Performance Management
Post Covid Retail – Rethinking store processes & merchandise management
A healthy store P & L is still at the heart of happy retailing. As Covid-19 made it somewhat easy to lower rent costs, many took the same approach with store head count. But this will certainly cost future retail productivity and flexibility.
So how do you adjust store operations in Post Covid Retail without losing more sales and compromising customer service?
Retail Operations 2020: Time to Manage Outside of the Box
Barely 20 years ago all retail operations took place in high street store formats. Then cross channel happened, and now Covid-19, and efficient retail operations are utterly transformed.
In the early years of this century, brand retail operation felt like paradise. Store networks were growing globally and being an expanding head of retail was a fun job. Managing high street stores, factory outlets, concession stores and flagships, having CEOs promote direct to consumer growth, and even the CFO was happy. All that was needed for retail operation was easily organised and within the store ‘boxes’. But soon brand stores encountered mighty antagonists.
Post Covid Industry Best Practice in Retail & Online
The Covid-19 pandemic is devastating for those with pre-existing conditions. But it also mobilises the best in all others: unforeseen creativity, outstanding personal engagement, true loyalty and support among many more qualities.
There is no way around acknowledging that the situation is grim wherever you look and listen across the brand and retail industry, in parts even online. But if we pay close attention, we can also observe new brand industry best practice emerging.
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.
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?
Brand Sales and Distribution 2020: New Ways to International Sales Growth
International Sales Growth remains mostly dynamic in 2019. But as financial reports show, growth rates have decreased for many. Be it in the US or in Europe, especially domestic-bound retailers and brands stumble.
Global expansion in sales and distribution competence has become a lifesaving strategy feature, but allow me a personal question first:
Drive Dynamic Brand Growth or Maintain Profitability: EBIT vs. EBITDA KPI Slam
After a tumultuous year that almost saw the company drowned by its previous strategic investor, German vertical retailer Hallhuber found a financial investor in Robus Capital Management. Management of both firms agrees to invest in brand growth.
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.
Retail Portfolio Management: Store Staff Performance
While excellent staff and service are what distinguishes brick and mortar from online retailers, staff performance is often overlooked in store evaluations. Two new KPIs help account for the human factor.
When evaluating a retail portfolio, very often mangers only look at the financial results of a store. But excellent service, competent and dedicated sales staff are a key differentiator of brick and mortar retailers. A fair and objective store staff performance evaluation is therefore increasingly important. This article introduces two new KPIs that help to fairly evaluate staff performance and to determine optimal staffing for each store in your portfolio.
Retail Portfolio Management: Renegotiating Your Rental Contracts
This is the second installment of a short series that dives into a few uncommon KPIs for successful retail portfolio management. Learn how traffic cost and footfall per hour can help you renegotiate rental contracts.
For many years, retail expansion was the main growth strategy in the brand retail world. More recently, however, brands increasingly face an under-performing retail portfolio. Realising that retail expansion doesn’t work without like-for-like growth of existing stores, brands are busy assessing their retail portfolios in order to focus on profitable stores and stores with potential for improvement.
Driving Brand Growth with Private Equity
Brand private equity investments have increased, but not all have been success stories. How can PE and brands work together successfully?
Over the last couple of years, brand private equity (PE) investments have increased strongly. Brand investments were very attractive, PE investors had a positive influence, but not all PE investments have been success stories. From my experience as a CFO in that environment, I’d like to share some learnings on how brands can grow successfully with private equity. (more…)
Engaging Associates: Best Practice Retail Operations at Polo Ralph Lauren
Your KPIs, dashboard and performance management are in place, but your retail operations are missing that final touch? This best practice story shows how new technologies can help you win at associate engagement too.
Put yourself in the shoes of a senior vice president of outlet retail for a lifestyle brand in Europe who runs a few stores across several countries. Your stores are commercially successful, and your brand is an anchor tenant for many landlords. But you observe that you could do even better by becoming more engaged in retail operations. Are you tempted to push that old KPI and performance management button to reach your full- and part-time store associates? And, how well has that worked out for you in the past?
Inspiring Brand Retail Best Practices
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.
That One Perfect Day: How UGG Solves the Ice Cream Problem
Thanksgiving in the US, Ramadan in the Middle East, Christmas, or simply next Saturday: high traffic days define the brand store operations winners. Here’s how UGG does it.
Brand store operations is not a complicated job. As a sales clerk in lifestyle retail, it comprises three core processes: 1. receiving and displaying merchandise, 2. serving customers and 3. removing goods from the shelf to make room for the new season.
Retail Performance: I Like Like for Like – I don’t Like Like for Like
H&M gave up their monthly reporting in July. An indication of an ailing retailer? Debatable – Zara never did it in the first place.
Three years after H&M gave up on like for like reporting, they stopped publishing monthly sales figures altogether. H&M follows the path of other well-known retailers that no longer publicly report monthly details of their like for like retail performance. (more…)
The Value of Emotional Retail Management
Managers in Brand Retail love to use diverse technologies to analyse store performance. But what about the value of switching to an emotional perspective from time to time?
Have We Forgotten the Customer? The Necessary Fashion Retail Revolution
Fashion retail is an industry in trouble. Mass consumption is declining, female customers are not having expectations met. We need a revolution.
8 Excellent Weekend Reads for Brand Growth Strategy
Our Q1 blog visits are +99%, bounce rate -41%, subscribers doubled, likes & recommendations +100%, there couldn’t be a stronger feedback the “Brand Growth Inspiration” blog is on the right track. Thank you to all authors, our readers & supporters.
In case you missed one of the valuable posts, here’s our bespoke selection of best weekend read for you. (more…)
Retail Lease Management in Stormy Weather
Retail management without lease control management is like sailing in a storm but leaving the essential navigation tools at home.
How many of your global leases are about to expire this year and you missed the date to opt for an automatic extension or substantial renegotiation last year? How many leases would you have loved to leave last year, but overlooked the date for early contract termination? (more…)