Selling retail goods isn’t what it used to be. With online sales giants and direct access for customers to an international market of goods, retailers need to be strategic to stay ahead of the game. That’s why a retail sales strategy is so crucial; it outlines your business mission and structures your decision-making to jive with your goals.

If you don’t yet have a clearly articulated master plan for sales, it’s time to re-examine your business and develop one. Properly planned, it’ll ensure you keep moving in the right direction – forward. Here’s how to get started:

The Importance of Market Research

Before you take another look at your offerings, take a step back to consider the market globally. Are there any trends or hot-topics that you might have overlooked? How familiar are you with competitors’ products and their USPs? How do your products compare, and which products are you competing against for sales?

Immerse yourself in the marketplace and build a sense of what’s going on outside your business – that perspective will give you a keener sense of your own USP and where it fits into the bigger picture.

Evaluating the Need

Finding a gap in the market is not the same as finding a market in the gap.

Thinking purely in terms of product offerings, you could find a gap in the market for men’s messenger bags at a certain price point. Seems like a great opportunity, no?

If you’re doing your market research, you know to ask more than just, “Is this product currently being offered?” You also want to know why or why not, the potential margins, the opportunities, and the consumers. Is there a reason that this has never been done? Has anyone else tried? What was the outcome? What did or did not work? A gap in the market is only a good opportunity if there’s a market in that gap.

Devising Your Plan

How you compete will depend on your business goals and priorities; competing to offer the lowest price is different than offering the best value, and both those approaches will involve a very different strategy than striving to lead in customer service or quality.

Striving to offer a men’s messenger bag at the lowest price point, for example, will lead to a very different product than offering one with good value and a great warrantee. What priorities matter most for your brand and mission? How do you want to be competing in three or five years? Decide on your top priorities first; they’ll help sort out a lot of the other questions that come up along the way.

Strategic Spending

Before you start spending money, have you actually got a space and a strategy for making that money back? Over-investing too early in large stock volumes is a big problem for retail businesses – but then it’s also impossible to make sales with empty shelves. How do you balance the two?

If you’ve done your due diligence with market research, you likely have a fairly robust sense of opportunities in your area. Are there low-cost options that allow you to build inventory without overcommitting to one product line or design? Are there ways you can generate interest and start taking orders before purchasing goods (by talking to those key retailers and distributors that will justify the investment on your new product lines)? Before opening your wallet, make sure you’ve thought about the best ways to invest your funds.

Staying Focused, Connected, Invested

An enthusiastic sales team is a key component of business success – but you can’t have the team storming ahead on their own. All team members need to be on the same page about the business values and the value of the business. Build a concrete business statement that outlines the direction in which you want to move, and the type of buyers to whom you want to sell. Get everyone around the same table, drawing out the shared vision so that you’re all on the same page. Once your team knows which direction you want, it’s easy to plot the course.

An effective sales strategy is not static – it requires constant adaptation and adjustment to changes in the marketplace. You’ll need to revisit your market research and retail sales strategy on a regular basis to maintain your competitive edge. The good news is that a sound strategic plan is like a well-charted course: you may need to adjust the sails, but if you picked the right direction when you set out it’s a lot easier to get where you want to go.