What do you think?
Rate this book
Smart Retail
A really practical and helpful guide: essential reading for anyone involved in retailing.
Charles Dunstone, CEO, The Carphone Warehouse
Work in retail for any length of time and it gets into your system. Its immediate, exciting, risky and hard to predict. No two days are the same one day could be a triumph, the next a disaster. But when you get it right, its thrilling.
Based on one simple question, which Richard Hammond posed to the worlds leading retailers: What makes you so good?, Smart Retail shows you how to use some of the best winning ideas, strategies and tactical thinking.
Discover the secrets of great retailing Boost sales with practical advice from the best retailers in the world Learn how to delight customers and keep them coming back for more
A toolkit of retailing skills to take you beyond survival, to super-performance.
Angus Thirlwell, Co-founder and Managing Director, Hotel Chocolat
This book is full of practical, good things to make running stores that bit easier to get right.
Julian Richer, Chairman and Founder, Richer Sounds
A wonderful insight into the world of retailing. A fun and inspiring read, particularly for those close to retail.
Vittorio Radice, Saviour of Selfridges
- GenresBusinessNonfiction
352 pages, Paperback
First published September 11, 2003
35 people are currently reading
237 people want to read
About the author
Richard Hammond
51 books2 followersThere is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads data base.
For the British tv presenter, see Richard Hammond
For the PhD scientist, see Richard Hammond
For the British tv presenter, see Richard Hammond
For the PhD scientist, see Richard Hammond
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
June 11, 2020
Good text. Nothing outstanding, but nothing to complain. I read this book hoping to find answers to 3 key questions, and I got a satisfying answer to most of them:
• How do retailers make their money (a.ka: what are the key growth strategies)?
The book clearly answers at the end, showing that improving ATV, penetration and margins is the trifecta of bottom and top line growth. What a surprise was to find a book that is aligned with recent marketing science and already base its recommendations on the non-existence of pure loyalty! Amazing.
• What are the key marketing principles to drive the growth strategies?
Very easy and well-framed information. From specific tips on merchandising, windows and hot-spots to more profound tactics that dive into neuromarketing and behavioral economics. Although it is not a 100% marketing book, I think the marketing piece is very complete.
• What are the main concerns a retailer have in strategy formulation?
The text does really well in teaching the importance of staff, consumer understanding and store environment. Those buckets all got a nice coverage. Though, I missed a bit of the maths. Retailing is, by default, a game of juggling with margins and a lot of financial pressure. This is a gap that, although Hammond says would need a full new book, could be at least partially covered. At the end, all the marketing and customer experience ideas need to be prioritized vs. a budget and financial reality, so having a chapter on finances would help to take ideas down-to-earth.
That said, a 4/5 is well deserved. Other flaws (a part from missing a bit more detail in the retail maths) also downgrade it a bit so I couldn't give it a 5.
- The book is sometimes monotonous and repeats itself, which makes the reading non-productive. Especially the first chapters.
- It does not inspire too much thinking - I'd say it is a directional text (do it this way) vs. an inspirational text (here are the tools, think for yourself).
- Some case examples are difficult to understand. Hammond assumes we all know the stores he is talking about and sometimes fails to provide important details as: what this store sells? who are the customers? This is not usual though, 75% of the cases are well explained and insightful.
Final note: I'd surely recommend this to:
1) People that work directly with retail or have a personal shop. Especially those that are staring their own indie operations (Shopify, pop-up stands and etc).
2) Marketers that work in FMCG. I find it extremely important to understand how retail operates so you can have a leverage when discussing joint business plans. This book will give you a bit of "What is inside a retailers head" and why it is different then the framework we use to evaluate industry performance.
• How do retailers make their money (a.ka: what are the key growth strategies)?
The book clearly answers at the end, showing that improving ATV, penetration and margins is the trifecta of bottom and top line growth. What a surprise was to find a book that is aligned with recent marketing science and already base its recommendations on the non-existence of pure loyalty! Amazing.
• What are the key marketing principles to drive the growth strategies?
Very easy and well-framed information. From specific tips on merchandising, windows and hot-spots to more profound tactics that dive into neuromarketing and behavioral economics. Although it is not a 100% marketing book, I think the marketing piece is very complete.
• What are the main concerns a retailer have in strategy formulation?
The text does really well in teaching the importance of staff, consumer understanding and store environment. Those buckets all got a nice coverage. Though, I missed a bit of the maths. Retailing is, by default, a game of juggling with margins and a lot of financial pressure. This is a gap that, although Hammond says would need a full new book, could be at least partially covered. At the end, all the marketing and customer experience ideas need to be prioritized vs. a budget and financial reality, so having a chapter on finances would help to take ideas down-to-earth.
That said, a 4/5 is well deserved. Other flaws (a part from missing a bit more detail in the retail maths) also downgrade it a bit so I couldn't give it a 5.
- The book is sometimes monotonous and repeats itself, which makes the reading non-productive. Especially the first chapters.
- It does not inspire too much thinking - I'd say it is a directional text (do it this way) vs. an inspirational text (here are the tools, think for yourself).
- Some case examples are difficult to understand. Hammond assumes we all know the stores he is talking about and sometimes fails to provide important details as: what this store sells? who are the customers? This is not usual though, 75% of the cases are well explained and insightful.
Final note: I'd surely recommend this to:
1) People that work directly with retail or have a personal shop. Especially those that are staring their own indie operations (Shopify, pop-up stands and etc).
2) Marketers that work in FMCG. I find it extremely important to understand how retail operates so you can have a leverage when discussing joint business plans. This book will give you a bit of "What is inside a retailers head" and why it is different then the framework we use to evaluate industry performance.
January 16, 2012
Simplicity is always good when we talk about business tips and know-hows. Thus, this 3rd Edition, did not bamboozle me with management jargon either. Richard Hammond’s ‘Smart Retail’ explained retail business the correct way – easy and uncomplicated.
At every turn here, Hammond emphasised, that retail business is about attracting and fulfilling customers and employee’s needs. The book contained logical and essential points, which boiled down to plain old common sense really.
Being a retailer myself, Smart Retail’s philosophy just went on to prove my beliefs on good retail management. It mattered not, if you ran a single boutique, managed chain stores or worked in a hypermarket, the principles of retail operations and marketing revolved around the same core fundamental – look after your people!
Hammond reiterated that employee satisfaction was directly related to customer satisfaction. I absolutely agree. When people are happy working for you, their service and productivity improves. So naturally this leads to more converted sales and increased revenue.
There are no other simpler formulas than that.
Evidently, Richard Hammond was not the first to learn this rule. In the book, he gave enough examples of past and current retail owners who built successful retail businesses with the same principles. These case studies were the highlights of ‘Smart Retail’. It showed that the author did not just give advice and recommendations based on what he thought were the best ways but substantiated his consultations with researched data on real life results. Hammond filled the book with ample examples in good measure.
He also pointed out that Smart Retail was mainly written for store front analysis and solutions. Store Managers are the primary target readers for the book. However, all levels of retail workers are urged to read this too. He also listed out other recommended reference books for different retail perspectives. Nice.
The only shortcoming to ‘Smart Retail’ was that the author did not give practical day-to-day ‘operational’ advice. I hoped for insights to better staffing plan, how to meet healthy inventory, stock loss prevention tips, and scheduling repairs and store maintenance etc. Although the book’s primary focus was frontline management with a slant towards sales and marketing, the routine store manager functions are matters, retailers seek improvement as well. Unfortunately,‘Smart Retail’ didn't touch on these issues this time.
Nonetheless, the overall content of ‘Smart Retail’ was very good. The book’s strength was that it was simple, down to earth and extremely logic. Richard Hammond is a retailer who believed and practiced good ethics and knew what was important for retail – the people; those that you and I work and do business with.
At every turn here, Hammond emphasised, that retail business is about attracting and fulfilling customers and employee’s needs. The book contained logical and essential points, which boiled down to plain old common sense really.
Being a retailer myself, Smart Retail’s philosophy just went on to prove my beliefs on good retail management. It mattered not, if you ran a single boutique, managed chain stores or worked in a hypermarket, the principles of retail operations and marketing revolved around the same core fundamental – look after your people!
Hammond reiterated that employee satisfaction was directly related to customer satisfaction. I absolutely agree. When people are happy working for you, their service and productivity improves. So naturally this leads to more converted sales and increased revenue.
There are no other simpler formulas than that.
Evidently, Richard Hammond was not the first to learn this rule. In the book, he gave enough examples of past and current retail owners who built successful retail businesses with the same principles. These case studies were the highlights of ‘Smart Retail’. It showed that the author did not just give advice and recommendations based on what he thought were the best ways but substantiated his consultations with researched data on real life results. Hammond filled the book with ample examples in good measure.
He also pointed out that Smart Retail was mainly written for store front analysis and solutions. Store Managers are the primary target readers for the book. However, all levels of retail workers are urged to read this too. He also listed out other recommended reference books for different retail perspectives. Nice.
The only shortcoming to ‘Smart Retail’ was that the author did not give practical day-to-day ‘operational’ advice. I hoped for insights to better staffing plan, how to meet healthy inventory, stock loss prevention tips, and scheduling repairs and store maintenance etc. Although the book’s primary focus was frontline management with a slant towards sales and marketing, the routine store manager functions are matters, retailers seek improvement as well. Unfortunately,‘Smart Retail’ didn't touch on these issues this time.
Nonetheless, the overall content of ‘Smart Retail’ was very good. The book’s strength was that it was simple, down to earth and extremely logic. Richard Hammond is a retailer who believed and practiced good ethics and knew what was important for retail – the people; those that you and I work and do business with.
December 12, 2013
Look at me, reading a book about running a retail business - anyone would think that I owned a soap-making business or something ..... hold on a minute.
Actually, this book was really very inspiring. It's written in very uncorporate language - sometimes so much so that it becomes "a style" rather than natural writing, but on the whole it's very refreshing when the whole retail consultancy business is based on obfuscations.
Hammond deliberately points out that selling stuff is simple - but easy to do badly. And he proceeds to give pointers most of which are so brilliant that you slap your forehead and wonder how the hell you hadn't already worked that out.
He provides a potted history of retail free-thinkers (including Clarence Saunders, founder of Piggly Wiggly and apparent patent-owner of the self-service shop (that patent case would DWARF Apple's patenting of smooth-cornered rectangles). My favourite case-history though was the way Top Shop inspired their 16 year old saturday assistants to not only turn up and restock shelves, not only to get them to do it willingly, but to compete with each other to do it better (and earlier) than all the other 16 year olds working there, simply by giving them the responsibility to dress the displays and mannequins - reasoning that middle-aged store managers know FAR less about what 16 - 20 year old girls want to wear than do 16-20 year old girls themselves - given the responsibility, the girls - who had been seen as "a problem" as they didn't want to turn up at 8.30am to replace the stock on display, now started arriving earlier than necessary to get thebetter choices of clothes before their workmates, they started selling better to get more customers to buy their choice of garments, and turned almost overnight into model employees.
His emphasis on building a staff team motivated by respect and honesty with the customer is great.
It helps that the book is written in big type and has short chapters - because, as Hammond points out, there's not a lot really to say about selling stuff, the hard thing is putting it into practice.
Recommended.
Actually, this book was really very inspiring. It's written in very uncorporate language - sometimes so much so that it becomes "a style" rather than natural writing, but on the whole it's very refreshing when the whole retail consultancy business is based on obfuscations.
Hammond deliberately points out that selling stuff is simple - but easy to do badly. And he proceeds to give pointers most of which are so brilliant that you slap your forehead and wonder how the hell you hadn't already worked that out.
He provides a potted history of retail free-thinkers (including Clarence Saunders, founder of Piggly Wiggly and apparent patent-owner of the self-service shop (that patent case would DWARF Apple's patenting of smooth-cornered rectangles). My favourite case-history though was the way Top Shop inspired their 16 year old saturday assistants to not only turn up and restock shelves, not only to get them to do it willingly, but to compete with each other to do it better (and earlier) than all the other 16 year olds working there, simply by giving them the responsibility to dress the displays and mannequins - reasoning that middle-aged store managers know FAR less about what 16 - 20 year old girls want to wear than do 16-20 year old girls themselves - given the responsibility, the girls - who had been seen as "a problem" as they didn't want to turn up at 8.30am to replace the stock on display, now started arriving earlier than necessary to get thebetter choices of clothes before their workmates, they started selling better to get more customers to buy their choice of garments, and turned almost overnight into model employees.
His emphasis on building a staff team motivated by respect and honesty with the customer is great.
It helps that the book is written in big type and has short chapters - because, as Hammond points out, there's not a lot really to say about selling stuff, the hard thing is putting it into practice.
Recommended.
December 3, 2011
An excellent guide book for anyone in the retail sector. Probably worth re-reading at a later point. I already knew much of the advice Hammond offered but it is easy to get complacent.
May 24, 2017
Some ideas and concepts were new to me. However, I felt that the book could have been organized much better. The examples were useful.
April 15, 2014
This book was lent to me by a good officemate after he went to explore other ventures. It was the same book lent to him by our boss.
Okay, so basically, Smart Retail offers more than enough winning ideas and strategies especially in the retail industry. What I was able to pick up was that happy team members are essential in obtaining the goal or the bottom line of the business. Also, it was a good recap when the online social media as well as the traditional means of marketing were discussed.
Okay, so basically, Smart Retail offers more than enough winning ideas and strategies especially in the retail industry. What I was able to pick up was that happy team members are essential in obtaining the goal or the bottom line of the business. Also, it was a good recap when the online social media as well as the traditional means of marketing were discussed.
Read
August 25, 2012Free book. No. Maybe better if I worked in retail?
July 7, 2013
Solid book, great tone and good advice. Not a lot of concrete things for a small, single-store retailer. Writer is British and so are most of the examples. Still found it encouraging.
December 12, 2013
Enjoying it so far
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews