you can’t keep good employees – especially Millennial generation employees – here are five reasons and solutions:

Your onboarding process.

In the old days, you’d give an employee a handbook, let them shadow someone for a week, and you would feel they were trained. Most of them, however, were still really winging it.

That isn’t going to work in 2013.

Why? Millennial employees are much less concerned with working for a company for a long time. When it gets boring, most will move on to another company before you’ll have time to write them up. You can’t just let them be a warm body who just shows up, takes out the trash, and stocks the shelves.

What to do: Your onboarding of an employee must quickly bring them into the fold as an ambassador of your brand. Tell them why you are in business and how you are different from other retailers. Get them to try on your merchandise and view your Facebook fan comments. At the end of the first day, have a conversation with them about what they see as your strengths.  The object is to get them to connect with you, your brand and your customers on that very first day.

The tasks you have them focus on.

Employees nowadays need a challenge. Millennials are one of the smartest, most curious and positive generations on the planet. They also are one of the least self-directed. If you only train them to stock, price and clean, they will feel as if they are serfs in your kingdom.

What to do: Cleaning and stocking are all part of retail – but they aren’t retail. Retail is the connection between customers, your employees and your products.  The soft skills of building rapport and selling the merchandise should be your focus, not the old, “if you can lean you can clean.”

Lack of culture promotes a them, not us feeling.

If you have a stable base of senior employees who know each other, outsiders are rarely genuinely welcomed. The newbie usually has to prove they are funny, smart, or can sell to the rest of the crew before they are brought into the fold.

The problem is that can make it feel like a them, not us culture.  Millennials especially are a we generation. Make them feel isolated or alone and they just won’t stand for it.

What to do: Make sure you find ways to introduce everyone to the new employee. Take care to build enough rapport with them from the outset, so you can describe something your senior employee and the newbie Millennial might have in common.  Be as concerned that they fit into your culture as much as how they’ll sell your product.

Nothing special.

Let’s face it, there are a lot of unremarkable retailers out there. If you are one of them where the products you carry can be found in many places and the store experience is basically customers bringing their purchases to the counter, it’s going to be a fairly dreary job for anyone to work. Especially for minimum wage.

What to do:  Because you aren’t paying them the big bucks Millennials think they’re worth, it is up to you to give them the skills they can use when they move on. It’s up to you to make your store a fun place to work; a place where they feel they belong and a place they look forward to coming to. Millennials were taught to only respond when they were rewarded, so do things like reward good behavior or great sales with lottery scratchers.

If you are more ambitious, take a look at  how you can adapt the peer-to-peer model being used by a California Ace Hardware where employees are able to share their knowledge in a new way that is fun and builds community.

You’re just rotten to work for.

Oops, that smarts. I know. I used to be rotten to work for when I began in retail. I’d either kick them up the stairs with a promotion or out the door with a pink slip.  While that worked in the early 80’s, being hard-nosed or inconsiderate will alienate both your best and newest employees.

Expecting Millennial generation employees to be at your beck-and-call by waiting to post the schedule on Friday for the week that begins the next day leads to resentment. So does telling them they have to stay late. As does telling them they have to train someone new. They’ll repay your inconsideration by stealing, being tardy or missing shifts.

How to keep the good ones:  During your training, be very clear what the trainee has to do to get a promotion. Let them know it is their job to make the manager look good. When they add value and become indispensable in their present position, give them additional responsibilities and a raise.

In sum

If you’re not sure if you are hard to work for, don’t be afraid to ask employees to review you.  Make sure they know you are listening.

If you are doing all of these things and it’s not working for you, you may need to do a better job at hiring. Although you want to reach all Millennials, you may not be able to because many have been raised to get by with doing almost nothing but still get the reward. If they won’t buy into your process and be successful, let them go.

Keeping good employees means looking at things from their perspective – which for many Millennial generation employees is getting something for nothing –  not just from yours. Give care and concern to your Millennial employees and hope they’ll do the same for you and your customers. If they don’t, again, you must fire them. In that regard, they are no different than any generation employee.

Advertising is your face to the world. It is how you tell others who may never have heard of you about your brand. It is also how you keep those who do know your brand aware and interested. It is a natural extension of your store.

One of the most common complaints I hear from retailers is that their advertising isn’t working like it used to. Here are five common reasons you aren’t attracting customers.

The person viewing your advertising doesn’t know who you are

While you can purchase lists of emails, physical addresses and even Twitter followers, your return is usually very, very low because the people you reach this way don’t know who you are.  You are essentially cold calling them, hoping that at that very moment, they are looking for whatever you are selling. and will buy.

How to correct it: Don’t buy lists of strangers. People who know you are your greatest advertising opportunity. Find more ways to provide value to those on your list so they will help you spread the word.

The person viewing your advertising doesn’t know what you want them to do

When a customer lands on your website, opens an email or pauses before throwing your postcard in the trash, do they know what do you want them to do? If your advertising isn’t clear, customers will either click from your page, delete or round-file.

How to correct it: Always have someone look at your advertising to try to find the call-to-action.  It could be you want the viewer to come in, or you want them to click and find more information, but whatever the message, it must be abundantly clear to a casual reader. Font choice, color and action verbs make your directions clear.

The medium you’re using to advertise is ineffective

While you can still advertise in the Yellow Pages, or print fliers and put them on car windows, or even have some kid in a silly costume jumping up and down, don’t waste your money.

How to correct it: Ask your customers if they read newspapers, websites or magazines where you are thinking of advertising. Ask your kids too, and unless there is a clear majority, steer clear of costly ads. Instead, invest your money on Facebook sponsored stories to targeted interest groups.More about that in a later post.

Too many messages

Just because you can put ten things in one email, have fourteen categories on one web page, or list multiple events in one status update, doesn’t mean you should. In fact, you shouldn’t.

How to correct it: Less is more. Find one strong message you want to promote. Then in each email, status update or webpage, tell one simple story and give it one call-to-action.

Discover and Avoid  These 5 Email Mistakes

Not unique

I received an email with the subject line, “We found some stuff for you.” I didn’t open it, and I doubt many would. Poor subject lines result in never-opened, deleted emails.

How to correct it: Monitor your own habits for selecting whether to open an email – or not. The subject line has to be a headline that gets the reader to want to know more. Personalizing with the first name of the reader in the subject line has been proven to increase open rates.

It’s all about you

You know how you feel when you encounter someone who just talks about themselves? Great, then you know why this is so bad! So you’re having an event, a sale, or you received a new order – I don’t care and neither does your customer. You have to tell the customer how the information you are sharing relates to them.

How to correct it: Use the words you and your extensively.  Create your advertising with a person in mind. Relate everything back to how the reader can reduce stress, save or make money, have more time or feel better.

Making your advertising work involves knowing who you are, what message you want to send, and then making sure your customers know what to do when they view it.  All advertising must be unique to you.

Today’s a big day in my career as a retail consultant; a sort of bookend to a journey I began fifteen years ago with a coffee retailer, Mike Sheldrake at Polly’s Gourmet Coffee.

Mike was going up against one of the largest consumer brands in the world, Starbucks.

Alone.

It’s a bookend because at that moment fifteen years ago my brand and career catapulted into a bright future.

And today marks the end of the store that made it all possible.

Because today, the Starbucks that moved in 100 feet from Mike’s doors is closing.

Corporate speak is that Starbucks is consolidating their two Belmont Shore stores into one remodeled location.

Fifteen years ago, large chains used their clout to add locations; it didn’t matter if there was sufficient demand or not.

My take on this location’s closing? Demand wasn’t high enough.

Back then

Fifteen years ago, Mike’s client base began to erode as his customers flocked to the store with a green logo that symbolized a premium product.

Independent wasn’t a badge of courage back then.

Mike could have continued doing business the same way he had always done business for the previous 20 years…

He could have put his head in the sand and continued to watch his margins, sales and profits disappear.

But he knew enough to say, “I’ve got to change.”

Mike sensed he wasn’t providing enough for his customers to want to return, so he hired me.

I had been in business as the Retail Doctor for a few years but I wasn’t well-known yet as a retail consultant.  That’s when Mike’s search led him to me.

You can read my complete Polly’s case study here.

Together we remade his business to fight the corporate giant. And we didn’t make it a pity party,  we made it a game that poked fun at Starbucks as ordinary coffee.  We improved the customer experience, the retail sales training, the employees and the environment.

Once sales were up 50%, I brought two other coffeehouse owners together to form the Long Beach Coffee Alliance. To jumpstart the PR, I took a picture of the three of them in front of the very Starbucks that is closing today. It got some great press.

While one of the three sold his business and moved to Italy and another transformed his into a franchise, Mike loved his location and was up for the David v. Goliath battle.

And he knew enough to listen to me. Even when it hurt to admit I was right.

“I wouldn’t be in business if it weren’t for Bob Phibbs, the Retail Doctor.” – Mike Sheldrake

It was the right time, and we were the right people.

How do you make today the right time for you and your brand?

Don’t be one of the many hair salons, toy stores, gift stores, teacher’s supply stores, hardware stores, jewelry stores and other retailers that have given up and closed their doors. Don’t ignore the changing signs of a shifting marketplace:

• Decreased customer counts
• Promotions not working
• High turnover

Today, the signs can be a bit more muddied as the very people smiling at you on the street, could be shopping your competitor from their smartphone as they pass your retail store.

Mike didn’t stay stuck in fear; he persevered doing the only thing he could do – work on his own four walls. (Read more about the case study here.)

“We understood the battle is never over,” says Sheldrake, whose coffeehouse is still healthy and boasts over $1 million in annual sales.

Some said that Starbucks had crossed the line with their tough, competitive practice that made no economic sense and served only to wipe out rivals.

It took 15 years, but this week the folly of opening a second location apparently became evident to the Starbucks team.

One thing didn’t change for Mike – where there’s hope, there’s a way.

To compete you still have to:

• Move from hopelessness to battle cry
• Be open to new ideas
• Do things you stopped doing once you got busy
• Inspect what you expect
• Reinvent your business from the ground up

It’s simple, whether you are a luxury retailer, gourmet deli or any retailer in the world.

You can’t just have the best products.

You have to give customers a reason to purchase…

From you…

Today.

Unless you start with your customers, you’ll end up distracted, thinking that success will happen if you hold more sales or just educate potential customers on the importance of buying local.

Customers already know you are local.

Instead of trying to educate them, give them a reason to buy from you.  It’s the soundest advice I can give you and the same retail advice I’ve given to numerous successful retail clients for more than twenty years.

If it hadn’t been for that Starbucks, there may be no Retail Doctor. And yet here I am and here is Polly’s, both still here and thriving.

R.I.P. Starbucks Belmont Shore and thank you…

Having written the book on retail sales, I am often asked what are the biggest mistakes retailers and their employees make.

Before I get to those, I want to make sure you understand that while everyone thinks increasing sales and attracting new business comes from marketing, that’s only part of the solution.

Why? Because your marketing really just gets them to the door, how you actually convert those new shoppers to buyers in your brick and mortar location is all that matters.

And that’s where so many retailers fall down.  Hard…

They fall down on the experience a customer has in their retail store.

Marketing brings customers to the door; these five retail selling mistakes send them out empty-handed:

Clustering Behind the Counter

The employee hopes that their manager will perceive them as ready, willing and able to help the next customer that passes through the door, while the employee really just wants to kill some time gabbing with his work friends. Those employees who instigate clustering not only provide terrible customer service that results in low conversion rates of their own but they also spoil the conversion rates of their team and indeed, the whole store.

Leaving Customers Alone to Browse

The employee tells their manager that customers do not want to be bothered until they are ready. How would they know if the customer has not even been greeted? On the contrary, most customers appreciate some direction and, once greeted, are more likely to engage with a salesperson later in their shopping.

If you don’t have a selling process for your store, customers probably want to be left alone because the employee is just a body with no personality. Or your employees use the excuse, I want to be left alone when I shop. Leaving customers alone can be the losers limp leading you to think your store needs yet another sale or coupon. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Assuming the Customer Can’t Afford It

Veteran salespeople as well as new ones make this mistake but veterans have the good sense to not let it become a habit. Judging a book by its cover can cost you. Imagine if Mark Zuckerberg walked into your store in his signature flip-flops, hoodie and jeans, who on your staff might think he could be seemingly down on his luck? Yet in reality he has the wherewithal to buy your entire store. Retail sales training is the place to address this pesky trend in retail.

Running to the Counter Before the Customer

This tactic is another symptom of a sales associate who would rather be doing something, that is, anything, rather than engaging a customer.  Walking with a customer to the counter is the perfect time to upsell and should not be rushed.

Not Inviting the Customer to Return

First impressions do count but the last impression is the one that customers remember. Retail salespeople must thank the customer for their business and invite them to return. A superior manager will set a good example to reinforce this behavior by spending time thanking customers – especially during the busiest part of the day.

As you can see, these five retail sales mistakes are not particularly difficult to avoid if one pays attention, hires well and employs a good retail sales training program.

Retail sales training may not be the best route to success for high-end, luxury brands.

Some brand managers would argue that their luxury brand salespeople enjoy a different dynamic, one that is not subject to the fundamentals of retail selling.

Here are 10 reasons:

Everyone is Already Familiar with the Brand – With a well-recognized name, you don’t need to have your sales staff push the product; the product will just sell itself.  You can dispense with salespeople altogether putting an emphasis on kiosks and iPads so customers can find what they need on their own.

No Need to Differentiate the Product – The vast majority of customers already understand the difference between an original product and a similar, knock-off sold at a discount. There is no need to build rapport – just explain features like durability, functionality, innovation and warranties.

Quality Speaks – Quality is self-evident and doesn’t need to be extolled. Luxury customers already understand that the lowest price item is never the best.

Ambiance Sells – It’s not the product, it’s the store design. Customer service comes in a distant second to the look and feel of a truly beautiful store. The ambiance of the colors, attractive displays and cutting-edge lighting can easily make up for a lack of skills in a retail sales person.

Consumers Know What They Want – Luxury customers are very particular; they know precisely what they want. If you don’t have what they want, traditional selling techniques are a waste of time. Just let customers go somewhere else or online.

Upselling and Suggestive Selling is Passé – In the luxury world, not asking a question can be far more powerful than trying to upsell. Suggesting additional options can be seen as too forward. People of means know more than the sales staff when they walk in the door and don’t require anything unless they ask.

There’s No Showrooming – Most luxury shoppers, especially those in the younger demographics, wouldn’t dream of using a smartphone to find a lower price – it is so déclassé – and, even if they did, there are no products that are as good as yours.

True Sales Skills are Innate – Great salespeople are born and not created. It’s far easier to wait for a great salesperson to appear, like a needle in a haystack, and then pay them top dollar, than it is to develop every employee with proven retail sales skills. In addition, you don’t have to worry about a retail selling strategy, as the experienced pro will just do it a different way each time.

No Pressure is Required – As they say, “Good things come to those who wait.” With luxury customers, the question of a sale is not if they will buy, but when, so patience is what is needed until the customer waves their hand letting your staff know they are ready to be helped.

Luxury Customers Know The Score – High-end customers have already proven that they know how the game is played. They expect to pay top dollar for no other reason than they are well-heeled. Don’t confuse them by having professional salespeople who strive to sell the premium merchandise.

In Sum

Yes, this post was tongue firmly planted in check. And yet, as I visit luxury boutiques around the world, it seems this is many brands’ modus operandi.

Maybe in Don Draper’s era, these attitudes were perfectly acceptable – even encouraged – but I would suggest the soft skills of retail sales have atrophied– especially at the high-end. You need to be memorable.

And even if you are doing fine, I ask you, how much money are you leaving on the table with each customer that exits your store?

If you think you can depend on customers to frequent your business and buy from you because that’s what they’ve always done in the past, I have news for you… the Dowager Countess of Grantham has left the building.

In luxury retail, it’s no longer caveat emptor (buyer beware,) but caveat venditor (seller beware.)

Whether they’re looking for a retail sales job for the summer, a second job, or a new career, many people turn to jobs in retail while they look for other opportunities.

Retail can be the best job for anyone –  from college-age to past retirement – to develop their people skills.  If you choose a job in retail, you have to be willing to be what the employer wants.

In my day, you didn’t have to know anything to be hired or to stay in retail. It didn’t matter then, but it certainly matters now.

Why?

It’s still true that retailers recognize that some employees may be short-term but they still demand an honest day’s work for an honest day’s pay. But now the retail world is much more competitive now than ever before.

If you are looking for a job in retail, or if are already working there, you need to understand you can’t get away with being just a warm body any more. You need to see what you can give rather than get from your retail job.

10 Things You Need To Know To Hold A Job In Retail

Performance is Key – Retailers are notorious for judging every process and every employee on a variety of performance metrics. You’ll be no exception. In short, if you aren’t justifying the cost of your pay, you will be let go.

The Customer is Always Your Customer – Retailers can’t afford to lose any customer since the cost of gaining them is so high. Customers should be treated with respect at all times. If they are being unreasonable, you should involve management rather than make it personal.

Go the Extra Yard – Simply put, the more valuable you become to your manager, the better shifts you’ll get and the faster you will get a raise. Managers want problem solvers who can handle all the details of their job without being told or without having to answer your common-sense questions over and over.

Be On Time – No manager needs the aggravation of late employees; I’m saying that one minute is too late!  That’s because the boss is already looking for you 15 minutes before you are to walk in the floor.  If you don’t show, they’ll either have to beg someone to stay later or work it themselves – neither of which works to your advantage. Being late is also an excellent way to alienate your co-workers who will be far less inclined to help you when you need a favor.

Don’t Gripe About the Hours – Most retailers require that you state your hours of availability when hired. Don’t complain if your hours fall within your stated guidelines. And don’t suddenly change your availability the week you get the job. If you said, “Any and all,” it means just that.

Be Flexible – Staying late or picking up the odd shift when asked is a great way to increase your hours and help your manager. You will also be the first person she or he thinks of for extra hours.

Don’t Be a Drag – Gossips and people who continually denigrate the retailer and its policies ruin it for everyone else. Not only are these mouthy bitches sub-par performers themselves, but they drag good co-workers down to their level. In short, don’t be the rotten apple.

Be a Team Player – Most retail locations run on a prescribed schedule of tasks and procedures. Pitch in with other coworkers to get these tasks accomplished and you’ll be a valuable member of the team. Bonus points come if you encourage others to do their tasks without an attitude.

Respect the Rules – Don’t Cut Corners. Follow all company policies and procedures faithfully without being told. It saves everyone aggravation and will probably save your job if there is a problem. And follow instructions to the letter; don’t try to make them your own.

A Cut in Hours is a Sign – While business can be off, a cut in your hours most often means that your services are not considered that valuable. This is often the first sign that you will soon be “performance counseled” and, with no improvement, let go. Even if it’s slow, managers simply don’t cut the strong ones’ hours.

These are by no means everything you need to know if you get a job in retail, but these top ten should open your eyes if you think working retail is a walk in the park.

And while you should follow instructions carefully, never be afraid to make a creative suggestion that might be a boon to your store. Just make sure you don’t step out of bounds, do them on your own and then expect congratulations.

Ask, suggest, get permission, then do.

Retailers, you might consider printing this out and handing to potential applicants to make sure they are up to the challenge.

Retail Managers – what would you add? Please comment below.