Redefining Retail Marketing Support Services

For 20 years Retex has offered free membership and served as an intermediary for the retail industry, saving its members over 100 million dollars by lowering costs through high-volume buying and rebates. Now, Retex has formed a strategic partnership with SampleSecure.com in order to offer Retail Marketing Support Services, including Mystery Shopping, Merchandising, Event Marketing and Demonstrations, as well as online ordering and program management, at an incredibly reduced rate to its membership.

Retex members now have free access to the award winning SampleSecure.com online ordering and Program Management system. In addition, retailers taking advantage of this unique partnership and technology will also save 5% or more on labor and overstock issues. SampleSecure.com brings together some of the best local service providers in the industry, many of which have worked in conjunction with the national firms that you are familiar with or may have even used. This solid network of local providers offers you the same expertise and experience, with a new twist. By working directly with the local service providers, SampleSecure.com has eliminated the string of middlemen that have, up until now, functioned merely as order takers. With current industry practices, your service order is taken and then contracted out, sometimes up to four times, before the local provider actually getting the job done receives the order. In the meantime, your budget has been severely depleted, and the quality of the work that you will receive has been reduced. It is widely known that, “You get what you pay for.” However, if your budget for these services does not reach the local provider, then the quality of the personnel being hired to do the job is diminished, and the local provider is more often than not overextended because of the need to take on an insurmountable amount of work in order to operate at any kind of profit. Instead of getting the attention and quality you deserve, you end up with overworked providers and poor labor quality at the store level. Furthermore, with that many links in the chain, your service is only going to be as good as the weakest link. With that much room for error, both human and technological, and breakdown in communication, something is bound to falter.

The SampleSecure.com Difference

The days of misplaced ballot boxes and empty demonstration tables are over. With SampleSecure.com, you also have the advantage of the award winning ordering and Program Management system. You will be able to identify what stage of the process your order is in and have much more control over the providers you use. When you hire a national firm that then subcontracts this service out, you have very little control over who actually recruits and trains the personnel, schedules the event, or edits the report that you eventually receive. In many cases, each of these services is contracted to a different provider or firm, again reducing your service budget along the way. As a Retex member, you will have free access to the online ordering and Program Management system and have the ability to purchase these Retail Marketing Support Services at cost. You will also have a choice of a local provider in your area. Wherever you are in the country, there is a network provider, EMA, ready to serve you.

Retail Marketing Support Services: Mystery Shopping

Retail Marketing Support Services, such as Mystery Shopping, are invaluable to any industry. These services provide you with information paramount to increasing profitability and decreasing loss. Whether your goal is to evaluate your employees and the customer service provided at the point of contact with customers, the effectiveness of your advertising, regulatory compliance, issues related to your Standard Operating Procedure (SOP), or Loss Prevention and Quality Assurance issues, there is an individualized program to meet your needs. Mystery Shopping, for instance, is also used for business verification issues, such as verifying that a location is or is not where it should be, hours of operation, signage, menus and advertising campaigns. This information is vital to any business and available to you, a valued Retex member, at a greatly discounted price. In addition to free access to the SampleSecure.com online ordering and Program Management system, you will save 5% or more on labor and overstock issues. This translates to $30 per store, per event, for demonstrations. SampleSecure.com also refunds all overages that might be paid directly back to the retailer, where this would be kept as profit anywhere else.

The days of breakdowns in communication, lacking accountability, and hidden profit centers are over. Take advantage of the Retex promise and the SampleSecure.com guarantee. There is a better way.

**Source: Retex July 2009 Newsletter