Who is Rachel Williamson?

Rachel Williamson is the founder of Running Great Stores, a retail advisor, author and speaker with more than 30 years of experience in retail leadership, store operations, transformation and leadership development. She works with retail organizations to strengthen store performance, field leadership and operating systems.

What is Running Great Stores?

Running Great Stores is a retail advisory business founded by Rachel Williamson that helps multi-location retailers and consumer brands identify barriers to stronger store performance and strengthen the leadership and operating systems required for more consistent execution.

What kind of retailers does Rachel work with?

Rachel works primarily with multi-location retailers and consumer brands with meaningful physical-store operations, particularly organizations dealing with inconsistent performance, growth, field-leadership challenges or operating complexity.

What is Rachel Williamson’s retail experience?

Rachel has more than 30 years of retail experience. Her career has included stores, districts, store operations, transformation, leadership development, customer experience and large-scale retail initiatives.

Is Rachel Williamson an author?

Yes. Rachel is the author of 30 Days to Running Great Stores, a practical retail leadership book for Store Managers, District Managers and retail teams. She is a best selling author.

Does Rachel Williamson speak at retail events?

Yes. Rachel speaks about retail leadership, store performance, field execution, customer experience and related retail topics.

About Rachel Williamson

I’ve Spent My Career Inside Retail. Now I Help Leaders Build Stronger Stores.

For more than 30 years, Rachel Williamson has worked inside the realities of retail, leading stores, field teams, operations, transformation, and large-scale initiatives.

Today, as founder of Running Great Stores, she helps retail leaders understand what is getting in the way of stronger store performance and build the leadership and operating systems required to make great execution more consistent.

Start a Conversation Explore Rachel’s Work

Retail Advisor · Author · Speaker · Founder of Running Great Stores

Rachel Williamson standing with arms crossed against a white brick wall beneath a chandelier

30+ Years: Retail Leadership & Operations
Author: 30 Days to Running Great Stores
Advisor: Multi-Location Retail & Consumer Brands
Speaker: Retail Leadership & Store Performance

It Started in a Store

Retail Wasn’t the Plan.

Rachel fell in love with brick-and-mortar retail at sixteen.

What started as a teenage job became a career built around stores, people, customers and the energy that comes from getting all three right.

Retail was something of an accidental path. Rachel worked in retail while in college and considered law school before realizing she was both good at retail and genuinely enjoyed the work.

So she stayed. And kept learning.

01First from the sales floor.
02Then from leading stores.
03Then districts.
04Then larger teams and increasingly complex retail organizations.

Eventually, Rachel’s work expanded into store operations, transformation, leadership development, customer experience and large-scale retail initiatives.

But the stores never stopped being the place where the truth showed up.

Three Decades of Seeing What Actually Works

Great Stores Don’t Happen by Accident.

Over the years, Rachel repeatedly saw the same phenomenon.

Two stores could operate under the same brand.
Sell the same products.
Receive the same corporate strategy.
Work from the same standards.
And produce very different results.

Why?

That question has shaped much of Rachel’s career.

Because when store performance is inconsistent, the answer is rarely as simple as: The team needs more training. Or: The Store Manager needs to work harder. Or: Corporate needs another initiative.

The difference often lives in the space between what the organization intends and what actually happens inside the store.

Leadership
Clarity
Coaching
Standards
Accountability
Operating routines
Customer behavior
Follow-through

The thousands of decisions made every day determine whether a strategy actually becomes a customer experience.

Strong store leaders create clarity, stay connected to what is happening on the floor, coach rather than simply correct, and build capability around them instead of becoming indispensable.

That is where the idea behind Running Great Stores began.

OperatorExecutiveBuilderAdvisor

01 · Operator

Learn the Business Where It Happens.

Rachel’s foundation was built in stores.

That meant understanding customers, teams, sales, standards, labor, operations and the daily reality of delivering results when everything does not go according to plan.

The store will tell you what is working. You just have to know what to look for.
02 · Executive

See the System, Not Just the Store.

As Rachel’s responsibilities grew, so did the scale of the problems.

Individual store performance became multi-location performance. Managing people became developing leaders who could develop other leaders. Executing standards became creating systems that could work across locations.

And the question changed from “How do we fix this store?” to:

How do we build an organization where strong performance is more repeatable?
03 · Builder

Turn What Works Into Something Others Can Use.
Rachel’s work increasingly centered on building the infrastructure behind performance.
- Clearer expectations
- Leadership practices
- Operating standards
- Customer experience
- Store-opening practices
- Field leadership
- Accountability
- Tools and resources
And practical systems that make it easier for people throughout the organization to understand what good looks like and execute it consistently.

That builder mindset eventually became part of Running Great Stores itself.
04 · Advisor

Help Leaders See the Problem More Clearly.

Today, Rachel works with retail leaders from a different seat. She isn’t there to run the business for them.

She helps leaders understand what is getting in the way of performance, determine where attention will create the greatest impact, and strengthen the leadership and operating infrastructure required to move forward.

The goal isn’t dependence. It’s capability.
Explore Retail Advisory

Rachel Williamson standing on a store sales floor in a green jacket, looking across the merchandise

The Business Behind the Name

Because “Great” Has to Work on an Ordinary Tuesday.

A store doesn’t become great because everything went perfectly during a leadership visit. Or because the best Store Manager happened to be working. Or because the team rallied for one important weekend.

Great stores are built when strong execution becomes more normal.

When leaders know what matters.
When teams understand what good looks like.
When standards survive a busy Saturday.
When accountability doesn’t disappear after the meeting.
When customers can feel the brand promise regardless of which location they walk into.

That belief became Running Great Stores. Rachel founded the business to help retailers strengthen the leadership, operating practices and execution required to make better performance more consistent.

Not perfect.Not robotic.Repeatable.

What Three Decades in Retail Changes

Rachel Doesn’t Start With a Solution. She Starts With the Store.

When a retailer says performance is inconsistent, Rachel wants to know why.

That approach matters because not every retail problem is a training problem. Not every performance problem is a people problem. And not every business needs another initiative.

Sometimes the first thing it needs is clarity.

Explore the Store Performance Diagnostic

What are the strongest stores doing differently?
What does the customer experience look like?
What are Store Managers actually spending their time doing?
How are District Managers coaching?
Are expectations clear?
What happens after a performance conversation?
Where does accountability live?
What behaviors are driving the numbers?
Which operating practices are helping? Which are getting in the way?
Where is the organization relying on heroics instead of systems?

What Rachel Believes

Strong Retail Organizations Make Great Performance Easier to Repeat.

01
The Store Tells the Truth.
Dashboards matter. So does understanding what is actually happening where the customer meets the brand.
02
Clarity Creates Accountability.
People perform better when they understand what matters, what good looks like and what they own.
03
Leaders Should Build Capability, Not Dependency.
The goal of a great leader isn’t to become indispensable. It is to build people who can perform without constant intervention.
04
Behavior Connects Strategy to Results.
A KPI tells you what happened. Leadership has to determine which behaviors will change what happens next.
05
Consistency Beats Heroics.
A business cannot scale on exceptional individuals repeatedly rescuing the operation.
06
The System Should Work in a Real Store.
If an operating process looks brilliant in a presentation but collapses on a busy Saturday, it isn’t finished.

Running Great Stores

Helping Retail Leaders Turn Stronger Execution Into Stronger Business Performance.

Today, Running Great Stores works with multi-location retailers and consumer brands where inconsistent execution, leadership capability, growth or change is creating a measurable performance problem. The work can include:

Explore Solutions

Brands and Organizations Rachel Has Worked With

30 Days to Running Great Stores by Rachel A. Williamson, hardcover

Author · 30 Days to Running Great Stores

Put the Work in the Hands of the Leaders Doing It.

Rachel is a best selling author. Her book, 30 Days to Running Great Stores, was created as a practical roadmap for Store Managers and District Managers, focused on leadership, team development, customer experience and stronger store execution.

Retail leaders can also use the book as a development tool across their organizations. And that matters. Because leadership development shouldn’t disappear when the workshop ends.

The strongest ideas need to make their way into the store visit, the coaching conversation, the morning huddle, the performance discussion and ultimately, the way the store is led every day.

Explore the Book

Speaker · Author · Retail Voice

The Conversation Goes Beyond the Client Work.

Rachel also brings her perspective to retail conferences, corporate leadership events, industry conversations, podcasts and her own Running Great Stores content.

Her work explores the questions retail leaders are dealing with right now:

Explore Speaking Read Rachel’s Insights

How do we make performance more consistent?
How do we develop stronger Store Managers?
How should District Managers actually spend their time?
How do we translate KPIs into behaviors?
How do we improve conversion from traffic we already have?
How do we scale without losing what made the business successful?
What does great retail leadership actually look like?

Why Retail Still Matters

After 30+ Years, Rachel Still Believes in the Store.

Retail has changed enormously since Rachel first stepped onto a sales floor. Technology changed. Customers changed. Channels changed. Data changed. Expectations changed.

But physical retail still creates something difficult to replicate elsewhere.

A customer walks through the door. A team has an opportunity to connect with them. A leader has an opportunity to shape what happens next.

And thousands of those small interactions eventually become the performance of the business.

That’s why Rachel still believes stores matter. And why she believes they’re worth running well.

Executive Questions

Common Questions About Rachel & Running Great Stores

Start With What You’re Seeing

If Your Stores Aren’t Performing Consistently, There’s a Reason.

Maybe you already know what it is. Maybe your team has three different theories. Maybe the numbers are telling you something is wrong, but not why.

That’s a good place to start. Tell Rachel what you’re seeing across your stores. Together, you can begin figuring out what’s getting in the way.

Start a Conversation Explore Client Results

Tell us what you’re seeing across your stores. We’ll start there.

I’ve Spent My Career Inside Retail. Now I Help Leaders Build Stronger Stores.

Retail Wasn’t the Plan.

Great Stores Don’t Happen by Accident.

Operator→Executive→Builder→Advisor

Learn the Business Where It Happens.

See the System, Not Just the Store.

Turn What Works Into Something Others Can Use.

Help Leaders See the Problem More Clearly.