Best Buy, under Hubert Joly’s run as CEO, defied the odds and became one of the great turnaround stories in recent retail history. Ever since he left, it appears that the turnaround seems to be continuing...but the question is: Is it turning the opposite direction? Impacted by factors both within and outside of its control, the big consumer electronics retail chain has most recently reported disappointing results while introducing a number of new initiatives that may or may not be consistent with its core merchandising strategy. At least one …
Experience
Return on Experience, the New Metric
ROI, or return on investment, has been the standard gauge for retailers attempting to quantify how expenditures lead to sales outcomes. Now in an era where customer experience has become the gold standard for building loyalty and lifetime customer value, the term return on experience (ROI or ROX) has entered the lexicon. Indeed, if retailers and brands have learned anything from the pandemic, it’s that brand loyalty has taken a hit, since consumers have become more demanding and less in love with their once favorite brands. So how can …
Hidden Opportunities
Over my career, I’ve worked with a lot of clients that had hidden opportunities to market their products and services, hidden in plain sight. These opportunities come as a surprise to the retail executives I consulted with, and I have noticed that there are still so many ways to deliver meaningful experience to customers that seem elusive to even the most sophisticated and experienced executives. So, I offer some of these observations as food for thought. Anatomy Lessons + Design In 1977 I published my first article on public design in a …
Private Retailing: For Your Wallet Only
One of the more fascinating ideas in retailing that never really caught on involved supermarket checkout lines. Some clever junior executive somewhere decided that instead of rewarding his store’s lowest-spending customers buying 10 items or less with dedicated lanes, why not create a special one just for big spenders who had overflowing carts, 50 or 100 items at least. Alas, while there might be a few such lanes still around, the concept never really gained wide acceptance. More recently new ideas about catering to your best customers seem …
Looking at Unboxing Beauty Videos
While the lion’s share of recent beauty chatter has centered on 30-second viral TikToks, the polar opposite phenomenon – long, elaborate “unboxing” videos – is still shockingly popular on YouTube, perhaps giving hope to the hand wringers who fret over our ever-declining attention spans. One Box at a Time These nutty peeks into a beauty influencer’s rarified world, one in which they literally unbox mountains of fresh loot they’ve received either directly from brands or from PR firms, aren’t new. In fact, one of the most popular, which has …
African Fashion Is the Next Wave
For decades, the continent of Africa has been lurking in the shadows of the fashion industry. From textiles to intricately woven fabrics, mainstream designers across the globe have found inspiration deep within the rich African culture. However, the innovators on the continent have not received the much-needed support they deserve. But what does that mean for retailers globally? Big Shifts in the Motherland Currently, Africa holds the largest group of millennials and GenZers. The United Nations reports that 70 percent of the …
LoveShackFancy’s Real World Brand Advocates
Much like the cottagecore trend that came onto the radar a few years ago, LoveShackFancy is selling more than just a frilly pink dress –– they’re selling a paradigm. They’re hawking a paradigm of a traditional idyllic femininity experience that’s reminiscent of the Victorian era ideal of the “angel of the house” role that women played in England in the 1900s. The clothing is straight from “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” but with much more liberal use of hot pink and ruffles. LoveShackFancy falls into the entry-level luxury category. The …
Hit Show Euphoria Alters Next Gen Fashion Landscape
It doesn’t get any cooler than HBO’s hit show Euphoria. With high school age characters in no-holds-barred scenarios, the series follows the life of a teenage drug addict named Rue, played by Zendaya. The cast features a diverse array of LGBTQ+ characters of various ethnicities, body types, and gender orientation. But beyond that, Euphoria has singlehandedly urged an entire generation to take bigger fashion risks and abandon dated rules about what to wear for their body type. Unlike most teens on TV dramas, Euphoria high schoolers aren’t …
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