Winning At Retail

Praise for Winning At Retail

"Winning at Retail offers the most effective strategies available for retailers. At McDonald’s, the ‘Quick-EST’ model is crucial, because being close and convenient to where our customers live, work, and shop helps us create maximum value. If you want to harness your company’s strengths to become a leader in your category–and stay in tune with what your customers want–this is the book for you."
–Jim Rand, Senior Vice President of Business Development, McDonald’s Corporation

"Winning at Retail provides a thoughtful approach to retail differentiation. Ander and Stern warn of the ‘treacherous middle’ into which retailers too easily drift. They inspire us to avoid this peril through case studies of retailers who have assumed leadership through courageous choice."
–Robert L. Price, Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer, Wawa

"In a difficult retail environment, this book provides crucial guidance for staying on top of your competition–by taking the customer seriously and leveraging your strengths to provide experiences that increase customer loyalty. Will Ander and Neil Stern elegantly argue that you can’t always be the biggest, fastest, and trendiest place on the block, but it takes only one of these ‘Ests’ to be a category leader. Businesses big and small can benefit from the carefully distilled lessons in this book."
–Bernd Schmitt, Professor of Marketing, Columbia Business School and author of Customer Experience Management

The business of retail is getting tougher every year. Consumers have more choice than ever and are far more selective about where they shop. With more retailers and more stores chasing an aging and discerning customer, it’s no wonder that big names in retail have recently gone bust. From Merry-Go-Round and eToys to Service Merchandise and Woolworth, the retail landscape is littered with the bodies of fallen champions. Once shining stars of business, these former market leaders went from the top of the heap to the trash heap before they even knew what hit them.

In Winning at Retail, top retail consultants offer candid, straightforward, and passionate guidance for retailers who understand that winning at this game means setting themselves apart from the pack. Based on McMillan|Doolittle’s long history of documenting retail’s biggest players and best practices, this book shows what separates the winners from the losers, and imparts vital lessons on what works and what doesn’t in today’s retail environment.

Today’s top retailers all have one thing in common—they establish defined market positions for themselves, and carve out a particular place in the customer’s mind. In short, they dedicate themselves to being the best at something and they defend that advantage at all costs. The savviest retailers know that trying to be everything to everyone didn’t work for Kmart, and it won’t work for them.

Winning at Retail introduces the Est model for retail success. The Est model guides business leaders in making their company the best in one of five critical areas—assortment (biggest), price (cheapest), fashion (hottest), customer service (easiest), and speed of service (quickest). Establishing a position as a leader in one of these five areas is ultimately the secret of success for Wal-Mart, Kohl’s, Target, and other winning retailers.

Winning at Retail offers all the tools retailers need to establish and implement an effective strategy for long-term growth. It covers all the latest trends in the retail industry and presents unbeatable advice on quickly responding to changes in customer demographics and competition. As true a cliché today as it was yesterday, retail is all about the customers. But customers and their tastes change rapidly—this one-of-a-kind resource shows retailers how to keep up.

WILLARD N. ANDER is a Partner with McMillan|Doolittle, a global retail consultancy with clients around the world. He consults on strategy, new store development, and retail best practices with such clients as General Motors, Publix, Lands’ End, McDonald’s, Best Buy, The Great Indoors, and BP/Amoco. He is a graduate of Stanford University and a former assistant professor at the University of Houston.

NEIL Z. STERN is a Senior Partner with McMillan|Doolittle who specializes in the strategic planning and development of new retail concepts. His clients include Safeway, Procter & Gamble, Harris Teeter, Wawa, Radio Shack, and Chevron/Texaco. He is the Editor of McMillan|Doolittle’s Retail Watch newsletter and is a graduate of Columbia University.