Every holiday season, I have this little ritual—I grab a coffee and walk down Main Street, just to check out how stores are decked up. It never gets old.
And I do see the work put behind it —marketing, VM, and ops teams all in sync to get the store ready. Yet, I’ve seen so many brands stumble at the last step. The plan is flawless on paper, but in-store it doesn’t land.
In conversations with 67+ retailers, the same patterns kept showing up → Perfect planning but unacceptable output. Core issue - Inefficient communication. The VM docket sits unread in store’s inbox. Important guidelines get buried in chat threads. By the time the store figures it out, the season has passed.
Since the problem was too large to ignore, we put our heads together with leading retailers to figure it out. Magical pointers that worked for brands →
Kept the communication sharp. Cut the noise—share only what matters, with priorities called out.
Closed the loop. They don’t just send instructions; ask for quick proof like photos or confirmations.
Used the right stage. We suggested a few retailers move their store communication to dedicated task management software—a single pane of glass where instructions, proofs, and follow-ups live together. Tools like SafetyCulture or GetAmply. From what I recall, one chain went from barely 33% execution to over 90%. The difference was night and day.
In one of our conversations, a line from an ops guy stuck with me - Plans are great, but if the floor team can’t bring it to life, it doesn’t count.