Retail Insights Unveiled: Maximizing Store Team Potential

S1E6 The Power of Knowledgeable Store Teams

Mar 13, 2025

Delivering a great customer experience is a challenge every retailer faces. We’re surfacing valuable insights from real world industry data, slicing through measurable consumer insights based on 1st party research and research at the point of sale. Join us as we learn the impact of one data insight each issue! Stay sharp!

Harnessing the Power of Well-Informed Store Teams

Retail Razor: Data Blades is back with the final insightful episode of Season 1, where your hosts Ricardo Belmar and Casey Golden take an in-depth journey into the world of measurable consumer insights based on 1st party researchwith the help of the amazing Georgina Nelson, CEO of TruRating.

Today’s topic leverages data insights from consumer surveys at the point-of-sale to explain the strategic advantage of having well-informed store teams.

TruRating empowers retailers by connecting them directly to validated shopper feedback. One of their recent accomplishments includes hitting a milestone of nearly a billion responses, with an average response rate of 80% to their single, rotating question asked directly on POS pinpads. This approach integrates feedback seamlessly into the shopper’s checkout experience, producing substantial insights for retailers using first-party research data.

The Strategic Advantage of Well-Informed Store Teams

Georgina takes us through a case study involving a global sporting goods retailer. In this case, well-informed store teams proved to be pivotal in boosting customer satisfaction and sales.

When asked if staff provided several product options, 90% of shoppers responded "yes," leading to a notable 27% increase in average shopper spending.

This demonstrates that informed staff can offer personalized experiences by cross-selling and upselling, thereby increasing transaction values.

Georgina emphasizes that it's not just about boosting sales figures; informed teams contribute to a holistic shopping experience that resonates with consumers and strengthens brand loyalty. As consumers become more discerning in choosing which retailers they trust and want to buy from, such personalized approaches are key differentiators.

Bridging the Gap

Through the discussion, Casey and Ricardo agree on the importance of providing front-line teams with the tools to assess their impact on sales and overall business performance. TruRating's data eliminates guesswork by offering factual insights, making it clear that well-informed teams can significantly increase sales and drive positive business outcomes. As retailers begin to focus more on data, the potential for effective team training and better business decisions amplifies.

brown wooden blocks on white surface — Photo by Brett Jordan on Unsplash

Ensuring Effective Execution

The conversation shifted to the execution of strategies at the store level. Noting that while the overall statistics are impressive, execution gaps exist among individual stores. Effective strategies can lapse without consistent guidance, particularly during days when store managers are absent. Addressing these gaps is vital for maximizing potential revenue and ensuring seamless strategy execution.

Building Cohesive Teams

The correlation between well-performing stores and low turnover rates is brought to light in this discussion. Stores with high engagement levels are often indicators of well-functioning teams with effective management.

Tracking customer interactions and aligning teams around clear data creates a unified approach to problem-solving and strategic action.

Final Thoughts

As the episodes draws to a close, Georgina extends an invitation to share further insights collected across the U.S., highlighting the value of real-time consumer sentiment analysis. Casey and Ricardo enthusiastically agree there can be significant potential discoveries within the data, acknowledging how current consumer behaviors across varying generational demographics are reshaping how retailers serve their customers. They agree that while retail is a human-centered business, first-party data insights can not only enhance retailers’ understanding of the brand to consumer relationship but also define a path to deeper customer loyalty.

This wraps up an insightful Season 1 of The Retail Razor: Data Blades! We encourage our audience to tune in, subscribe, and engage with our content across Apple Podcasts, Goodpods, YouTube, and more. Please give us your feedback and connect with us on LinkedIn, Bluesky, Threads, and Instagram.

Until next time… keep cutting through the data clutter - and stay sharp!

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Follow along with a full episode transcript available below:

Full Episode Transcript

S1E6 Retail Insights Unveiled: Maximizing Store Team Potential

Show Intro

[00:00:00]

Ricardo Belmar: Welcome to our new Retail Razor Show, Data Blades, our new standalone Retail Razor Show, where we talk real world numbers and slice through measurable consumer insights based on research at the point of sale.

And bringing us that slicing and dicing of data is Georgina Nelson, CEO of TruRating.

Casey Golden: TruRating helps retailers hear directly from validated shoppers daily, and recently had a major milestone of half a billion responses. Retailers using TruRating average an 80 percent response rate on questions asked, made possible by asking a single rotating question directly on the POS pinpad, making it a seamless part of the shopper's checkout experience.

Ricardo Belmar: TruRating also works with their retail partners to develop consumer insights reports by running questions on an industry topic or theme. These anonymous responses are linked to metrics such as [00:01:00] basket size and repeat visits to produce industry changing insights like the ones Georgina will share with us today and raise our data blades.

I'm your host, Ricardo Belmar.

Casey Golden: And I'm your cohost, Casey Golden.

Georgina Nelson - The Strategic Advantage of Well-Informed Store Teams

Casey Golden: Welcome Georgina.

Georgina Nelson: Thank you, thrilled to be here with you both today

Casey Golden: So today's Retail Razor Data Blades topic is - the strategic advantage of well informed store teams. Georgina, let's dive in.

Georgina Nelson: Thank you. So I thought I'd touch today on the success story of one of our retail clients, who is a global sporting goods retailer, which for me highlights a real fundamental principle in retail, basically the advantage of well informed store teams. So in their stores, shoppers were asked, did the staff give you several product options?

So on average, across all of their stores, 90 percent of shoppers answered yes. And the result which they saw was an impressive 27 [00:02:00] percent increase in average shopper spend. And so essentially, yeah, what this really tells us is well informed store teams have the ability to, you know, offer customers a real diverse range of product choices based on the needs of each shopper.

And ultimately this creates a atmosphere of personalization. So shoppers really feel that their preferences are generally understood and valued. So store teams can suggest complimentary products through cross selling, or they can nudge customers, like, to more expensive premium options through upselling.

And so, we found that when customers feel that a store team really understands their needs and offers these tailored suggestions, yet they are ultimately more likely to consider additional items and higher end alternatives. And so, ultimately, that leads to higher overall purchase values, and that's what we saw with our sports retailer.

And yeah, ultimately, it's not just all about, the bottom line and [00:03:00] sales, you know, really an informed store team can create that holistic shopping experience, which we all love and which, when we walk into a store and speak to a store associate, we really feel resonates with us as a brand and, in this competitive retail landscape, I really believe that this type of personalized approach sets retailers apart.

Casey Golden: It's been so difficult for store teams to get that type of information to corporate, right? Store managers know how often that they're talking to customers. Sales associates, they feel that they have impact. into the sales. They know that they've cross sold. They know that they've been helping customers all day, but this is just such a great way to prove on the transaction level that these, these sales associates are increasing sales.

They're increasing AUR. They literally are part of the bottom line. So I think this is just very, very [00:04:00] exciting to see because so rarely is that type of a question, in my opinion, Make it to corporate.

Ricardo Belmar: And in such a nice definitive way, right? I think I really love this

Casey Golden: There's no gray area.

Ricardo Belmar: Yeah, exactly. It's not, it's not gray, right? It's very clear what the impact is. And I mean, we've always sort of, had, I guess I have to call it a cliche, right? That when everyone says all those, your frontline store teams are the face of your retail brand.

And so many retail executives will say that, but they say it loosely without really having something to back it up. And this provides that proof point that says, no, there is an absolute tangible Impact to having that well informed team. And I think this trickles back. If I'm the retailer seeing this point, this should be telling me, Oh, well, that means my store team, they must've been not only are they well informed, that means they've done the training, right?

So maybe this speaks to the effectiveness of sales training that we've had and product training that we've had because there was a measurable sales increase from customers that had [00:05:00] interaction, engagement, with that staff member. So it's another, it's yet another validation point that says maybe it does make sense after all that we invest in those store team members, to help make them better at what they do.

And it is reflected back in our sales data.

Georgina Nelson: exactly. I think, you know, what's, what's really important is once you see this kind of stat at a, at a higher level, Actually, it's about drilling it down to what is happening on each of those stores. So when we talk about that overall average, 90%, which is phenomenal, when we actually get down to it in all our retailers, as you'll expect, there's got execution gaps.

There's some stores which are executing on that strategy really well. and others which are lagging behind. And you can even see the difference, you know, when the, when the store manager is on their off day, for example, these things can lapse. And so it's really, putting into the hands of the, of the regional managers, even the store managers themselves, all the way up to corporate, the view of how that strategy has been [00:06:00] executed at a store level across, you know, across the course of a day.

And so, You can say to a particular store, we can see that we're losing, X amount of revenue because simply your teams aren't doing the upsell. They're not looking at cross sell opportunities and, yeah, and we need to give you some more coaching to get, get you up to speed.

Casey Golden: Yeah. I would even challenge that a store that would have 90 percent yes, would probably have less turnover and probably have a great team, you know, if it was 90%, no, you probably have a very high turnover and your store manager is not engaging your associates and they're not really a cohesive team.

I mean, this could into several other like divisions, to really communicate how is like a nice little health check,

Georgina Nelson: Yeah, exactly. And, you know, when we speak to, when we speak to managers within [00:07:00] retail, I think so much, previously, they're, they're managing on gut, it's my gut sense that this team, we've got problems, you've got issues, maybe, and, and having customers, all your customers being essentially a mystery shopper and providing, providing this data just takes the emotion and the heat out of it.

It's like everyone, look, this is what our customers are saying. We're all aligned. This is, you know, let's take action. And it means the store teams can trust the data and corporate trust the data and that means everyone's aligned on action, actionability.

Casey Golden: oh my gosh, I was brought back like deja vu there. I just had a flashback of like, oh my god I have a secret shop coming in this quarter Ha ha ha ha day I was just like, oh my god, is that them? Is that them? I remember those moments. Now it happens at every single checkout

Ricardo Belmar: Well, and isn't there also a factor here about tracking customer repeat [00:08:00]visits? I know that the questions are done anonymously, but because you are mapping against point of sale data, right? I'm assuming there's an ability you can help a retailer track this as a lifetime customer value metric

Georgina Nelson: Yeah, exactly. So, you know, not only is there that, I'm going to spend more in the moment, you're persuading me to get the, those more expensive trainers, for example, but that impact of that personalization and that consultative sale means I'm more likely to come back. So yeah, that's definitely what we, what we look at as well.

Casey Golden: It's very interesting, I can't say that Ricardo and I wouldn't have a blast digging in and slicing and dicing that data Now Now It just sounds like a good time

Georgina Nelson: Well, I would love to come and share many other insights with you on what we're, what we're hearing from shoppers all over the U S anytime you would like.

Casey Golden: There's like you said earlier there is so much [00:09:00] happening with consumer behavior right now across so many different generations shopping right now at the same time We're this having the consumer insights essentially coming in in real time. It's just really really such a good move for retailers to make sure that like they have a pulse and they activate a pulse on any given moment.

Georgina Nelson: Yeah, I couldn't, couldn't agree more than, keeping current on the wave of consumer, consumer change and sentiment. So we're happy on the be journey.

Casey Golden: Well, that does it for another edition of Retail Razor Blades. Thank you, Georgina.

Georgina Nelson: Thank you so much for having me.

Show Close

Casey Golden: If you enjoyed our show, please consider giving us a five star rating and review on Apple podcasts and Goodpods. Remember to smash that subscribe button in your favorite podcast player and tune in on YouTube so you don't miss a minute. I'm your cohost, Casey Golden.

Ricardo Belmar: Please share your feedback with us on Twitter at Casey C [00:10:00] Golden, Ricardo underscore Belmar, and at RetailRazor, or find us on LinkedIn, Threads, and Instagram. For the best highlights from each episode shipped straight to your inbox, subscribe to our Substack newsletter for full episode transcripts and bonus content.