Retail used to be either an opportunity for procurement. People needed things and they could procure them from you or an opportunity for an experience. I'm sure you have heard the term retail therapy. That's what it was all about. But today, the retail industry, like so many other industries has to build its business, not by promoting its names, brands and locations, but instead by talking about your consumers.

I wrote a book called, "All About Them" - and the whole point of it was that you need to create an environment where your potential customers understand that the advantage to their business is why you're in business. The advantage to their life is why your business has a life, that you are there to make them better.

Don't make your advertising, your marketing, your outreach like a bad blind date where you talk about yourself, but instead talk about your customers and why they are better if they do business with you. The industry is changing. Remember your business is dynamic and it should be changing too.