Here are four questions Bohrer identified that retailers should answer in order to a produce a winning strategic plan:

Greg Bohrer, Marketing Director, Precision Door

Where are we now? In a fast-paced industry like retail it’s easy to lose focus on what really matters. Therefore, Bohrer said, understanding the customer experience and gathering insight through consumer research and demographics can help retailers plan future marketing strategies.

Where do we want to be? Once a target audience is identified, retailers must ask questions based on that data. Identify where opportunities exist by determination of what makes your retail business unique from competitors.

In order to achieve an organizational goal, Bohrer said retailers should revisit what the methods that worked to reach previous objectives while choosing between available alternatives and rejecting ideas that don’t fit. “Never be afraid to challenge the status quo,” he said.

How do we get there? Focus on gaps within a strategic plan through trial and error and work on breaking any barriers. A key thing to keep in

mind, Bohrer said, is that any idea might not always go according to plan. This is where business leaders have to adjust what hasn’t worked within the trial-and-error process and build analytics of those results.

How do we know when we’ve arrived at a solution? Using a combination of analytic reports, key performance indicators and original tracking mechanisms, businesses can quantifiably determine if a marketing strategy has achieved its goal.

After all is done and informative conclusions are made, Bohrer believes there’s no time to waste. “The next method to implement is to practice the three R’s: Revisit, Repeat and Revise the four main steps,” he said. That sounds like sage advice in this fast-paced and ever-changing world of retail.

In a Tuesday presentation at NRF’s Global Supply Chain Summit, the society’s Brian T. Pallasch presented a somewhat grim portrait of the nation’s roads, railways, airports and other infrastructure. Although scores improved in six of the report’s 16 categories, the reality is that investment in infrastructure is not keeping up with needs. But what’s the real impact of this to retailers and consumers?

The report estimates that if an additional $157 billion isn’t invested in infrastructure every year through 2020, the United States will encounter:

• $3.1 trillion in losses in GDP
• A $1.1 trillion loss in U.S. trade value
• 3.5 million fewer jobs
• A $3,100 per-year decrease in personal disposable income per household
• A $2.4 trillion drop in consumer spending

Pallasch said preventing those losses will require strong leadership at the national level, as well as a commitment to sustainability and being smart about how to prioritize projects to get the biggest benefits. Watch the short video for more details from the report. And for those interested in the full results, their fantastic app is worth exploring.

Charles Johnston, director of the repair and liquidation center at The Home Depot, joined Good360 Vice President of donor Relations Doyle Delph to make the case for donating unused goods to nonprofits in local communities. And when you see the numbers, it’s not a tough case to make. Many retailers have merchandise they can’t sell. Props from store displays, merchandise used in photo shoots, or returned merchandise that has been damaged and can’t be resold are just a few examples. The nonprofit group Good360 does a job that most of these supply chain executives can appreciate – logistics, or getting the right goods to the right nonprofit at the right time – while retailers gain a solution for unused items that reduces their carbon footprint, saves the cost of shipping waste to landfills, and helps them give back to their communities.

Home Depot has taken this win-win concept to impressive heights. Five years ago, when some associates at company noticed how many building materials were being thrown out, they asked if they could instead put it to use in their own communities. That request led to the creation of the Framing Hope project at the Home Depot Foundation (their philanthropic arm), an initiative that uses unsold merchandise to build houses for veterans and others in need. Since 2008, the foundation has donated more than $150 million in merchandise and impacted over 1 million homes and families through this partnership with Good360.

Johnston said the program isn’t just the right thing to do. It also increases employee morale, builds up the community, reduces carbon emissions, and makes good financial sense. Watch the video to see how the program works below:

Jim Tompkins, CEO, Tompkins International

There’s no question that the current retail environment is intensely competitive and complex. Winning on price is tough, and many argue that price wars are simply a race to the bottom. Competing on selection can be difficult as well. So how will retailers distinguish themselves? Customer experience and convenience, Tompkins says. And the supply chain plays a huge role in both.

Have the wrong retail strategy or the wrong supply chain strategy, and retailers could end up going down the wrong path. But turmoil within the supply chain field will make for tough navigation. Over the last four years, retailers haven’t been addressing key challenges due to economic uncertainties, but Tompkins expects a flurry of changes and advancements in the next 18 months.

So what are the tipping points to the turmoil?

1. Amazon. They can’t be ignored, so you need to understand why they’re winning.
2. Online success. Your website is your front door, regardless of whether you make any money there.
3. Technology. To do a buy/fulfill/return-anywhere model, you need the right tools.
4. Social commerce. People don’t need to be together to shop together.
5. Youth culture. Digital natives see shopping quite differently.
6. Bad in-store experience. Service in the store needs to wow customers.
7. Store relevance. Why should someone come to your store?

Tompkins points to the need to understand all of these in order to successfully navigate your organization. But he says the big one is undoubtedly Amazon, explaining that Amazon is winning for lots of reasons. They still run intensely like a startup, they’re persistent, they experiment and learn from their mistakes, they measure everything, and they focus on customers, not competitors. According to Tompkins, it’s very important to study Amazon.

Tompkins posed this question: What are you doing to align your supply chain with your business strategy to create supply chain value? It’s the answer that will guide you through the crossroads and on to success.

Kathy Doyle Thomas, Executive Vice President of Half Price Books, listens to one retailer’s story during her Main Street Retailing Forum presentation.

During the Main Street Retailing Forum held as part of NRF’s Washington Leadership Conference last week, Half Price Books Executive Vice President Kathy Doyle Thomas shared the story of how her brand – just like those above – started on Main Street and has grown to a $250 million company with more than 100 stores across the country. Thomas noted that regardless of size, all retailers struggle with the same issues, such as how to execute smart social media, leverage localization as a competitive advantage, meet customer expectations, keep up with fast-paced technology changes, implement sustainable retailing initiatives and juggle it all with the same amount of resources at the quickest pace possible.

And while the challenges are the same, so are the opportunities for increased sales, profits and share of wallet, enhanced customer loyalty, improved competitive position, and the ability to make the world a better place. But where should small businesses even begin?

Thomas suggested that retailers find out who their customers are by asking questions on Facebook, leveraging Google analytics and using other low-cost resources, then developing that audience through blogs or other creative content. “You are the expert. You have credibility,” she said, adding that Half Price Books could directly attribute spikes in sales to blog posts covering certain products.

Thomas also shared how experimentation and investment have paid off dividends when it comes to community initiatives. Half Price’s “Decline a Bag” initiative was designed to help customers make environmentally sustainable choices as they shopped, and executives set a lofty goal of 1 million declines over a year. Instead, the company met the goal in six months. At the end of the program, Half Price donated $50,000 to charity in response, letting employees decide on charity options and offering customers the chance to vote on final selection. Thomas said the initiative was a great opportunity to engage with customers and build employee morale – a trend that isn’t going away anytime soon.

As the source of new ideas, job creation and community growth, Thomas told retailers who packed the room that Main Street is “where the history of retail starts and where the future of retail begins.”

In advance of our Loss Prevention Conference next month, we’ve been exploring how many of today’s seasoned LP executives have played an integral part in this evolution throughout the course of their careers. To wrap up our series, we spoke with LP Advisory Council Chairman and Vitamin Shoppe Vice President of Loss Prevention Gary Johnson about his personal career journey.

Read on to find out how his first employers gave him a leg up in the business, how rewarding it is to help others and why retail business savvy is critical to success in LP.

Gary Johnson, Vice President of Loss Prevention for Vitamin Shoppe Industries

When were you first exposed to the loss prevention profession? What made you decide to pursue a career in loss prevention/asset protection?

I first heard about loss prevention while studying law enforcement at Western Illinois University. I decided to do my internship with a retailer named Osco Drug because the thought of catching shoplifters sounded fun — and it was one of the paid internships! After that, I became quite interested in it as a career. I always had an interest in business and law enforcement, and it paid more than a patrolman with the Chicago Police Department, so it was the best of both worlds.

How has your unique personal background helped you succeed in your LP career?

When I began in LP, my early mentors were really retail operators first and loss prevention professionals second. They taught me how to sell prevention concepts, how to show the dollars and cents of a particular initiative, and the importance of influencing people to want to play a role in reducing shrink. Certainly, I had to build experience and confidence with the core competences of loss prevention techniques, but looking back it was more important to gain proficiency with retail concepts and “soft” leadership skills.

Tell us about a particular moment, challenge or success that made you certain this was the right profession for you.

Wow, there have been many. It’s very rewarding to help people, whether it’s developing a program that keeps people safe at work, helping advance someone’s career, or catching a criminal that has hurt others. For example, I still recall working at Pier 1 Imports and how gratifying it was to solve a case involving a string of robberies, one of which involved a sexual assault of an associate. Working the data from my office in Fort Worth, I was able to connect numerous dots and link the right law enforcement agencies. Back in the day, this sharing of data didn’t frequently happen between private sector and law enforcement. I’ll never forget the associate’s reaction when I informed her that the guy who assaulted her had been caught.

The role of LP is continuing to expand and grow. When it comes to hiring and promoting team members, what kind of talent and skill sets are you looking for to be successful now and in the future?

Yes, the role of LP continues to evolve — and that’s a great thing! The C-suite has recognized the value that a professionally led loss prevention program means for the business. LP impacts not only shortage reduction and shrink but also IT security, data security, product safety, workplace violence programs, brand reputation, social media and so many more parts of the business. When looking for talent, it’s critical to find LP people who have solid core competences, but just as important is retail business savvy. Understanding how all facets of the business work, the ability to identify gaps, and, of course, build remediation plans. Leadership skills are essential. Being able to coach, train, and be a catalyst of change is vital because today’s LP professional must be able to influence and motivate cross-functional teams at all levels.

But that wasn’t the case with NRF’s annual Washington Leadership Conference this week.

Retailers from across the country arrived Monday evening just in time to watch the Senate overwhelmingly pass the Marketplace Fairness Act – landmark sales tax fairness legislation NRF has had at the top of its priority list for more than a decade. And they were able to spend the next two days walking the halls of Congress to urge members of the House to follow the Senate’s example in voting to require online sellers to collect sales tax the same as local stores.

Rather than just another conference, WLC quickly turned into a combined victory celebration, pep rally and annual reunion of familiar faces in the long-fought battle to level the playing field between online and brick-and-mortar retailers.

Senator Michael Enzi, R-Wyo., sponsor of the Senate legislation, joined the party, as did Representative Steven Womack, R-Ark., sponsor of the House version. Both thanked retailers for their support, urged them to keep the momentum going, and emphasized that personal examples of how untaxed online sales are harming local stores and jobs will be the best ammunition to overcome objections expected in the House.

But as important as the sales tax victory was, it wasn’t the only part of the conference to get excited about.

Hundreds of retailers ranging from Main Street store owners to CEOs of some of the nation’s best-known brands turned out this year. Thirty-one states from across the country were represented, with Vermont sending the most retailers (five people from four businesses) and Washington State getting credit for the longest distance traveled (2,400 miles).

Retailers heard Cokie Roberts, veteran analyst for ABC television and National Public Radio, offer an overview of the polarized political scene in Washington, got lobbying tips from former Senator Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark., and former Representative Billy Tauzin, R-La., and participated in more than 80 meetings with lawmakers and staff in both the House and Senate. Committee meetings ranged from the NRF Board of Directors to sessions on loss prevention, retail technology standards and restaurant food supply chains.

NRF is already planning the 2014 Washington Leadership Conference. While it’s too early to say what next year’s “big bill” will be, we certainly hope any retailers who show up expecting to lobby on sales tax fairness will find out they’re too late – if this spring’s momentum can be maintained, the Marketplace Fairness Act could be a law that’s already on the books by then.

To see WLC 2013 in photos, watch NRF’s Flickr slideshow below.

“How could somebody walk into a business and order online right in front of them? That’s a slap in the face!” Womack said. “They ought to have the decency to at least walk outside.”

The Arkansas Republican spoke late Tuesday afternoon at NRF’s annual Washington Leadership Conference, less than 24 hours after the Senate overwhelmingly passed the Marketplace Fairness
Act, legislation that would allow states to require online sellers to collect sales tax the same as local stores.

Womack is the lead sponsor of an identical bill in the House, where the battle will now shift. And he urged retailers to use personal stories like his example of “showrooming” to keep the momentum building and convince House members it’s time to level the playing field between online and brick-and-mortar retailers.

“They have marched this ball down the field in an extraordinary way,” Womack said of Senate sponsors of the legislation. “If we’re not successful at marching this through the House, we’d might as well put up a billboard and say ‘shop on the Internet because it’s tax free and always will be tax free.’ ”

Sales tax fairness is expected to face a tougher fight in the House, where Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, told Bloomberg Television Tuesday night he will “probably not” support the measure because “you’re putting a big burden on some very small businesses.” (Despite those concerns, online sellers with less than $1 million in out-of-state sales each year would be exempt, and collection would be handled by software paid for by the states.)

Unlike the Senate, which skipped the committee process in considering the bill, the House plans to send the bill to the Judiciary Committee for hearings, debate and a vote rather than going directly to the floor.

Womack was undaunted by the potential obstacles, saying he welcomes the full committee process so no one can claim that the bill was rushed through.

First elected to the House in 2011, Womack is an admitted newcomer to the congressional debate over sales tax, which has been waged by Senate advocates like Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., and Richard Durbin, D-Ill., for more than a decade. But that doesn’t mean that he’s new to the issue – as mayor of Rogers, Ark., he presided over development of a $250 million shopping center that opened in 2006 and brought new retail stores to the city of 55,000. Even then, “I knew if we didn’t come up with a solution for (sales tax fairness) what would be done to our retailers.” Having fought the sales tax fight in Congress, “I’m even more motivated now.”

Newcomer or not, Womack is pursuing his goal with the fervor of a true believer: “I believe in my heart that this bill is going to pass,” he promised. “If not, we as Congress will have presided over the destruction of retail as we know it.”

After more than a decade of patience, persistence and a good dose of perspiration, the United States Senate approved the Marketplace Fairness Act by a bipartisan vote of 69 – 27, sending a powerful statement that lawmakers understand the need to level the playing field for sales tax collection. The vote happened to overlap with NRF’s Washington Leadership Conference, as we welcomed hundreds of retail executives to our nation’s capital for retail’s yearly fly-in.

Sales tax fairness is only one of a handful that top NRF’s policy agenda, each of importance to the future growth of the retail industry. From sales tax fairness and corporate tax reform to economic policies that drive capital investment and the fiscal certainty needed to help spur job creation, NRF is committed to working with lawmakers and opinion leaders in shaping a policy agenda that will help retailers recognize the success they are working daily to achieve.

Through the “This is Retail: Careers, Community and Innovation” campaign, our retailers are telling compelling stories on Capitol Hill and beyond that are helping to shift the perception about the role retail plays in every community across the country. And as the largest private employer of any industry sector, we cannot be ignored and our voices will be heard.

White is the senior vice president of loss prevention at Gap Inc., vice chairman of the LP Advisory Council, and a speaker at our upcoming Loss Prevention Conference & EXPO. Read on to find out how he views the profession, how growing up in inner city Chicago gave him an edge in the industry, and what the LP profession needs today.

When were you first exposed to the loss prevention profession? What made you decide to pursue a career in loss prevention/asset protection?

Keith White, SVP, Loss Prevention, GAP Inc.

Like a number of people in the field, I discovered it by accident. After finishing college, I was looking at law enforcement opportunities. A friend told me about an loss prevention job interview he had and asked if I wanted to interview in his place. I said, “what’s loss prevention?” I knew about corporate security, but I wasn’t impressed with being limited to a uniformed guard. I had no idea that loss prevention would be so vast and sophisticated. For me it was the perfect intersection between the investigative training and business acumen I had developed at the collegiate level. I could carry a briefcase, manage a team, oversee a budget and manage business objectives, but I would also have the opportunity to testify in court and manage complex, interesting investigations — everything I like to do.

How has your unique personal background helped you succeed in your LP career?

When you live in the inner city, you have to be extremely perceptive and aware of your surroundings. You have to be able to sense when there is a change in the atmosphere, whether it’s in the personal relationships of those around you or the physical environment. If someone has to tell you something’s not right, then it’s too late—you’re robbed or worse. I think that being perceptive, understanding how to read people, understanding body language and being able to evaluate all kinds of situations has given me a distinct advantage in this role and in all my LP roles.

Tell us about a particular moment, challenge or success that made you certain this was the right profession for you.

I started my career in a distribution center environment, and I got a confidential tip that a receiving dock worker and truck driver were colluding to steal a truckload of swimming pools and fans. I connected with the local PD and we set up an elaborate sting operation to catch them in the act. I learned a lot from that. First, that people always think people steal things like electronics, but that was one of the hottest summers on record and pools and fans were selling like hotcakes, so you have to understand the full context of the environment you’re engaged in.

And second, in setting up that sting with the police, I gave up some control over the investigation. And because union members were involved, it was a political disaster that some of my superiors didn’t want me to pursue. But I told them that the sting is going down, and I’m going to be there – if I’m not here tomorrow, that’s on you. Well, the sting went down like in a textbook. The apprehensions went down perfectly. And then, my boss said, “look what Keith and I did.” It was a laughable moment, but I knew that I was in this career for the long-haul. I stand for what’s right, not what’s politically correct. Being an authority figure, we sometimes get involved in situations that don’t win popularity contests, but I knew I’d be OK doing that.

The role of LP is continuing to expand and grow. When it comes to hiring and promoting team members, what kind of talent and skill sets are you looking for to be successful now and in the future?

In the old days, there were two ways to look at LP. If you’re looking for a management candidate, you were looking for someone who had a law enforcement background with investigative experience. And for an hourly level employee, you were looking for physical presence, what we called the big dude in the door.

Now, for management candidates, I’m looking for someone who has an academic background in criminal justice or law and even an M.B.A. or business background because I want someone who can apply concepts and strategies within a business framework. For those hourly associates, physical presence is not what it used to be. I look for people who can outthink a shoplifter or a criminal, not out-wrestle them or outrun them. If there’s a 5’1” woman who can educate the staff, build awareness, create a shrink-reduction strategy for the store and understand all the technical tools at her disposal, she’ll do 20 times more than the big dude at the door ever could. So we’re looking for people with those ambitions and qualifications.

Stay tuned for the last post in our series, where  Gary Johnson, vice president for loss prevention at The Vitamin Shoppe Inc., will share his story.