Five Time Management Tips For Retail Managers

Contributed by by Matthieu Dalant, contributor at A2R.

Whether you’re a new retail manager or have years of experience, you can easily be pulled in multiple different directions on any given day. From recruiting and supervision to budget management and dealing with customer feedback, it can be a constant struggle to focus on one single task at a time.

There’s really no way around it: efficient management requires the ability to oversee many tasks at once and can quickly become overwhelming. With over 6,000 retail stores already slated for closure this year alone, it’s more important than ever for retail managers to be competent and effective.

In order to remain successful and avoid shuttering your retail store, time management is arguably the most beneficial skill to have. In the interest of staying ahead of the curve, here are five tips to better manage your time and boost your performance.

 Set Clear, Attainable Daily Goals 

Without well-planned and clearly defined goals, disorganization and confusion will become commonplace. While long-term goals are essential to focus on the bigger picture, if you want your day-to-day time management to improve, you need to be setting daily goals as well.    

One great way to set daily goals is to create to-do lists. There are many useful applications out there to help you do this.

Take the time to carefully craft your to-do lists, breaking down longer term (monthly, weekly) goals into easily manageable individual tasks. This will help paint a clear picture of the time frames needed to complete certain tasks that will help you achieve your primary goals.

Use Time Blocking 

Once you’ve created your to-do lists for a given week, you should assign a specific time block for each individual task. This will help you remain focused and avoid the trap of multi-tasking, which can negatively effect productivity.

Smaller blocks of time can be grouped into larger related blocks. For example, all web-related tasks such as social media, newsletter editing and blogging can be grouped under one umbrella while store-specific tasks can go under another.

A great way to allocate time blocks in the most efficient way possible is to figure out your store’s peak and down times. To help you do this, many modern Point of Sale systems feature analytical tools to view time-specific sales information and foot traffic patterns.

Do Away With Distractions 

When it comes to being productive, your attention is invaluable. Distractions only serve to take your mind off the task at hand and lead to poor performance. Here are a few simple ways to stay concentrated and minimize distractions:

Tune out social media and messaging apps that aren’t directly related to your task

Be sure to take regular breaks to refresh your mind

Avoid multi-tasking to maintain your focus

Keep your work space clutter-free

Streamline Your Retail Activities 

Perhaps the most effective way to improve your time management, streamlining your business operations will help you save time while decreasing expenses in the process. If you find yourself manually plodding through a significant number of your tasks, it may be time to start integrating retail business solutions.

Retail activities can be streamlined using applications that can communicate with each other and be monitored from a centralized location.  There are countless services that can help you streamline your tasks including single-purpose cloud-based applications and multi-purpose comprehensive retail solutions.

Train Your Staff And Delegate Tasks 

Sometimes, it’s just not possible to do everything yourself. Aside from being unrealistic, it is far less productive than delegating work to properly trained staff.

Ensuring that your staff understands the ins-and-outs of your retail business can be extremely beneficial. Start by delegating simple tasks and go from there.

As you can see, there are countless factors that contribute to effective time management in retail, including setting goals, staying organized, eliminating inefficiencies and streamlining tasks. If you stay patient and committed, you can greatly increase your day-to-day efficiency as a retail manager.