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High pay = high growth for America’s retailers
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Well-paid shop floor staff are crucial to retail success, a major new report has revealed.
These include brands like Publix (5th best consumer brand, boasting 11% growth and paying 13% above US retail average), Shoprite (13th place, 8.5% growth, 11.3% above average pay) and Whole Foods (31st place, 32.5% growth, 22% above average pay).
Craig Ryder, Head of Retail, at the report’s authors, Nunwood, commented:
“Retailers who have moved on from the idea of employees as minimum wage automatons often achieve the best overall growth. Their people benefit, their customers feel better and their shareholders profit.
“These brands have realised that, in order to grow in this difficult environment, you have to make a human connection between the associate and the customer. It’s much harder to do that with minimum wage staff who are treated as little more than worker bees. You need engaged, motivated staff willing and able to go the extra mile for the customer.
“A fact of life for bricks and mortar retailers now is that for most shoppers, most of the time, a better selection and a better price is available online. The retailers that are succeeding clearly recognize this and are investing in creating the kind of experiences that you can’t get online – human ones.”
This trend was recently evidenced by Apple Stores, who, since last year, have dropped 27 places from 10th to 37th place. Earlier in the year they were criticised for failing to meet industry pay levels, responding with a snap 25% pay increase for many employees.
Notes:
· The Nunwood Customer Experience Excellence report is based on more than 100,000 brand reviews given by more than 7000 US adults in May / June 2012. It comprehensively covers 251 brands from across America. (see: http://tinyurl.com/735xdp9 )
· Remuneration figures as reported by www.glassdoor.com. Figures stated for each company represent the average of shelf stockers, bakery and grocery clerks and cashiers.
· Figure stated as the US average retail salary is taken from a sample of 82 retail brands and formulated as above coming to $9.03 per hour.
· Company growth figures taken from most recently filed financial statements, predominantly these represent the 12 months ending April 30th 2012.
· Sample of retailers that made the top 100 ranking in customer excellence numbered 20, the control sample of 20 was randomly selected from other brands that ranked between 100 and 250 in the survey.
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