Retailer's Decalogue // Within the commercial strategy

merchanlab Shopping experience, Training, Visual Merchandising July 18, 2022July 22, 2022experiencia de compra, merchanlab, retail, shopping experience, store concept, visual merchandising

Decálogo del retailer // Dentro de la estrategia comercial

Being assertive helps you more than being quick..
Speaking of fashion, it's volatile and unpredictable. What's popular today may not be popular tomorrow. That's the risk faced by retailers when they fill their stores with fashion that's no longer what they're looking for. You have to take care of every aspect of the business, keep it impeccable, and believe in customer satisfaction as the company's hallmark.

That's why I present you with a decalogue that will make you successful in your daily decisions in the fashion retail business.

IS THE STORE REALLY ATTRACTIVE? To perform this analysis, you need to stand in front of the store and ask yourself this question: If you were a customer, would you come in? Does what you have in the window displays invite you to come in? We need to find an excuse to get people into our store. Appropriate visual merchandising can be the solution to this lack of attraction.

CONGRUENCE Both outside the store and inside. It's sad to see big brands with impeccable, vibrant, ever-changing catalogs, but still have a store they haven't renovated in years. I think the same love and enthusiasm that goes into making some things should prevail in all others. It's important not to disappoint the consumer, who expects you to be the same as you are on the outside.

REAL PROMOTIONS Are your customers accustomed to constant discounts? Consider why customers don't buy at full price. Are your prices high? Are your campaigns always discounted? Overwhelmed by discount messages. Be careful how you speak to customers. Often, you can subtly suggest a promotion and avoid being discounted.

TAKE CARE OF EMPLOYEES SO THEY CAN TAKE CARE OF CUSTOMERS Richard Branson of the Virgin Group recommends that employee care directly impacts how they treat customers. It's unpleasant to be served by an unmotivated salesperson or to enter a store with a conflicted staff. As a consumer, you immediately notice this in the service you receive, and you never return.

AVOID IMPROVISATION There's nothing worse than a series of untimely actions in a store. All it does is create conflict among staff, jeopardizing sales success. Improvisation doesn't bring clarity and only causes a store to be inconsistent with other branches. If this is your case, you need to implement a standardization project and involve buyers and store owners. Everyone should know a week in advance what's going to happen in their store, or this will depend on the size of the actions.

PLEASANT CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE Taking care of the details that add value to the brand experience. Neuromarketing authors explain that a pleasurable shopping experience is achieved when we engage the senses in different ways, starting with sight and then hearing. Make sure that what your customer sees is aesthetically appealing and then offer them audio that matches the environment. The most common mistake is thinking that music is made for salespeople, but that's not the case. Everything should be customer-focused to make them feel good and spend more time in our store.

THE COMPETITION. We mustn't lose sight of it, how is it? What do they have that I don't? How do I communicate to the customer that I have products that are different from my competitor's? We must always be clear about who the competition is or what brand, indirectly, is our competition. There must be a record that says week after week what the competition has, at what price, in what composition, in what colors, what quantity, etc. And everyone in the brand must be aware of it. Not just a cursory review, become a mystery shopper of the competition, all brands do this, look at their window displays, their pricing strategy, the colors, what they have at the entrance, etc. Feel calm, everyone does this.

THE HISTORY A retail business without sales records is a ship adrift. The past must be firmly in mind. Last year's success will be a headache for the following year, as you must exceed sales expectations, maintain healthy inventory in good condition to drive sales, and do more with the same amount of space. For these reasons, history informs future decisions; current sales failures must be taken into account to develop well-founded strategies. In retail, there should be no assumptions; we must take calculated risks.

LOSES LOVE FOR STOCKThis can be your worst enemy if you don't really know it. You must monitor it constantly, day after day. Know its size, what it's about, and how long it's been on the sales floor. Numbers can be your best tool, but working sessions with sales floor staff and purchasing teams are a good strategy for gaining information about stock performance for decision-making and ensuring sales success.

TRAIN YOUR STAFF. Develop a sales-minded approach in your staff. Sharpen their eye so they can recognize macro trends and, above all, see the business as an opportunity for professional development and know they're part of a growth that's alongside the brand. Make them proud of it, even if they aren't customers.

Retail has many perspectives, many nooks and crannies where business can be done, and it would be difficult for 10 points to achieve brand success. But here are the ones that involve the POINT OF SALE, PRODUCT, and STAFF, which are key elements for creating a driving force for good results. I believe all brands always have the same objective in mind: to sell. What good would an attractive store do with poor products, or vice versa?

Pablo Román is the founder of the Merchan//LAB agency, where a team of industrial, fashion and graphic designers with expertise in fashion collaborates. “Shopping experience "It's the new guiding principle of fashion. Consumers are no longer satisfied with just purchasing products; they now want something more. Something the brand is willing to share with customers to encourage them to return to the store." Customers don't quite know what they want, but when they see it, they recognize it. PR.

The Mannequin: A brand storytelling

merchanlab Shopping experience, Store Concept, Visual Merchandising August 21, 2017July 14, 2022escaparatismo, retail, shopping experience, store concept, visual merchandising

Many years have passed since the first mannequin in history emerged, replicating the silhouette and making everything it wears appealing. Now we can see that it's relatively easy for a store to find an affordable mannequin, but it's difficult to create a striking silhouette. Many mistakes are made when handling them. Here we list the five most important points when setting up a display with mannequins.

1. LOVE ME TENDERMost mannequins are made of fiberglass, which is very resistant to the passage of time, but it's also a delicate material. You have to be careful when dressing a figure. The first thing to do is clean the place where the assembly will take place, and of course, keep your hands clean. Never undress a mannequin if you don't know where you're going to put its pieces.

2. ASSEMBLY AND DISASSEMBLYAlways ensure that the people who handle the mannequins know how to dress and undress them, not just those specialized in visual merchandising, as this is where the pieces can become damaged. It's also important to plan the clothing options for dressing them with a defined and effective concept.

3. WITHOUT STRATEGY THERE IS NO PARADISETo attribute a percentage of sales to mannequins, it's necessary to understand the sales strategy you're trying to capture, and this metric is essential for understanding the lifespan of the mannequin. It's important to keep in mind that mannequins help drive what we want to sell, but we can't attribute sales success or failure to a mannequin alone.

4. COMPOSITION, COMPOSITION & COMPOSITION. Sometimes the budget for display is limited, and brands choose to present only two or three window displays per year. Others are more dynamic, making more than 15 or 20 changes per year, experiencing spikes in traffic, sales, etc. What truly enriches window displays in any strategy is the position of the mannequins in the space. If you have a limited budget, you should rely on different compositions throughout the life of the display, as well as different outfits. The window design should allow for varied positioning of the mannequins.

5. FITTING IS A MUST HAVE, If the garment doesn't look good on a mannequin, we can't expect the customer to like it. We have to consider the silhouette we should choose; sometimes the arms or legs are too long for the garment, or the torso has a high waist. It's important to test garments before purchasing our mannequins. The sizes of the garments they should wear are just as important. Remember that the difference is in the details, so observe the silhouette to know which wrinkles need to be framed and which garments need to be molded to make it look as realistic as possible.

We can list more aspects that the mannequin's composition should have, taking them into account in detail, keeping in mind that the more detailed the setup, the more impactful the message. Be consistent with what you display and the environment, and you'll have a doubly powerful and memorable display.

Experiencia de compra // Un wow en cada visita

merchanlab Retail News, Shopping experience, Training May 19, 2017July 21, 2022cursos de escaparates, escaparatismo, experiencia de compra, intermoda, merchanlab, retail, shopping experience, store concept, visual merchandising

When the product is the memory of an incredible experience, making a whole of small details leads us to know the essence of a brand

The dynamics at the point of sale have changed. In traditional sales, the product was placed in front of the customer, and if they had a latent need at that moment, a purchase was triggered, in a linear fashion with no return.

Now the process is circular, experiencing the new stage of "inspiration," then triggering the "offer/sale" to continue with the "post-sale" service, allowing the latter to feed the "inspiration" service to continue the process constantly, always in motion.

INSPIRATION. At this stage, we must provide all the necessary means for the customer to acquire the necessary information about our product, such as blogs, social media, video blogs, landing pages, etc., so that when the customer searches for inspiration, they find a favorable environment to continue to the next stage.

OFFER/SALE. Once a customer has a specific product in mind and confirms that we're the right choice for their purchase, they head to our store. That's why it must be dressed to the nines to attract attention and confirm that we're what they need.

POST- VENTA. In this section, we can differentiate ourselves from the competition. Many brands neglect this stage, worrying more about the initial stage and the purchase than about knowing what happened to the product we sold in the long term, whether it met expectations and was what was expected.

Closing this loop helps us build customer loyalty and encourage return visits.

EXCEED CUSTOMER EXPECTATIONS,
NOT JUST SELL

With or without visual?

merchanlab Shopping experience, Store Concept, Visual Merchandising February 24, 2016July 14, 2022escaparates, merchanlab, retail, store concept, visual merchandising

The term may sound very current, but it has existed throughout human history, from merchants displaying their harvest at the market to large chain stores displaying their collections in their stores.

Visual merchandising (VIM) is an activity that has always been practiced, but the best part is when it's mastered and becomes part of the brand's commercial strategy. There's no VIM without a strategy behind it that can justify it. We can't improvise in stores; that would be complex and lack added value for the brand.

Consistency is a determining factor for the Store Concept that emerges across brands; each space, each display must be measured by its results. But let's not make the mistake of leaving the VIM solely responsible for good or bad sales.

Each product or product category has its own story and performance, but the visual focus that VIM provides enriches and enhances the sales generated by the item itself. This justifies window displays tailored to the product, visual merchandising focused on sales results, and the execution of store staff.

Customers must be immersed in a welcoming and pleasant atmosphere, making them spend more time in the store looking for things they weren't looking for. They must find a haven in the brand where they can have a good time without complications and have a shopping experience that's both enjoyable and enjoyable. shopping experience satisfactoria y sobre todo presumible con sus amigos.

EXCEED CUSTOMER EXPECTATIONS, NOT JUST SELL

EXCEED CUSTOMER EXPECTATIONS,
NOT JUST SELL