Reading up on best practices with these retail management books can give you the competitive advantage.
If you want a successful retail business, you need to learn how to be a successful retail manager first. With the best retail management books in your library, you’ll have the perfect resources to navigate the modern business landscape.
Consumers have more choices than ever. As the internet brings millions of e-commerce shops in direct competition with brick-and-mortar stores, you need to get familiar with the best retail management practices to truly stand out. From your store operations to retail marketing, every part of the customer experience will impact where shoppers put their money in the end.
Spending some time reading the best books for retail management will help educate, inspire, and prepare you for the retail industry today. Get tips for retail from the experts with our recommendations below.
What is retail management?
Even if your official job title isn’t “retail store manager,” you may already be playing the part. Retail management is simply the process that goes into selling a product to a consumer, from the time a product is acquired to the time a purchase is made.
Your goal as a retail manager is to improve both sales and customer satisfaction. In order to do so, you’ll need to pay close attention to a number of areas of your business that go into reaching these goals. For example, you must:
>>values, and approach to customer relationship management will ensure your buyers expect and get great service with every interaction.
“Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose”
Zappos, an online shoe retailer, is a well-known leader in human resource management, and its approaches to culture and service helped the company achieve an acquisition by Amazon in 2009. This bestselling book by Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos, guides readers through how to create an employee-focused culture that has the potential for the same success.
By reading “Delivering Happiness,” you can learn how to spur a company-wide commitment to serving customer needs. It will also help you improve your team members’ skill sets and loyalty by enabling you to drive each person toward personal and professional growth.
“Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us”
Understanding what motivates people can give you great insight into what you need to do to better your team’s performance—and therefore, your sales. This New York Times bestseller by Daniel H. Pink tells you what motivates people to do their best and enjoy their work beyond a big paycheck.
The book is backed by decades of research from the author, who combines psychology with management. You’ll learn how to give your employees what they really want—autonomy, mastery, and purpose—so you can get measurable results. The techniques you learn can also spark ideas for motivating your customers to buy, making this book useful for various aspects of retail management.
For marketing and sales tips
Before you can treat your customers well, you need to make them aware of your company in the first place. The following two books share excellent resources for marketing your on-sale items, new products, and overall brand.
“Marketing”
Don’t let the plain title fool you. “Marketing” by Dhruv Grewal and Michael Levy is the seventh edition of a textbook that has been long trusted by educators to provide an expansive view of consumer-facing marketing practices. It takes into account both fundamental marketing theories and new market research to help you add value to your retail company.
This book is a practical, visually engaging resource that will help you attract new leads and create lasting relationships. It will even help you develop your own marketing strategy, so you can put what you learn into action.
Fair warning: The hardcover version of this book is pricey. However, you can get a Kindle copy for less than half the price.
“Silent Selling: Best Practices and Effective Strategies in Visual Merchandising”.
