Store Concepts
Store Operations Excellence: Why All That Glitters Is Not Gold
Online stores continue to gain market shares, making it crucial for brick and mortar stores to defend their piece of the cake. An exceptional customer experience and store operations excellence are two promising strategies to keep customers coming despite more convenient channels.
This article is about the operational excellence of brick and mortar stores in times of digitalisation, and why technological innovation will not suffice when it comes to providing an outstanding customer experience. (more…)
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.
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.
Evolution of Store Design II
In this article, we dive deeper into how brands can best appropriate their spend and decipher how intangible elements of a brand’s identity can be rolled out across store formats and concepts to create clarity of brand, irrespective of size or location of the store.
We Need to Rethink the Purpose of the Shopping Street
Shopping physical products in dedicated streets was often convenient and sometimes fun. With the advent of digital shopping, we need to rethink the purpose of these streets and how we use them.
Evolution of Store Design
Retail as we know it is dead. That much is certain. But for brands that place the human at the centre of their world, there is much hope for the store of the future.
As we emerge from the Covid-19 pandemic, innovation, technology and brand experience are leading an exciting rebirth in the delivery of offline retail, resulting in more opportunities with community-led and experience-based retail. Here we explore some of the ways store design helps brands to reshape their portfolio
Introducing The Store of the Future
We expand on the article series with ‘The Store of the Future’, a series exploring the evolution of store design.
We look at the concepts and techniques premium and luxury brands are using today, to stay ahead of the curve tomorrow.
(more…)
Digitalisation Is the Face Mask of Your Physical Retail Business
Introduce digital business processes in your retail stores to cope with the negative effects of Covid-19 on footfall. Continue reading for a few best practice examples!
Cheese Please! A Lesson in Brand Building
How to turn cheese from an every-day commodity into a sought-after lifestyle brand? Join us for a brand building lesson from Cheese & More by Henri Willig.
BIOGENA – a unique retail concept and multichannel execution at its best
How the small Austrian company shook up the distribution of an entire market
Holzmarkt: Retailing Berlin Style
Ready for your trip to Berlin? If you want an authentic taste of Berlin, be sure to stop by this great retail insider tip: Berlin Holzmarkt, in the former East of the city.
Growth in Saturated Markets: Dreams in Chocolate and Ice Cream!
Selling chocolate in Europe is tough because growth in saturated markets is tough. Three case studies show how chocolate and ice cream manufacturers grow successfully by diversifying their assortment.
Rapha is not a brand, it’s brand community management at its best
How does a small UK cycling apparel brand become the global benchmark for brand community management? Here’s why brands around the world use Rapha as a best practice case study.
In case a cycling jersey isn’t yet part of your casual wardrobe, this story about brand community management may change that when bike apparel may well set trends in mainstream clothing by 2025.
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.
Inspirational Business Model for Omni Channel Retail
The need for constant innovation in retail is a call to action. I’d love to motivate retailers to execute their innovative spirit with simple acts of creativity.
One option is to develop your customers’ new favourite place, spaces where the community meets to share common passions in a relaxed atmosphere while experiencing brands and their product offerings.
Culinary Treats & Shopping
The way to a customer’s heart is through their stomach! Culinary treats have the potential to increase conversion rates and average ticket size for retailers. Success isn’t guaranteed, but these factors significantly reduce the risk of failure.
More and more retailers, shopping centres and cities invest in new, attractive and unique food and beverage concepts. These concepts often differ in level of integration between culinary treats and shopping.
Does Your Store Give Digitally Savvy Customers What They Need?
What are today’s online consumer needs and how can physical store formats cater to them? This article discusses recent case studies including Amazon Go, Alibaba and many more.
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.
Goats on a Roof! And What’s Your USP?
As far as unique selling propositions go, goats on a roof are pretty unique. And this offline-only retail location on Vancouver Island has turned them into a long-term success story without selling a single goat.
Once upon a time there was a tiny fruit booth near the Trans-Canada Highway that served Vancouverites en route to their weekend and summer houses as well as tourists exploring an island full of natural beauty. That was back in the 70ies when Kristian and Solveig Graaten, who had migrated from Norway 20 years earlier, decided to start a small retail business on Vancouver Island.
In the meantime, this little fruit stall has become the queen of retail locations and one of the most frequented tourist attractions on Vancouver Island: The Coombs Old Country Market.
