What
If We Don’t Want a New Shop But Do Need
Improvements?
Have
your sales and profits remained flat or even
decreased over the last few years? Advantage
Program offers you the opportunity to make
positive changes in your existing gift shop
without the creation of a completely new shop.
How
Can the Advantage Program Operations Improvements
Help Us?
 With
partnered consulting leading to a customized
Action Plan for your gift shop! We evaluate
your shop’s
current effectiveness and profitability, and
compare these to your shop’s sales and
profit potential. The Advantage Program accomplishes
this through an advance questionnaire you fill
out and return, followed by a comprehensive
two-day visit to your gift shop.
Based
on the questionnaire and the visit, we then create
your own Action Plan and help you implement it.
The Action Plan gives you the tools to become
a 100% effective operation. We follow up via telephone,
regular mail or e-mail with answers to any questions
you may have for one year after our visit.
What
Does the Advantage Program evaluate during the
two-day visit?
-
Meet shop personnel
-
Observe the shop in operation
- Review
your current merchandise, stock levels and vendor
structure
- Photograph
your shop’s layout, design and display
fixtures
- Review
cash handling procedures, inventory controls
and financial reporting systems
- Review
purchases and vendor structure
- Review
shop standards, policies and training procedures
-
Review inventory in back-stock, merchandise
processing methods, mark-up percentage, markdowns
and seasonal merchandise
- Discuss
the sales and profit potential of your shop
- Discuss
your current merchandise assortment
- Answer
questions and concerns about proposed changes
in shop operations, merchandise assortment,
and customer service
When
Would We Receive Our Action Plan, and What Does
It Cover?
The
Advantage Program provides
you with your Action Plan within 21 working
days after the two-day visit. The Action Plan
is a comprehensive report that includes a
financial and operations analysis of your
gift shop, merchandise buying, report formats,
and a photographic and schematic floor plan
to maximize selling space.
The
Action Plan also has complete and detailed instructions
on how to implement all of our recommendations
and how to create future financial and merchandise
buying plans that will maximize your shop’s
sales and profits.
What
If We Want a Program That Is Different From What
You Described?
Advantage
Program is
always happy to customize our consulting engagement
to address your needs. For example, some clients
ask that we spend more time on site for additional
one-on-one training with the gift shop manager.
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