Omni-channel Archives - VM Unleashed

Is your online sales & physical store numbers strategy in place?

Online & offline, the biggest challenge for historic retailers is to remain relevant and attractive to their customers. That will ultimately dictate the online sales potential and physical store numbers that will be viable for a business. Do you remember the days when the e-commerce part of a bricks ‘n’ mortar business was compared to the largest physical store? That was a realistic ambition. It also considered e-commerce as a-

Saving & Making Money from New Store Concepts & Re-fits!

Tim Radley, speaking at the Retail Shopfitting & Display Summit 2018 Part 1: Setting the scene for performance. We may all be forgiven for believing that physical stores are dead-in-the-water of the tidal wave of retail revolution carrying all convention before it on a journey to outlet oblivion. However it’s very much a matter of saving theatrics for new store concepts rather than dramatic and premature obituaries. But, before we-

MADE+ in Heaven: Delivered to your Door!

So, imagine a furniture concept that throws out the baggage of the traditional way of doing things, and re-invents the whole process from the perspective of the customer and the designer. More or less, you have Made.com Made is born from a passion for modern, beautiful furniture and the frustration of buying it the old-fashioned way. And with necessity being the mother of invention it was real life experience that-

Are you truly a Retail Brand or just a Product Provider?

On the surface this may appear to be a question stimulated by the omnichannel evolution. In truth it has always been an important question however in previous times with a less demanding customer and a lower level of competition, being a retail brand was a less pressing consideration and the repercussions of not having a clear definition as a business less perilous to the bottom line. How times have changed!-

E-commerce efficiency: Facilitating your failure?

Don’t get me wrong I’m a believer in e-commerce and an avid online shopper, and I get as frustrated as the next man or woman when it comes to inefficient websites, product misinterpretation and expensive and extensive delivery times. And of course, efficiency is an absolute essential to any online retailer, and will make the difference between survival and extinction in the highly charged competitive online market place. However there-

Omnichannel Overload: Finding focus in a confusion of retail possibilities

Why is omnichannel the focus of retail? The short answer to this is because it’s what the customer wants, and never has the old adage “the customer is always right” been so apt or so accurate as in the consumer-centric world in which we now live. Customers want the convenience of the online world with the ability to browse, choose and pay in the comfort of their own homes, and-

Celebrating Omnichannel: Exorcising the ghosts of Christmas past, present & future…

So the winner yet again this Christmas was online retail. Also, apparently and a little contradictory, Amazon was at the same time killing off retail itself, which is a little strange considering that the last time I logged on to Amazon, it was indeed a retailer. It all makes for good headlines, even if becoming a little stale and increasingly confusing, however beyond being pedantic about headlines, retail is-

8th Joy of 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 decisions for retailers to get right. The reduction of physical store capacities for an-

MissGuided: Heat Seeking Fashion

Born and bred online, young fashion retailer Missguided is now cutting its terrestrial teeth as it continues to roll out its physical flagship stores to major shopping centres in the UK. Full of attitude, high on fashion and riding a dynamic rollercoaster the task in hand was always to translate this successful e-commerce formula into real stores considering their limitations of space, product availabilities and operational restrictions. In reality-

Retailers – “You’ve never had it so complicated!”

Is your retail brand ready to succeed in a complicated, customer orientated world? Without doubt, life used to be easy for retailers. To echo the famous words directed to the general public “you’ve never had it so good” the equally valid claim to retail businesses was definitely “you’ve never had it so easy!” In a world of low expectations, it was buying things that was generally difficult. The world-