Latest expert speaker call with Miya Knights and hosted by RBC contained interesting thoughts on how Amazon’s strategy has progressed and on current trends in Retail. Miya is a proven domain expert and leader, with extensive industry knowledge and networks built over 25 years’ experience as a journalist, editor, publisher, analyst, research director, head of … More Amazon and the Retail outlook x Miya Knights
My collaboration with Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) started a few years ago and this is an interesting interview about trends in retail. Ethan Chernofsky is the VP of Marketing at Placer.ai and is giving fresh insights around consumer behavior, omnichannel, retail formats or loyalty. Placer.ai collects geolocation and proximity data from devices that are … More Retail Trends, by Placer.ai
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 … More Physical Stores are back: key elements for success
Pau Almar is an expert in fashion and apparel retailing that has held several senior management positions in Mango and Zara menswear for the last 10 years in commercial areas optimizing decision-taking, stock efficiency and in-store operations. Additionally, Pau is the editor of Very Good Retail a LinkedIn weekly newsletter about retail and the author … More A guide for potential double digit long-term growth in a mature environment
Last March, Paco Underhill was guest speaker during the Retail and Luxury Outlook organized by RBC Capital Markets. By the way, I will be speaking to RBC on the same topic in a few days. Paco Underhill is an environmental psychologist, consumer expert and best-selling author (ie Why we Buy; Call of the Mall), and … More Retail and Luxury Outlook by Paco Underhill
RBC hosted a very interesting and insightful call last week with Retail Expert Miya Knights, to discuss Amazon and the growth of omnichannel retailing. Miya is co-author of the books “Amazon: How the World’s Most Relentless Retailer will Continue to Revolutionize Commerce” and “Omnichannel Retail: How to Build Winning Stores in a Digital World.” RBC: … More “Amazon and the growth of omnichannel retailing” with RBC x Miya Knights
Covid-19 restrictions are being eased while vaccination rates are rising (e.g. 76.8% of the population in Spain is fully vaccinated). Stores are re-opening and shoppers are returning to brick-and-mortar stores (also to restaurants, bars and discos). Retail sales are expected to grow between 10.5% and 13.5% to an estimated total of $4.44 trillion to $4.56 … More In-Store Transformation
According to RBC Capital Markets Insights, European General Retail Apparel space reductions easing. We perceive early signs of space reductions in the sector easing off, as rentals reduce and stores remain an integral part of retailers’ omnichannel offers. RBC thinks this could be helpful for valuation multiples in the sector. Retailers continue to improve the … More Inditex Retail Space Turnaround: adapting to omnichannel
Last week, I listened to an interesting podcast from Business of Fashion: 10 Retail Archetypes of the Future featuring Dough Stephens. Stephens is a Canadian futurist, keynote speaker, author and business advisor on the future of retailing and consumerism. He also founded Retail Prophet. These are some compelling insights from the podcast: SHORT VERSUS LONG TERM Last year, during the … More Retailtainment and Enterprise Ecosystems
As described in Fashion Goes Tech, my latest book, retail hasn’t changed much in the last century but, over the last 20 years, digitization has drastically transformed the way companies do business and how customers shop. Retail was already facing the digital challenge when Covid-19 unexpectedly forced a shortening of the “adaption deadline” (Fashion Goes … More How to deal with Planning Volatility in Fashion: New Marketing Merchandise Calendar
I’m thrilled to announce the publication of my second book: Fashion Goes Tech: How Technology is empowering retail businesses 2020 was a difficult year for many of us. We all lived different situations and realities, During 2020, in the middle of the lockdown in Spain, I became a father for the second time, making it … More My New Book! FASHION GOES TECH
I recently wrote a post published in Fibre2Fashion with the following title “2021: Fashion Retail Diagnosis and Action Plan“. This is a brief overview of it: 2020 is probably the worst year ever for many people: Covid-19, social movements, terrorism, populism, hurricanes, wildfires… You may have lost a close friend or a family member, have … More 2021: Fashion Industry Diagnosis and Action Plan
I usually prefer to mention niche players success stories because writing about big players making the right moves is not big surprise. But, when you are an elephant, adapting to changes is not easy neither fast. Even though, a few big apparel companies are dominating the industry showing no weaknesses. In my opinion, two apparel … More Global is boring, retail goes local
While I was writing how technology is impacting the retail business (book to be published in the coming 2-3 months), a young entrepreneur from Danemark contacted me through LinkedIn asking for advice. Morten presented me what Zliide could offer to omnichannel players when it´s time to rethink stores and customer experience. I didn´t hesitate to … More A few words with Morten Mogelmose, co-founder and CEO of Zliide
Dollar Stores, Urban Deserts, Sustainability and Black Lives Matter I’ve been following Dollar Stores (Retail store that sells general merchandise, such as apparel, automotive parts, dry goods, hardware, home furnishings, and a selection of groceries. It usually sells them at discounted prices, sometimes at one or several fixed price points, such as one dollar – Wikipedia) … More Urban Fashion Deserts?
William Bernal is the CEO and founder of VIPO Group, a new company that is changing the way people shop in-store and online. He was born in Colombia and moved to France almost two years ago, where he finished his master studies in image and signal processing. William is an electronic engineer with a great … More A few words with VIPO Group CEO and Founder
Nowadays, we are living the “Retail Apocalypse volume 2” (phenomenon that started around 2010 in USA) and this won’t be the last time experts anticipate the end of retail. Stores will survive as described on Coronavirus and Fashion (v1 and v2). “Stores” will emerge again and again, but will we keep using that word? What … More The Future of Stores (1/2)
A few months ago, TFR commented on how a few companies are redefining the way we shop. I meant the “What” but also the “How” and feel it’s totally aligned to the shift from a product-centric approach to a customer-centric one. In the first case, the “What” is not only brand-new products but second hand … More From product to experience
Looking back to the latest retail news regarding sustainability and Fashion as a Service, and putting together the pieces of the puzzle, we could conclude that New Retail is a result of product-brand experience mixed by the changing patterns of consumption. Fresh could be different from new. Fashion customers are expecting products to be trendy … More Redefining the way we shop and consume
Last March, I described how fashion retail will change its store format strategy. As an example, I explained how grocery retailers where segmenting their store formats (hypermarket, supermarket and neighborhood stores) to respond to different shopping occasions. In grocery, shopping area and assortment are aligned, from a wide and deep assortment in large stores, to … More New Retail: Curated Fashion Boutiques
“The urge to destroy is also a creative urge” as Bakunin said. Consumerism in the liquid era is fast, compulsive and ephemeral. It´s more experiential. I already illustrated this idea using Banksy´s self-destructing painting The Girl With Balloon (October 2018) in The New Fashion Retail Paradigm . Bansky, the anonymous satirical street artist, activist and film director, opened … More The Strategy behind Banky´s Merchandising
L’Occitane en Provence at 555 Fifth Avenue, New York City, is the Retail Design Institute’s 2018 Store of the Year. The Institute was founded in 1961 to be a collaborative community where ideas, knowledge and passion would be shared at a local level and enable its members to fulfill the fast-paced planning and design needs … More 2018 Retail Design Store of the Year
A retail love story: Macy´s embraces ephemeral experiences as part of their value proposition According to Coresight Research, in the US, year-to-date announced closures have exceeded the total recorded for the full year 2018. So far this year, US retailers have announced 5,994 store closures and 2,641 store openings. This compares to 5,864 closures and 3,239 openings for the full year 2018. Even … More Macy´s to launch new Story concept stores across the US
The future of Fashion Retail – New concept stores: finding inspiration in the Grocery industry In my previous job as strategy and operations consultant, I have been involved in many projects concerning grocery retailers in South America and Europe. It was great to see how this industry, with such low margins and high traffic, is optimizing … More The future of fashion store formats
The role of the store is evolving and going beyond sales transactions (See a list of stores with the best customer experience in New York). Physical stores can have different roles like flagship, brandship, showroom, fulfillment center, pop-up store. In fact, the biggest store is in our pocket and it´s a cell phone. Reinventing retail … More Nordstrom reinvents retail stores
United colors of Benetton renews its store concept with a new flasghip store in Padua, Italy. With a completely revamped hi-tech and informal concept that goes beyond the traditional concept of a store to become an urban and contemporary showroom. During a design thinking workshop for a leading fashion retailer, we came up with the idea of including a … More Benetton revamps its store format and customer experience
H&M announced in March 2018, during its quarterly results, a huge problem: $4.3 Billion in unsold clothes. There are many causes of unsold inventory like a wrong collection/product, bad forecasting, wrong allocations, decrease in traffic, wrong prices… But, the trend has changed and the Swedish fashion retailer announced a 9% sales increase (VAT included), 32% … More H&M embraces Fashtech
Best customer experience in retail Customer Experience matters and today more than ever before. But many companies are too big to change, or too slow to adapt. The latest “Retail Apocalypse” news is about SEARS, the iconic American retailer, going bankruptcy. Retailers will shrink their physical footprints while transforming their stores in brandships. Many think … More Innovative Customer Experience in NYC
“The King is dead, long live the King?” Large retailers are celebrating the new american retail market share redistribution but many of them are coming to an end. The traditional proclamation “the King is dead, long live the King” dates back to the XIII-XIV century in Europe and was used as a way to maintain the … More Sears Goes Bankrupt
Bonobos launches a new extended sizing line to include bigger/taller men, continuing their natural customer-centric business approach focused on better-fitting menswear. Founded by Brian Spaly (also founder of Trunk Club) and Andy Dunn, Bonobos is a menswear brand offering the perfect fit pants, a personal guideshop and customer service Ninjas. • Perfect fit: The objective … More Bonobos. Fit for every man
Step by step, Amazon is building its Fashion business with the first “Amazon Fashion” Pop-up Store in Europe. I guess many others will open soon, and maybe, its first retail permanent store too. But, to succeed, Amazon will need to acquire much expertise in the fashion business industry. The Pop-up store opened “5 days, 5 nights” last … More Amazon Fashion Pop-Up Store
While reading the latest Monocle´s report on Global Retail: Let´s talk shops, I decided it was the right time to take a step back and have perspective on the latest news that are impacting the fashion retail industry. This is just a sample of some of the latest topics and news that I feel “key” … More The New Fashion Retail Paradigm
Nike recently opened its first new concept store: Nike by Melrose, in Melrose Avenue (LA). The retail approach is brand new and takes into account the latest trends in fashion such are customization, localized assortment and omnichannel. In this store, product (footwear and apparel) mix is unique and exclusive, different from other Nike stores, and … More Nike´s new retail approach: curated stores
The Bird’s Cage Strategy is over. Millennials are running away from Department Stores. A day in the life of a Millennial visiting a Department Store Last week, I had (and say HAD/must) to visit a department store in Barcelona because I needed to change a Christmas gift. Department store’s business model is explained in many … More Why is there a lack of excitement when Millennials visit Department Stores?
Last October, I spent a few days in NYC exploring the retail environment: Mostly new concept stores. I did a very interesting retail safari while visiting Warby Parker, Bonobos, Kith, Supreme, Lululemon lab, Amazon books, Rent the runway, Eataly, Dover St Market, The Row, All birds, Opening Ceremony and so on. A customer Journey in … More The Customer Journey of a Millennial
Who says retail is dead? It´s the retail apocalypse for many department stores or fashion retailers in USA that couldn´t manage their different channels and pricing…but Supreme is the example of retail excellence in the Millenials era. An era where niche players have the power as I wrote in the Fashion retail long tail. According … More Niche fashion is the new black for investors
Uniqlo, the fashtech (fashion technology) japanese retailer opens its first store in Barcelona, next Zara and H&M flagship stores. “For all major companies, starting point has to be Barcelona. We want to grow with this city of art”, has secured this Tuesday, founder of Uniqlo Tadashi Yanai (source: Turkey Telegraph). Therefore, the japanese retailer is positioned … More Uniqlo, the fashtech retailer, opens in Barcelona
Everybody is expecting to see pure players going offline with experimental point of sales or pop-up stores. This was the recent case of Everlane going offline. Amazon opening stores inside Kohl´s is a surprise: the biggest long tailer and market place is getting into department stores! This is a great alternative to regular expansion based … More Amazon opens shop-in-shop inside Kohl´s deparment stores
Everlane is a brand built upon an awareness of a new kind of consumer. The kind of person who cares where her coffee and chickens come from, and also her clothes. -TheFader Everlane was founded in 2010 in San Francisco, California, USA, as a pure player with the aim of selling its own designed, affordable … More Everlane goes Offline
Jorge Gay de Montellá Estany is Expansion Manager at Mango. 32 years old, bachelor´s degree in Law and MBA from IESE. Married and about to have his first kid. Runner and motocross fanatic. Jorge Gay de Montellá: I live in Barcelona, where I was born and raised. I love the sea, the country side, and … More A few words with an Expansion Manager at Mango