I’m very excited to announce my latest collaboration with Drapers magazine, a leading authority on fashion retailing that has been covering this sector since 1887! The article “What area the essential ingredients for successful store retail?” by Emma Sheppard, explores the five key elements that make a store a success today:
This is a brief summary but I recommend you to keep reading the complete article.
Days out shopping are back on the agenda for consumers. After more than two years of intermittent store closures, physical retail is rising in demand – and businesses are once again extending their bricks-and-mortar footprints.
Drapers speaks to leading fashion retailers and property specialists to examine the make-or-break factors for store success.
Location, location, location
Lifestyle and clothing brand Weird Fish celebrated a 133% leap in EBITDA for 2021 following a digital overhaul. But Ben Mercier, customer director at the retailer, says physical stores are a vital part of its strategy: “When we open a store in a specific location, we tend to see triple-digit growth in our online sales within that area. That just demonstrates the power of stores from an awareness point of view, and engagement with our products and staff in those locations.”…
Brand Experience
… Research carried out by shopping centre owner Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield in 2020, found that almost 60% of consumers across 10 countries in Europe – France, the UK, Spain, Germany, Austria, Sweden, Poland, the Czech Republic, Italy and the Netherlands – expect retailers to dedicate more floor space to experiences than products.
Store design is becoming more theatrical, aiming to create moments that cannot be replicated online. One of the best examples is Canada Goose’s “cold room” in its stores in Toronto, Paris, Milan and New Jersey, where shoppers can stand in a room chilled to -32℃ to judge the benefits of one of its coats…
… Alfonso Segura, who wrote Fashion Goes Tech, which investigates how technology and digitalisation are empowering retail, agrees adding a lot of the decisions about size of store come down to location: “Many brands are betting on better locations and adapting the format, size and assortment of their stores. Nike is opening House of Innovation [flagship stores], Nike Unite [community concept stores], Nike Live [smaller local stores] and Nike Rise [larger high-tech] stores. These are different store formats targeting different customer needs and brand experiences.”…