Category: space planning
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Waterstones Social Club: Actions Speak Louder than Words
Yet another survey was published last week showing how the number of closing retail stores on the high streets of the UK significantly outweighs those opening. Sad as that is, it’s no surprise to anyone in the current omnichannel climate. What is surprising is that the store category with the healthiest number of openings, compared…
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Pitch Perfect: Sports Direct Playing the Field
Pitch Perfect: Sports Direct Playing the Field If you want to see some clues as to what the new Mike Ashley House of Fraser might look like, then a good starting point are the new Sports Direct/USC/Flannels superstores. One of the latest is at Lakeside where a 10,000sqm sports and lifestyle experience has taken shape.…
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A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Iceland: No joke for Department Stores
So, a funny thing happened on the way to the shops. To be precise a couple of funny things with more to follow without doubt. Let’s move forward a few months and I’m making my way into The Range, my local store for value home furnishings and décor. Inside I also find my new…
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“Spoil you Staff with Space!” and “Your Space with Staff!”
Many discussions I have been having recently on allocating space within stores. The whole model is changing from those large product areas, static stockrooms, over-spaced or unruly queuing areas and pitiful backroom facilities for staff to one that reflects not only the requirements of the shopper but in fact what generates the income. Or…
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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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Does your store backroom space show you value your staff?
I’ve been visiting stores of a couple of similar retailers in terms of their sector and size of store. They have different market positions but have the commonality that customer service is very important to their proposition and ultimately their conversion and profit. Despite the market positioning differences, many elements in the store are similar…
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The 8th Joy of a Retail Spring: Defining Omnichannel Assortments
The question “how much product should I put in my stores?” has always generated animated and healthy debate amongst retail businesses. That question, and the discussions around it, just got a whole lot more complicated as the opportunities and threats of e-commerce and true omni-channel assortment allocation has made store capacities one of the most important…
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Sales = Traffic x Conversion: The Complexities of a Simple Equation
Knowledge of traffic and conversion is essential to measure and maximise sales opportunities across stores, however the knowledge of traffic and conversion by category display within the store reveals the mysteries of the shopping experience and promises the riches of increased sales productivity for every gondola, wall and precious retail square metre. What retail…
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3rd Joy of a Retail Spring – How much product in my stores?
Space planning & visual merchandising are the two cornerstones on which an attractive and commercial store are built At the heart of this is the eternal question – “How much product should I put in my store?” Get space planning wrong, allocate product incorrectly or deliver visual merchandising operations inefficiently and a store will never…
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Home Cooking: IKEA’s Eating Evolution
It is not many yellow and blue moons ago that the food proposition at IKEA revolved around the manifestation of meatballs, supported stoically by sausages in rolls and competitively priced ice-cream cones with a choice of 3 syrups. Whilst these destination delights are fully preserved for both loyal patrons and new generations to discover,…
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