Having been in the wholesale/retail industry since 1981, and having paid attention to trends I honestly can say that I think our industry is going to see a much better year in 2011. All of the important factors point to the positive trending in the marketplace. It was hit or miss until the holiday season started to unfold. Many large national retailers surprised Wall Street by posting better than expected earnings. This, in turn, boosted the stock market, which in turn boosted many 401K plans. It is quite a circle, but at the end of the day the result is that we see consumer confidence at it’s highest level in some time. This all translates to an improved economy for 2011.

I have never been one to write flowery overly-optimistic articles like many of our competitors who have spent the last few years with blinders on, cheering the economy and telling us, and this is my favorite, when they review a trade show saying that “there were less buyers, but that gave more of a chance to interact at the booths!”  The bottom line is that our industry has endured the toughest times that many of us have ever been through and those of us who are still standing will prosper over the coming months.

With consumer confidence returning we will see more shoppers in the market place, OUR market place, buying OUR merchandise and services. When people are comfortable that their nest eggs  are growing again, they will start to spend. And, from the early numbers this holiday season we can see that we are indeed on the road to improvement.

All retailers need to get their act in gear and start planning their year ahead. If you have old, stale merchandise on your shelves, sell it off. Discount it, donate it or sell it to a closeout dealer, but move it out. When the shoppers are back in the game they want to see new merchandise, not dusty old products that have been sitting on your shelves for the last several years. We all need to excite our shoppers and that means with new merchandise lines as well as spruced up store displays and spaces. Take advantage of the momentum in the markets and capitalize on it by reinventing “your” wheel.

And, wholesalers: It is important that you start sourcing new merchandise to stay competitive. If you are still peddling the “drinking bird” novelty it is time to take a trip to your manufacturers and see what is new and fresh for 2011. The same-old is not going to fly this new year. It was fine up till now because goodness knows no one was spending and none of us had funds for new items. But we are turning the corner and heading in a new direction. A direction of more prosperity for our businesses and those who step up will be fruitful.

Retailers Forum Magazine is proud to be bringing news and opinion for the industry since 1981 and hopes that all of our readers and advertisers have a successful start to 2011. We look forward to a great year for everyone and hope you check back often to our continually updated web site.

Tags: improving business, new merchandise, New year, tips for small businesses

This entry was posted on Monday, December 27th, 2010 at 6:44 pm and is filed under blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.