How to make your own luck

We all know that the past year or so has been hard. We are all trying to find ways to survive the effects of the recession and take advantage of the recovery when it happens but when the experts are telling you that you have to make your own luck in 2010 - what exactly does that mean?

Well, it was the main message at the Retail Week Conference earlier this month and many of the top names from the industry got together to share their thoughts. It seems that your approach will depend on what sort of business you have and what targets you are setting for yourself but after reading a variety of reports from the conference, here are the main themes that seemed to pop up.

• Leverage the strength of big brands rather than underplaying them - it's all about making the best of what you've got.
• Concentrate on the profitable areas and think carefully before diversifying into the unknown.
• Think strategically about multi channel services - just because customers may buy online it doesn't mean that they don't want to in-store experience as well.
• Think about the provenance of your products and be transparent, customers are becoming more aware of environmental and social issues and want to feel good about their purchases.
• Service is all important - make the customer feel important and good about themselves and return business is more likely.
• Finally, and perhaps most importantly, watch the market and respond to the changes. If more retailers had been aware of the impending banking crisis they may have been able to avoid the worst of the repercussions.

This is by no means a comprehensive list and there will be a whole host of other ways to "make your own luck" this year but it seems that main message is that success is down to you, the retailer. It is no longer enough to rely on passing traffic or traditional promotions - the market has moved on and we all need to too.