Category: disruptive retail
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Body Shop: Rough-diamonds should never be over-polished!
in branding & visual communication, brave-words, customer experience, customer service, customer-engagement, disruptive retail, ethical retailing, health & beauty, impulse retailing, in-store services, packaging, product suppliers, recycling, retail, retail brand heritage, retail businesses, retail management, retail organisations, retail strategy, store theatre, sustainability, telling product storiesWhere do you begin with the story of Body Shop. So many twists and turns, and so many lessons. Anyone who remembers the 1980s and 1990s experienced a totally new retail concept. Body Shop was way ahead of its time in the world of conscientious cosmetics and toiletries. It was primarily a producer, ensuring that…
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Swimming with the current: Gymshark’s coffee conversations
As you may already be aware I am a huge fan of Gymshark, the gym wear producer and retailer. There are so many things to learn from the rags to riches business that began in a garage 10 years ago and is now valued at over $1 billion. I’ve been following their press during their…
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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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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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Before you look for ‘Shop Design Magic’ try some ‘Tender Loving Care’
in branding & visual communication, customer experience, disruptive retail, meaning in the retail madness, retail, shop of the future, space management, space planning, store experience, store layout, store operations, store operations audits, store operations compliance, visual merchandising, visual merchandising operations, vm compliance, vm operationsOur favourite discussion from the bespoke workshop: How to develop your ‘Shop of the Future’ The 10 steps to commercial success Don’t expect customers to love your shops if you don’t love them yourselves. Are your shops dirty and untidy, with broken lightbulbs? You wouldn’t leave your houses like that if guests were coming round.…
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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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Nobody’s Child: Everyone’s favourite sustainable partner
in customer service, customer-engagement, disruptive retail, ethical retailing, fashion accessories, footwear, ladies fashion, meaning in the retail madness, new retail, omni-channel retailing, Pinterest Gallery, product suppliers, recycling, retail, retail strategy, social savvy, supply-chains, sustainability, telling product storiesThe lessons for us all: “Modern retail is too complex for a single business. Collaboration is essential for success. Collaboration through the complete supply chain from growers to retail partners. To be sustainable there is no alternative!” Nobody’s Child is a responsible brand on a mission to bring beautiful fashion to every woman, everywhere without…
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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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