Focus on 'little details' pays off

Retail is detail.

Take Staples Inc., the Globe 100's second-biggest retailer. In a whimsical advertising campaign last year, Staples fantasized about a big red button marked ''easy" that everyone from surgeons and cowboys to schoolchildren and diaper-changing dads could press for instant solutions to their daily challenges. Maybe we can't offer an ''easy" button for all life's problems, Staples winked, but we can offer customers simpler online rebates and courteous sales associates.

''It's pretty basic stuff," said Ron Sargent, the company's chief executive. ''But it's thousands of little details."

For example, the company used to reward warehouse managers for stuffing as much product onto a truck as possible, thinking it maximized delivery efficiency. But when trucks arrived at Staples stores, products often fell out onto the stockroom floor. That meant sales associates were wasting time picking up the items and checking them into inventory systems rather than helping customers.

Sargent changed that last year. Now, trucks are no longer stuffed to the gills, and sales associates are no longer required to check in every product as it arrives.

The results: Sales associates are happier. Company surveys show customers are, too. And Staples sales climbed more than 11 percent to $14.4 billion last year.

Many of the state's top retailers, from giants like TJX Cos., the owner of T.J. Maxx, Marshalls, and HomeGoods stores, to regional players like iParty Corp., outpaced the industry's growth. Nationwide, retail sales grew 7 percent last year, according to the National Retail Federation.

But some local retailers lagged. Among them: Tweeter Home Entertainment Group Inc. of Canton, which faces tougher competition from mass-market rival Best Buy Co., and Friendly Ice Cream Corp. of Wilbraham, seen by many consumers as an outdated franchise.

''At the end of the day, it's all mumbo jumbo unless you get the sales," said Sal Perisano, founder and chief executive of iParty. The Dedham chain did, growing revenue by over 13 percent, to $64.3 million, as net profit climbed by 25 percent to $1 million.

Some of iParty's sales-boosting tactics included investing in a new checkout system that cut credit card processing to 3 seconds from 20, a training center with classes on serving customers and inflating balloons, and a big focus on getting plenty of Halloween products on the shelves last October even as Boston Red Sox World Series fervor raged.

But, Perisano acknowledged, ''We have things that don't go well every week. It's when you think everything is fine that you know you're in trouble."

Naomi Aoki can be reached at naoki@globe.com.