How do you win the battle for local shoppers? An expensive marketing campaign in the local press? Hire a plane to tow a banner with your address over the town centre perhaps? Maybe sponsor the local Premier League football club?
Of course there are easier ways and leading wholesalers, publishers, and manufacturers will be gathering, along with 200 retailers, at the inaugural Local Shop Summit to discuss a few of these.
Representatives of Booker, Imperial Tobacco, News International and PepsiCo will be on hand to offer independent retailers tips to grow their profits.
We spoke to PepsiCo’s Kate Woolf last week at Pro-Retail and she told us that her presentation was going to be on the potential benefits of using social media in your store, a subject that we at betterRetailing are of course very supportive of!
The entire event is running alongside the NFRN annual conference in Torquay on June 7, so many of this blogs readers may well be on their way down to the English Riviera anyway.
Tickets are £37; to find out more about the event, which is being organised by Newtrade Publishing’s face-to-face team, call 020 7689 3369.
The Oracle
20/05/2011
Positive idea, nice logo, content unknown so far…. so why are tickets £37 ?
Mmmm….press release states “the Summit develops a commercial heart to the Newsagents Federation conference” – interesting that the NFRN`s publishing arm is now posing as its Commercial centre. Clearly Newtrade thinks that it can do better than the Commercial programme the NFRN puts on each and every year at its Conference. “We are bringing more inspiration and business ideas to the largest gathering of independent retailers in the UK, says Nick Shanagher, managing director” – hasn`t Nick heard of the ACS Summit which has been going on for years and attracts far more visitors…
There is the Walter Kiam `or your money back` guarantee for attendees – they should get ready and know where to apply for their refund.
Come on Newtrade – on the back of IAA, this event should be free to shops and paid for by the suppliers.
Nick Shanagher
20/05/2011
Thank you for the feedback. Some good points. The Local Shop Summit runs alongside the NFRN conference but distinct from it. The Summit builds on the successful commercial programme run by the Federation and there are several benefits, including:
1. It is open to all independent retailers, not just Federation members
2. The time is ring fenced so that people are clear when the commercial session runs from and to
3. We are able to invest in a leading business speaker to provide new ideas for retailers to take back to their businesses.
We claim that this is the largest gathering of independent retailers in the UK and having been to the excellent ACS summits I believe this is a claim that stands up to scrutiny. At the time of writing more than 200 independent retailers are attending Torquay.
Our view is that retailers are in business and by paying to attend (the cost of the time out of their business is far greater than the £37 fee) they are making a commitment to do something. We want to attract retailers who want to grow their businesses and I believe by paying to attend you will want to make sure you take away some action points. Unlike the ACS event, which is targeted at “industry power-brokers”, this conference is designed around what independent retailers want in a summit – some inspiration and plenty of networking opportunities. It is also less than a third of the price.
PS The suppliers who are investing in supporting the Summit really want to meet retailers who are prepared to invest in their business! Wouldn’t you?
Abdul Qadar
20/05/2011
I was a little sceptical over the charging component of the ‘LOCAL SHOP SUMMIT’ and now cleared up, It makes it a commitment to turn up having paid £37.00 and you would want to extract the maximum benifit. I welcome oppertinities for like minded retailers to meet and swap success stories and pich ideas ,it’s the only way we are going to survive with the onslaught of the supermarkets encrouching on our out traditional territoris.
Looking forward to more information in next weeks Retail Newsagent.