Where are the Merchants?
This time it's different.
Retailing has always had its tough periods, but, in living memory at least, nothing as extended or as broadly based as the current period. The discussions and commentary these days all seem to focus on things like internet strategies, inventory strategies, Black Friday strategies, social media, CRM, new technologies - worthy topics all. The one thing that is not being discussed is the most fundamental element of retailing - the merchandise.
Take apparel for instance. Go into any regional mall; apparel and accessories are still the dominant category of merchandise in terms of square footage and inventory investment. But the merchandise offering is stale - same fabrics, same colors, same silhouettes, basically the same thing that's already in your closet.
One of the basic requirements in retail success is to offer the customer something that excites them enough to part with their money. How do you excite a customer with merchandise that is the same as what's already in their closet? It seems that today the answer is to put out lower quality merchandise and then promote it like crazy - coupons, interlocking one-day sales, early bird specials, and so on ad nauseum.
Merchandise assortments belong to the merchants, which brings us back to the original question - What makes a great merchant in today's environment and where are they?
To find the great merchants, you look for who is having the most success without having to rely on POS price promotions. Is there anybody out there that fits this bill? Well, it's estimated that Amazon will sell 500,000 Kindles this year at $300+ apiece. No discount there. Apple is estimated to sell over 45 million iPhones this year. No discount there. There are over 25,000 apps available for the iPhone. No discount there. The Apple 4-wall stores, from the day they opened, have completely reset sales per square foot standards, moving the bar from hundreds of dollars per foot to thousands. No Black Friday specials there. They're in the same malls as the apparel stores.
What about apparel. Any examples there? Well, Mickey Drexler has taken J Crew from a moribund company to a thriving business. The folks at Buckle, American Eagle, and Urban Outfitters are doing fine.
What do Jeff Bezos and Steve Jobs have in common with Mickey Drexler? They understand that, in the end, it's all about the product. It's all about offering innovative products that excite their customers enough to part with their money.
Until the other apparel merchants figure this out, expect continued poor performance and disappointing sales.
|
If you have enjoyed this post, please consider leaving a comment and/or subscribing to the RSS feed to have future posts delivered to your reader.
|
MerchandisingThe Boomer Apparel Opportunity
The Womens apparel market was worth over $100B in 2009. Women from the Boomer Generation (born 1945-19650) represent over 40% of the women clothing customer population, but have a disproportionate percentage of the disposable income. They should be a primary target and consideration for the apparel industry.
But are they?
Read More
|
Back to the FutureWhat makes a Good Buyer
There was an interesting post today on Retail Wire about what buyers expect from suppliers. It's titled "FD Buyer: Want to Sell me something?". The article Has three key points, which are:
- I need to know why your product will be wanted by my customer.
- I need to know how you are going to educate my customer about your product and get them to try it in my store.
- You need to know my customers. I do.
What about the other side of this equation? In a recent post, I asked "Where are the Merchants?" which looks at this same question from the other end. After all, retail success is almost entirely driven by the retailers, not the suppliers. Here's some thoughts on what makes a great buyer from some senior merchants and a highly respected product designer.
Read More
|
Found One
In a recent post, I asked the question "Where are the Merchants". I'm happy to report that I found one. He is Hans Sternberg, scion of a family that immigrated to this country in the 1930s and went on to build the largest family-owned department store in America. Read his views on the keys to successful retailing and what he sees today. Read More
|
Where are the Merchants
Go into any regional mall. Apparel and accessories are the dominant categories, in both square footage and inventory investment. And yet the merchandise itself hasn't changed in years - same fabrics, same colors, same silhouettes. It's the same as what's already in everybody's closet. There's just less of it and it's cheaper this year. One of the basic requirements in retail success is to offer the customer something that excites them enough to part with their money. How do you excite a customer with merchandise that is the same as what's already in their closet at home?
Merchandise assortments belong to the merchants. What makes a great merchant in today's environment and where are they?
Read More
|
Holiday Checklist - Part 3 Stores
This is the third, and final, post of the Holiday Checklist series. The first dealt with Assortments and the second with Inventory and Receipt Flow. Depending on your format, this may be the most critical. After all, your sales floor is where your customers determine the ultimate success of all your hard work and preparation. Take a look.
Read More
|
Are You Ready? Holiday Checklist
Back to School is essentially over. Now is the time to re-assess your holiday plans. This is the first of a series of posts on getting ready for the upcoming, all-important Holiday season. The topic is too large to cover in one post, so there will be separate posts focusing on different topics over the next few weeks.
Part 1 - Merchandise Assortments
Read More
|
How to Get Local
 Tough sales and a wary consumer have moved several big retailers to focus on "getting local". Getting local is defined as providing an assortment and in-store experience that speaks specifically to an individual store's customers. WalMart and Macy's have been in the news recently and are both investing time and money on this goal. This is not just for national/international chains. Every retailer with more than one location can benefit from this strategy. Here are some admittedly high-level thoughts from someone who has actually been responsible for localizing assortments.
Read More
|
Wheres Your Kindle
 Customer frugality is not only a reality, it's now considered the new "cool". Obviously inventories need to be lowered to match a lower demand.
So the question is how do you make lower inventories exciting?
Read More
|
Get Local - Build Sales Productivity
|
After decades of consolidation and acquisition, Macy's is implementing the "My Macy's" initiative, designated as a "customer-centric" initiative to drive sales.
The question is whether this kind of initiative is worthwhile and what it takes to make it successful.
Read More
|
|
|
|
|
