Flagship Store

Flagship Store Background:

A flagship store in retail comes in different forms and shapes. And surprisingly often they fight for their life, as most come with a huge invest price tag that seldom fullfils the sales dreams of its creators.

In fact many flagship store close before their lease ends or investments have been paid back. Because of poor operative and financial performance.

And this already provides an essential hint to flagship store “must haves”, a healthy balance of branding & performance features, the secret to successful long-lasting flagship retailing.

The basis of our Expertise:

Over our 30+ years of guiding brand distribution growth around the globe we came across the financial performance of more than 50.000 brand retail stores, and many of them flagship stores. In those years we learned to read the stores and developed scorecards to measure a store’s performance, both in its branding and its commercial performance.

With that background we assist brands and retailer to identify improvement areas, develope pragmatic quick fixes and organize turn arounds. A little of that rich experience we share in this blog, for your inspiration.

How to reach us:

We are open network of friends willing to share from their expertise. You may contact the authors directly or reach out here 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

© Louis Vuitton / Photography: Daici Ano

The Future in Flagship Retail: A Strategy Update

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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

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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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omni channel best practice fashion connect

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

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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

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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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Adidas Best Practice Brand Distribution Strategy

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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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Unique Retail, Ampelmann brand flagship

Best Practice Brand Retail Flagship made in Berlin

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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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Inspiring Brand Retail Best Practices

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Pick the brand retail best practices from 24* cities and 6 topic areas that will work for you. To a good start and comp growth in your new business year!

It was a good year for the brand lifestyle industry in Europe and the US. Reading interim reports suggests that the majority of top brands have grown despite challenges in wholesale and full price retail distribution. While not true for all, this goes to illustrate another year of beautiful distribution complexity and financial challenges.

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