Retail Environment UFP 400 Isabelle Simpson
CONTENTS Situation Analysis - Pages 1-4 Market Levels and Theory - Page 5 Primark Case Study - Page 6 Selfridges Case Study - Page 7 Comparison of Market Levels - Pages 8-9 Visual Merchandising Window Designs - Pages 10-12 Technology Discussion - Pages 13-14 App for RESO - Page 15 Recommendations for RESO - Pages 16-18 References - Page 19
Situation analysis RESO is a high street level store, with 90% of their stock being supplied by students both current and alumni. RESO sells a huge range of products, from clothing to art work as well as accessories. Clothing is there most expensive item, with some pieces priced at as much as £190. These garments would have come from graduate collections but are generally very difficult to sell. As the pieces are made to a creative brief they aren’t normally ready to wear style garments and require a specific customer to buy them. These garments don’t normally make any profit when they sell, and are just sold to try and cover costs, however some garments never sell and after 5 or 6 years in the shop they would be given to charity if the designer doesn’t want them back. Vintage items are what make the most profit for RESO, as they can be bought for £3 to £5 at vintage kilo sales and sold for up to £35 depending on the quality and brand of the garment. This is a great way to keep money coming into the store, as it is trendy to wear vintage and the vintage garments really fit the RESO style. RESO has a non-transactional website through the Solent University website, where you can look at products and see what is going on in the store. They also have social media channels such as Facebook, twitter and Instagram that are used to promote their products and help to raise awareness about the store. RESO does not use a huge amount of technology as they are an independent shop and do not have a huge budget for a transactional website of their own.
(Twitter, 2019) RESO does not have a huge online presence, they use social media to advertise and raise awareness about the store and events going on at the store, however you can not buy through their website or social media.
(Artifact Lighting Blog, 2017)
Having only been open for 7 years and run by students part time, it does not make sense for RESO to have a transactional website, and students are on a placement so by the time they have set up the website and got used to using they would be leaving. As well as this RESO operates at a loss and using their budget on a website instead of adveritsing or new stock for the store would not be advisable. Using social media in a more effective way would be the best use of RESO’s time as all of the students on placement there would already be familiar with how to use social media, and it would be much easier to pass from person to person.
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(Liverpool One, 2019)
RESO’s main competitor would be Urban Outfitters, as they sell very similar products and have a similar feeling inside the shop. As Urban Outfitters is a chain store and very well known, it is definitely going to be chosen over RESO for many people. The location of RESO also isn’t helping this as UO is in a prime location on the high street and RESO is hidden away upstairs in a shopping centre. UO is quite a dark shop, that uses spotlights to highlight their products and everything is displayed on industrial style shop fittings. This shows off their products as it is quite plain however fits the style of the store well. Throughout the store they have all products out Urban Outiftters having a transactional website already gives and don’t really use sections between the accessories and clothing which is very similar them a competitive advantage, making shopping much easier to RESO. UO does have a larger product range, including clothing, accessories and bags, for customers as well as offering delivery to the whole of the beauty products, tech, gifts and home wear. This also gives them a competitive advantage UK. With RESO being based in Southampton and only selling over RESO, as they will attract customers for the different products and these customers instore, it is very difficult for them to reach out to any other wouldn’t go into RESO. areas of the UK like UO can. Their website is a great place to advertise new products coming into stores as well as showing the promotions that they will be offering through the next few weeks. Urban Outfitters do also sell some designer and well known brands, such as BDG, Champion, iets frans and Fila. Selling these brands will help to bring in a slightly different customer, and may attract new customers for the business. Similarly to RESO, Urban Outfitters also sell vintage clothing in most of their stores and this is a huge selling point for them. Many of their customers are looking for unique and different pieces to wear as well as quirky accessories. Vintage is a great way to introduce this as you wouldn’t normally be able to find more than one vintage piece of the same thing. RESO already sells vintage, however they could expand out into a larger range of vintage including bags and accessories like Urban Outfitters do. (Retail Gazette, 2018)
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Situation analysis Conusmers in RESO are generally ages 24-37 and are not students, however when students have lessons above RESO they will have a look around the shop and sometimes make purchases. Most customers in RESO are women, even though most of their garments are unisex and they don’t sell particularly ‘girly’ products. Many customers come in on their lunch break if they work in town, and will be people who have a good amount of disposable income. Many of their customers are also cruise liner customers, who have stopped in Southampton for the night and are looking for a more unique and interesting shop. These customers are normally 40 or over, and tend to appreciate the store and what they do much more than the younger customers do. Having all of these different customers means that they need to try and cater for all ages with the products they sell. The clothing that is sold in RESO could be for any age range, however some of the t-shirts are made with the younger generations in mind, and some garments are much more suitable for anyone. Their accessories are suitable for any age and would look great on anyone, and their cards and gifts are loved by everyone that comes into store, as everyone can think of someone to give one to. (Twitter, 2019)
(Twitter, 2019) RESO struggle to visual merchandise in a traditional way as they don’t have a shop window, so they have to use the in store space as much as possible to merchandise their products. On the window they do have a decal, this helps to advertise the shop and bring in new customers, however it doesn’t give an insight into what products they sell and they can not use the window to merchandise with mannequins as a normal shop would. Inside the store they have used an industrial style along with the RESO colours of red and yellow. This creates a very interesting feel within the shop, as some areas are quite dark and some areas are much brighter. They use some spotlights to hightlight certain products, and they have used warm lighting throughout the store as the acutal shop is quite cold. To break up the space they have used some screens and rails as dividers, and this works really well to section out the different products. Visual Merchandising inside RESO is mainly done using table cloths underneath displays of products, wall colours behind rails of clothing and adding in props such as fake plants to create a more interesting and fun feel. Navigation through the store is fairly easy, some rails are quite difficult to squeeze between however it is a small space so they want to get as much stock in there as possible. The retail design is very neat and doesn’t feel cluttered or messy at all. Creating separate areas in the store is very difficult, as it is just one large space however they have managed to create three different areas through the store. As you walk in they are selling cards, art work and interesting gifts, then they have all of the clothing in the middle section and at the far end of the shop they have more artwork, accessories and some more gifts near the till. This is a very clever way to structure the store, as you would choose garments first and then on the way to the till you might see an accessory that would match with it and end up buying both.
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Situation analysis Entering RESO as a customer, the store feels cosy and warm because of the yellow tinted lighting they have chosen, and with the only window being at the far end of the store it makes the space feel much bigger. This large window brings in lots of light, however it does create a slightly darker space in the center of the store. As a customer this draws you in to the far end of the store, which is where the accessories and gifts are, some of the best sellers. From the outside RESO is very difficult to find, as it is located upstairs in a shopping centre, but is slightly tucked around the corner of the escalators. Inside the store it feels very different to a traditional shop, and this feel is created by the instore design, as you can see absolutely everything inside the shop. The managers office at the far end of the store has glass doors, meaning that anyone can look into there and see what she is doing, as well as this the staircase to go upstairs into the classroom is completely exposed. These factors give the store more of a warehouse feel compared to a regular high street store like H&M or Topshop. This really fits the style of RESO and makes the store much more unique than if everything was hidden and it looked perfect. Inside RESO the materials mainly used are wood, metal and white walls with little bits of red and grey. This creates a really interesting look as it makes all of their products stand out and jump out to customers. RESO is open 6 days a week, 10am to 5pm Tuesday to Friday, 9am to 5:30pm on a Saturday and 11am to 5pm on a Sunday. These hours show that Saturdays are generally their busiest days, many people are off work and most cruise liner holidays would stop here over a weekend. In RESO they do not operate a regular supply chain because of the nature of the garments, and they will just be sent over once they’ve been finished and marked at the university. This effects the stock they have got, as the manager will never really know what will be coming in at what time, so sometimes the shop could be really empty and struggling for stock, and sometimes have too much to put out. As well as this they have to negotiate the prices for every product with the designers and suppliers to ensure that everyone is happy and getting a fair price for their products. Any products that haven’t sold for a few years will have to be moved on to either a charity shop or go back to the supplier so that room can be made for the new products that are coming in. The busiest time of year for stock will be around July/August once all of the graduate collections have been marked and can be given back to students, so this is normally when they would ask RESO if they could be sold.
(Visit Southampton, 2019)
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(Authors own, 2019)
Introduction to market level theory The fashion market is segmented into sub groups or segments so that companies are better able to analyse fashion market data and monitor business results more effectively. The fashion market is traditionally segmented into six sub categories: Haute couture, Luxury fashion, Bridge brands, Diffusion lines, High street brands and Value retaillers. Haute Couture is the highest market level, and is recognised across the world as being the highest category in luxury fashion. Pieces made by Haute couture fashion houses can sell for more than £100,000 and will be created bespoke for a client, and a mannequin will even be created in their body shape to ensure the perfect fit. Some recognised Haute couture fashion houses are Chanel, Dior, Jean Paul, Valentino and Giorgio Armani. To become a recognised Haute couture fashion house you must have a full time workshop in Paris and employ at least 20 staff. Luxury fashion is the next market level, with 2 collections a year created, showing in September and February. Luxury fashion brands are some such as Gucci, Balenciaga, Louis Vuitton, Saint Laurent and Stella McCartney. The products that they sell are normally handmade, and exclusive. Many luxury brands don’t really sell online as they can’t give the same experience to customers as they can instore. Bridge brands are another market level, and these brands originated in the 70s when the gap in the market was identified. They sell high quality garments without the price of a luxury designer brand. These brands are some such as Cos, Whistles, Reiss, All Saints and Ted Baker. Diffusion lines are the next band in the market level pyramid, these are lines that luxury brands have created to try and cater for customers who don’t have enough money to buy luxury designer but still want to buy from the brand. These brands are more readily available to normal people and are brands such as DKNY, SEE by Chloe and Versus by Versace. High street brands are brands that produce for the masses, clothing that is readily available for everyone who wants to buy it. People will normally buy from high street if they are on a budget but want to stay on trend. These are brands such as Topshop, River Island, Next and Zara. Value market are the brands at the bottom of the pyramid, these are high volume brands that stack high and sell cheap, they try to follow the trends of the high street shops to stay relevant. These are brands such as Primark, George at Asda, Matalan and Peacocks.
Haute Couture Luxury Fashion Bubble Up Theory
Bridge Brands
Trickle Down Theory
Diffusion Lines High Street Value Brands
There are two main market level theories that are used to analyse trends and how they move throughout these market levels. The first one is the ‘Trickle down theory’ this was developed in 1899 by Thorstein Veblen. Traditionally fashion trends trickled down from the higher classes who were considered the ‘trend setters’ as they had the most money and could afford the nicest clothing. So ‘trickle down’ is when a trend starts in the Haute couture and luxury end of fashion and slowly makes its way down into the high street and value brands. An example of this is the Balenciaga chunky trainers that are now everywhere in high street shops. The second theory is the ‘Bubble up theory’ and this was developed after the first theory and designers could see it going the other way. Some styles and trends have started in the value brands and lower classes of people, but then started to make their way upwards into the higher end of the market level pyramid. One example of this is streetwear, this started in the value brands and lower classes but has now been adopted by many luxury brands, creating tracksuits and hoodies as part of their ready to wear collections.
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Primark Case Study
(Authors own photos, 2019)
Primark is a store that comes under the value market, the lowest band of market levels. The products that stores in this band sell are usually very cheap, and of low quality. Primark Birmingham is the largest Primark store in the world, and the store has a completely different feel to a regular Primark store. After taking over a small shopping centre, the store has many different sections such as a beauty salon, hairdressers, barber, custom t-shirt lab, a restaurant, café and a Disney café. Primark Birmingham is the first one of its kind, and offers customers a complete experience throughout the store. The different areas in the store can make navigation difficult, as womenswear is split over two floors it can be confusing to work out where some garments will be. Menswear is on the bottom floor (-2), and children’s wear is at the top on the second floor, while home wear and accessories share the 1st floor with the rest of womenswear. Throughout the store, the garments are well organised into types of garments, and hung on rails or displayed on a free standing shelving unit. Many Primark stores are known for being messy and unorganised, however this store was very well thought out and a pleasant shopping experience. Garments were mainly in their own section, and all displayed properly in sizing order. In each section of garments they have 3 or 4 mannequins set up to show the latest trends and how you could style the garments on show. These mannequins are dressed by the visual merchandisers and they are re-dressed every day. Doing this keeps the products moving and if something isn’t selling well, putting it onto a mannequin may help to boost sales. Technology is used widely throughout the store, they have a t-shirt printing lab on the first floor where customers can choose from a range of designs and customise them creating a custom t-shirt. As well as this the store has a section in the fitting rooms called ‘Show and Share’ which is a large fitting room made for you and your friends to go in together, inside the changing room you can connect your phone through Bluetooth to play music, change the lighting settings and try on the clothes that you have found instore. The only downside to this is that you get a maximum of 20 minutes in the fitting room and if there is 3 or 4 people in there you may struggle to try everything on in time. Primark Birmingham is open Monday to Saturday 8am to 10pm and 10am to 5pm on Sundays, this is a huge achievement for Primark to be able to have their store open for so long each day, however as this store is the largest store in the world you would expect this. Inside the store they have two sets of checkouts on each floor to try and stop customers queueing for a long time, as well as trying to ease congestion throughout the store. They also have a large set of fitting rooms on each floor to try and keep queues down, and this works really well.
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Selfridges case study
Selfridges is a premium market level store selling different designers and brands. Selfridges have 4 stores in the UK, Birmingham, London and two in Manchester. This makes their company much more exclusive. Selfridges Birmingham offers lots of different services such as alterations, engraving, lingerie fitting, massages, personal shopping and styling services. On top of this they have a hairdressers, beauty concierge, restaurant and food hall. The store is split up into each separate brand or designer and they each have a concession style section. Each brand is visual merchandised to suit their products and style so no area of the store looks the same. Selfridges Birmingham is a huge floor, with products and services split over four floors. The ground floor being the food court, technology, luggage and kids. First floor is men’s, second floor is women’s beauty, fragrance, accessories and high street to premium brands. The third floor is the designer floor with brands such as Gucci, Dior and Tiffany’s having a ‘shop like’ area. The third floor also houses the personal shopping studios and restaurant. Navigation around the store is fairly easy, each escalator has a board showing which floor contains which products and this is very helpful.
Each concession throughout the store merchandises their products differently, however they all work in unison with each other and try to use the same style of merchandising. Inside the separate brands they have their own sales assistants who know about the specific products and can help customers with their purchases. Inside the beauty hall, each brand has a separate makeup counter with sales assistants who specialise in that brand. They offer foundation matching services, full makeovers or product demonstrations. Technology is widely used throughout the store with most of the sales assistants having tablets to help customers find products much more quickly, and be able to give information about products too. As well as this lots of the makeup counters use technology to help with foundation matching and mixing up new products. The beauty brand Lancome have a small device that reads the colour of your skin and creates a foundation to match your skin colour perfectly. Some other makeup brands have devices like this too that will colour match you to one of the foundation shades that they already sell. Inside the store it feels quite cold and very open, many of the lights that they use are bright white and this again makes the store feel colder. As the spaces that each brand owns are quite open they don’t have a wall or divide between anything so the store flows all the way through. This helps customers to see all of the brands, as they walk along the ‘path’ it takes them through each brand and it is all very easy to see. (Authors own photos, 2019)
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Comparison of market levels
PRIMARK AND SELFRIDGES
(Authors own photos, 2019)
Through researching both stores, it is clear that the market level of the store makes a huge difference to how the store is run as well as how the store looks. Primark is a value market store, and they are stacked high, sold cheap. This definitely reflects on the layout and messiness of the store, inside Primark it sometimes feels very messy or untidy, as there is so much stock out on the shop floor all the time, this can get very chaotic with customers putting garments back in the wrong place or even on the wrong floor. This is very different to how the garments and products are organised at Selfridges, as it is a luxury market level store the garments are normally only put out on display in one of each size, then if a customer wants to purchase one they will ask a sales assistant who would go and find their size in the stock room already packaged nicely. This keeps the shop floor looking perfect as no garments are ever taken away from the rails and tables. In Primark this way of working would make it very difficult to keep track of stock, and it is why they do not have a ‘check stock in store’ feature as it would just be impossible to try and count up each garment, or find them if a customer asked for a specific size in a garment. In Selfridges, they use their stockrooms and keep most of their garments off Both Primark and Selfridges use the shop floor so they do have a feature on their website to check stock in stores, which their mannequins in the same is very helpful. way, throughout the store they show off different sections and trends using a cluster of mannequins as seen in the pictures above. Both stores have used blocks and put the mannequins at different heights to create a more interesting feature than just having them all stood at the same height. Mannequins are a great way to visual merchandise in store as it creates a focal point, and stores will generally put a rail with the garments shown on the mannequins very close to them so customers can recreate the look very easily. The difference in how the mannequins are used between the two stores is that Selfridges tends to use them for each brand, and they will put the most popular brands on the mannequins that are seen the most, however in Primark the mannequins are used to show the trends for each section of the shop. This can’t really be changed as Primark does not sell different brands like Selfridges does, however the two methods work well for each store. In Primark they do not do as much visual merchandising as Selfridges does, this is because Primark know that their products will sell well no matter what they do to visual merchandise throughout the store. However because Selfridges sells much more expensive products they know that the presentatin of the garments is much more important, as well as the sales assistants being much more attentative. In Primark the sales assistants are just there to re-stock the products, where as in Selfridges they are there to help sell the products to the customers and provide the service that luxury fashion customers will expect. This will be true of all luxury brands compared to value brands, as value brands do not give the same sort of service. (Authors own photo, 2019)
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(Authors own photos, 2019) Another difference between the two market levels and stores is that Selfridges and the luxury market level always tend to have a lot of security, with guards walking around the shop and security tags on all of their products. This is to keep theft down and monitor customer behaviour in store, as their products are much more expensive they need to ensure that nothing gets stolen, and everything is monitored. However in Primark and most value market level stores they do not have security tags on any of their products, and they only have security guards on the doors to monitor customers there. In Primark the most expensive item is £40 (Primark.co.uk, 2019) whereas in Selfridges the most expensive item is £2,335 (Selfridges.co.uk, 2019). This shows why the security in luxury market level stores is much stronger. The photo to the right of this text is a coach handbag from Selfridges that costs £500, and the bag next to it is from Primark costing £10.
(Authors own photos, 2019)
Comparison of market levels
PRIMARK AND SELFRIDGES These two photos also show the difference in merchandising, the Selfridges bag is places nicely on a table and displayed amongst the other Coach handbags. However the Primark bag is hung up on a peg along with many others of the same bag. The Primark bag also has a price tag attatched and the Selfridges one does not, it only has a barcode to scan. This means that you will have to ask a shop assistant for the price, therefor giving them a chance to sell it to you. Both stores have an area for beauty, skincare and makeup inside the store, however similar to everything else the Selfridges beauty section is split up into brands. Selfridges sells beauty brands such as Tom Ford, Charlotte Tilbury, Dior, Urban Decay and Mac. Primark have mostly their own skincase and beauty, with a couple of makeup brands such as flower beauty and colaborations with influencers and celebrities. In the Selfridges beauty hall you can go to the counters and get a makeover, skin consultations, foundation matching services and even facials. At each counter they will have a sales assistant from the brand who has specific knowledge of the products and how to use them. These sales assistants will also take your payment and teach you how to use products that you have purchased. In Primark the beauty and makeup section is much more of a self-service area, as they do not have any sales assistants near the makeup section and do not offer any of the makeup services that Selfridges do. However Primark does have a beauty salon, in here you can get waxing, threading, tinting, makeup, nails and lashes. This is a huge improvement to a regular Primark store as it completely transforms the way that people think of Primark and brings it up to a higher level, creating a whole experience in store instead of just a shop.
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RESO Window design 1
This window design uses the large marquee letters that RESO has all over the inside of the store, they are a great visual merchandising device as they light up, and are a huge bold focal point in the window. These are hanging to create a different feel so that everything isn’t just on the floor in the window. Hanging the letters at different heights means that it will take someone a few seconds to read what it says, hopefully causing them to stop and look at the window properly before deciding to go into RESO and see what they are selling. The mannequins have been placed facing towards eachother on the right hand side of the window, and then one facing inwards on the left handside. This will make a nice feature if there are any graduate collections with three full outfits as they could all be shown together, or if three outfits were chosen that complimented eachother well. The background for the window has come from primary research and playing around with different materials to create texture and interesting patterns, this one was chosen as it is a bold pattern but isn’t too bright so the garments put infront of it will still pop and be the main feature of the window.
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RESO Window design 2
This window design features a very simple style, with the two womens mannequins and a mens one in between. These would be used to showcase the different garments that RESO sells and to show customers that they do sell both mens and womens clothing. They have been aranged like this to create a focal point in the center of the window, and draw a customers eye to the garments. Ladder shelved have been used either side of the mannequins to showcase the accessories that could be paired with the three outfits, as well as to show off the range of products that RESO sells. The whole window is symmetrical, creating a very pleasing look for customers, and as the props are quite simple it means that the garments and accessories can be the real interest in the window. The background has been created from scrunched up tin foil, after playing around with different fabrics and materials to create texture and interesting shapes, this was one that looked really interesting. Adding a red layer over the top of it brings in the red RESO colour and reminds the customer who’s window they’re looking at.
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RESO window designs
Primary Research (Authors own photos, 2019)
Window design 1 In design 1, the focal point would be the RESO letters hanging down from the ceiling. These were chosen because of the marquee letters that are currently being used in the shop at RESO. The mannequins were chosen so that the garments they sell can be displayed in the window, and shown off to customers who are walking past. Through primary research the background was created after playing around with different materials and creating texture. The picture used was scrunched up tin foil, left silver to create an interesting background otherwise the window design would have been very simple. The inspiration for this window came from the marquee letters in RESO and thinking that they would be very interesting and eye catching in a shop window. After playing around with ideas in photoshop the design was finalised. Window design 2 In design 2, the focal point would be the three mannequins in the centre of the window, the window design also uses symmetry with the two womens mannequins facing opposite ways and the ladder shelves on each end. The background was again created through primary research of playing around with different materials to create texture and interest, however with this one a red overlay was added to help bring in the RESO colours and make the design different from the first one. The inspiration for this window came from the industrial style inside of RESO, so using the ladder shelves is insipred by this. The mannequins in the middle will draw These two windows have been created for the new location of RESO in the SJM building near the Guildhall, and have been created with the eye into the window and show off the garments. trying to catch customers eyes in mind. These two designs are both very eye catching and both have a strong focal point to make potential customers stop and look at what is being advertised. As the new location is in a busy area the footfall should be a lot more than what it is now, and having anything in the window will be better that what RESO currently have. Both designs would be very suitable for this space, however they have been designed with a more autumn or winter time of year in mind. By re-merchandising the mannequins this window could be updated for any time of year, and changed throughout the seasons to stay up to date with latest trends. Having three mannequins in each design gives a huge amount of flexibility for what can be put in the window, as they can wear garments, accessories and bags depending on how they are styled. This gives the opportunity to show off all of the products that they sell in the window, and in the second design shelves have been included too so that some of the artwork and gifts can be displayed. New location for RESO (Authors own photo, 2019)
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How is technology being used in retail (Pittsburgh retail, 2019)
Vogye Technology is a huge part of the up and coming retail environment that shops are beginnings to implement. Using technology in retail is going to create a seamless omni-channel experience between store and website. Creating an enhanced instore experience is something that technology is being used for already and this is only going to expand and get more popular throughout retail. Artificial reality and robotics is coming into retail and becoming popular as well as artificial intelligence. Stores already using this technology are Burberry, using ‘Big Data’ and Artificial Intelligence to improve customer satisfaction and boost sales. Sales assistants are given a tablet and through this they can access customer data that has been shared through a voluntary loyalty programme. Knowing data about the customers can help sales assistants to give a personalised shopping experience and suggest garments and accessories they think the customer would be interested in. The data shown on the tablet will be the customers purchase history as well as their social media activity, showing what sort of clothing they’ve been looking at or buying recently. As well as this they use RFID tags in that can communicate with customers mobiles, giving product information and how they can be worn or used. Using this technology creates a seamless experience between online and instore shopping. H&M are a high street store using an app to enhance customer experience, using QR codes and visual searches to find products in store. The app is transactional and also has a loyalty card on it, where you build up points when you spend instore and earn rewards. The feature of the app that is most relevant is the ‘In store mode’, and this is where you can scan the barcodes of products in the store and do visual searches too. First select instore mode, then choose the store you are interested in and the app will show you which products are in stock in the store and the sizes available. Another feature is the visual search, this is where you can take a photo of a garment and the app will search for their most similar product. Gucci have also got a similar app, with visual searches and a transactional section, however they also have sections on the app where customers can virtually try on trainers, sunglasses and lipsticks. Using this feature shows the customers how products will look before they buy, and makes online shopping easier as they do not need to visit a store.
(Screenshot Gucci App, 2019)
(Screenshots H&M App, 2019)
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Social media and the fashion customer
(Screenshots from @Jessica_RoseTaylor, 2019)
Social media is a huge part of the fashion industry, and is becoming more and more involved with influencing customers to buy. Instagram is one of the largest fashion platorms, with influencers on Instagram being paid by brands to post wearing their clothes, and promote different pieces and accessories. This way of marketing is fairly new, but is growing at a rapid rate, with influencers gaining followers each day and getting paid more and more by brands. A very popular trend at the moment is creating a clothing collection with a brand, such as Dani Dyer X In the style, Molly Mae X PLT and Sophia and Cinzia X In the style. These collections have been created by an influencer and a brand, and are a raelly great way to sell the products as many of the collections will sell out almost straight away. In the style is an ‘influencer run’ brand and do a lot of their marketing on Instagram, getting influencers and celebrities to do paid promotion, this is where a brand will send the person products to show on their Instagram or Youtube channel and pay them to get their audience to buy. Many brands will also give out discount codes to influencers to get their audience 20% or 30% off the website. As well as paid promotion many people are affiliated to a brand, meaning when you buy through their swipe up links, or use their discount codes they will earn a small commision from the brand . These are the most common ways that brands use influencers to market the products on Instagram, however Youtube is a growing platform for fashion too. Many Youtubers will do sponsored hauls, where they have chosen some products from the brands website and been sent them over to review and talk about.
Fashion customers and people who are interested in fashion would generally follow influencers and fashion inspiration on Instagram and Youtube. This is one of the best ways to keep up with trends, as well as looking at the Vogue runway shows and latest catwalks. Keeping ‘in the loop’ with fashion is very important as it is such a fast moving industry, and in some cases trends and styles could change daily, we just need to stay up to date with what is happening. Fashion customers could also be people who do not have access to social media, and for them keeping up to date would be much more difficult. Needing to go to the shops to see what the new trends are or to buy clothing, as well as this not finding out about discounts so they may not get the best deal on what they are buying. These customers are normally aged 40+ and are not interested in following influencers as they are all a lot younger than them and may feel that they do not want to wear the same styles of clothing as 20 year olds. (Screenshot from @RubyHolley_, 2019)
Screenshots from @Jessica_RoseTaylor’s Instagram stories show her using ‘Aff ’ to tell her followers that they are using an affiliate code, therefor earning her some money. She is showing her favourite pieces from Topshop to her followers as they have a 20% off code, to try and entice them to buy. Topshop will send her some items to try on and show to her followers, talking about the quality, fit and price. This is important as many customers will trust a product more once someone else has reviewed it, or told them that its worth the price.
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(Screenshot Gucci App, 2019)
IDEAS
RESO App
App features that could be used for RESO could be features such as a section to shop their products, scan barcodes and see more information about the designer or student who has made that product. They could also have a section that would do a visual search, so if you had a product that you wanted to find, you could do a visual search and see if RESO sells it. As well as this there could be a loyalty or points system, that collects points every time you shop in RESO, hopefully improving customer retention, and you could spend the points you earn in RESO. Another section could be a ‘try on’ section where you can try on accessories and garments through the app, similar to the Gucci app. A fit assistant would also be very useful on the app, so that you can add your sizes, height and weight and the app will generate the size you should be wearing in each garment. For the RESO app, the final layout has been chosen as a banner at the top with ‘SHOP’ and then underneath all of the categories that RESO currently sell. Customers will be able to click on any of these categories to show all of the products that RESO sells, they will also be able to make purchases through the app and this will hopefully make a huge difference to RESO’s sales. Inside the shop there will be a wishlist section, where customers can save products using a small heart icon, and these items will be added to their wishlist. This is really helpful as some items in RESO are quite expensive and if a customer wants to think about buying it before they do, then it will be saved here. Another feature that will be added to the ‘SHOP’ section will be a fit assistant, this will ask customers for their height, weight, normal sizes and body type. Once the app has this information it will be able to suggest sizes for any of the garments that they sell. As most of the garments in RESO are made by hand, some of the sizing might be slightly different to regular sizing and this feature will be very useful. Other features on the app will be a section called ‘About us’ where customers can learn all about RESO, and there will be pictures of the staff as well to create a more friendly feel. Underneath this there is a section about the students, this will contain information about all of the students who work or sell their products in RESO, to make the products feel much more personal. The next section is ‘Find us’, as the new RESO location is inside a university building some customers may not be able to find it, or may think that they are at the wrong location. This will also contain a phone number and email address incase anyone wants to contact the staff. The last section on the app is for students or members of the public to contact the manager of RESO if they are interested in selling their products in RESO. Managing the requests this way means that they will all go to the same place and would be much easier to organise and sort out. This also makes it easier for people to request their products to be sold, as at the moment it is unclear how to do this. (Authors own, 2019)
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Recommendations for RESO Retail design and VM (Shopify, 2019)
The new location of RESO is a slightly smaller space than the store that it is currently in, and for this a more minimal and sophisticated retail design would work much better. Using only black and white throughout the store would look very effective, and it would really help to bring out the colours of some of the garments and products. Using rails against the walls would also help to open up the space in the store, and make it feel much bigger. At the moment in RESO it feels quite cramped and is difficult to walk through from one end to the other, however in the new RESO adding rails against the walls and then using the middle floor space for a few tables to display the smaller products would work much better. Using a small colour palette for the retail design would work well, as the retail design can then just blend into the background and let the garments and products be the focal points around the store. Keeping all of the walls white or a pale grey would make a huge difference too, and this will also make the space feel bigger as dark colours tend to make rooms feel smaller.
Visual merchandising for the new RESO store could be done in two different ways, VM for the inside of the store as Also having a wooden flooring in the store would help with space and ease of moving things around. Using a pale floor would blend well as VM in the windows. in with the walls and again make the space feel larger, leaving lots of room for customers to walk around the space and see everything. Visual merchandising inside the store could be done in a really fun way, with the retail design being so minimal and simple, the mannequins could be dressed up with lots of colour and interesting props to create a real focal point within the store. RESO sells a lot of colourful and fun products so this theme needs to be kept within the store, and this would be a really great way to do it. For the window visual merchandising RESO needs to show off their best products, and make the windows look fun and interesting. Making the windows eye catching is the most important thing as they want to attract customers and bring people into the store. As RESO doesn’t currently have a shop window this will be new to some of the staff and for the first couple of windows they may just want to play around and see what works. To monitor how much these changes effect RESO, they could measure the footfall and sales before they implement all of the new changes and then look at the difference between this and the footfall and sales afterwards. Hopefully both of these figures will go up and continue to increase once these changes have been made, and RESO is settled in the new location. (Reliant Solutions, 2019)
(^Pinterest, 2019)
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Recommendations for RESO Online presence The next steps for RESO’s online presence would be a transactional website, and creating a website that is separate from the University website. This would make the website much easier to find for many customers, and also much easier for the RESO staff to manage. Creating a transactional website would definitely help to boost sales, as customers from anywhere in the world could make purchases and order online to deliver to them. RESO could also add a section onto the website much like ‘Asos Marketplace’ where they sell all of the vintage clothing that they have. As this is the part of the store that makes the highest profits it would be important for this to be online too. This website would have a cost to run, and it would need to be tested out to see if it is actually worthwhile running. They would have to see how many online transactions there were in a period of time, and minus the costs for creating the website to ensure that it is worth putting extra funding into. This website could be linked to their social media channels too so that if someone found their Instagram, they could easily click onto the website link and start online shopping, this gives is the seamless omni channel shopping experience that customers are looking for.
RESO has a very good use of social media, they use Instagram, Facebook and Twitter to show off their products and latest launches. They generally use facebook to promote events, as you can set them up properly and invite guests. This way the staff can see roughly how many people are interested in coming to the event and how big it is going to be. Using Instagram to promote products is a great way to get customers to see them, and getting others to share the products that they like. Once the new website has been launched, RESO could gift some products to influencers who are based in Southampton such as Olivia Rose Smith, and get them to show their following. They could use swipe up links and show the garments and accessories in their outfit posts to help raise some awareness for RESO. Creating a social media area in RESO with some hashtag signs and fun photo opportunities would really help to get customers posting about RESO. If customers post to their following then more and more people would begin to see and this would raise the profile of RESO massively. Customer interaction is a huge part of social media marketing too so if RESO were commenting on their customers posts, and re-posting onto their own Instagram this would hopefully improve customer retention. Measuring the success of this would be hard, appart from looking at the followers on the Instagram and Facebook pages. (Screenshots from RESO’s Instagram, 2019)
(Screenshot from RESO website, 2019)
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Recommendations for RESO Customer experience
(Pinterest, 2019)
Walking into RESO as a customer, the store is quite cold and darker in the center of the store. This is due to only having one large window at the end of the store, and having spotlights on most of the products. Once RESO moves into the new store space, they will have huge windows along one side of the shop so this will definitely help the space to feel much brighter. Throughout the store, using warm toned lights will definitely help to make the space feel warmer, and painting the walls a warm white will only add to this. Inside the current RESO store the rails and product displays are all very close together, making moving around the store very difficult especially when the store is busy. The new RESO store is slightly smaller than the current one, so this could become an issue, however if they use rails along the walls and try to keep the middle area of the store clear then this would help to reduce congestion at busy times. Adding some seating into RESO would be helpful, for customers who can not stand for a long time, or someone who would like to sit down. Adding seating would also mean that they could also expand their product range into shoes, giving customers somewhere to try them on. This would be a really great addition to the new store design. In the current RESO store there is only one fitting room at the back of the store, it is a fairly good size with a nice full length mirror and a small chair, however at busy times in the store they would need more than one fitting room. With hopes to improve footfall and sales at the new RESO store, adding another fitting room would be a really good idea, it would cut down queues of customers waiting to try on garments and hopefully encourage customers to buy. Walking into RESO, you do not normally see any of the staff until you have got past halfway through the store, as both the current and new RESO locations are a long corridor-like room, it should be considered that customers are met by staff, and asked if they would like help or need any assistance in store. If sales increase after the move to the new store this would become more possible as RESO could employ a couple more staff members. Having two more staff members would mean that they could all be spread more evenly throughout the store, and be able to engage more with customers.
(Whistles personal shopping, 2019)
Many of the garments in RESO are unique and have a very specific look, making many people think that they can’t wear it, or that it won’t suit them. A personal shopping service inside RESO could be a huge help with this, if a customer is looking at a garment, they could have styling help to be able to wear it on an every day basis. Similarly to this, some customers will come in looking for one off pieces for special occasions, and having someone who works in the store to help choose pieces for you to try on would be very helpful.
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REFERENCES Fitting room photo 2018a. [viewed 2nd December 2019]. Available from: https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/503066220847293661/?lp=true Inside of Urban outfitters photo 2019a. [viewed 2nd December 2019]. Available from: https://www.liverpool-one.com/shops/urban-outfitters/ Inside view of RESO 2017. [viewed 1st December 2019]. Available from: http://blog.artifact-lighting.com/lighting-projects/reso/ Minimal retail design 2018b. [viewed 1st December 2019]. Available from: https://www.reliantsolutions.com/?s=retail+design Minimal shop interior 2018c. [viewed 2nd December 2019]. Available from: https://www.pinterest.pt/pin/543950461221450197/ Outside of Urban Outfitters photo 2018d. [viewed 2nd December 2019]. Available from: https://www.retailgazette.co.uk/blog/2018/11/urban-outfitters-returns-profit-uk-sales-grow/ Photo inside RESO 2018e. [viewed 1st December 2019]. Available from: https://visitsouthampton.co.uk/business-directory/reso RESO doors photo 2019b. [viewed 2nd December 2019]. Available from: https://twitter.com/resosouthampton RESO website 2019c. [viewed 1st December 2019]. Available from: https://www.solent.ac.uk/enterprises/reso Selfridges UK 2019d. [viewed 1st December 2019]. Available from: https://www.selfridges.com/GB/en/ Technology in retail photo 2019e. [viewed 2nd December 2019]. Available from: https://pghretail.com/2012/12/25/retails-interactive-experience-future/ Urban Outfitters UK 2019f. [viewed 1st December 2019]. Available from: https://www.urbanoutfitters.com/en-gb/ Visual Merchandising example 2018f. [viewed 1st December 2019]. Available from: https://www.shopify.co.uk/retail/10-experts-offer-theirtips-to-amp-up-your-visual-merchandising Whistles personal shopping photo 2019g. [viewed 1st December 2019]. Available from: https://www.whistles.com/inspiration/news/whistles-personal-shopping.html
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