Picture this: It’s Monday morning, and you’re huddled together with the rest of your leadership team talking about what you always talk about at this time—the weekend’s performance.
During this meeting, you’re probably looking at a lot of metrics. Across every channel, online and in-store, you’re scanning:
- Topline sales
- Gross margin
- Units per transaction
- Traffic
- Conversion
There’s a dip in the numbers and you have no idea where to point the finger. Naturally, everyone, from the Chief Merchant to the CMO to the CFO, begins to speculate:
“The current product assortment isn’t landing!”
“We need more targeted marketing!”
“Maybe it’s just the weather?”
Or, what if it’s a store execution problem?
In our recent survey, 63% of retail ops leaders say 1 in 4 initiatives don’t land as intended. Store leaders feel this pain most acutely. In fact, 23% say fewer than half of strategic initiatives are executed properly.
Here’s how it plays out: HQ puts in the work. The brief goes out. And somewhere between corporate and the store floor, the initiative loses steam — leaving weeks of planning time and resources on the table.
Execution problems exist and they’re costing retailers. Our two cents? Tracking it is worth every penny.
No sugarcoating: execution can be hard to track
For years (decades, even) retail leaders have relied on antiquated methods to assess if store teams are actually doing what they need to do:
- Putting up new marketing
- Pulling inventory from the back room
- Rearranging fixtures on the sales floor
- Talking to customers about the latest promotions
They might send their upper field leaders out into stores for surprise visits, or comb through the weekend’s customer experience survey results.
The problem with that approach:
1. The information is anecdotal at best — and usually not indicative of larger trends across the fleet. (How many times have you sent a “911” email to your field leaders because one merchant happened to stop into one store and saw their product displayed incorrectly?)
2. You’re always playing defense, not offense. Assessing execution this way only lets you fix store behavior after it’s already had a negative impact on your business. Chances are you’re only asking your district managers to check on execution when sales numbers are looking bleak. And by that time, the damage is already done.
Here’s where it gets easier: retail ops software
The good news: there’s a better way to track execution than surprise visits and weekend surveys.
Enter retail operations software.
Executives, field leaders, and even cross-functional partners now have a way to get instant visibility into what’s actually getting done in stores — driving accountability at every level, before small issues become big ones.
No more Monday morning speculation. With the right platform in place, you already know what’s working, what’s not, and where to point the finger.
Find a tool that tracks and drives performance
Retail leaders don’t just want to know what’s happening — they want software that helps them do something about it. Here’s what that looks like in practice.
1. Give your stores context, not just tasks
Store managers are going to prioritize based on what they understand. So better execution starts with giving them not just the what, but also the why.
Retail operations platforms like Zipline connect company priorities to store-level tasks, so leaders can make smarter decisions about where to spend their time. HQ stops pushing directives into a void and starts shaping how stores actually operate.
2. Empower field leaders to take action
District managers aren’t there to forward emails from corporate. Their job is to coach store teams toward consistent, precise execution.
That only works when everyone is looking at the same information. With retail ops software, field leaders have instant visibility into what tasks have been sent, what’s been completed, and what’s falling behind — so they can step in before issues reach the C-Suite.
3. Connect directly to the frontline
Retail is, in many ways, the original remote work. And the associates closest to your customers are often the hardest to reach.
How do you rally your team behind your company vision and goals?
Retail ops software makes it easy for you to communicate directly with frontline employees — through written updates, video messages, and two-way chat — without waiting for the annual Store Manager Conference. Reaching the frontline at scale is exactly why retail ops leaders love Zipline.
Ready to see more?
If store execution isn’t on your Monday morning dashboard yet, it should be. Reach out to learn how Zipline can help.
