museums&MORE Winter 2015

Changing with the Times

Welcome to our last issue of the year.

It’s been a big year for Museums & More in that we welcomed in 2014 with a brand-new design, the first one in almost two full decades. Looking ahead to 2015 we can promise you new ideas and products in the publication, more multimedia features on our website and continued commitment to changing our strategies to best serve our readers’ needs.

As cliché as it sounds, the only constant is change. Whether you like it or don’t, the way people shop and spend both their time and money isn’t what it was a year or even a couple of months ago.

Our Trends feature in this issue came together through a survey we sent to our readers and, first of all, thank you to everyone who took the time to reply. What surprised me the most were the replies to the questions about the changing face of retail and how you, as retailers, were planning on creating a successful online presence or adjusting your selling strategy.

Many of you said that you weren’t, that you were hoping that focusing on what has worked in the past would be enough and that great customer service trumps Internet sales every day.

While I can’t argue the value of in-person service, the fact is that despite that courtesy, people are still online — a lot — and if you don’t have an online presence, people will forget that you’re there.

Busy retailers have a tendency to stay inside the walls of their organizations, often struggling to find the time to network with peers, read industry websites or attend new and different events. While it may sometimes feel like you don’t have the time, staying up-to-date and engaged gives you the opportunity to anticipate emerging trends, implement new ideas and create a presence — online and off — that people will remember.

Of course you can’t do it all and need to focus on what works, but being focused doesn’t mean that you can’t adapt and evolve over time. Being focused means identifying how exactly you’re committed to adapting and evolving.

So this year, commit to a conscious shift in how you approach problems, how you talk to customers and how you run a business. You might just see a change for the better.

— By Abby Heugel