Retail Excellence Programme

Applications for the Retail Excellence Programme 2026-27 is open!

More than 100 retailers and high street stakeholders took part in the Retail Excellence Programme in 2025. Everyone has seen improvements in their business and those who made major progress with their action plans are seeing increases in sales and customer engagement. Now, you can take part too. Find out if you are eligible and what we have in store for you.

Retail Excellence Programme Leaflet

What is the purpose of the Retail Excellence Programme?

The Retail Excellence Programme is designed to:

Upskill high street retailers
Foster a stronger sense of community
Encourage innovation and future retail collaborations.

It’s tailored for Norfolk’s diverse towns, with a focus on:

Thoughtful workshop structure
Effective use of training hours
Practical, accessible content for all experience levels
Skilled delivery team
Expert guest speakers.

Who can take part in the programme?

The programme is inclusive of all high street stakeholders, including:

Traditional shop retailers
Market stall traders
Farm shops
Online retailers seeking physical premises
Estate agents, beauticians, hairdressers (for relevant sessions).

Retail & Market Towns

This support continues following the proven Retail Excellence model and widens support to reach more towns and business types.

Key elements:

Ongoing Retail Excellence workshops for six towns, offering new content shaped by business feedback.
Themes include HR and staffing, leadership, pricing and margin, compliance, customer experience design, and work life balance.
Super Rural Support, addressing low footfall and visibility through targeted marketing, mobile advisory clinics, and rural retail trails.
Urban Business Engagement, helping businesses differentiate through immersive retail experiences and data driven decisions on opening hours, promotions, and layout.
Market Stall Trader Support, helping traders with pricing, visual merchandising, mobile payments, pitch improvements, and routes into online selling.

Retail Excellence workshops - 5 sessions

(click on each for more details)

Love Your Town (In‑Person)

Focus: A creative session that explores local identity, civic pride and shared challenges, helping businesses understand their individual needs and skills, find quick practical solutions, reconnect with their place, and collaborate on bold, town-wide ideas.

Strategic Planning & Financial Literacy (Online – 2.5h)

Marketing for Retailers (Online – 2.5h)

Focus: Blended digital and traditional marketing to drive sales and seasonal planning.

Operational Excellence (Online – 2.5h)

Focus: operational standards, customer experience, stock processes.

Improving daily operations with a bold ‘Fix This Shop’ simulation.

Merchandising & Customer Service (Online – 2.5h)

Focus: Better displays, product ranges, and service standards

May - June 2026 programme

(subjects, dates and venues)

Love your town	in person	10am- 12:30pm	Cohort 1: Cromer, Thursday 14/05 Thetford, Friday 15/05 Harleston, Thursday 21/05 Downham Market, Friday 22/05
Strategic Planning & Financial Literacy	online	9am – 11:30am	Thursday 4 June
Marketing and E-commerce	online	9am – 11:30am	Thursday 11 June
Operational Excellence	online	9am – 11:30am	Thursday 18 June
Merchandising & Customer Service	online	9am – 11:30am	Thursday 25 June

NOTE: Last day to sign up for the May – June Programme is Wednesday 13 May 2026.

September - October 2026 programme

(subjects, dates and venues)

Love your town	in person	10am- 12:30pm	Cohort 2: Wells, Thursday 10/09 Wymondham, Friday 11/09 Holt, Thursday 17/09 Watton, Friday 18/09
Strategic Planning & Financial Literacy	online	9am – 11:30am	Thursday 24 Sept
Marketing and E-commerce	online	9am – 11:30am	Thursday 1 Oct
Operational Excellence	online	9am – 11:30am	Thursday 8 Oct
Merchandising & Customer Service	online	9am – 11:30am	Thursday 15 Oct

How to Join

The Retail Excellence is proven to be successful and beneficial for businesses and high streets. Run by retail experts, you will receive tailored support and be able to make improvements to your business attracting more customers.

Get in touch for more information nhsm@norfolk.gov.uk and sign up to our next programme in May/June by registering your interest below.
Tick ‘Retail Excellence‘ under ‘Reason for Enquiry‘.

The Retail Excellence Programme received 5-star ratings from participants on Google Reviews.

‘I found this programme very beneficial in many ways, taking the time out of my day-to-day to open my mind to where we could improve our business, what things aren’t working in our business and how we can invest in new ways to make our business grow.
‘I’ve been introduced to many great businesses that could help us in areas we struggle in and also hearing other small businesses’ struggles similar to ours and how they have/ plan to overcome this. From this course, we have decided what we need to do next to invest in our business to help it grow and achieve more sales.’

Fay Bunn, Noor Company5 stars (Retail Excellence Programme)

‘Completed Love Your High Street training which has been extremely valuable, thank you for such a comprehensive course.’

Little Movers5 stars (Retail Excellence Programme)

‘We attended the Retail Excellence Programme and it has been the most valuable and insightful course I’ve ever done. Alex and all of the speakers were incredibly knowledgeable, and generous with their time and advice. We’ve already received more online shop sales since we’ve started to implement what we’ve learnt. We massively recommend it to all businesses in Norfolk!’

The Wayward Adventurers Guild5 stars (Retail Excellence Programme)