 Assortments in a Tough Environment - Where's Your Kindle?
Customer frugality is not only a reality, it's now considered the new "cool". As inventories are balanced with lower traffic and sales, the natural tendency is to "play it safe" - lower price points, more basics, narrow color choices, etc. The risk is a deadly boring offering. Boring assortments are a bad idea when business is good. When traffic is down, they can be deadly. If customers are shopping and spending less, why would they go to a boring store. Would you?
So the question is "How do you make lower inventories exciting?"
Some history is useful. One of the biggest sellers in the Great Depression was red lipstick. The recession of the 70's brought the personal computer. The iPod took off during the collapse of the tech bubble. Even in the horrible environment we're in today, there are estimates that Amazon's Kindle reader will go from zero units sold in 2007 to over 500,000 units this year.
So what do red lipstick, iPods, and the Kindle have in common? They share two major characteristics - Value/Utility and Novelty/Fun. Red lipstick, a novelty at the time, was relatively inexpensive, made the wearer feel good, and displayed a sense of optimism. The iPod allowed the owner to "carry 1,000 favorite songs in your pocket" as well as being leading edge technology. The Kindle has the capacity for over 1500 books in a compact, lightweight device. It offers free online access to books and periodicals at up to 50% off, meaning it pays for itself over time. It also saves trees, gas, and time.
The point is not to suggest everyone get into personal electronics (unless that's your business). The point is to, first; make sure you allocate room and funding for some fun and excitement in your assortment, regardless of how much it needs to be reduced. Secondly, as you go into the market, make it a point to continuously look for vendors and items that can provide Value/Utility and Novelty/Fun. Finally, when you do find these items, make sure and feature them prominently. Make the store or website more interesting and you're likely to do a lot more business than your competitors, who are "playing it safe".
So - Where's the Kindle?
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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?
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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.
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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
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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?
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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.
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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
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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.
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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?
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Get Local - Build Sales Productivity
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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.
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