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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
  • Ghost stores, fake shops and what they mean for real independent retailers

    Ghost stores, fake shops and what they mean for real independent retailers
    Jul 30 2026
    "It's with a heavy heart that we share this message with you." A little boutique closing its doors after years of love and care, one final sale, the owners off to enjoy being grandparents. Except the shop never existed."

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

    I started this episode pulling on one thread — a closing down sale that didn't add up — and ended up somewhere I wasn't expecting. The photo of the owners had the smooth, too-perfect look of an AI image. The listing named a local town, but the shipping notes said the orders ship from a warehouse thousands of miles away. And it turned out I hadn't found one fake shop. I'd found an entire business model: set up, run a huge "closing down" sale, collect the money, wait for the bad reviews to pile up, disappear, start again. Chris Emmins of consumer protection organisation KwikChex tells me there are thousands and thousands of them, and that even the people whose job it is to count them can't keep up.

    Here's the part that should worry every independent retailer. The standard advice given to shoppers is to be wary of a company they've never heard of — which is a fairly accurate description of almost every small business in the country. Research from Bazaarvoice, which I dig into with their CMO Doug Straton, found that 97% of shoppers no longer buy from a single source. They're cross-checking your website against Instagram, Reddit, TikTok, your reviews and a quick Google before they'll spend anything with you. That isn't paranoia, it's adaptation. So when someone sees your ad, they go looking. The only question that matters is what they find when they get there.

    In this episode I look at what a genuinely sceptical customer is hunting for, what a fast-growing brand like Passenger does that most independents don't, and the shift that caught me off guard: the trust signals you build aren't only being read by people any more. AI models and shopping agents are reading them too, and deciding whether to put you in front of a customer at all. By the end you'll know what to check on your own website this week, which signals carry the most weight, and why the one thing that makes you almost impossible to fake is something you already have — you're just not showing it. Press play and I'll walk you through it.

    Chapters
    • 00:00 — The closing down sale that never happened
    • 02:28 — Inside the ghost store business model, with Chris Emmins of KwikChex
    • 04:50 — The 97% rule, and the question customers now ask you
    • 08:15 — What a fast-growing brand does differently, and why AI is reading your trust signals too

    Links and resources
    • Resilient Retail Club podcast: https://www.resilientretailclub.com/podcast/
    • Catherine on LinkedIn: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/catherineerdly
    • Catherine's Forbes piece on this investigation: https://www.forbes.com/sites/catherineerdly/2026/06/26/how-fake-online-stores-are-damaging-legitimate-retailers/
    • KwikChex: https://www.kwikchex.com
    • Bazaarvoice: https://www.bazaarvoice.com
    • Passenger: https://www.passenger-clothing.com
    • Which? investigation into bogus boutiques: https://www.which.co.uk/news/article/the-bogus-boutiques-ripping-off-shoppers-aqruM5i1zJLH
    • Say hello on Instagram: @resilientretailclub
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    15 mins
  • 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/
    Show More Show Less
    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
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