The Independent Achievers Academy (IAA) is a free business development programme for independent retailers.
It is designed to help engaged independent retailers to grow their sales and profits through benchmarking and expert advice. It is built on the small, simple, smart things which, when done consistently over time, produce results. The benchmarks and advice are shaped by top retailers and leading suppliers to give you a success model you can trust.
Retailing success depends on repeating the simple stuff. The difference between someone who makes a lot of money from their shop and someone who just gets by is often a result of the processes that they use. Benchmarking results in an in-depth report on how you are performing and compare with others across the country. You are also in with a chance of an independent assessor coming into your shop to analyse your strengths and opportunities to improve which could ultimately end in national recognition for your shop.
If you took part this year, great! You should have your benchmark report by now, we hope you found it useful and have learnt something new about your business! If for any reason you haven’t received your report, please email us and we’ll resend it.
Benchmarking your shop will give you an in-depth report on how you’re performing, and compare your shop with others across the country. We’ve split retail into 12 key disciplines to help make it easier for you to understand where you’re doing a good job and what areas there are to grow your sales and profits.
Click here to see who walked away with the highest recognition in the 12 core categories - as well as the overall best shop - of the IAA at the Gala Dinner on November 29.
Is your store one of the Independent Achievers Academy Top 100 stores? Local retailers benchmarked their businesses across 12 key disciplines and were visited by our assessment partners for an in-store assessment to understand how they can better serve their communities. To see the IAA Top 100 shops for 2017 map, click here.
Three months after visiting Wendy Knight at her shop in Gosport , we look at the benefits that she has achieved from the advice given.
In the last part of the 12-week programme, the IAA and Graeme Collins from category partner NFRN help Cambridge retailer Abdul Arain take retail innovation in his shop to the next level.
In the penultimate Academy in Action visit of 2018, the IAA and category partner betterRetailing.com visited Natalie Lightfoot to help her improve her shop layout
In part 10 of a 12-week development programme, the IAA – and its category partner Mondelez International – help retailer Helen Rogers improve her in-store displays
Download the definitive 'how to' guide for your store.
Benchmark your shop and get examples of how leading retailers have succeeded across the 12 key categories of independent convenience retail
You know your shop better than anyone. Now you can decide exactly what news, advice and retailer case studies that you want to see to help you improve your business.
