Brand Stores

“Flagship”, “lighthouse”, “high street store”, “community store”, “full price store”, “future store”, “factory outlet”, “concession store”, “outlets”, “brand experience shop”, “neighbourhood store … and many more creative terms exist in the brand lifestyle industry to describe one and the same location: A brand showcase to create a brand experience and generate sales and profits.

We saw far 1.000+ stores from inside, analysed financials of 10.000+ in close to 50 countries of all continents. And we learned over time, there are huge differences about good, bad, profitable or just huge expenses. At the end it all comes down to one important question: How much brand experience do you want to create, and how commercial you want it to be?

In this section, we share a little from our long journey in brand retail, and what differentiates successful stores from the others. Feel free to reach out and share your favourite brand store, your review or where you want us to take a look. We promise, if our travel passes that way, we take a careful look and share our observations.

(Retail) Love in the Time of (Store Closure) Cholera – 8 Reasons why Retail Expansion will Prevail

Strategy, ,

There are store closure programs wherever you look. But online pure players and successful brands continue to invest in retail expansion. So why is this?

To start with, I’m a finance and control guy by origin, certainly not a creative that simply likes brand stores because of their looks. I love retail expansion, because with the right ingredients almost any product category and brand can operate profitable stores – but you’d better know how. Retail expansion strategies have been my most interesting assignments, because the store operations models behind the façade are as complex as they are colourful.  (more…)