Flagship Store

Retail flagship stores come in different forms and shapes. Surprisingly often they fight to remain open until lease end. Stuffed with latest cross channel tech and outstanding brand experiences, stores come short in delivering the same excellence in their sales productivity.

When originally opened, management expectation was high, the investment budget was exceeded, but the store’s revenue never deliver the assumption of its investment case.

And the cause is very often the same: Many flagships store lack a healthy balance of brand experience & performance, the secret to a long-lasting store life.

In our 30+ years of guiding brand distribution growth around the globe we reviewed the financial performance of more than 50.000 brand retail stores, many of them flagship stores. Over the years we learned to read the stores and developed scorecards to measure their performances, both in its branding and its commercial performance. A little of that rich experience we share in this blog, for your inspiration.

Feel free to contact us for any tips, as we assist brands and retailer to identify improvement areas and develop turnaround programs.

We are a network of independent managers coaching brands. You may contact the author directly or reach out for help or more information.

Like they say in retail, browse around, tell us what you like or how we can help. And if you like it what you see, share us with your friends and come back regularly. Most important, let us inspire you.

Your Brand Growth Inspiration Team

The Art of Creating Successful Store Concepts: Manage the Complexity Trap

Amazon closes down all physical book stores, pop-ups and 4-star stores in the UK and US. Do you want to learn how to avoid their mistakes?

Despite the initial media hype and large investments in technology, the stores failed to deliver the expected returns. And while that does come as a surprise, we questioned whether packing stores with digital gimmicks will make up for missing the essentials of retailing right after their opening.

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Brand Retail Best Practices – Six Areas to Work on this Year

We had two rollercoaster years for the brand lifestyle industry around the globe. Reading the interim financial reports suggests that the majority of top brands have grown, despite pandemic and the global supply chain crisis.

And brand retail continuous to be an essential part of the past and future growth.

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The Future of Brand Flagship Stores: Strategy Update

In the middle of global store lockdowns, 100+ lifestyle brands announce the opening of new flagship stores.

Versace, Puma, Under Armor, Gucci, Saint Laurent, Montblanc, Adidas, Lacoste, Dior, Hermes, Supreme and more report new flagship store openings. All that adds up to retail investments of US$ 200m (assuming standard buildout cost and store sizes) in a time when the internet is booming.

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Strategic Brand Management at its Best

Shoppers love unique products and great brand stories. If on top you sell upcycled products, are a niche company from a small country, that makes all the ingredients for a great brand story. For us that delivers great learning on strategic brand management.

If someone had told you in 1993 that someone would manage to turn truck tarps into it bags in Seoul by 2019, and create a best practice brand development story in the process, you may have questioned their judgement.

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

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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Global Retail Best Practice – 100 Ideas from around the world

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

Sales reports of industry show that recent years were good 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 the year before. This was despite a global department store fallout and online growth and was largely based e.com and store growth.

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Adidas Best Practice Brand Distribution Strategy

Aiming for the world’s most affluent consumers in highly competitive environments: Adidas’ ‘Top City Strategy 2020’ is at halfway, what is best practice and what can you learn for your business?

It’s widely known that consumer markets and brand distribution channels have fundamentally changed over the past 25 years in more ways than anticipated. Fact is, the internet as a brand distribution channel grew from 0 to commonly 8-15% of sales. But far more relevant from a commercial and strategic perspective is that many formerly emerging countries, especially China and countries in the Middle East and Central Europe, grew to 30-40%  of total sales and profits in lifestyle brand distribution.

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Best Practice Brand Retail Flagship made in Berlin

A unique brand story from a small Berlin Brand and inspirational example that excellent retail flagship are not just created by multi billion corporations.

A couple of decades apart, two designers cross Berlin streets and leave their mark. The first designs a lasting cultural icon for a nation behind the iron curtain. The second saves it from oblivion by turning it into an iconic brand.

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