International Expansion

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 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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(Photo: Gaurav Vaz)

India’s Fashion & Retail Sector: An Overview

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Private consumption driven economic growth, a population of 1.3 billion with huge linguistic and social diversity… amongst other challenges and opportunities to consider before entering India’s fashion retail market!

A € 575 Billion consumer retail spending, growing to reach €975 Billion by end of 2022 and very favourable demographics make India one of the world’s most promising and exciting retail markets for years to come. With India’s fashion retail segment at about € 52 billion in 2017, and poised to cross €85 billion by end of 2022, India offers great opportunities for European and other international brands.

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PItalian Retail Market, Photo: Ricardo Gomez Angel

Yes, the Italian Market Is on the Rise Again!

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Milan’s CityLife Project, dm’s expansion to the Italian retail market and Starbucks’ Reserve Roastery plans indicate a revival of the Italian retail market.

A few months ago, I wrote about an apparent increase in attractiveness of the Italian market for foreign brands and asked, Is the Italian Market on the Rise Again? Meanwhile, Milan has seen a couple of important retail milestones and I would like to give you an update on the Italian retail market.

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Marketplaces Are Now the Biggest Digital Distribution Channel for Brands

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Digital distribution via marketplaces is big business. The choice of marketplaces is large. Selecting the right ones and operational execution are key.

Germany’s Bundesverband Onlinehandel (BVOH) teamed up with the agency p.digital to conduct a study about the state of the e-commerce marketplace industry. The study ‘Marketplaces Across the World’ charts 335 marketplaces in Europe alone and lists over 740 globally.

These findings alone make obvious that e-commerce marketplaces in Europe and globally have become an important channel of distribution. But there is more:

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International Expansion part 6

Don’t Trust Your KPI Expectations!

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Explore how to keep management and organization committed if your KPIs for international expansion don’t meet the expectations.

This post shows how KPIs in new markets can differ enormously from your home market. When starting international expansion, reporting often needs to be reviewed to make sure that you get the full picture and give a new market its fair chance. This is part 6 of my series on international expansion, catch up with my previous pieces here.

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Service Robots in a Mall in Japan (Photo: Shutterstock)

Is Your Store Format Ready for International Expansion? Part II

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Customer Service levels and consumer expectations differ from country to country. This post (Part II of this series) shows how those differences affect your staffing and how you select, train, motivate and pay your store staff when expanding into new markets.

In Part I I talked about the specifics to consider when taking a proven retail format international with regards to store location, adjacencies, assortment, product mix, store size, dimensions, layout and store look and feel.

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Is Your Retail Format Ready for International Expansion? Part I

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The days, when brands could establish a successful retail format at home and just roll it out internationally without major adaptations, are long over.

Customer centricity is the new holy grail in the retail business, promising prosperity and success for any retail format. Surprisingly, many brands still start to roll-out a retail format without even trying to understand whether and how consumers and their behaviors differ in a new market. This post illustrates what to explore and adapt to establish a successful retail format when going international.

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Mexico City (Photo: Jezael Melgoza)

Brand Distribution: Why Now Is the Time for Mexico

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Reaching a realistic assessment of Mexico’s brand distribution potential

As the second largest retail market in Latin America, Mexico has long been considered an attractive market for international retail brands. With Brazil in recession, Mexico has been able to further improve its position. The country is now on the radar of current and new players seeking to conquer market share. (more…)