Category: assortment structure planning
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Let’s not deny Gen Z’s the rite to discover and enjoy things for the first time!
Seeing the opening of the new Superdry Athletic Essentials shop in London Westfield reminds me of how cyclical the world of fashion, retailing and customer taste is. To many seasoned retailers and customers such as myself, it probably takes us back to the world where brands such as Hollister, American Eagle & Aeropostale ruled the…
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Superdry Re-discovers its Private Passion
I was watching Julian Dunkerton unveil his new Superdry Athletic Essentials shop at London Westfield recently. This was a retail business leader who was upbeat and enthusiastic! For sure he was announcing Superdry’s latest figures from the British Retail Consortium (BRC) report of the year, showing that the fashion retailer is soaring above the 3%…
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Trust M&S to be ‘Positively Dissatisfied!’
in assortment structure planning, branding & visual communication, customer experience, customer service, customer-engagement, disruptive retail, fashion accessories, food & drink, home, ladies fashion, multi-category, omni-channel retailing, retail, retail brand heritage, retail businesses, retail management, retail organisations, retail strategy, store experience, store operationsI remember this story from the halcyon days of M&S. That when customers bought food from M&S and it didn’t taste amazing, they immediately thought their cooker was not working properly and called an engineer. Of course this may well be folklore. However it does illustrate the level of trust that M&S commanded, and it…
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How and where to invest in the circular supply chain
in assortment structure planning, branding & visual communication, customer-engagement, disruptive retail, ethical retailing, fast fashion, meaning in the retail madness, new retail, pre-loved, preorder, product suppliers, pureplay, re-sell, recycling, renting, retail, retail businesses, retail management, retail organisations, retail strategy, secondhand, sustainabilityGreater than the disruptive markets we operate in, is the disrupted world that we live in. Time has long passed, from when a sustainable initiative was not much more than a smart marketing strategy. Sustainability has now irreversibly developed into something essential to establish commercial traction with many customers. Responsibility for sustainability has also shifted,…
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Moving from ‘Retail location planning’ to ‘Customer location planning’
in analytics, assortment structure planning, disruptive retail, ethical retailing, high street planning, internationalisation, location strategy, meaning in the retail madness, multi-category, new retail, omni-channel retailing, product suppliers, retail, retail businesses, retail management, retail organisations, retail strategy, store operations, sustainability, town centre planning‘Channel’ is already becoming an obsolete word. Customers and retailers are connecting via an array of ‘Shopping touchpoints.’ These ‘shopping touchpoints’ will continue to be a fusion of traditional and new shop formats and customer ‘lifestyle locations,’ across digital and physical worlds. Retailers themselves will not be the ones to decide which channels to offer…
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Time for us to create our own certainty in this world of retail uncertainty.
If there has always been one certainty in the retail industry, then it is uncertainty. We deal with customers who are unpredictable. We forward guess every season in terms of what we should stock in the hope we can sell it. We are at the mercy of the weather, the geo-politics of the world and…
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Where is your sales growth going to come from this year?
in assortment structure planning, branding & visual communication, customer experience, customer service, customer-engagement, ethical retailing, food & drink, health & beauty, in-store services, meaning in the retail madness, personalisation, retail, retail businesses, retail management, retail organisations, retail strategy, social savvy, store theatre, sustainability, telling product storiesWe are already in autumn, an important time of year for planning the commercial growth of our retail businesses. We may be considering extending our assortments, planning new product ranges, growing our human resources, even contemplating opening new physical shops and online sales channels. Growth can come in many ways to achieve these crucial additional…
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Why being a ‘Digital-first’ retailer teaches us to be brave but not irresponsible.
in analytics, assortment structure planning, disruptive retail, new retail, omni-channel retailing, retail, retail businesses, retail management, retail organisations, space management, space planning, store operations, store operations audits, store operations compliance, supply-chains, visual merchandising operations, VManalytics, website excellenceOur favourite discussion from the bespoke workshop: How to think & act like a ‘Digital-First Retailer!’ Learn how to be precise, quick, brave and successful Digital-first businesses take actions with precise data. This minimises risk. They monitor the result of actions with more analysis and assessments. There is no such thing as a wrong action,…
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Rapha: A renaissance in cycling
in accessories, assortment structure planning, branding & visual communication, customer experience, customer service, customer-engagement, disruptive retail, food & drink, in-store services, internationalisation, leisure & sport, new retail, omni-channel retailing, product suppliers, retail, retail brand heritage, retail strategy, shop of the future, social savvy, store experience, store theatre, telling product stories, visual merchandisingThe lessons for us all: “Never treat your customers as a commodity but as a community. To have a community you must have common passions, missions and values. You must believe and mean something to your customers. And you must re-establish and re-enforce that meaning in everything that you do.” Rapha Performance Road wear is…
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Petit Pli: One giant leap in space-age fashion
in assortment structure planning, customer service, disruptive retail, ethical retailing, fashion accessories, footwear, in-store services, internationalisation, kids fashion, ladies fashion, leisure & sport, meaning in the retail madness, new retail, omni-channel retailing, packaging, personalisation, Pinterest Gallery, retail, retail businesses, retail strategy, shop of the future, store experience, supply-chains, sustainability, telling product storiesThe lessons for us all: “Petit Pli is born from innovation and invention and has created unique materials & products that make it unique. But it is essential that every retailer also lives continuously with innovation and invention. In the best and worst of times continually look forwards to be new, newsworthy and interesting for…
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