Heike Blank
Store Operations Excellence: Why All That Glitters Is Not Gold
Online stores continue to gain market shares, making it crucial for brick and mortar stores to defend their piece of the cake. An exceptional customer experience and store operations excellence are two promising strategies to keep customers coming despite more convenient channels.
This article is about the operational excellence of brick and mortar stores in times of digitalisation, and why technological innovation will not suffice when it comes to providing an outstanding customer experience. (more…)
Hit Rate and Bestseller Assessment: How to Empower Your Retail Assortment Planning and Allocation
Improving the hit rate and bestseller management are essential elements of retail assortment planning and allocation. Learn how to fully understand your bestsellers and how they affect your hit rate to make optimal use of your resources.
Why Sustainabilization Is Taking Too Long: The Missing Link
Sustainabilization is the greatest challenge of the Anthropocene. Everyone talks about it, but there seems to be too little change to make a difference fast enough.
I usually write about case studies from projects I’ve worked on. This article is different. It’s about you, and about all of us, sharing our experiences and ideas to find the missing link. (more…)
How to Compare Store Performance of a Retail Portfolio in Pandemic Times
Retail executives often struggle to objectively evaluate the store performance of their portfolio due to changing market dynamics and consumer behaviours pre- and post-Covid. The good old Footfall Utilization Index (FUI) might be of help.
3 Innovative Distribution Models: Lifeline & Disruptor
Three innovative distribution models currently help retailers to survive the Covid-19 lockdowns and new players to disrupt traditional markets. (more…)
“Online-Goes-Offline” – Never Waste a Good Crisis
Introducing an interesting new online-goes-offline case, one which could benefit from the changes in retail landscape accelerated by Covid-19
Covid-19 keeps changing the retail landscape, and will probably do so for a long time. In my previous post I wrote about this changing retail landscape and its effect on commercial, social and cultural life in our city centers.
Post-Covid City Centres: Deserted Wastelands or Thriving Hubs?
Much has been said and written about the disaster the pandemic has brought to the global retail landscape. This post highlights challenges and opportunities for retail and social life in our post Covid-19 city centres.
By August 5th 2020, 50% more stores (3,140) in the UK were affected by retail bankruptcies than in the entire year 2019 (2,051 stores). The Guardian reports footfall drops of 40% in August 2020 vs. last year. And there are still 5 months to go.
Shop, Work, Meet & Eat in the Time of Corona: 5 Best Practices in Social Distancing
Social Distancing turns profitability into an even bigger challenge for businesses. These five best practice examples show how social distancing can go hand in hand with creativity and innovation.
Staff Cost Reduction Ahead
The ongoing coronavirus crisis adds to deep dips in store traffic. As retailers look at staff cost reduction to minimise the negative effect on their bottom line, this case study provides insights beyond a simple staff cost vs. sales ratio.
Cheese Please! A Lesson in Brand Building
How to turn cheese from an every-day commodity into a sought-after lifestyle brand? Join us for a brand building lesson from Cheese & More by Henri Willig.
How to Measure Staff Motivation: The Big Unknown
Staff motivation is notoriously difficult to capture. This article shows how to combine Footfall Utilisation Index with Staffing Index to truly measure staff motivation.
BIOGENA – a unique retail concept and multichannel execution at its best
How the small Austrian company shook up the distribution of an entire market
How to Drive International Expansion Without Escalating Complexity
Customise or standardise? That’s perhaps the most important question a brand at the beginning of its international expansion has to answer.
Depending on who you ask, you will get very different answers. If you ask your brand and marketing management, they will vote for as much standardisation as possible. If you ask your sales force, the answer will be quite the opposite.
What Locations Make Your Retail Format Successful?
Despite constant change and disruption in today’s market, retail location is still an a key success factor. Do you know what type of locations are best for your format?
Growth in Saturated Markets: Dreams in Chocolate and Ice Cream!
Selling chocolate in Europe is tough because growth in saturated markets is tough. Three case studies show how chocolate and ice cream manufacturers grow successfully by diversifying their assortment.
Optimal Retail Space: How Big Should Your Assortment Be?
Finding the right assortment size is a key question for retail performance projects. Learn about a simple method to determine assortment size for retailers with several stores in comparable locations.
How to Improve Your Hit Rate and Make Good Use of Bestseller Potential
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…)
Culinary Treats & Shopping
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.
Partner Retail Transparency
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…)
