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The Resilient Retail Game Plan - retail insights, retail trends and best practices

The Resilient Retail Game Plan - retail insights, retail trends and best practices

By: Resilient Retail Club's Catherine Erdly
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Welcome to the Resilient Retail Game Plan - giving you retail insights, retail trends updates and best practices for any retailer, from Shopify stores to bricks and mortar units. I'm Catherine Erdly, veteran retail expert and consultant and also founder of The Resilient Retail Club. This is the podcast for anyone wanting to start, grow, or scale a profitable small medium or large product retail business. Aimed at independent retailers, e-commerce brands, indie sellers, online shops, independent boutiques, shopkeepers, brands and makers. I'm dedicated to breaking down the concepts and tools I’ve gathered from twenty years in the retail industry in the UK and USA and showing you how you can use them in your small business.Copyright 2026 Resilient Retail Club's Catherine Erdly Economics Leadership Management Management & Leadership Marketing Marketing & Sales
Episodes
  • The Retail Stock Mistake Even Veteran Retailers Make

    The Retail Stock Mistake Even Veteran Retailers Make
    Jul 23 2026

    I’ve had retailers with 18 years in business tell me the same thing after just a few months working with us — and it isn’t what you’d expect.

    Hi, I’m retail strategist and founder of Resilient Retail Club, Catherine Erdly.

    Most of us are convinced we’re on top of our numbers. Shopify pings with every sale, we know our best sellers by heart, and we watch the sales roll in. But in this episode I dig into the uncomfortable gap between looking at your numbers and actually understanding what they’re telling you to do next — the difference that quietly decides whether your stock is working for you or slowly working against you.

    I walk through the questions most retailers never stop to ask. Is your best seller selling fast enough, or should you be buying twice as many? Are you carrying twice the stock you actually need? Is one category — or even one supplier — secretly funding your whole business, or quietly trapping your cash? If you’ve ever felt like you’re “all over your numbers” but still can’t confidently answer what to buy, what to clear, or what to plan for next, this one is for you.

    I also share the shift that’s helping retailers get more sales from less stock, free up cash they didn’t know was trapped, and walk into their busiest months without panic-buying — plus how to tell whether you need a Stock Doctor, an accountant, or both. By the end, you’ll know exactly why collecting data isn’t the same as making decisions, and what to do about it. Press play to hear how.

    In this episode

    00:00: The confession every experienced retailer makes

    02:36: Rear-view mirror vs sat nav: how to actually read your numbers

    04:53: What we look for when we analyse your stock

    07:52: Stock Doctor vs your accountant — and who this is really for

    Useful links
    • Find out more about Stock Doctor: https://stockdoctor.net
    • Connect with me on LinkedIn: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/catherineerdly
    • More episodes & resources: https://www.resilientretailclub.com/podcast/
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    14 mins
  • The 4-Step Sales Strategy Every Independent Retailer Needs

    The 4-Step Sales Strategy Every Independent Retailer Needs
    Jul 16 2026
    Sales are quiet, and you've already decided it's your fault. It isn't.Hi, I'm retail strategist and founder of Resilient Retail Club, Catherine Erdly.Every retailer I have ever worked with has quiet weeks — including the multi-billion businesses. The only real difference is that they have enough stores and enough channels for the inconsistency to smooth itself out. When it's just you, one shop, one website, a couple of marketplaces, there is nothing to smooth it out. So a slow Tuesday doesn't feel like a slow Tuesday. It feels like evidence. Evidence that people have stopped buying, that your marketing has stopped working, that you have somehow lost your touch.This is the single biggest confidence killer in independent retail, and it has almost nothing to do with your products. It's what happens when you run a business without a plan: a good week means you've cracked it, a bad week means it's all falling apart, and you spend the year strapped into an emotional rollercoaster you never bought a ticket for. Most retailers respond by either setting wildly optimistic goals with no route to hitting them, or quietly setting no goals at all because a missed target feels worse than no target. Neither works. And neither tells you what to actually do on the Monday after a bad week.In this episode I walk you through the four-step sales strategy I've used with hundreds of retailers to get out of that cycle for good. It won't make your quiet periods vanish — nothing will, and anyone selling you that is lying. What it will do is tell you which quiet periods were always going to be quiet, which ones actually need your attention, and precisely what to do about them. By the end you'll know how to set a number that feels exciting rather than terrifying, how to see the rhythm your business has been running to all along, and how to build the one document that means you never again stare at a bad week and think "maybe I'm just terrible at this." It takes about ninety minutes to build. Press play and I'll show you where to start.In this episode(00:00) Why your sales feel random — and why it isn't youWhy every retailer, from a one-woman shop to a billion-pound chain, has quiet days and busy days — and why only one of them feels it. The confidence cost of an unplanned year, and what a sales strategy honestly can and cannot fix.(01:57) Step 1 — Set a sales goal you'll actually aim atThe archery question that exposes how most retailers approach sales, why a target isn't there to make you feel bad, and the last-12-months-plus-run-rate calculation that gets you a realistic number in minutes rather than weeks.(05:05) Steps 2 & 3 — Monthly targets by channel, and your trading calendarBreaking a yearly number down by month and by channel, the hidden benefit that reveals the rhythm of your business (and why February is not a personal failing), then building the trading calendar that bridges your sales plan and your marketing — including what to do when a month has no reason for anyone to buy.(11:50) Step 4 — Track what matters, and why future you will thank youWhy the answer isn't another analytics tool, the four things worth tracking weekly, the four worth tracking monthly, and the one-line note that will save you an hour of confusion this time next year.Free download for this episodeGrab my free guide to creating a sales strategy for your business: resilientretailclub.com/strategyUseful linksFree sales strategy guide — https://www.resilientretailclub.com/strategyThe Resilient Retail Club — https://www.resilientretailclub.comAll podcast episodes — https://www.resilientretailclub.com/podcast/Connect with me on LinkedIn — https://uk.linkedin.com/in/catherineerdlyWatch on YouTube — https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwFwdhK_WMJvXntxKLZj83Inz1fFNAN2PNew episodes every Thursday. If this one was useful, following the show is the single most helpful thing you can do — it's how other independent retailers find it.Mentioned in this episode:This podcast uses chapters
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    16 mins
  • Drowning in Data? The Only 3 Retail Numbers That Matter

    Drowning in Data? The Only 3 Retail Numbers That Matter
    Jul 9 2026

    Have you ever opened your Shopify dashboard looking for one answer and somehow ended up with ten new questions?

    Hi, I'm retail strategist and founder of Resilient Retail Club, Catherine Erdly.

    Most retailers I work with don't have a lack-of-data problem — they have the opposite. They're drowning in dashboards, apps, reports, spreadsheets and AI notifications, yet they still can't confidently answer the three questions that actually matter: Am I making money? Am I on track? Is my stock healthy? More information hasn't made the decision easier. If anything, it's made it harder.

    In this episode I talk about cutting through the noise. I share why “tech creep” quietly drains your bank account and your attention, how new AI tools like Shopify Sidekick are changing the reporting game, and why the answer to feeling overwhelmed is almost never another subscription. Then I get into the small handful of numbers that genuinely tell you whether your business is healthy — and why clarity beats complexity every single time.

    If you've been feeling unsure about how things are really going in your shop, this one will help you stop guessing. By the end you'll know exactly which three numbers to check each month, what “good” looks like for each, and how to build one simple place to track them so you can see the health of your business in seconds — without drowning in data. The specific numbers, the benchmarks and the exact formula I use are all inside the episode.

    In this episode

    (00:00) Drowning in data, starving for clarity — why more tools won't fix it, and how to cut tech creep

    (06:45) Number 1 — Am I making money on every sale? Understanding your sales margin

    (11:02) Number 2 — Am I selling enough to cover my costs? The power of breakeven analysis

    (14:40) Number 3 — Is my stock turning fast enough? Weeks cover and why stock is cash

    Links & resources
    • Free download — The 3 Key Numbers guide: https://www.resilientretailclub.com/numbers
    • My book, Tame Your Tiger: How to Stop Your Product Business Eating You Alive — where I show you how to calculate your breakeven step by step
    • Connect with me on LinkedIn: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/catherineerdly
    • More episodes & the audio podcast: https://www.resilientretailclub.com/podcast/
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    20 mins
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