Today we look at merchandising and it's importance in your store, no matter the size.  Joining us today is Bob Phipps of The Retail Doctor.   With over 30 years of experience beginning in the trenches of retail and extending to senior management positions, Phibbs has been a corporate officer, franchisor, and entrepreneur.  He shares some actionable tips to help you in merchandising your store to it's full potential.

WESA Retail Roundup August 4, 2025:

• Host: Glenn the Geek, Host of Horses in the Morning
• Facebook: Retail Roundup Facebook group
• Guest: Bob Phibbs, The Retail Doctor | Facebook | YouTube | The Retail Doctor's Podcast
• Presented By: Western English Sales Association

Chapters:

05:51 - The Evolution of Merchandising

06:42 - The Evolution of Retail Spaces

17:32 - The Importance of Visual Merchandising

21:41 - Understanding Effective Window Displays

23:17 - The Role of Scent in Retail Marketing

29:23 - Introduction to Retail Insights

Foreign.

You are listening to the Horse Radio Network, part of the Equine Network family.

Well, hey, everybody.

Glenn, back with you and it's so good to be back, especially the week before wesa, a week before the trade show, of course.

I am founder of the Horse Radio Network and host of Horses in the Morning, the daily podcast for the last 15 years.

Welcome to the WESA Retail Roundup.

The Retail Roundup is your go to virtual hub for all things retail.

Join panel discussions, learn from webinars, share your thoughts, ask questions and connect with the community.

We host a virtual event or share educational content every Monday via the Retail Roundup Facebook group.

Today, we look at merchandising and its importance to your store, no matter the size.

And of course, there's going to be a lot of merchants merchandising next week in Dallas.

Joining us today is Bob Phipps of the retail doctor.

He's known as.

With over 30 years of experience in the trenches of retail and extending to senior management positions, Bob has been a corporate officer, franchisor, and entrepreneur.

He has worked with over a thousand retail executives and entrepreneurs to grow margins, improve customer service, and train employees.

He had a little bit of experience and he's written a cool book we're going to talk about later, too.

And kind of what we're talking about today relates to the book.

It's called how to merchandise youe store.

12 Visual merchandising tips that Work.

Thanks for joining us.

Thank you.

Glad to be here.

You started in our world.

I did.

Tell us about it.

Well, I put myself through college selling shoes and I graduated.

I was going to be a conductor.

I got my degree in music and.

Oh, really?

Wow.

I went into student teaching and there's 30 teenage boys trying to play Stairway to Heaven on untuned guitars.

I said, there's not enough gin on the planet for me to do this.

And they're like, well, you got to graduate.

You better finish.

So I did, and I couldn't get a job.

And in the mall at Glendale Galleria, which was a really happening place in California, Southern California, a Western store was opening up and they were looking for someone.

So I walk in my little Italian suit and I'm feeling pretty good.

I go, well, I'm a great salesman, but I'm not gonna wear your stuff.

You're like, you're gonna work here.

You're gonna get your stuff.

Like, okay.

And that's how I ended up getting in there.

And I was with that company for 14 years until a very important meeting happened at the Corporate office in Canyon Country.

So if we get into this and you wanna know that story, I will tell you about that.

I have a picture.

Is this the picture of your starting days?

Is this the store?

I want to know which boots were on sale for $16.

And it was great because in.

In Santa Monica, all the tourists came and overseas came to get 501s.

So they would buy them at 8 and 9 at a time, you know, and shopping list almost.

And they're Stetson hats, apparently.

Stetson hats?

Yeah.

Hat steamer and steam hats there.

And that's the way.

A great way to encourage people to slow down is have anyone steam a hat and you're going to look amazing and not to just put out your hats and, you know, right out of the box.

Give them some kind of a personality first.

It always makes a big difference.

So that's your first tip here on our conversation in only a couple minutes.

So if you do nothing else, steam your damn hats.

Don't let it go.

Don't leave it in the back.

For when someone asks, it's great drama.

So the Howard and Fit.

Howard and Phil's was it?

That's what it was, yeah.

So what did you do?

I'm looking at the picture of the store here.

And by the way, it's the classic because it's in black and white.

That even makes it more classic.

Right.

So what was it that was changing as far as merchandising back then?

What happened while you were there?

You know, because merchandising changes all the time.

Well, I think one of the things that I did that was different was when I took the store, the boots were all one style, and the shelves went from about 24 inches from the bottom, and then they stopped at about 6ft.

And what I did in merchandising is I said, we got to get them all out.

I want someone to just go crazy.

And the hard thing was to merchandise that way meant you had to have markers where the sizes were.

There was nothing worse than.

Well, quick story.

So I get this call.

It's, I don't know, Friday morning.

And this guy calls.

He goes, do you have a fry boot?

2579.

I go, I look on the shelf.

I go, yeah, I got it.

And he goes, you sure?

I go, absolutely.

I trust my crew 100%.

So he goes, good, because I'm Kris Kristofferson's manager.

He'll be in there in about 10 minutes to pick it up.

I was like, awesome.

So I go up and I pick up the boots, and they're an eight and a half.

I was livid.

So I know I shouldn't fit in an eight and a half.

No, I should have closed the store and run upstairs because there was a competitor and get bottom, but I didn't.

So he comes in.

Chris Christopherson.

It's A Star is Born.

I mean, he'd just come out in this movie and I tell him, there's a big mistake.

I'm sorry.

It's upstairs.

Although I know you have kids.

We got great kids boots.

I hope I see you back.

And he actually came back and bought the kids boots.

Oh, wow, that was great.

But another, you know, again, your goal would have been to remove the friction from the customer, go up and get the boots and pay for it and be done with it, because that's what the service was.

So your second one here on the podcast at WISA Retail Roundup.

Very good.

So everybody knows what merchandising is.

Has it become more important to merchandise properly over the years as things have changed and the Internet's come about and all of that, or has it always just been that important and it's the same as it was?

It's always important.

But, you know, merchandising has gone through an awful lot of changes.

In department stores, you saw it probably the clearest.

Suddenly they had pants departments and then shirt departments and in menswear, that's terrible because a guy will go in and get the jeans and then he's out.

And that didn't live too long.

Department stores started putting movable walls in, which is a brilliant idea, except that the original designers of it expected people to understand that you move the walls so the store looks different, and most people didn't.

And so then they just built the walls again, which was kind of a waste.

And.

We have more choice than ever.

And the way I did those boots back then, I probably wouldn't do the same now because it leads to overload.

And the problem with that is customers come in and they feel overwhelmed and then they shut down.

So unless you have a great selling system, which is what I taught all my guys and gals who work for me at H and P for 14 years, they can get overwhelmed and pull back and say, oh, here's another.

Here's an example.

So back then People were asking for black boots now.

Damn.

Post made a black boot.

I know, it's terrible.

And it was a beautiful boot.

And.

But when I took over the store at South Coast Plaza, which is the one where I made the highest increase of sales, over 300 stores in that mall selling cowboy clothes.

I changed.

I flipped it on them.

So is this.

You have any more black boots?

No, that's only in half.

Okay, well, thanks.

No.

Come here and sit down and try it on.

See if you like black.

And you know what?

9 out of 10 times, they didn't like a black boot.

So we were able to capture those stores, capture those sales in a new way.

And so I would say, you know, great salesmanship can really help you do a great job because you can help filter those choices down.

Makes a big difference because you're always looking to get the two pair, not the one.

Right.

That hasn't gone out of style.

So when you're looking at.

I had.

I. I should have queued up some, but I didn't know we were going to do pictures day.

But I wanted our store to look very packed.

And if anything that you wanted western, we had it.

But we call that the old time tack shop, where you walk in and it's to the ceiling and you can barely walk through the aisles.

But you had to have the sense that if you're going to be in South Coast Plaza, you had to be elevated, right?

So it had to be classy.

And, you know, there's some beautiful.

I was in a.

Is it Toccovas Taconas store the other day.

They have.

They had a boot store in.

In Scottsdale.

I walked in, five employees, and the guy's like, you look for something special?

I was like, no.

And then they just left.

And it's just like, dude, seriously.

Because it's a real minimal merchandising, right?

It's got lit shelves.

The whole store is pretty dark and lit shelves.

And then they have one of each one.

And that kind of feels like you're looking at art.

It didn't feel that approachable, right?

Like, I have to go and ask somebody to help me.

But the key thing in.

In retail is your goal is to bring a customer's vision down.

This is for you.

So if, I mean, you know, you look at Blue Barn now has whatever 450 stores.

They started at Huntington Beach.

They were right up this.

They were right up the 405 freeway from me.

I was competing with them when it was just the original owner and he had what, six stores and we had.

I think we had 12.

And ultimately got to 55 before it crashed and burned.

But you want them to be able to say, like, this is a work boot section.

So it's going to be Carhartt, it's going to be the boots, it's going to be the belts.

You're trying to make it small enough that this guy.

This is for you or for a woman.

You know, square dancer was really big back then.

And so.

And swing dancing and those.

So make it.

The display is for that person rather than.

Yeah, we just got these and put them out on the shelf.

Oh, yeah.

And throw.

Throw a pair of jeans with it.

Because a guy especially.

You're basically saying, tell a story.

Absolutely.

You get a guy in there and he sees it.

Oh, by the way, going back to training your employees, merchandising is great, but my goal, if you come into my store is I want to see your sock.

That's all I care about.

I'm going to find a way to get your shoe off to try on a pair of boots the other way.

If you're trying on, if you're coming in for apparel, I want you half naked in the fitting room.

Because if I have you there, I can sell you anything.

Conversion is 70% if they use a fitting room.

It's 30% if it's just on the shelf.

So that's where your goal is to be thinking that, well, the merchandising you do on your store is the same thing your crew has to be able to do in the fitting room.

Right.

So just try this on.

It's a belt.

I don't need any belt.

I know you don't just try it on, dude.

And guys are susceptible.

You've got them half naked in the fitting room, like, okay.

And when they come out.

Right.

The jeans are a little tired.

We're not doing that unless we're intent on buying something.

Exactly.

Right.

Yeah.

We're not doing it.

Just browsing these days.

Right.

I mean, if I.

If I wanted to.

Perfect example, let's say I got the Wrangler bootcut jeans and I decide, oh, these are worn out.

I just need another pair.

I'm probably just going to go on and the web somebody's website and buy them.

The danger is, you think that's.

If I walk into your store, you Think that's all I want.

So when I say, oh, where are the Wranglers?

Over here.

Do you want to try them on?

No, I know that fits.

Okay.

Here you go.

You have just lost probably an extra hundred dollars or more because you didn't show them they came in another color.

You didn't show them a belt.

You didn't look down at their boots and say, you know, we've got those look like, I was, like, playing that game because I knew my boots pretty well.

Those Justin's like, no, these are Nakona, of course, because sister companies got it.

They build trust by you knowing what's going on.

And if they've got a big belt buckle, it's Montana or whoever you know, your.

Your vendor is, then you can assume that maybe they'd be open to something else.

But the game is to get it as big as.

As you want.

And that starts with your merchandising.

To make sure that, you know, you're looking at the three strongest colors you can use in a.

Any display is red, white, and black.

If it's.

If you don't have the black, it's a Valentine's Day promotion.

If it's white and black, pretty severe.

Not many people want a white.

Just wear white and black.

Then it's waiter.

But when.

When you break that up, people are willing to consider.

And you don't need 18 things in there.

Show one killer outfit, and you lead with what the premium items are.

You know, so many western stores that I've gone into lately, everything is on sale, 20 off, and it's this weekend only.

Or join our loyalty program.

Get 20% off, and you got to get full price if you're gonna, you know, got the highest increase of South Coast Plaza, you got to get full, full price if you're going to make those numbers.

And so if you're listening to that and you're saying, well, we're not really doing it, one thing to check is how many people walked in your door that day.

That doesn't take anything more than putting little hash marks.

You can also use traffic counter, door dor.

They.

They do it automatically.

And compare that to the number of rings on your registers.

And while you might think, oh, 90%.

Yeah, 90% conversion.

Yeah, it's probably like 11 to 18.

And that means a lot of people walked into your store and didn't buy.

So I always start with, is it clean?

That's part of merchandising, too.

And then is there a point of view?

Have you helped that customer look and Say that's for me.

Right.

What about.

I know one of the things that you recommend is changing your displays often monthly or even for smaller stores.

Absolutely.

Because, well, the problem is, or the opportunity is there are not many people like your stores out there.

Right.

People love to say that, like, oh, our customers are loyal.

Oh, we see them all the time.

Yeah, well, they don't want to see the same thing each time they walk in.

And more importantly, you don't want your crew to get so bored that they.

Nothing is new.

Right.

So when I took over that first took over that store at Santa Monica and at South Coast Plaza, I moved everything around and you know, sales went up 20, 25%.

Same merch.

You just had to understand how to merchandise it and not just, just find a place, just put that out.

You know, if you're going to get tan wranglers in, you don't just mix them in with the blue and the black and the gray because it's not going to be seen.

If it's a brand new color romance a little bit.

The, the, the thing that retailers often miss is you're there to answer a customer's question, which is, what's new?

So if everything looks the same each time they come in, they're going to say, well, this is boring.

I've been there, I've seen it.

I've done that.

And when you move things around, you instruct your crew to say when someone says, wow, that's really pretty or I really love that blouse.

Oh, we, we had that a lot.

We did.

We got that a long time ago.

We just move things around.

You've got to train them like, oh yes, isn't it great when we move things around, everything gets to shine or something.

That doesn't sound like.

Yes, this is leftovers from, you know, nobody didn't.

Orphans of Western world and English.

Sorry, don't mean to ignore the dressage folks out there.

They have less choice than the western world does.

So, you know, as far as merchandising is concerned, we always used to hear put the most expensive stuff in the front of the store.

Is that you, you agree with that or I.

It depends on where you are.

I couldn't do that at most malls because the hit and run aspect was a little bit.

But you certainly want your best and brightest.

So instead of a thousand dollar ostrich boots, you wouldn't have them at the front.

You might have.

Well, I had Lucas up front, so I might have had, you know, right or left boot and then brought the match out every other week.

So the boots didn't get, you know, funky.

But I do believe, you know, if it was my store, I believe in a red carpet right from that entrance to the door.

And it's going to lead me to some cool display that's probably 32 inches off the floor to whatever my eyesight is.

So five, six, and it's going to be lit from above.

Like it's a 57 Chevy.

To get the chrome.

It's going to look beautiful.

It's gonna have a beautiful belt buckle and maybe have a matching men's and women's.

I don't know if they do matching anymore, but at least two.

They're complementary.

Because I want people to walk in and go, like, I want to look like her.

I don't want the sail rack in the front.

Or God forbid, like, I saw one the other day that he's had those racks out front with, again, leftovers and 50% off on a sign that was, like, handwritten by a child that's kind of falling off.

Your brand is everything you do.

And when you don't take care to do the signs right, and you don't think about it, you are pretty much putting a garage sale out in front of your store and going, this is.

This is the deals we have.

Instead of, how would you look like to look cool when you go on that next date?

I mean, that was my thing.

We had.

We had a lot of bars back then and a lot of guys from the marines and in the services.

And invariably, they would come out of the dressing room, and we'd work it between the tag team with the women and the guys.

Like, dude, you're not going to get laid if you dress like that.

That looks terrible.

Those are like your dad's pants.

So they go from like a 36 down to a 33, and they get them a new wrangler shirt.

And the guy's like, 5 inches taller when he walks out, comes back the next week, I need a new shirt.

She's going to see me at the same thing.

Exactly.

But that takes a matter of saying, look what this.

What an outfit can look like.

And more importantly, being the one that's going to give them the fashion advice.

And you only do that by building the relationship and having some humor around it.

Right.

So if you were in the fitting room, I'd say, just try it on.

No, I don't.

Just try it on.

And you will do it, because we had a laugh sometime before.

And more importantly, when you walk out, you're Going to tell people I went to Bob's store.

That's the key.

So I know one of the things that you talk about is using unexpected props to catch people's attention.

Do you have an example of that?

Oh, well, since we're live, give me one second.

Okay.

He's running to the back, going to get an unexpected prop, I think.

And I know we're not live.

I know we're not live.

But one of my favorite, when I.

Do we are on video, I do this.

That's right.

I do this as a keynote.

As a matter of fact, in case, I don't know if fear anyone wants to, you know, explore that option.

But when I do a keynote, I.

Love talking about salesman.

I love that about you.

Pig in the window.

Pig in the window is my favorite prop to put in a window.

Why?

Because I don't care what display I put it in.

Just put the darn pig in the window.

People walk in, what's the pig in the window made you look?

And they come in the store to ask.

Just because it's so unexpected.

So unexpected.

And pig in the window, you can always tell someone's read my book because there's a pig in the window somewhere.

Doesn't necessarily be a pig, but it's totally unrelated, Right?

So will a horse work?

No.

Will the dog work?

No, not the same thing.

Really unexpected.

And this guy, his batteries aren't working, but he actually flies when you hold them.

But your goal is, you know, so many people write to me and on my Facebook lives, how do I attract more customers?

You've got to thinking, if it's a jaded customer that's out there, we've seen it all, we've done it all.

You've got so much stuff crammed into your windows to try to show us everything you carry that none of it makes sense.

Here's another tip you can do when you're doing your windows is go outside and I want you to place a like a post it note right at eye level when you're looking at the window.

Put it right there.

And I want you to go back inside and realize that's the main part of your window.

That's where the best.

And in a front window, I'd put a pair of ostrich boots.

That would be awesome.

And might use the box that you knew it was whoever, Justin or Llama, whoever.

And make that from the top where the post it note is.

And then about 32 inches below.

I guess you could have put one on the outside, but that's the sweet spot.

Nobody's gonna look below the belly button, and they're not gonna look higher than your eyes.

That's all you have to work with.

So when you put all this other junk into the windows, you're making it confusing, and it's hard for them to get an idea.

And just like in the store, you got to put enough power from the lights, and it's easy.

Now with LEDs, you can get a heck of a lot more light out of them.

And they're not taxing your air conditioning like they used to.

And they're not so big either.

They're not clunky.

That's right.

That's a great point.

So your windows, their old job is to get.

You just walk in the door.

Think of it as, like the headline.

Well, and I think you're right.

I mean, we've all seen the windows where they try and cram everything in there.

And the problem with that is you end up looking at nothing.

Right.

So more focused windows are what you're.

You're saying.

Because otherwise you're.

You don't.

You can't focus on anything when there's a thousand things in the window.

No.

And yet, you know, someone will tell me, oh, we gave it to Jamie.

He really loves doing windows.

I don't care.

It looks like crap.

I don't care if he loves doing it.

Windows are hard.

Windows take some.

Take some thinking.

And the other thing is, go out and look at competitors.

You know, look at a Macy's who actually has a merchandising budget.

Look at a Nordstrom.

Look at Target.

Used to do some really great stuff.

I mean, everybody realizes it, but it doesn't have to come from Western wear.

Notice you're.

You know, people hate shopping with me because I'm always at work.

You know, everything is.

I'm noticing everything.

But when I do do store tours, I'm so.

So do you notice that?

Did you notice why that is next to that?

Do you see how your eye travels and where we end up?

And a lot of people have never had anyone explain that to them.

So unless you're planning to have me do a store tour with you all, do it yourself.

But go and pick the big ones.

Don't go in an Apple Store.

That's not merchandising.

Pretty much go in people.

Von Martin exception.

Because they don't have to.

Exactly.

Right.

Don't go to the dollar store.

That's not going to give you the idea.

So, you know, one of the.

We're talking a Lot of times about all the senses too.

And one of my things that's forgotten about in the store is smell.

Now, if you have really good leather in your store, that smell is there, right?

But if you're an Eng store and the leather is not prominent, smell is so important and people over store owners overlook that too.

Disney spends a lot of money on smell.

You know, those smells you get going down the street aren't necessarily coming from the kitchen.

They're piping that in.

Right.

So do you agree?

They're still around.

I've used them in clients.

I would do that in a heartbeat in an English store if it didn't smell leathery enough.

Because you go into Tony Bahama boutiques now and it smells like coconut.

And I can't think of the other coconut.

And Villa, they've got a special scent, but you instantly feel you're at the beach in Hawaii.

Scent is a huge marketer.

Huge.

You take out your boots, you know, I would absolutely say smell the quality of this leather.

People, we don't use that when we sell.

And then we say, oh, well, they didn't want it.

Well, to get a connections, I don't think there's anything more strong.

I guess you could taste it would be stronger, but that'd be a little weird.

Right?

Here's your boot.

Well, then you'd have a whole bunch of boots with bites out of them and.

Yeah, just not going to work.

All right.

Good signage is another one.

That's a pet peeve of mine, especially the bigger.

You know, I've been to some of the stores in Texas, right.

Some of the stores down there are huge.

They're the size of Walmarts.

And you know, when you go in one thing, one thing, it's hard to find stuff at Home Depot, but the one thing they do is they have enough big signage that kind of gives you an idea where that item's going to be.

And I, I do like going in stores, even smaller tack shops that there's some signage that points me in a direction.

You know, I, I don't know if you think it's important or is it better not to have signage and have them wandering around?

I don't know.

I went into a Scotch and soda.

Is that what it's called?

Scotch and soda?

It's a brand Soda and Scotch.

I never quite remember it.

Anyway, I went to the mall and I started looking on this one rack and I just stopped and there's a young girl over there sizing things.

I go, which one is the men's and which is the women's?

She goes, oh, the men's over there.

Like, great, thanks for that.

I shouldn't have to guess at that.

Like, you could have given me some clothes especially, you know, they could have told me, like, oh, that's it.

No, I. I do believe in big stores, like a grocery store having those headers is very helpful.

Wayfair signage, what that's called.

But also, we've kind of defaulted to 20% off this weekend.

30% off this 20 and 30.

When everything is on sale, then you've lost the full price customer.

And that's how you ride a business down.

I mean, Howard and Phil's went out of business.

I left it in 94.

They were gone by 96.

And they were having trouble.

And they did an awful lot of sales and just didn't.

Wasn't able to really keep going.

And then Garth Brook, of course, decided to wear tennis shoes and the ball cap.

And that kind of changed things a little bit for West.

Then Yellowstone came out, and then we were back to boots and jeans and buckles.

Right.

So, yeah, Yellowstone changed it all again for our industry.

Dallas changed it from the 80s.

That was the thing I wanted to be, J.R. and that's true.

Yeah, that's true, too.

Yeah.

We've gone cycles that way, haven't we?

And it's all driven by media, right?

Yeah.

So your article concludes that creativity is the most important element in today's world with everything we have out there.

You know, we used to talk in marketing that you had to hit.

You had.

Somebody had to see your marketing message three times.

That's in the old days, before Internet and all of that.

That's not true anymore.

They got to see your marketing message 12 times for it to sink in anymore, because they're so flooded with a million marketing messages every day.

So what?

How can you be creative in today's world?

Well, I think you can always be creative.

You just got to think like your customer.

That's.

That's the key.

You know, if I'm in Dubuque, Iowa, and there was some kind of a, I don't know, horse event of some kind or some kind of a parade that's going on in that town, everything should fly back to that, that it's a great, you know, there's a great outfit to wear at the opening party or it's a great this is a great option for those of you want to, want to take, want to polish their boots.

You might do a whole thing on that.

But the key is you don't get forgotten.

So that's why everybody should have their own lists arm.

I know people who bragged to me, like, oh, we've got all these followers on Instagram.

It's like, who cares?

They're not yours.

Yeah, that's true.

That sucks.

He could go through and turn that off on you tomorrow.

So your goal is to bring them through a landing page into your CRM so you can talk to them in a great way.

And then I'd be the first to admit it.

I'm speaking a lot on retail and AI.

I would have all my ideas and I would put them into chat and I would, I would go through and take pictures, have IT analyze them.

There's a lot of different things you can do, but you've also got to know what to ask.

And so if you're listening this, like, oh, that's stupid.

I'd never do it.

Well, you know, they said that about the Internet, they said that about email, they said that about a lot of things.

I don't think this is going to go away.

And even though I believe it's the start of Skynet, I truly do from Terminator, we are all able to be in it right now.

And it is hundreds of vendors, it is tens of thousands of dollars of service you could never have had two years ago without paying through the nose that you can now get.

And that's what's going to be a game changer.

So you were trying to figure out what should I, you know, you have your sort of back in Dubuque, Iowa, right?

So you have your events calendar, you go to your chamber of commerce, you do something, put that whole thing in chat and say, okay, outline 12 monthly windows I could do.

Here's what I want to feature.

Because it can help you.

If you have the idea, it can help you kind of solidify that and then you can go out and play with it.

And that's how we use it on the, on our shows, is we use it more as a research tool or an idea generator.

It doesn't mean we don't look deeper to get the, you know, the true story of whatever we're talking about.

But it gets us started.

And it, you know, and I would take hours to come up with those ideas.

That it gave me in two minutes.

Right?

It's.

And you're right.

It is all about asking the right questions.

I need to get somebody on just to talk AI as relation to retail.

What the hell are we doing here, dude?

I can do that.

We need it.

We need to do that for a whole session.

I know.

Maybe I'll do it at a session sometime.

Anyway, I'm gonna get a third one.

I feel that's two we can.

I'm gonna get.

So Bob, you have a book.

How to merchandise youe store.

12 Visual merchandising tips that Work.

Take everything we've talked about here today and multiply it times 10.

And that's why you need to read the book.

It's still out there, right?

Still there.

Actually what you're referring to is a chapter of my book.

My book is the Retail Doctor's Guide to Growing youg Business.

So that's the.

That was my third book.

But nowadays all of my.

And that one's available on Amazon.

Yeah, it is.

All my Training is online.

SalesRx is my online retail sales training program.

So it's basically what I have developed over 35 years that I can take anybody's product and I can make you a superstar.

And increase conversions.

83% of our users report a double digit increase in six months.

Because I'm more like a college of retail.

If you really want to do it, you really want to increase your conversions.

If you're really trying to figure out like these people are all coming in, why aren't they all buying?

It usually comes down to your people and worse, it comes down to your managers or the owners who haven't invested any time in training them.

We see they've worked for some other tax shop and like, oh, bring them in.

They know everything.

I don't care if they know everything.

What I care about is can you talk to me?

Can you make me feel I matter?

Because people who feel they matter buy and people who don't walk out.

That simple.

And the website where they can find either your consulting or books or.

And your podcast, you promote that quick.

So.

Well, before we get to that, yes.

My website is retaildoc.com r e t a I l d o c.com and my podcast is Tell me Something Good about Retail.

So we have, I don't know, five or six hundred episodes been going for a long time.

Congratulations, that's a lot for a podcaster.

And every, every model is different, every episode is different.

And we've had people on there from Martin Lindsberg talking about Lindstrom, talking about the future, Paco Underhill, as well as retailers who are just telling their stories.

Like the woman in Julie who's in London.

She decides to open a boutique with her and her three daughters.

So she's, she's trying.

And finally she's so upset with her daughters, she's like, why do we get in this business?

Like, no one's here.

And she just decides to pick out her phone and she does a live video.

And she has built that now into six chain, six store chain in the UK because she's willing to try something.

And I think that's the same true for all of your listeners here today is whether it's AI or merchandising, get smarter about it, learn what you can do.

And don't just fly by the seat of your pants because there's plenty of businesses that are going to go out left and right.

And crime.

It was all on Amazon.

No, they're the ones that put me out of business.

20% of sales is through online, 80% is still in a store.

So I don't care who you're going up against.

I can tell you I've gone up against an awful lot of them myself.

You're about as successful as you make your mind up to be, whether that's merchandising or selling or talking to your customers.

So it isn't brain surgery, but it is a matter of being really focused on what you want and how you're going to do it and finding people to help you.

And what's the name of the podcast again, where they can find any podcast player?

Tell me something good about retail.

Tell me something good about retail.

There you go.

And it's retaildoc.com thanks, Retail Doc.

Appreciate you being here.

Thank you, sir.

Appreciate it.

All right, everybody, we'll be back at the end of the month.

We're going to have a couple of weeks that we will not be doing these Monday sessions, partly because I'll be down at WESA as well.

So, Jennifer, my wife and I, who my wife hosts the Wisdom by Wesa podcast, and we'll both be there Wednesday and Thursday of next week.

You'll see us wandering around.

We do special episodes of these shows for new products that are out there that are coming to the market.

Listeners love to hear about new products, so.

And they like to hear about it first.

So we'll be wandering around with our microphones.

If you see us there, call us aside.

If you have a new product, we'll do an interview right there in your booth.

We've been doing, this is our 36th trade show.

I think it's been a long time doing this.

So we're looking forward to seeing everybody there.

Look for us on Facebook, Retail Roundup, and of course, wesatradeshow.com and the WESA Trade Show YouTube channels where you can, where you can find all of these videos that we're doing here.

Bob Retaildoc.

Com.

Thanks for joining us.

Thank you.