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Retail, The Lipstick Effect, and Why You Should Keep Selling · The Resilient Retail Game Plan - retail insights, retail trends and best practices

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Hello, good afternoon. We begin with breaking news from Buckingham Palace.
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The King will go ahead with a state visit to
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the United States next month. Have you ever looked to
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the news and thought to yourself, is this really the
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right time to be trying to sell things? Welcome to
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the Resilient Retail Game Plan. I'm Catherine Erdly and in
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the next few minutes, you're about to get powerful real
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world retail strategies from insights shared both from my guests and myself,
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backed up by my 25 years in the retail industry.
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Keep listening to learn how to grow a thriving, profitable product business.
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Let's jump in with this latest episode. I saw a
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post on social media recently from a small brand saying
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how hard it feels to sell right now.
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The world is feeling chaotic, everything feels uncertain, and they
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were wondering whether it was even appropriate to be trying to sell products.
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And the thing is, is that's not the first post
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of this kind that I've seen. I probably see, if
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not one a day, then at least a couple handful
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a week of people talking about this and talking about
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how they found it really hard to show up on social media,
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how they've been struggling in their small business to keep
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showing up and keep selling. And it reminds me of
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the meme that Vicky from the incredible card company Mean Mail,
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if you don't follow Mean Mail, then go check them out.
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She shares this meme every so often and it shows
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the world literally on fire. And then there's Will Ferrell saying,
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does anybody want any more cards? And sometimes she posts
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it with a blank and other people repost it with
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their own products in. But the thing is, is it's
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funny because it captures something that so many independent business owners feel.
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The world can feel like it's falling apart and meanwhile
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you're trying to sell candles, cards, jewelry or clothing.
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And the fact is that this can feel really uncomfortable.
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For many people who start product businesses, the idea of
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going out there and proactively selling is something that doesn't
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necessarily come naturally to us. So when we do put
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ourselves out there and maybe we don't get always the
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reaction that we want, or maybe we look around and
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all we see stories that make us feel like maybe
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this isn't the right time, it can feel really, really difficult and really,
2:09
really uncomfortable. This is the only thing I would say though,
2:12
about all of this, which is that this is a
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conversation I have had so many times with business owners over the years.
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And I started my business in 2018, in 2020, of course,
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we had the pandemic. This was something that people really grappled with.
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And if you were running your business back in 2020,
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then you may well really resonate with that, that people
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were being criticised for leaving their houses to going to the post box,
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for example, to keep posting things out to keep their business going.
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And it's something that comes up when the news cycle
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is particularly difficult or full on, which feels like most
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of the time these days.
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I've heard it during recessions and whenever people are feeling
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overwhelmed and people ask, is this really the time to be selling?
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Is this really the time? Is it appropriate for me
3:01
to be getting out there and sharing about my business?
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Personally, I think that there's lots of different layers to this.
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I've often said that running your own business, it's a
3:11
lot like a crash course in therapy. It makes you
3:15
confront all kinds of different things about yourself. It makes
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you confront the way that you think about money. It
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makes you confront how you believe in yourself and your self worth.
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It can really be something that's quite challenging. And every
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time you put yourself out there and you don't see
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sales coming back in, it can make you feel like
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there's a judgment on you personally. And every time you
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go out there and you do see sales coming in
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and sales are going really well, then you might ask yourself,
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is this going to last? How long is this going to last for?
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And is it all going to end? So there's already
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a lot of noise, as it were, mental noise that
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goes on in people's heads when they're running their business.
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Because I honestly think that unless you've actually stood in
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front of people with your products in front of you
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and offered them to them and asked them if they want to buy,
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then you may not be aware of just how challenging
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and confronting that is to you as a person. So
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if you have friends who don't have their own business or family,
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they may not get it. They get the. It's almost
4:24
like the existential angst of having to put yourself out there day in,
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day out. So I think that that is part of the issue.
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I think that also we're just exposed to so much information online.
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We get real time updates from around the world. And
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it means that whenever there are very difficult things happening,
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which is a lot of the time, then we're constantly in it.
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It can feel like there's no switch off and so
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it all lands on our screens and it's all something
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that we're then having to almost. It's like a hurdle
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that we have to overcome. Before we even get into
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the difficult part about showing up and selling our products,
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selling our business, which even without all of this noise going on,
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it can also feel really difficult. So it's easy if
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you think about it to look at all of this and say,
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isn't this frivolous? Isn't this just something that's not that important?
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Who cares about what I sell right now? Or even worse,
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is it wrong for me to be promoting my products
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when all this is going on? And if you've ever
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grappled with these thoughts, if any of this is resonating with you,
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if you're nodding along thinking yes, I definitely have had those thoughts,
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then I just want you to know that's completely normal.
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And I talk to a lot of people who go
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through the same thing. I talk to it with my
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one to one clients. I talk to it inside my group programs,
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inside the Resilient Retail Club. People bring this up all
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the time that they say that either they almost disengage
5:57
and then they find it really hard to re-engage or
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they've been trying to keep engaged, but it's been a struggle.
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So it's completely natural. It's probably part of the business
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journey and it's also something that many, many people experience.
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However, the problem with all of this is that you,
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it can also become a self fulfilling prophecy and it
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can stop you from doing the thing that your business
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actually needs to do. And here's the thing that's worth remembering.
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While small business owners are sitting there wondering if they should wait,
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if they should pause or tone things down, the big businesses,
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they just keep going. They keep selling, they keep marketing,
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they keep launching products. Partly because they have a duty to their shareholders,
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partly because it's run by salaried employees and not people
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who are having to kind of grapple with these thoughts
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and these moral dilemmas individually, but also partly because they
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understand something very fundamental, which is that for a lot of people,
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the show must go on. People still live their lives.
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They still celebrate birthdays, they still buy gifts, they still decorate their homes,
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they still treat themselves. And if the big brands keep
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showing up while the independent brands step back, guess who
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the customer ends up going to? I can assure you
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100% that at any time of crisis, the big retailers,
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they are not thinking about whether or not they should be still advertising.
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They are thinking about what their next offer is, how
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to keep engaging a customer, even when the customer may be distracted.
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So I want you to remember that, that the big businesses,
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they just keep rolling and here's the irony of it all.
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Even though the big businesses, they don't trouble themselves with any of this,
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they keep going. The independent businesses are actually the ones,
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in my personal opinion, are the least detrimental form of
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selling that there is. If you think about why you
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started your business and you think about why the people
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that you know started their business. I've worked with hundreds of retailers,
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small businesses, e-commerce businesses over the last eight years that
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I've been running my own business.
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And I can tell you one thing. I very rarely
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or if ever almost meet people who started their small
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business because the only thing that they cared about was
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getting richer at the expense of other people. Now, there
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is nothing wrong with wanting to start your small business
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with the intention of getting rich. I completely am 100% behind that.
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If you're sitting here listening to this, I'm willing to
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bet that you and everybody that you know who runs
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a small business started it because you wanted to do something better.
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You wanted to reconnect with your creativity. You loved curating
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or creating products that you were really passionate about. You
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wanted to build something meaningful.
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You wanted to connect with your community. You care about your customers.
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People start small product businesses, open independent retailers, the vast,
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vast majority of people that I speak to, they want
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to do things a better way. They've seen a gap in the market,
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they've seen a lack in the way that things are currently done,
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and they really, really want to do things better. Almost the overwhelming majority,
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to the point where I can barely think of anyone
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who doesn't fit this mould. They start their business, and
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I'm sure you did too, because they wanted to leave
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the world as a better place than it currently is.
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So they care deeply about the way that they source their products.
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They care deeply about the people that make the products.
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They care deeply about their customers, how they send their products out.
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They spend hours agonizing over the sustainability of their packaging
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or the choices that they're making. So you are not
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the people who are the ones who should be wondering
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if what you're doing is right right now, because you
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are a force for good. I truly believe that small
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businesses are a force for good, that they help communities,
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that they help customers, that they help show that there's a kinder,
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better way of making the retail industry and that you
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really should be showing up and sharing what you do
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and what you have with the world. So if you've
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got a product that genuinely brings joy, is useful, or helps with connection,
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if you've got one of those products and it can help your customers,
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then you are almost duty bound to sell it. So
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if you've been sitting there thinking, should I be talking about this?
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Yes, 100% you should be talking about this. Are you
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thinking that everyone's going to be watching you talking about your business,
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thinking, this is really inappropriate given the state of the world?
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No, they are going to be delighted to see somebody who is ethical,
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who's considered, who has really thought about the products that
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they create or curate, putting them out into the world
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with connection and with joy.
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If you're listening to this and you're thinking, okay, all right,
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sort of believe you, maybe, but is anybody spending money?
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The answer is yes, absolutely people are spending money. In
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my talk last week in Retail Roar, I ran through
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some of the industry stats in terms of what's been going on,
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but essentially the headline news is that spending is broadly
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in line with the year before. So, yes, people are buying.
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And more importantly, there's a lot of research around something
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that is known as the lipstick effect or small luxuries.
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You may have heard about this already, but there's evidence
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to show that at times of economic downturn or great uncertainty,
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people don't stop buying completely. Instead, they often shift towards smaller treats,
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things that make them feel better, things that help them
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connect with people that they love. I saw this very
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clearly recently on Mother's Day. I went to Columbia Road
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Flower Market in London. It was absolutely heaving.
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If you've never been to Columbia Road Flower Market, it
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is quite literally what I would call my happy place.
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It is a road full of stalls full of flowers.
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They are only open from 10 till 3 on a Sunday.
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But surrounding this market there are some incredible, beautiful independent retailers.
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So it's an absolute haven of independent retail. And another favourite of mine,
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a really great market. And everywhere you looked, people were
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carrying huge bunches of flowers. People buying flowers for their mums,
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people buying flowers for themselves, people buying little gifts, people buying house plants.
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And it really struck me how important this is. These things aren't frivolous,
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they aren't meaningless. It's how we as humans show love
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to each other in many different ways. It's how we mark special moments.
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It's how we connect with each other. And if you'll listen to this,
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you're most likely an independent retailer or e-commerce business that
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a lot of your products will be bought as gifts,
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either self gifts or gifts for others. And gifting is important.
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You're providing those moments.
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You are providing that ability for people to reach out
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to people that they care about in their lives or
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to themselves and say, I love you. Here is something special.
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And you cannot underestimate the importance of that. If you sell children's goods,
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then you're being part of people wanting the best for their children.
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If you are selling jewelry, again, it's part of that gifting process.
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If you're selling fashion, it's how people express themselves. None
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of this is trivial and it can be easy to
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fall into the trap of thinking that, oh, I just
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sell candles or I just sell this, and is this
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really important right now? But the thing is, is you're
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doing so much more than that. You have built a business,
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you have built a community, you are doing things a
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better way than has been done for at least the last 60,
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70 years.
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And you are standing out and saying that this is
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what you believe in and that is really, really important.
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Now, having said all of that, I also completely understand
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how difficult it can be to show up online when
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the news cycle feels overwhelming. As I said, I'm not
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100% sure our nervous systems are really designed to take
14:43
in this amount of content all at once. And I
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think it can be a lot. So here's a practical
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thing that I often suggest to people is make sure
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that you've got a personal account for your social media.
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It's a really good idea at any point anyway. But having that separation,
15:01
having a business social media where you are only following
15:05
accounts or interacting with people on themes, on accounts, on
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content that is really related to your business, that will
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help you have that separation.
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And then I'm not saying that you need to stick
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your head in the sand. I'm not saying that you
15:20
need to ignore everything that's going on. But if you want to engage,
15:23
follow the news, engage with what's going on, do that
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under your personal profile so that you have some kind of separation.
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Because what a lot of people describe to me is
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that they almost feel ambushed. Like they go into their
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social media and they just don't know what they're going
15:39
to be faced with. Or they just, they get very
15:42
much sucked in because it's something they're interested in, but
15:45
then very quickly feel overwhelmed. But I think having your
15:48
business account and your personal account can be really helpful.
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Because imagine this, if you were working in an office for a company,
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then they wouldn't expect you to be engaging with news
15:58
or outside content unless that was, of course, your job during the day,
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they'd expect you to be focusing on your work and
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then looking at that in your personal time.
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And I think that because lots of us work from
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home or work for ourselves in a studio or a shop,
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then the lines can get blurred. So if you can
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create that boundary again and almost every time you open up the apps,
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ask yourself, am I going on here to consume as a personal person,
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or am I going on here to engage as a
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business and pick the right account and it can really
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help social media for your business feel a little bit
16:35
calmer and a little bit less fraught. This is something
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that I myself did in my business. I realized that
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I was definitely getting distracted when I went on to my business Instagram,
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and I had to be very disciplined and unfollow all
16:49
the people that I had been following, refollow them from my personal account,
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and get much more intentional. I did that around the
16:57
beginning of the year and it has made a significant difference to me.
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I felt that I've been much more able to show
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up on social media, talk about what I need to
17:07
do for the business rather than getting distracted and sucked
17:10
into the things that I would be following on my personal account.
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And then obviously, when I want to look at my personal account,
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then that's completely separate. So if you've been feeling conflicted
17:21
about selling right now, I just want to say this.
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Your work matters. The world needs you. The world needs what you do.
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Independent businesses bring creativity, connection and joy into people's lives.
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Selling something that genuinely improves someone's day is not trivial.
17:37
Helping people express love and connection that they have for
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one another is not trivial. It's part of how communities function.
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So yes, the world can feel uncertain, but it doesn't
17:50
mean you stop showing up.
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And in many ways it means that what you do matters even more.
17:56
Thank you so much for listening. Please do take a
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See you next week.