The Retail Champion

Name: The Retail Champion
Address: Sleaford, NG347RY, GB
Telephone: +447462218000
Price range: $$

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The Retail Champion

Retail expert, retail speaker, retail mentor, retail consultant, published author. Developing strate In 2013, Clare wrote her second book How to sell to retail.

The Retail Champion: Clare Rayner

Clare Rayner, The Retail Champion, is one of the most well-known and respected retail consultants in the UK. A child born into a family of retailers and entrepreneurs, she is passionate about retail and business: it is in her blood. Clare started out as a fast-track graduate store management trainee for McDonalds and went on to work with leading retailers such as

M&S, Dixons and Argos. She moved swiftly into management roles before being headhunted into senior consulting roles with global software giant SAP, and international management consulting brand, Accenture. Known as The Retail Champion, Clare is engaged by clients as a retail consultant, retail speaker and retail mentor. She is regularly called upon by most of the mainstream media (including TV and Radio) and trade press to comment as a retail expert. Her retail business book, specifically written to enable Independent Retailers to become scalable, saleable businesses, was published by Kogan
Page, in July 2012. It has had success both in the UK and the US. In addition to providing 1-2-1 supporting to business owners and providing professional speaking services through The Retail Champion, Clare is also an owner-director of several retail-centric businesses including Retail Acumen (retail analysts and consultants), The Retail Conference (retail networking and events) and e-mphasis Internet Marketing (search marketing for clients who serve consumers). For further information see Clare Rayner’s linkedin profile for a full CV and recommendations (http://www.linkedin.com/in/clarerayner) and also Clare Rayner’s YouTube Channel (http://www.youtube.com/clarerayner)

Clare is exclusively represented by STH Management incorporating Women Speakers. For media enquiries contact [email protected]

18/08/2026

Mini Guide to Price Positioning

Not sure where your business actually sits in the market? You're not alone and it's costing you more than you think.

Price positioning isn't just about what you charge. It's about the signal your pricing sends, the customers it attracts (or repels), and whether your pricing ladder actually makes sense to the people buying from you.

The Mini Guide to Price Positioning from The Retail Champion cuts straight to the point: what price positioning is, why it matters, and how to get clearer on where you stand and where you should be.
Free. Practical. No fluff. 📋

👉 Download free: https://www.retailchampion.co.uk/product/mini-guide-to-price-positioning/

17/08/2026

Personal Brand Checklist for Business Owners

You've built the business. But does anyone beyond your existing customers actually know you exist?

If you've ever felt like you should be more visible in your industry but aren't quite sure where to start, this checklist was built for you. It's not about becoming an influencer or posting every day. It's about showing up consistently, credibly, and in a way that actually reflects the expertise you already have.

The Personal Brand Checklist for Business Owners from The Retail Champion walks you through the essentials in a simple, actionable format.

Free to download. Worth its weight in visibility. ✅

👉 Download free: https://www.retailchampion.co.uk/product/personal-brand-checklist-for-business-owners/

10/08/2026

Supply Chain Playbook

When your supply chain works, nobody notices. When it fails, your customers leave and they don't always come back.

Supply chain strategy isn't just logistics. It's margin control. And in the current climate with rising import costs, disrupted lead times and supplier pressure getting this right has never mattered more.

The Supply Chain Playbook from The Retail Champion gives you the tools to manage suppliers professionally, protect your cashflow and build genuine resilience into your buying process. You'll learn how to select suppliers based on cost, reliability and shared values, negotiate fair terms with confidence, manage lead times and MOQs, balance stock availability with cash discipline, and build contingency when disruption hits.

A stronger supply chain protects profit and builds customer trust. 📘

👉 Get your copy for £49: https://www.retailchampion.co.uk/product/supply-chain-playbook/

05/08/2026

Merchandising Playbook

Your store is already selling — or it isn't — long before a single member of staff opens their mouth.

The way your shop looks, flows and presents product directly influences how customers behave and how much they spend. Merchandising isn't decoration. It's a commercial strategy.

The Merchandising Playbook from The Retail Champion gives you a structured framework to improve your store environment so it works harder for you without increasing overhead. From kerb appeal and window impact to layouts that guide customers naturally, displays that grow basket spend, and a consistent review process to keep things fresh.

Great merchandising doesn't shout. It sells. 📘

👉 Get your copy for £49:

https://www.retailchampion.co.uk/product/merchandising-playbook/

04/08/2026

Are You a Busy Fool? The Footfall Trap Every Retailer Falls Into
The high street's packed. The pavements are full. The events are pulling crowds in. Footfall is up.
So why aren't the tills? 🤔
In this episode, Clare Bailey unpacks the 'busy fool' trap. The dangerous assumption that activity equals results. She reflects on a high-level Public Policy Exchange discussion she hosted on the future of UK high streets, alongside experts in placemaking, digital visibility and retail crime.

The uncomfortable truth: most businesses don't have a footfall problem. They have a discoverability problem. The customer journey starts long before anyone leaves home and if you're not visible, relevant, and easy to find digitally, the footfall figures don't matter.

Busy isn't the same as thriving. This episode explains the difference. 🎙️

🔗 Listen now: https://retailreckoningpodcast.co.uk/episode/are-you-a-busy-fool-the-footfall-trap-every-retailer-falls-into

31/07/2026

Pricing and Promotions Playbook

Pricing is one of the most powerful levers in retail. It's also one of the most dangerous.
Get it right and you protect margin, strengthen how customers perceive your brand, and drive sustainable growth. Get it wrong and you quietly erode profit while training customers to wait for a discount before they buy anything.

The Pricing and Promotions Playbook from The Retail Champion gives you a practical, commercially grounded framework to structure your pricing and plan promotions that drive profit not panic. Inside you'll learn how to set price points aligned to customer perception and margin needs, build a clear Good-Better-Best pricing architecture, protect margin before you even consider discounting, plan promotions with a defined commercial objective, and adapt major retailer tactics to your scale and budget.

Confident pricing. Disciplined promotions. Stronger profitability. 📘

👉 Get your copy for £49: https://www.retailchampion.co.uk/product/pricing-promotions-playbook/

30/07/2026

Product Life Cycle Management Playbook

Every product moves through introduction, growth, maturity and decline. Profitable retailers adjust their pricing, stock and promotions accordingly. Reactive ones don't and they pay for it.

The Product Life Cycle Management Playbook gives you a clear, proven framework to manage every product strategically, from the excitement of launch all the way through to a disciplined, margin-protecting exit.

Inside you'll learn how to identify exactly where each product sits in its life cycle, align your buying and promotional activity to actual performance, use the BCG matrix to make smarter decisions, and reduce the cash sitting tied up in declining lines.

Smarter decisions. Better resource allocation. Stronger long-term profitability. 📘

👉 Get your copy for £49: https://www.retailchampion.co.uk/product/product-life-cycle-management-playbook/

28/07/2026

Mastering Product Selection and Cash Flow: Retail's 'Stock Illusion' (Pt3)

What if you could sell less, sell better, and make more profit all with less stress?

That's the question Clare Bailey answers in the final part of the Stock Illusion series. And the answer isn't more marketing, more promotions, or more stock. It's commercial clarity.

Most retailers try to solve a bad buying decision with marketing activity. But if the range doesn't have structure and discipline, marketing just adds cost and complexity on top of a mess.

In this episode, Clare breaks down the Good-Better-Best framework, why disciplined exits matter as much as brilliant launches, and why the most successful retailers right now aren't the ones with the widest ranges, they're the ones with the sharpest ones. 🎙️

More is not a strategy. It never was.

🔗 Listen now: https://retailreckoningpodcast.co.uk/episode/mastering-product-selection-and-cash-flow-retails-stock-illusion-pt3

27/07/2026

Range and Product Life Cycle Management Playbook

Your range is the heartbeat of your retail business. And without a proper system for reviewing it, it's remarkably easy to end up overstocked on poor sellers, understocked on your winners, and wondering where all the cash went.

The Range and Product Life Cycle Management Playbook from The Retail Champion gives you a practical, step-by-step process for building a range that makes money with no expensive software required.

You'll walk away knowing how to define your category structure, check pricing and margin with confidence, balance sales, stock and cash flow, and manage products through every stage of their life cycle from launch to exit.

Smarter ranging. Less cash tied up. A range your customers keep coming back for. 📘

👉 Get your copy for £49: https://www.retailchampion.co.uk/product/bhta-playbook/

22/07/2026

Does Your Retail Business Have Range Creep?

You didn't wake up one morning with a bloated range. It crept in.

A new line because a category was doing well. Another colourway because the grey one sells. A supplier pushing something low-risk. And before long, the range is running the business and not the other way around.

In Part 2 of the Stock Illusion series, Clare Bailey gets into the operational reality of range creep and why it feels like good management while it's quietly destroying your margins, and what data-driven decisions actually look like in practice.

Including the pet shop retailer who thought their top seller was one product.

The data said something completely different. 🎙️

Adding is easy. Editing is where the real work and the real profit lives.

🔗 Listen now: https://retailreckoningpodcast.co.uk/episode/does-your-retail-business-have-range-creep-retails-stock-illusion-pt2

Address

Sleaford
NG347RY

Telephone

+447462218000

Website

http://www.retailchampion.co.uk/

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