hit rate bestseller management

How to Improve Your Hit Rate and Make Good Use of Bestseller Potential

Brand Analytics, , ,

When brands need to reshape their portfolio and close stores, they face the challenge of improving Like-4-Like performance at the remaining points of sale. The two product strategies introduced here help improve the top and bottom line of your P&L.

Improving like-4-like performance often focuses on mechanics and triggers that can be influenced by sales staff and a retail organisation. Surprisingly, it often excludes an honest evaluation of the assortment’s performance. This article shows how improving hit rate and using best seller potential can push sell-through, create incremental sales potential, reduce mark-downs and improve the gross margin. (more…)

Rapha is not a brand, it’s brand community management at its best

Best Practice, , , , , , , ,

How does a small UK cycling apparel brand become the global benchmark for brand community management? Here’s why brands around the world use Rapha as a best practice case study.

In case a cycling jersey isn’t yet part of your casual wardrobe, read this brand story to learn why bike apparel may well set trends in mainstream clothing by 2025.

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omnichannel best practice fashion connect

Scan, Shop, Go – Omnichannel Best Practice Retail Made in Germany

Best Practice, , , , ,

After three years of research and testing 80 omnichannel services, fashion retailer Bonprix has opened a world-class omnichannel best practice store in Hamburg.

There can no longer be any doubt: the future in retail is neither pure online, nor strictly brick & mortar, but omnichannel retail tapping into the best of both worlds. But the challenge remains to find the best ways to balance the two. And Hamburg is likely a witness to what can currently be considered global omnichannel best practice.

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omni channel retail

Inspirational Business Model for Omni Channel Retail

Brand Retail, , , ,

The need for constant innovation in retail is a call to action. I’d love to motivate retailers to execute their innovative spirit with simple acts of creativity.

One option is to develop your customers’ new favourite place, spaces where the community meets to share common passions in a relaxed atmosphere while experiencing brands and their product offerings.

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culinary treats shopping

Culinary Treats & Shopping

Brand Retail, , , , , ,

The way to a customer’s heart is through their stomach! Culinary treats have the potential to increase conversion rates and average ticket size for retailers. Success isn’t guaranteed, but these factors significantly reduce the risk of failure.

More and more retailers, shopping centres and cities invest in new, attractive and unique food and beverage concepts. These concepts often differ in level of integration between culinary treats and shopping.

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Source: Zalando Investor Relations

Driving Customer Loyalty with Membership Programmes

Brand Strategy, ,

Growth rates in online retail are slowing down. Successful brands are increasing customer loyalty and per customer spend by focusing on membership programmes.

Zalando has just announced its loyalty programme Zalando Plus as one of their key initiatives for 2019, and Amazon Prime has been present in every other US household in 2018. The concept of loyalty programmes, however, is not new. (more…)

partner retail (Photo Henry & Co)

Partner Retail Transparency

Brand Distribution, ,

Everything you should know about your potential partner retailer’s business and how to get the information you need.

There are many reasons why it makes sense to conquer a market through reliable retail partners. Besides the shared risk, lower investment and faster growth, you may want to benefit from your partner retailer’s deeper understanding of the market – the local players, dynamics (e.g. real estate and channel development) and consumer behaviours – before opening your own retail stores. (more…)

Processes & Operations for Retail Managers

Special Edition: Processes & Operations for Retail Managers

Editors' Picks,

While everyone talks about  growing online sales, offline retail still makes up the vast majority of consumption. This special edition offers inspiration and guidance on processes & operations for retail managers in this context.

E-commerce managers and financial investors can be quick in labelling your stores as part of the so-called ‘old economy’. But today, retail still stands for 85% of all consumption and offers many opportunities to create superior consumer experiences and be commercially successful. As many brands and retailers have shown, a great brick and mortar store can grow far more profitable that online sales.

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store staff performance

Retail Portfolio Management: Store Staff Performance

Brand Analytics, ,

While excellent staff and service are what distinguishes brick and mortar from online retailers, staff performance is often overlooked in store evaluations. Two new KPIs help account for the human factor.

When evaluating a retail portfolio, very often mangers only look at the financial results of a store. But excellent service, competent and dedicated sales staff are a key differentiator of brick and mortar retailers. A fair and objective store staff performance evaluation is therefore increasingly important. This article introduces two new KPIs that help to fairly evaluate staff performance and to determine optimal staffing for each store in your portfolio.

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Global Retail Best Practice 2019

Best Practice, , , , , , ,

The likes of Amazon and Alibaba open tech-heavy brick & mortar stores, but best practice commercial brand retail still happens elsewhere.

Early sales reports indicate that 2018 was a good year for large parts of the lifestyle brand industry. Almost 4/5 of the top 100 European and US American lifestyle brands had a growth year, and for the most part did better than in 2017. This was despite a global department store fallout and online growth and was largely based on store growth.

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Why the Netherlands Have Become a Last Mile Innovation Lab & What We Can Learn From It

Brand Distribution, Digital Trends,

Parcel costs are on the rise and customers disapprove of growing numbers of delivery vans on the streets. As a result, cities and the logistics industry are piloting alternative solutions in last mile innovation.

The Online Boom Drives Parcel Volume

The ongoing boom in ordering goods online has led to a boom in the logistics industry in the Netherlands with 295 million packages delivered (plus 30% compared to 2015).  However, it is only now that consumers have begun to complain about the high number of delivery vans clogging up the narrow streets of Amsterdam.

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Brick & Mortar is the new Online: E-commerce Trends 2019

Brand Strategy, Digital Trends, , ,

Amazon just released sales numbers for 2018 and the details indicate that the mother of all e-commerce is confronted with new growth realities.

And Amazon is not the only one.

  • GLORE, the stock index for global online retailers stayed far behind old economy stocks.
  • E-commerce became ‘weather sensitive’, had bankruptcies and major players missed sales forecasts by far.
  • Almost all online pure players are working on brick & mortar concepts, already leading to over 20 stores in Berlin.

So let’s look at the fundamentals behind the e-commerce trends 2019 that indicate a new direction in growth.

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Retail Portfolio Management

Retail Portfolio Management: Renegotiating Your Rental Contracts

Brand Analytics, , , , , ,

This is the second installment of a short series that dives into a few uncommon KPIs for successful retail portfolio management. Learn how traffic cost and footfall per hour can help you renegotiate rental contracts.

For many years, retail expansion was the main growth strategy in the brand retail world. More recently, however, brands increasingly face an under-performing retail portfolio. Realising that retail expansion doesn’t work without like-for-like growth of existing stores, brands are busy assessing their retail portfolios in order to focus on profitable stores and stores with potential for improvement.

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Brand Expnsion Iberia

Spain & Portugal on the Brand Horizon

Global Growth,

Is it time for brand expansion to Spain and Portugal? The economic outlook for the Iberian peninsula is currently boosting the confidence of international retailers on the lookout for new opportunities.

Spain and Portugal are back in the mindset of expansion managers! Several international brands are currently revisiting their expansion strategies or considering taking up business in Spain and Portugal. There might even be more opportunities for international brands now than there were before the crises.

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