We haven’t even released our latest Store Report yet – that happens in a few weeks. But while we were looking at the data recently, we couldn’t help compare it to a recent survey we conducted of consumers. No, we don’t do that often, but we’re considering doing it more in the future. You be the judge if there’s value.

When we asked roughly 100 retailers what the most important thing was to make stores more relevant, their answer was all about employees (Figure 1).

But when we asked just over 1,000 consumers what would get them back into stores most, they told us the thing they care most about is convenience (Figure 2).

So what makes a store more convenient? That depends on the product being sold AND the type of retail experience in question. But for a great number of retailers out there right now, rethinking the role of the store employee – and how they can make a store visit more convenient – is a fantastic place to start.

We asked a lot of questions around this topic, including how to fix the problems retailers are quite publicly facing in stores right now, and we’re eager to share our findings when the full report is ready.