The phrase “Retail is detail” is often attributed to James McGinnis, a former Macy’s executive. It highlights how small factors can significantly influence customer experience and retail success, emphasizing the importance of attention to detail in retail management.
In 1999, shortly after I joined Amazon, we had a guest speaker who was a seasoned retail executive. I can’t recall his name, but he quoted James McGinnis, emphasizing that “retail is detail,” which resonated deeply with me.
I had never worked for a retailer until I joined Amazon, and at that time, few of my colleagues had either. However, I had worked in sales at Procter & Gamble for 3 years in the mid-90s. There, I worked with retailers such as Publix and Kroger. In one role, I worked as an analyst within the P&G Kmart team where I worked with DMMs at Kmart to help them determine their assortment in the consumables category; identifying the right items to carry, the section/shelf lengths for each category, how many facings for each item, and where to place each item to maximize revenue, inventory turns, and minimize out-of-stocks.
By working with the second-largest but rapidly declining retailer, Kmart, I learned why Walmart had become the world’s largest retailer. Sam Walton’s detail-oriented approach and drive for operational excellence – moving inventory rapidly, keeping stores clean and organized, and offering broad selections at low prices – are inspiring examples of how attention to detail fuels success.
So I had sufficient retail experience to immediately understand, in 1999, when I heard the phrase “retail is detail.”
There are nearly endless variables impacting the retail customer experience. Things like how easily customers can find what they want, whether the prices are right, whether the items are presented attractively, whether the store is convenient to get to, whether the items are in stock, whether the associates in the store are available and helpful, and whether it’s fast and easy to check out.
One of the reasons Amazon was so successful is that we took ”retail is detail” to heart. It was part of our leadership principles to do so, embedded in principles such as “Dive Deep” (no detail was beneath any leader), “Ownership” (there is no such thing as “that’s not my job”), and “Customer Obsession”. This level of detail, ownership, and customer obsession led us to ensure that every aspect of the customer experience was exceptional.
At first, we achieved this by requiring heroic efforts from everyone at Amazon. But it didn’t take long to realize that the only way to do this at scale was to be operationally excellent– to adopt the principles of Toyota Total Quality Management and Six Sigma.
If you want to delight customers, the details matter, and so do your methods.
