Category: in-store services
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A Retail Dilemma: “No Business, No People!” or “No People, No Business!”
A Retail Dilemma: “No Business, No People!” or “No People, No Business!” Thanks to everyone who contributed to last week’s post on John Lewis and their approach to investment in the face of cost-cutting and delivering profit. One really important issue raised is a fundamental dilemma for current retail strategists. “No business, No People!” Of course,…
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How Much of your Retail Space should be Allocated to your Staff?
Retail professionals are under extreme pressure to deliver what they always have, but now in a retail landscape that is being transformed by changing customer behaviour and a migration of retail sales to e-commerce, questions that have never had to be faced before are now becoming uncomfortably relevant… I have witnessed some unseemly “scraps”…
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Death of the Salesman: Long Live Retail!
Over the years, I have been in many meetings and discussions where the question has been asked…”What’s the difference between sales & marketing?” My best explanation is that in fact, it is the same process but approached from different perspectives. To coin the introduction from many a hackneyed joke…”A man goes into a shop…and…
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Lush for Life: Believing in the Body & Soul of Beauty
It’s not often that the atmosphere in a store is so real and tangible you can almost touch it and taste it. And whilst the assortment on offer may look good enough to eat in Lush, it is the experience which is something to die for and not a misguided mouthful of soap-suds. Complete…
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Pop-Up for Tea: Tasteful Treats from a world of Wedgwood
A mere meander from the horticultural highlights of the Chelsea flower show is a marriage made in heritage heaven between Wedgwood and John Lewis. Just a few steps into the foyer of Peter Jones in Sloane Square is a land of serene ceramics and tasteful elegance, a month-long pop-up experience that turns tasteful into…
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2nd Joy of a Retail Spring – What do my store staff really do?
As retail stores become more remote from the head office of the business, through more diverse and dispersed portfolios, it becomes more and more difficult to know what operations the store teams are performing, how frequently they are performing them, and to what standards. This understanding is ironically more important than ever as stores serve and…
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Lush Pastures New: More than Merely Cosmetic
Simply as a concept Lush began its life as one of the most innovative and exciting brands ever conceived. In a world of copycats and unsubtle insurgents it’s easy to forget that the idea of tasty toiletries dressed up as fresh fayre, chalk-boards championing cosmetic concoctions and bath-bombs transforming every aquatic adventure all came first…
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Aaah Bicester! Tasty Temptations in “Tesco Town”
It’s fair to say that Tesco has always been at the vanguard of UK supermarket design from its famous 3D animated penguins and oversized banana signage to the opening of the UKs first true hypermarket concept, experimentation with category management with a focus on customer journey and missions to its collaboration on convenience and petrol…
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Fossilisation: A Personal Investment
Far from remaining in the history of time, Fossil’s latest incarnation inhabits the modern world of customisation and personalisation, with new products, new services and a whole new store with a clear focus on the “his” & “hers.” An investment in individual identity. Most noticeable in the latest concept is the introduction of the…
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Italian Export: Satisfying the Appetite for Eataly
Italian cuisine has always travelled well, but its global reach and reputation has been taken to new levels of excellence by the Eataly concept, combining its prestigious packaged products and finest fresh fayre with a variety of eateries from formal restaurants, to pizzerias and casual coffee bars. From New York to the New East it continues…
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