While, as an independent retailer, you should aim to offer your customers merchandise that they can't buy elsewhere in town, it's likely that you stock some of the same or similar items as your competitors.

In this article, find out how bundling products can help you increase your sales and profits.

Despite many shoppers being more discerning over what they buy, it seems that impulse purchases continue to boost retail sales, especially for speciality retailers.

So let’s take a look at how to increase impulse sales in your shop - what makes a good impulse buy item, and how to stimulate additional sales.

Regular assessment of your shop's performance is vital to the success of your retail business.

Here's a list of the key measures and calculations to help you manage your retail shop's performance.

Keeping a count of your customers will provide valuable data to help inform your retail business decisons and control key costs.

As all successful independent retailers know, maintaining your marketing effort through thick and thin is vital to running a sustainable retail business. And the more engaging your marketing activity is the more successful it's likely to be.

There's always a multitude of things to do when running your own retail shop.

Use this form to list tasks that need to be undertaken each day by you and your staff.

Customers are the lifeblood of every business. A primary goal for every retailer is to grow their customer base, and for you as an independent shop owner to do so at a low cost. The more targeted your marketing is, the more profitable it will be.

Are your sales promotions and special events really delivering the results they should? Are they well organised in advance or a last minute thought? Which promotions work best for you and why? Do you want to be more successful with your sales promotions?

This action list will help you prepare and implement sales promotions and in-store events that will drive footfall, increase sales, shift stock and improve cashflow.

The Sale of Goods Act was introduced in 1979 to protect consumers in the purchases they made. It was updated and amended in 1994 (Sale and Supply of Goods Act 1994) and again in 2002 (Sale and Supply of Goods Act to Consumer Regulations 2002) to take into account consumers purchasing goods in other European countries.

The main aim of the latest amendment was to encourage people to shop across borders and know that there is some legal recourse if they are problems with faulty goods.

You're most likely aware of Pareto's Law: 80% of business comes from 20% of an organisation's customers, and this I have found to be true in the retail sector.

What I've also discovered is that not all retailers are looking after their loyal customers as well as they could (or should) be doing. Instead they focus on attracting new customers, costing considerably more than fostering customer loyalty with existing customers.

 Here's 10 tips for building customer loyalty in your retail business:

Many of the issues concerning stock holding faced by my small, independent retail clients can be attributed to too little, or even no, advance sales and stock level planning. Time spent planning is not an ‘unaffordable luxury’ – in fact, it’s absolutely vital to the sustainability of small, independent retailers.

Here’s 4 steps to help you with your future sales and inventory planning:

Does your shop have the WOW factor? Are you giving your customers a great shopping experience or are your competitors doing better than you?

In this article discover what the WOW factor means and how to create it in your retail shop.