tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26696671925883959932024-03-13T03:52:59.964-07:00The Golden RulerA blog about merchandising and merchandise, by an industry-insider head-over-heels with it all!
Posts about and practical web merchandising for fashion, beauty and homeware.
Ponderings on forecasting, allocating and inventory management, the retail calendar and news.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01608458391146739982noreply@blogger.comBlogger43125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2669667192588395993.post-28411000761285530252015-11-15T11:48:00.001-08:002015-11-15T11:48:34.375-08:00Search and searches<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhj0DUi6Qk7rEaNSYlFliP2hCg3hVkICEjxH5Cv_4baMELlT0gpq5OP3pcyW7y-zVyiRxDpzOLeMS6rlLjRGcIygcOgJu8zJI01usAdTm4pgwSCD4hkPsBBskJmZ_TSDuOgezyUj5SV7Pk/s1600/Untitled.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="228" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhj0DUi6Qk7rEaNSYlFliP2hCg3hVkICEjxH5Cv_4baMELlT0gpq5OP3pcyW7y-zVyiRxDpzOLeMS6rlLjRGcIygcOgJu8zJI01usAdTm4pgwSCD4hkPsBBskJmZ_TSDuOgezyUj5SV7Pk/s640/Untitled.jpg" width="640" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Plumen Drop Top Pendant Lamps, Bitossi Lucca Wine Glass Amber, Korres Colour Guava Lipstick, H&M Conscious Coat</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">A conversation at work got me thinking about the (semantic) difference between singulars and plurals when entered into a search bar. It seems to me that customers who type, say, lamp instead of lamps, are closer to the point of purchase - they 'want to buy a lamp'. Customers who search for coats rather than coat, on the other hand, 'want to see all your coats', they're only beginning to consider buying something.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So I tried to find out if any retailers were treating singular and plural search terms differently. I looked at six retailers of both lamps and coats. On the whole, I found that search results for singulars and plurals were identical. In a few cases, bad listings were returned for the singular and/or plural. And I found only one instance of different, good results for coat and coats - here the singular brought up more statement, more expensive pieces.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> There are some products that you would be more inclined to purchase in multiples - say wine glasses - and some products that are generally referred to collectively - lipstick, for instance. For these items, I found one retailer with different search results for the singular and the plural. For wine glasses, more expensive results were returned than for wine glass, and some beer glasses were shown.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Then I tried to decrypt some Google results for lamp/lamps, coat/coats, wine glass/wine glasses and lipstick/lipsticks. I also looked at some more specific search terms - metallic lamp(s), duster coat(s), nude lipstick(s), stemless wine glass(es).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The results varied a lot - in terms of how many retailers were returned (and if any news stories or google images, for example, were displayed), in terms of which retailers were returned, regarding whether there were Google Ads, regarding whether there was Google Shopping... But I couldn't really draw out any distinguishing characteristics of singular/plural searches. It was just too vast.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This is just something I have been pondering though. I'm by no means knowledgeable about this area!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Anyway, I have been meaning to post for a while. My role at work is changing at the moment. While it's changing, I might not post for a bit, and when I do start writing again, the topics of my posts might be different. Just to let you know.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Hope you had a lovely weekend.</span><br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01608458391146739982noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2669667192588395993.post-12656387663174794382015-09-22T23:33:00.002-07:002015-09-22T23:34:47.824-07:00London Design Festival - Multiplex, Tom Dixon's Department Store<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We went to Multiplex on Saturday, <a href="http://www.tomdixon.net/" target="_blank">Tom Dixon</a>'s temporary department-store-of-the-future, part of the <a href="http://www.londondesignfestival.com/" target="_blank">London Design Festival</a>.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6NV57x6xWzXeAVrqOwkVmDNzR1njuQ7MvuAO-CRBnHswHDOfX2_RFm9OQ2YspB_Z0ZGuiJUe46FBUmRsy490H6teUyTGVyO2VM4Fu8UG52tknCBdJXRziSkXXMCPoGnLo64rPpBCJplM/s1600/Untitled.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6NV57x6xWzXeAVrqOwkVmDNzR1njuQ7MvuAO-CRBnHswHDOfX2_RFm9OQ2YspB_Z0ZGuiJUe46FBUmRsy490H6teUyTGVyO2VM4Fu8UG52tknCBdJXRziSkXXMCPoGnLo64rPpBCJplM/s400/Untitled.jpg" width="278" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It was in a cavernous space, The Old Selfridges' Hotel, lighting was low and the walls were lined with silver foil. The departments comprised homeware (of course), fashion, accessories, beauty, food and drink. The atmosphere was calming and yet engaging, it really seemed to encourage conversation with the brands that were represented.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Some of the brands and some of the merchandising that caught my eye were:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="http://haeckels.co.uk/home/" target="_blank">Haeckels</a> - You couldn't fail but notice their 'polytunnel' spa with planted porch, and, in fact, it encapsulated several important influences on their brand: a love of the coastal botanicals found near Margate and the science used to compound these botanicals into natural fragrances and skincare.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The cosmetics were displayed simply, each given sufficient space to stand out. Perfumes stood on top of wooden boxes marked with the GPS co-ordinates of the location where they were inspired, and the date and meteorological conditions when they were inspired.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">As a whole area, it worked wonderfully!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="http://obataimu.squarespace.com/" target="_blank">Obataimu</a> - This fabric-focused, concept-led, slow-fashion brand had an ingenious display in a corner of the department store. The two walls had not been used to display clothes, instead a video from their factory was projected onto the long wall, with some beautiful stills affixed to the left, and some infographics were positioned on the smaller wall to the right. The clothes were hung on two levels, parallel to the walls and extending almost their length, forming an enclosed, intimate space within the department store. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Dresses from the Wabi Sabi collection (which 'indulg[es] individuality, impulse, statement and process') and other standout pieces, were in placed in hotspots to encourage customers to interact - reach up, touch the fabric and so on. The Shibui collection, inspired by witnessing people snatching shut-eye on the Tokyo tube and developed with sleep textile innovators, was mainly displayed on the right.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Finally, in the middle of the space, there was a selection of interesting books, to engage and give a homely feel.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Obataimu also have an excellent website.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXOM3N2pKGBGNCIvknAKeb_AKktT7FH9umOElZ9vWQdmg9hBFGSln_sPdQkEZopvVT6y4_znto1JgRt-eN8zIoNxt-oVHUBMLenYArEJ-RBnyLPHwvJh3Jy-O_zjEyEE2DxKa5vgMD9sM/s1600/Untitled1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXOM3N2pKGBGNCIvknAKeb_AKktT7FH9umOElZ9vWQdmg9hBFGSln_sPdQkEZopvVT6y4_znto1JgRt-eN8zIoNxt-oVHUBMLenYArEJ-RBnyLPHwvJh3Jy-O_zjEyEE2DxKa5vgMD9sM/s320/Untitled1.jpg" width="286" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.gelatomeccanico.com/" target="_blank">Gelato Meccanico</a> - How merchandising would be applied to a 'café-setting' isn't something I have really considered before, I can't claim very much knowledge of it all all, but I adored the presentation of Gelato Meccanico's ice creams! As we entered Multiplex, we were given a miniature cone that we could take to the food department to receive a free ice cream sample. As we queued, we admired two beautiful manual gelato churns. In cream enamel, natural wood and copper, these provided an insight into the performance and authenticity that seem important parts of this brand. A series of infographics explained the science behind the churns. Five or six flavours, some classic, some more inventive, were served from lovely chrome chillers.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">And after that, my little scoop of honey and rosemary was absolutely delicious!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Tom Dixon's products really lend themselves to merchandising. An island of candles, a tower of gifts, in burnished copper and brass, naturally draw shoppers across for a closer look.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I repeatedly found myself pulled towards striking light fittings as well - Dixon's, and those of a New Zealand design house, Resident - and guided from department to department by light.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Multiplex is on until 18th October. If you can look in, it's really worthwhile!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">First collage (clockwise from top) <a href="http://www.tomdixon.net/" target="_blank">Tom Dixon</a> Tank Jug £95, Brew Stove Top £125, Scent Diffuser Earth £85, Cog Candelabra £200, Large Scented Candle London £80, Plum Cocktail Shaker £95</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Second collage (clockwise from top) <a href="http://haeckels.co.uk/home/" target="_blank">Haeckels</a> Eau de Parfum GPS 26'3"E £160, Exfoliating Seaweed Block £18, Seaweed/Geranium Hand Balm £18, Seaweed/Sea Lavender Lip Balm £15, Seaweed/Carrot Seed Facial Serum £65, Candle GPS 26'3"E £50</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01608458391146739982noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2669667192588395993.post-48317452120786162762015-09-19T03:24:00.001-07:002015-09-19T03:24:58.388-07:00Month in Online Merchandising : September<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisLdUolxVpv0q-GIz95K0LyJcDNghW_OL4BkJoBYsbtgfgwe9bbS_oxyHm5u9AEHIswuR5S5ShxsvjVViYTzhjTHZVWv4YZ7j14FdFtvkk6-OmMEr5mKmN7K02BM4T0hysEniw3G5w3Uk/s1600/Untitled.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><img border="0" height="454" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisLdUolxVpv0q-GIz95K0LyJcDNghW_OL4BkJoBYsbtgfgwe9bbS_oxyHm5u9AEHIswuR5S5ShxsvjVViYTzhjTHZVWv4YZ7j14FdFtvkk6-OmMEr5mKmN7K02BM4T0hysEniw3G5w3Uk/s640/Untitled.jpg" width="640" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><a href="http://www.seasaltcornwall.co.uk/" target="_blank">Seasalt</a> Bowline Jacket £140, <a href="http://www.despetitshauts.com/" target="_blank">Des Petites Hauts</a> Bibli Cardigan €159, <a href="http://www.clarks.co.uk/" target="_blank">Clarks</a> Orla Andie Boots £180, Sambonet Terra Cotto Saucepot £52 at Heals, Wild & Wolf Enamel Bowls £27.50 at <a href="http://shop.balticmill.com/" target="_blank">Baltic Shop</a>, <a href="http://www.johnlewis.com/" target="_blank">John Lewis</a> Nordic Carafe £12 and Tumblers £4 each</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It's September and already all-go with us. Here are my 'undo-able' to-dos for the month:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">As we start to build up to the month of December, I've a long list of pages to optimise. I'm starting with really key pages now: pages of products that are integral to customers festive activities. Depending on what industry you're in that could be gifts, items for entertaining, decorations, party-wear... Then, I'll do some more tangential pages and return to core areas in a month or so, to make them fresh and even more relevant, and to look after any new products.<br /> This year, I already have the end of December at the back of my mind as well - how pages can be adapted to meet the very different demands of the Winter sales period.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I haven't managed to make much progress on my compendium of great merchandising ideas - I think I need to set aside an hour or two each week for recording anything I've spotted, browsing for more examples etc...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We are wanting to review our 'review processes' soon too: take a look at what it is we currently esteem to be a success and how we measure degrees of success. Merchandising can achieve lots and lots of different things - improving sales, improving product views (and I say improving not increasing because sometimes you might not be going after volumes), increasing profit, creating a particular aesthetic-impression (one consistent with bricks-and-mortar stores, for example)... And you can measure in lots of different ways - you can consider individual products, you can consider pages as a whole, you can consider areas of pages (e.g. the effect generated by the first three rows, or the top right-hand product).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The processes we have in place now are good, but it's important consider other options or improvements.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Well, have a lovely week. I'm hoping to write some more about the first of my to-dos - to give a bit of an insight into how I'm thinking when I'm merchandising at the moment - so hopefully, it won't be too long before I post again.<br /><br /> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Mari x</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01608458391146739982noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2669667192588395993.post-11765556302022990562015-08-22T01:28:00.000-07:002015-08-22T01:28:13.500-07:00Berlin II - Web Merchandising Case Studies and Examples<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1rKv45n-qOloG1-u6sJH_Skj_RLnIOXqeSlbfKlj5LEz6f54khgdbC6M4LBJkdqQN5TIv52rK4mLZp9gALehi-60yIH5KpjLYeKy2CIeWf8nymeD2wlWuBpvaNuDvtJ7kMpoOxFODtQQ/s1600/Untitled.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="252" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1rKv45n-qOloG1-u6sJH_Skj_RLnIOXqeSlbfKlj5LEz6f54khgdbC6M4LBJkdqQN5TIv52rK4mLZp9gALehi-60yIH5KpjLYeKy2CIeWf8nymeD2wlWuBpvaNuDvtJ7kMpoOxFODtQQ/s640/Untitled.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Plip, the Umbrella Man by David Sire and Thomas Baas 14.90€ (from <a href="http://shop.gestalten.com/" target="_blank">Gestalten</a>), <a href="http://www.premiata.it/it/home/" target="_blank">Premiata</a> Sneaker 142.10€ (from 203€), <a href="http://www.umasan-berlin.com/" target="_blank">Umasan</a> Y-Shirt 179€, <a href="http://lumiaccessories.com/" target="_blank">Lumi</a> Venla Pouch €89</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I was back in Berlin last week (see my first post about Berlin <a href="http://the-golden-ruler.blogspot.com/2015/03/berlin-web-merchandising-case-studies.html" target="_blank">here</a>) and visited <a href="https://www.bikiniberlin.de/en/home/" target="_blank">Bikini</a> - a 'concept mall' in a striking '50's building overlooking the city's zoo.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I loved it - I could have marvelled at the architecture and browsed the fashion and homeware brands for hours! And in adjoining buildings, I could have taken in a film at the Zoo Palast cinema, recharged at the 25Hours Hotel or even rented an office!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Looking at their website, as a virtual tourist, I found a clear list of shops and an informative page devoted to each. Some photographs might have made me even more inclined to visit. A clear floorplan was helpful though.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">On the attractive homepage, a couple of newer shops and restaurants were highlighted.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The 'What is Bikini Berlin?' section gave an impressive level of detail on the history of the Bikini complex. (Out of interest, Bikini comes from a nickname given to the mall building in the 1950's - its two tier architecture reminded locals of swimwear!) There was also a well-hidden link to an online shop selling mall merchandise.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This page was accessible through two top bar links.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">An Events and a Blog section provided reasons to keep returning both to mall and website. Services gave you all the information you needed about location, opening hours, restaurants and possible tours.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The collage above shows some of the items that grabbed me.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Have a lovely weekend!</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01608458391146739982noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2669667192588395993.post-16901696327758862862015-08-11T14:11:00.002-07:002015-08-11T14:11:28.432-07:00Month in Online Merchandising : August<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisyBjyo7h_TBuT41jvKwTp9jBNSVdrMfu_NsHGgMdYFwS2NSON8-7tKzm-2smNr5mlvzNkItn2UrYjVESMievmqu66PDn-M9rRRp88e08DsMPYkRvVfChRbu_DfaBuNE4vJFbi18-aUFE/s1600/Untitled.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="374" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisyBjyo7h_TBuT41jvKwTp9jBNSVdrMfu_NsHGgMdYFwS2NSON8-7tKzm-2smNr5mlvzNkItn2UrYjVESMievmqu66PDn-M9rRRp88e08DsMPYkRvVfChRbu_DfaBuNE4vJFbi18-aUFE/s640/Untitled.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">(Clockwise from top left) Ilcsi Apricot Gel Mask (from <a href="http://cultbeauty.co.uk/">cultbeauty.co.uk</a>) £30, <a href="http://shop.mango.com/" target="_blank">Mango</a> Textured Cotton Blend Dress £59.99, Ilcsi Sour Cherry and Blackthorn Gel Mask (from <a href="http://cultbeauty.co.uk/">cultbeauty.co.uk</a>) £30, <a href="http://bohemiadesign.co.uk/">bohemiadesign.co.uk</a> Embossed Enamel Bowls from £8.95, <a href="http://www.alotonherplate.com/" target="_blank">A Lot on Her Plate</a> recipe book £25</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">August is a slightly strange month. The run up to Christmas is extremely busy in retail, so you feel you should be taking some holiday now - it's sunny, it's the last time when you're really completely free to take time off, and you need to build up a reserve of energy for the months of September, October, November and December. And yet, a lot of people seem to take multiple, short breaks, maybe because, though comparatively it's less busy than September, it's not quiet - there are always meetings to attend, projects to work on, etc. August feels as if it's a month of coming and going.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In the midst of this transience, here's what I have planned:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">- Some forecasting for seasonal offers/promotions - Halloween, Christmas, New Year...</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">- Making sure my pages chime with the tones of late summer - with the desire to picnic, or to dine al fresco, to cook with summer fruit and veg, and buy fresh flowers, to camp (at festivals, or somewhere more remote), to daytrip, to do implausible things like attend outdoor, nighttime film showings!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I'll be prioritising products that are practical for these sorts of activities, materials that are colourful, airy and light or hard and cooling.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">- At the same time, trying to make certain pages more autumnal, with a focus on more muted colours, shades towards russets and plums, denser, cosier fabrics and so on. Items that are useful if you are lounging at home - reading, watching something, cooking - or if you are outdoors in slightly cooler, crisper weather, will be given more attention.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">- Some competitive shopping and making a compendium of any interesting range presentation ideas I find.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">- Throwing a launch party for a strategy I'm involved in communicating to my colleagues.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Hopefully, I'll manage to snatch enough time!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Well, have a great week!</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01608458391146739982noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2669667192588395993.post-42105221608581389312015-08-01T03:15:00.001-07:002015-08-01T03:15:31.171-07:00Fabrics - Web Merchandising Case Studies and Examples<div style="text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8f1gXSQJFIUCk_X7k3q8xh_BMcdabWkhJYysnnpjqTtU3RrGXos0u16aCiMOx-ZdCL25MVRxAcAdevR3FD6PCO3HJlja9QIvogZ_B5OAmP0vQ6dnR07h34VmANxEMz3GwKcMrnEKYYds/s1600/Untitled.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="502" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8f1gXSQJFIUCk_X7k3q8xh_BMcdabWkhJYysnnpjqTtU3RrGXos0u16aCiMOx-ZdCL25MVRxAcAdevR3FD6PCO3HJlja9QIvogZ_B5OAmP0vQ6dnR07h34VmANxEMz3GwKcMrnEKYYds/s640/Untitled.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Scion Kamili, Shoji and Meiko fabrics, Medwinds EV dress £99 (from £150), Kusmi Genmaicha and Sencha Fukuyu tea £15.40 each, Muji Hakuji Porcelain Teapot and Cup £9.95 and £2.95</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Like everyone, I suppose, I sometimes feel my job is pretty tricky.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">To put things in perspective, I decided to have a look at some sites selling products that seemed inherently particularly hard to merchandise. I've always thought that fabric would be difficult to work with - colour and pattern pulling you in different directions (would colour be my main concern if I were buying fabric for some new curtains? or would it be pattern? it's very difficult to say), the risk of it becoming monotonous if you use only detail-shot thumbnails in your galleries, the high chance of not properly showing texture, or smaller, more delicate patterns, of you don't use close-ups...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I found several sites merchandising fabrics really well however, among them Scion.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">If, from the arrestingly, engagingly designed homepage (as you scroll, the page pans down for you in a really enticing way), you navigate to the fabric department, you're met with an overview and room-setting image links to sixteen collections. The collections are listed alphabetically and clicking opens up a description of the inspiration and intention, and a thumbnail of each pattern. The arrangement of these thumbnails is alphabetical and the colours seem to have been chosen to be aesthetically pleasing - you have two earthy, natural dye tones next to one another, two faded grey shades together, etc.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The collection pages start with the description again and more beautifully-styled room-setting shots, each with bubbles you can click to reveal the names of the fabrics. Wallpapers in the same collection are also quite prominently linked.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">After this you see the pattern thumbnails as above. Or you can click on 'colourways' to reveal the patterns, interestingly not arranged alphabetically this time, in every available colour. Here again, I think attention had been paid to the flow of the colours, particularly where one pattern ran into the next - an inky block print was next to a repeating, blue and red patch design, etc.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Alternatively, you could click on a thumbnail to view product details, an image in a room setting, alternative colourways and some complementary products.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">From the fabric department page, you had a second option of viewing thumbnails of all fabrics (all patterns in all colours) at once. Here you could sort alphabetically, by recency, or by colour. The default ordering was definitely not alphabetical and I felt there might have been less deference to aesthetic-effect (more of an emphasis on best-sellers perhaps). Clicking a thumbnail revealed the same product details as before.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Overcoming the difficulties of merchandising fabrics, this was a really nice website, displaying really beautiful materials. I've incorporated my favourites from the Wabi Sabi collection into the collage above.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Have a great weekend!</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01608458391146739982noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2669667192588395993.post-79941972181344646652015-07-18T15:00:00.000-07:002015-07-18T15:00:52.663-07:00Month in Online Merchandising : July<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Here are a couple of crisp shirts and chic sunnies, to keep and look cool this summer:</span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguosslre6ieI9dGUv-FRZLm7W9JXFZIwHDaeODd46J8DFQOgLEUErmec2SCoD4RfBXBaZjwTzePbThfkJgyljXRrNLSz4jT99AXd6V6k0OwlY1EdIuK_akeRkhOlRXMWR8Zt-YUzufOyY/s1600/Untitled.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="368" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguosslre6ieI9dGUv-FRZLm7W9JXFZIwHDaeODd46J8DFQOgLEUErmec2SCoD4RfBXBaZjwTzePbThfkJgyljXRrNLSz4jT99AXd6V6k0OwlY1EdIuK_akeRkhOlRXMWR8Zt-YUzufOyY/s640/Untitled.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.uniqlo.com/uk/" target="_blank">Uniqlo</a> Premium Linen 3/4 Sleeve Shirt £19.90, <a href="http://www.chintiandparker.com/uk/" target="_blank">Chinti and Parker</a> x Net Broderie Anglaise Shirt £150, <a href="http://www.alexanderwang.com/gb" target="_blank">Alexander Wang</a> Cropped Short Sleeve Poplin Shirt £109 down from £182, </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.jigsaw-online.com/" target="_blank">Jigsaw</a> Alex Sunglasses £60, <a href="http://www.annakarinkarlsson.com/" target="_blank">Anna-Karin Karlsson</a> Rose Rouge Glasses €495, <a href="http://www.elevenparis.com/fr/" target="_blank">Eleven Paris</a> Lusilver Glasses £79</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">And here's what is top of my to do list this month:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">- Having done sale, it now has to be undone. Any layouts that were changed will revert back to their initial state, or be reworked completely.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">- I am continuing to think about what's coming after summer. The transition from holiday back into the workplace, school or university will be at the top of many retailers' agendas - from fashion, to beauty, to food.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I would like to look at sales this time last year and build layouts around best sellers/better sellers (by this I mean products that sold much better than in earlier summer or later autumn). If there have been range changes, I will have to look at comparable products, of course. </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">And if there are any opportunities for relevant content, I will work with colleagues to produce it. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I am also preparing a promotion - helping to decide where and how it will be communicated, and forecasting accordingly.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">- We have an issue with the delivery dates offered for a handful of our products at the moment. I am having to take on a detective role to ascertain why and to ensure our customers receive an accurate date, as close as possible to the day they order, no matter what they order.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">- A lot of products will be added to the range at a certain point over the next couple of months. There are various reasons for possible delays, so I am trying to confirm that particular, key products are visible/purchasable promptly.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">- We are working up to the launch of a new strategy that will guide the country for an extended period. I am lucky enough to be partly responsible for some local implementation, so I am trying to ensure that the most relevant product galleries/department pages are strategically aligned. I am also organising events and activities to communicate the strategy to the other members of our team, whether or not they will be working with it directly.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">That's been quite enough to be getting on with for the last few weeks - it might keep me busy into August even!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Hope you've had a great month so far!</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01608458391146739982noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2669667192588395993.post-8957386710439356412015-06-16T13:09:00.001-07:002015-06-16T13:09:50.319-07:00Lisbon - Web Merchandising Case Studies and Examples<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgB6In1e12CnH6u4LS0hV7LOh-QYPlWTOTpyJ7TIUwphETbWxuQkWRDNyhsVVU4LBef2Xz9lPbrM21cG7Dp1p_xmMGN7L9veNC_CkOOTB0GoKyteyULurJj2KNL_35ZmBtxyc2Ytvra-NI/s1600/Untitled.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="230" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgB6In1e12CnH6u4LS0hV7LOh-QYPlWTOTpyJ7TIUwphETbWxuQkWRDNyhsVVU4LBef2Xz9lPbrM21cG7Dp1p_xmMGN7L9veNC_CkOOTB0GoKyteyULurJj2KNL_35ZmBtxyc2Ytvra-NI/s640/Untitled.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.sennes.org/" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Sennes</span></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Esperer por Coat </span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">€</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">255, <a href="http://www.madaracosmetics.com/en/" target="_blank">Madara</a> Soap and Facial Masks at <a href="http://www.organii.pt/" target="_blank">Organii</a>, Encosta-te a Mim Cushions</span></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">, <a href="http://caulinoceramics.com/" target="_blank">Caulino</a> Wall Balloon €</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">130</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I have been meaning to mention a couple of Portuguese brands. We were lucky enough to spend a week in Lisbon recently, you see. I think they're worth taking a look at online, and it would definitely be a shame to miss them if you're ever in the area.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">First of all, <a href="http://www.embaixadalx.pt/" target="_blank">Embaixada</a> and <a href="http://www.entretanto.pt/" target="_blank">Entre Tanto</a> in Principe Real. Both are old palaces (Entre Tanto dates from the 17th century, while Embaixada is 19th-century, neo-Arabian fantasy!) in which each airy room is occupied by an exciting small brand.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Some of the ones to look out for are -</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Urze - selling branded wool (including burel) and linen items from Manteigas, in the Serra d Estrela mountains. One brand, <a href="http://www.sennes.org/" target="_blank">Sennes</a>, has a minimal, but highly inspiring site, promoting and selling their outerwear and bags.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.organii.pt/" target="_blank">Organii</a> - which sells organic cosmetics and baby products, from brands including Latvian Madara, Australian Nvey Eco and Irish Voya. They have a friendly, commercial site. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.mimolab.pt/p/we-are.html" target="_blank">Mimolab</a> - a children's event organiser, also selling some toys and textiles. Browsing their true-to-brand website is lovely experience.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.antiflop.pt/antiflop_en.html" target="_blank">Antiflop</a> - an artful scarf and shirt shop.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Encosta-te a Mim - producing cushions in the loveliest of colours.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Both Embaixada and Entre Tanto have clear websites, with comprehensive lists of their brands, and glossy images.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Second, Baixa-based <a href="http://caulinoceramics.com/" target="_blank">Caulino</a>. This is a studio creating and displaying striking, sometimes challenging, ceramics, as well as offering workshops and holidays to the neophyte and the more experienced. Again, their site is clean, with rich images, and a simple, well-merchandised shop.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Lastly <a href="http://www.corkandcompany.pt/" target="_blank">Cork & Co</a>, in Bairro Alto, with its cork collection ranging from handbags and jewellery, to design pieces like lighting, tableware and furniture, and Vista Alegre, a historic, yet modern, Portuguese luxury brand.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Lisbon is a beautiful, pastel-painted, tile-covered city. The food (pregos, bacalhau and chickpea salads, chourico, natas...), the wine (the Duoro, Alentejo, Vinho Verdo, the Port) is all so flavoursome! It's near the sea, near the mountains, and its slightly slower, mediterranean pace allows you to really unwind. I'd recommend it to absolutely everyone!</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01608458391146739982noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2669667192588395993.post-40382300298624881592015-06-07T14:21:00.002-07:002015-06-07T14:21:55.543-07:00Month in Online Merchandising : June<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkQOpXbZ-XHxBdOPdjIkD1z2HgrGoMLqGZEIr9vwFEpAvVK-1LaHzJHNEeTl5n0IhuAO-MX4t0MMZ2Msr1JgsgrWivqOnJMXEmYi4AQ3ynhljAm0u8lzWfDN5zAav9mauXMm5kLJ8aj74/s1600/Untitled.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="328" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkQOpXbZ-XHxBdOPdjIkD1z2HgrGoMLqGZEIr9vwFEpAvVK-1LaHzJHNEeTl5n0IhuAO-MX4t0MMZ2Msr1JgsgrWivqOnJMXEmYi4AQ3ynhljAm0u8lzWfDN5zAav9mauXMm5kLJ8aj74/s640/Untitled.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">KitchenAid Artisan Stand Mixer Green Apple £429 (from <a href="http://www.houseoffraser.co.uk/" target="_blank">House of Fraser</a>), Cuisinart Ice Cream Deluxe £67.50 (from <a href="http://www.johnlewis.com/" target="_blank">John Lewis</a>), Magimix Le Glacier Ice Cream Maker Chrome £79.97 (from <a href="http://www.selfridges.com/" target="_blank">Selfridges</a>), Zoku Classic Ice Lolly Mold £13.50 (from <a href="http://www.johnlewis.com/" target="_blank">John Lewis</a>), Antillasse Ice Cream Dish £7 (from the <a href="http://www.conranshop.co.uk/" target="_blank">Conran Shop</a>), Rice Melamine Cups and Spoons £14 and £8.25 (from <a href="http://nettlegreen.co.uk/">nettlegreen.co.uk</a>), Zak Ice Cream Bowl £7 (from <a href="http://www.selfridges.com/" target="_blank">Selfridges</a>), Mechanical Ice Cream Scoop £10 (from <a href="http://www.johnlewis.com/" target="_blank">John Lewis</a>)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Here is what I expect to get up to over the next few weeks:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">- Tending to galleries - Some with high turnover need to be reviewed, as do some that are suffering through poor availability. Then there are a couple that are strategically important right now and a couple that I haven't had time to merchandise in a while.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">- Last pieces of preparation for summer sale - We don't do sale in a big way, but I will certainly check the presentation, position, status and so on for all discounted products.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">- Work on three meaty projects - On one, we are completing some testing before making some final decisions and knuckling down. For another, I am not so deeply involved at the moment, but am still needing to chase some emails and extent further offers to support. For the last, I have done what I can, so now I hope to motivate my colleagues.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">- Training and archiving activities - I am studying materials and starting to compile.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">- Looking forward to some post-summer promotions - Initially, I want to check what needs to be done and when.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">- A last long-term job is conducting research into how merchandising might work first of all if we, at some point in the future, require a responsive website, and second if we, at some point in the future, acquire some tools to automate merchandising a little more.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Enjoy the start of summer!</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01608458391146739982noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2669667192588395993.post-22195169416883244642015-05-17T10:37:00.001-07:002015-05-17T10:37:05.830-07:00Heads-Up<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-LHDRuJAWVOmz8GyOhKrKhyphenhyphenVJBR7aFCW8xbat5q1qH_T7fz2_RFLvvfbo7gM53fUkTjCH6wQcA2ZutSJpAbKcV2CRZMwRjVe1CZy2d-hIKQXJqDtGQwUypfaHo8NbjImtTKwNw-8w8uc/s1600/Untitled.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="490" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-LHDRuJAWVOmz8GyOhKrKhyphenhyphenVJBR7aFCW8xbat5q1qH_T7fz2_RFLvvfbo7gM53fUkTjCH6wQcA2ZutSJpAbKcV2CRZMwRjVe1CZy2d-hIKQXJqDtGQwUypfaHo8NbjImtTKwNw-8w8uc/s640/Untitled.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Lucien <a href="https://www.reiss.com/" target="_blank">Reiss</a> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Hat £59</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">, Sunny Hat </span><a href="http://www.eugeniakim.com/" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;" target="_blank">Eugenia Kim</a> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">£320</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">, Straw Hat </span><a href="http://www.scotch-soda.com/gb/en/women" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;" target="_blank">Maison Scotch</a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> £29.95, Paper Trillby <a href="http://www.paulsmith.co.uk/uk-en/shop/" target="_blank">Paul Smith</a> £125, Pattern Visor <a href="http://www.topshop.com/" target="_blank">Topshop</a> £16, Blue Baseball Cap <a href="http://www.christys-hats.com/" target="_blank">Christys'</a> £39</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This is a heads-up that I intend to make the blog a little less discursive going forward, so that both the text and the images are more notational in style.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The main reason is that I'm considering starting work on another project and need to free up some time.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It may last a couple of months, or it may last longer. But I'm hopeful (perhaps overhopeful!) that condensing my copy and my collages might mean I post more often.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">For a 'heads-up', some hats (above) seemed apposite. Have a great week!</span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01608458391146739982noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2669667192588395993.post-52927189894115244892015-05-08T01:59:00.000-07:002015-05-08T01:59:38.231-07:00Taking a merchandising-approach to content focussed pages<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6fBKbSCp_jfM94e4MaKbPo5PnS0vLjGHsul16CB_GZuYVEanI6OWoCFFWoT6PXSmImg7cQrqH1JyCbeAMk1xtgq1XUIVvTrJo3PolWkIvRDnXPGI4Hd0iGQFBifY_a-BrQFQ5JOdDF8U/s1600/Untitled.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="398" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6fBKbSCp_jfM94e4MaKbPo5PnS0vLjGHsul16CB_GZuYVEanI6OWoCFFWoT6PXSmImg7cQrqH1JyCbeAMk1xtgq1XUIVvTrJo3PolWkIvRDnXPGI4Hd0iGQFBifY_a-BrQFQ5JOdDF8U/s640/Untitled.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Marimekko Hyhy Bracelet <a href="http://www.jarrold.co.uk/" target="_blank">Jarrolds</a> £29, Flower Tote </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><a href="http://www.orlakiely.com/" target="_blank">Orla Kiely</a></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Bag £269, Peep Shoe <a href="http://www.office.co.uk/" target="_blank">Office</a> £35, </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Maisie Dress </span><a href="http://www.wraplondon.co.uk/" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;" target="_blank">Wrap London</a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> £159, Macrame Earrings Toast £45, Filet a Provisions <a href="http://merci-merci.com/">Merci-merci.com</a> €10, Covered Strap Sandals </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><a href="http://www.swedishhasbeens.com/" target="_blank">Swedish Hasbeens</a> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">£155</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I've been working - not in product galleries, where I usually work - but on department, or category, pages recently. In my vocabulary, department pages are pages containing links to product galleries, content, and a few, well-selected products. For a grocer, 'dairy' might be a department page. It would link to milk, butter, yogurt...; it might tell a story about a supplier, or give a recipe for Arctic roll; and some specialty cheeses might be featured.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It's been very interesting applying my usual ways of working to a different area - seeing where they were sufficient, where they were lacking. I naturally found myself considering clicks and sales, and comparing to similar pages on our site and on competitors' sites. My colleagues suggested I look at the evolution of the page over the last few years and search data from various sources, and also that I speak to other functions dealing with this department (customer services to be aware of common customer queries, etc). It's definitely taught me things to take back to my galleries.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I was keen to learn more, so I spent a while studying the websites below. Apart from that, holidays have been very much on my mind recently - we just can't decide where to go this year: Barcelona, for tapas and culture, some Italian cities, a Mediterranean island with markets and sleepy villages, Normandy for the romantic coast... Or somewhere more adventurous. This probably explains the selection of products above and the sites I studied!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Airbnb</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The closest thing to department pages are probably the areas of the site devoted to sixteen destinations and the neighbourhoods comprising them: an attractive view of the suggested holiday spot stretches across the top of these pages, overlaid with a short description. Under this, there are some practical tips, a list of characteristics the place is known for, and some locals' likes and dislikes (I'm not sure how these have been gathered but they are entertaining!). After this, you have images of three neighbourhoods with selling sobriquets and four key features underneath. And at the bottom, there is a comprehensive list of all sixteen neighbourhoods. I think that brevity works brilliantly here. Choosing where to go on holiday and where to stay can be overwhelming, so not overdoing the information is clever.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Otherwise, there was a page listing eighteen destinations deemed doable-in-a-weekend from London. For each destination, you had a slideshow of images, traveltime, reasons to visit and three potential places to stay, followed by a link to all properties.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">And on the home page, there were beautiful images of eight cities, two with suggested activities (relax, indulge, party in ...) and two with suggested accommodation. When you clicked on these images, you immediately reached a list of properties.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In fact, I would say that one of the most remarkable things about this site was how quickly you were directed to a list of accommodation or a search result. If you exclude explaining the concept (because links to 'how to travel/host' pages were very prominent), this seemed very much the site's main function; yet it remained engaging and inspiring.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Ibis</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I wanted to compare Airbnb to the websites of some hotel chains. While there were a lot of pages detailling promotions, benefits and services, I was interested to find relatively few department pages. I thought I might have seen pages for city hotels, seaside hotels, airport hotels, etc, but again I saw search bars. Perhaps the majority of customers have a destination in mind when they arrive at the site (a particular city, because they are attending a wedding there, for instance), so departments like this would be redundant. Perhaps the aim of these sites is to convince visitors to opt for this chain over another. Pages for types of hotels could please some customers though, I can't help feeling.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Ibis had something resembling department pages because, since late 2011, their hotels have been broken down into the Ibis, Ibis Styles and Ibis Budget sub-brands.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Each page has a carousel displaying various benefits of the brand/sub-brand. To the right of this is a very prominent booking tool. Then we see quite a simple list of their most popular destinations, the price threshold of each and a link to a map of all their locations.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Slightly further down the page, another carousel shows glossy images and a short description of five different hotels. Finally we find content aimed at specific customers - parents, businesses - and additional benefits.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Anyway, hope you've been enjoying the first weeks of April!</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01608458391146739982noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2669667192588395993.post-62075420684579571982015-04-07T13:21:00.001-07:002015-04-07T13:21:57.761-07:00Malmo - Web Merchandising Case Studies and Examples<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrcyi7rkcHbCY7Wiw6YvLbQC6qX_F7PAdYLjjyKOE69NWQqmn6Eq6n_SDMKLCjNEVhK_H305uvISDQgP16JkCobXAo3GcnH7pwcGcjJXNbhuWljZh-EEWdyGTVxYYdFm0lahBO18qnPUk/s1600/Untitled.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrcyi7rkcHbCY7Wiw6YvLbQC6qX_F7PAdYLjjyKOE69NWQqmn6Eq6n_SDMKLCjNEVhK_H305uvISDQgP16JkCobXAo3GcnH7pwcGcjJXNbhuWljZh-EEWdyGTVxYYdFm0lahBO18qnPUk/s1600/Untitled.jpg" height="322" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><a href="http://lieblingliebling.com/" target="_blank">Liebling</a> Clogs 549Kr and Bric-a-Brac Cardigan 1099kr; <a href="http://www.bolia.com/en-us" target="_blank">Bolia</a> Casoli chair from €199 and </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Quadro shelf from €399; <a href="http://www.lindex.com/uk/" target="_blank">Lindex</a></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Sunglasses £6.99 and Short Sleeve Dress £34.99; <a href="http://www.bolia.com/en-us" target="_blank">Bolia</a> Angie pillow €49, Twiiitter table lamp €179 andGrandpa clock €65</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">A couple of weeks after going to Berlin, we went to Malmö (not been abroad in yonks and then we end up taking two trips in a month - strange, huh?)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I really liked Malmö - different to, but equally enjoyable as Copenhagen (I visited and wrote a post about the Danish capital a year or so ago).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Though I wanted to do a little shopping, I failed to find any interesting stores until closing time on Saturday. So I have since done some virtual retail tourism and looked up the websites of the shops I missed. I found some interesting and really attractive pages:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I spotted several outlets of a large retailer called <a href="http://www.lindex.com/uk/" target="_blank">Lindex</a>. When I searched for them online, I found that they had opened their first British store last week.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">At the top of their homepage was a large carousel displaying a message about the new store, a link to a charitable collection (there was more about this immediately below) and finally a link to the children's department. The first and second images were the same, which seemed maybe a little bit of a waste.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Simple carousels were used to good effect midway down and towards the bottom of the homepage too. In general, the CTAs were clear, directing you to product galleries, offering you the option of signing up to newsletters, etc. Clickable product names and prices and a + symbol allowed you to view products in a small pop-up.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Messages about delivery times, returns, and an offer for free delivery when you bought from a particular collection appeared in several places on the homepage. Delving deeper into the site however, there was some confusion over whether standard orders would be despatched or delivered within 4-6 days. We were told that the longer waiting times were due to their warehouse being located in Sweden, which was nice and transparent. A free click and collect service was offered, though not communicated on the homepage. The checkout was streamlined and it was possible to proceed to purchase without creating an account.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Their top navigation bar linked to three product categories, a page of new products, a lookbook (shoppable, glossy images of recent collections), and a magazine (which contained substantial fashion content and was also shoppable).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">From the category pages, you could reach various subcategories, new products, future products, sustainable products and best sellers. Once you reached the products, they were logically grouped and you were able to filter by colour, size, style and brand, as well as sort by price. This area of the site was very strong.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">One small thing I would say is that their Google snippet details how customers have 30 days' right to withdraw from purchase. It would be good if eventually it was more descriptive of the substance of the site.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I have seen a couple of <a href="http://www.bolia.com/en-us" target="_blank">Bolia</a>'s in Northern Europe and always been intrigued by their statement shop design (vertical gardens, altar-like cash-desks...) Their website proved to be as interesting as their stores.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">If Lindex reused one image for the first and second position of the carousel at the top of their homepage, Bolia went one step further. The two images on their carousel contained no furniture - both were striking, black and white photographs of people, one linking to a new collection, the other explaining delivery.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The website was built around coloured rectangles. The colours made the pages vibrant and showed white furniture to its advantage. In product galleries, the rectangle-design meant that certain articles could be four-times the size of others, and that messages could be inserted, without looking out of place.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The most prominent categories were sofas, living room, home office, dining, storage and accessories. Nice, context images were used for categories and sub-categories, whereas product pictures were simpler. In product galleries, you were able to refine by price and design.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Product pages contained information about the designer, some inspiration on how the product might look at home and some additional products, said to be recommended by the designer.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">A pop-up allowed you to find out delivery times. The cost of delivery however was visible only at checkout.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">There was a lot of rich content - an inspiration page (with lookbooks, descriptions of the collections...), a page about their designers, a page with information and beautiful photos/videos of their stores, an Instagram feed, a match-making page (!)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">All this made for a really aspirational site, but one that could perhaps do with a </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">tiny bit more polish.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We arrived at <a href="http://lieblingliebling.com/" target="_blank">Liebling</a> (meaning favourite, or darling, in German, I think) at 5.35 on Saturday, so my experience of the physical store was limited to pressing my nose disappointedly against the window as they cashed up. All the same, I got a strong, positive impression of colourful, well-constructed products and half-modern half-vintage decor, everything with its own particular beauty. The website really captured this feeling and for the site of a boutique, it was well-designed and well-maintained.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The presentation of categories and subcategories at the top of the homepage was elegant, though it didn't follow the most logical order perhaps - they sold a lot of children's products for example but that category didn't have a terribly prominent position. There were however useful links to news, a product listing sorted by brand, an edited selection of favourite pieces and Liebling's own production. Product galleries were organised and the quality of the imagery was fairly high.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Several products appeared in multiple galleries - more whimsical homeware under children as well as home for example - increasing their exposure.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">On the product pages, some good further products were suggested under the item you were looking at - functionally and stylistically similar.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">A delivery offer was highlighted (free within Sweden over 1000Kr spend) but I don't believe you could see the actual delivery price except on the ts and cs page.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Finally, there was a wordpress blog of cute and useful posts, which linked to particular products and powerfully conveyed the spirit of the store.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Hope you've had a less tiring start to the week than I have!</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01608458391146739982noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2669667192588395993.post-35255321537800949872015-03-02T11:57:00.000-08:002015-03-03T12:00:53.081-08:00Berlin - Web Merchandising Case Studies and Examples<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmv-vgDoTjwAfJ0yfBjENxaetX_IUdffXtdKqk0XeJw7Esy1S5FIjbuFrYOJg7F66qogqJ-U-4fm41SM74-akzOVCJxGvS1RwZ7gODypyjizbm7NJO0jEMJmgdx-WFKer7sitl0TKIGnI/s1600/Untitled.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmv-vgDoTjwAfJ0yfBjENxaetX_IUdffXtdKqk0XeJw7Esy1S5FIjbuFrYOJg7F66qogqJ-U-4fm41SM74-akzOVCJxGvS1RwZ7gODypyjizbm7NJO0jEMJmgdx-WFKer7sitl0TKIGnI/s1600/Untitled.jpg" height="256" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">MCM Game On! Diamond Land! Bag, Mykita Dionne Frames, Berghain 10 Anniversary Book €30, Type Hype Set of 3 Notebooks €47 and Porcelain Plate, Bowl & Cup €149</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I wasn't able to spend much time shopping in Germany (we spent most of Saturday just admiring the city and on Sunday everything was closed). But I did spot some beautiful shops and have since looked them up online, as a sort of virtual tourist. None of the websites were a let-down. Here are my thoughts: </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Type Hype - The homepage was very engaging with links to favourite products, new designs, a gift finder, a product generator (you select the typeface(s) and product type(s) and it spells a word of your choice in products - so much fun!), inspirational information about producers... All the images were large and glossy, and you could swipe between them. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It was easy to navigate deeper and, once you found what you were looking for, the products were logically and attractively ordered, with appealing articles always appearing on the top. Encouraging messages about shipping, etc. were inserted between products. There were some small mistranslations (motives instead of motifs threw me for a second) but overall this did little to detract from a beautiful site.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Walther Koenig - The site design was nice and clean, with relevant categories on the top navigation bar - bookshop, special offers, publishing, antiquarian - a side bar giving details of events, linking to articles under 10€, etc. and two banners promoting specific, interesting products. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Calls to action could have be clearer (I accidentally started downloading something - an upcoming catalogue). And unfortunately I found no way to browse. 'Bookshop' presented 9 books - with a range of price points and detailed images - but you couldn't click 'more'; there seemed to be no way to reach their extensive catalogue. It may have been a bug, or to do with the browser I was using, of course. On the upside, search was good. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Mykita - This site was laden with lovely, detailed content, which might partly be because it has to be quite business-customer facing. The homepage presented lookbooks, campaign makings-of, details of collaborations with other brands... There was a blog, which posted their pressbook, for instance. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The top categories in the navigation bar were the different areas of the range - Sun, Optical, Collabs, Sport. Within these, you were presented a mix of purchasable and non-purchasable products. Alternatively, you could select eShop from the bottom of the nav bar, to view only products that were available to buy. I think this could confuse some customers. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">As far as I could see, products were mainly ordered alphabetically, which is maybe not super-commercial, though you could filter very well. The inclusion of product features, brand background and design awards was exemplary. And on every product page (and there are very, very many product pages), there was a video of the relevant glasses worn by a fresh-faced model. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">MCM - From the homepage, there were clear, prominent links to several areas of eShop, which is certainly not always the case. Otherwise, the relevant navigation bar categories were Men, Women, Travel and Gifts. The first subcategory of most of these was Explore and Discover, which presented selected products, editorial content, etc. - nice if you were just browsing. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">To select some further subcategories at random: in Women's Accessories the products were grouped by type, and, when viewed on a smartphone at least, the colours drew you further down the page most effectively; Women's Bags were grouped by design and then model, which was sometimes slightly detrimental to the overall look. Filtering and sorting options were extensive and clear.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">At the top of the Gifts page, there were two large images linking to exactly the same place, which seemed a bit of a wasted opportunity. Then there were links to two 'whimsical'/classic collections. I couldn't find a way to shop these collections - all I could do was view lookbook imagery - though that might have been me being obtuse. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Overall, a good page for a fashion accessory brand.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I hope you liked my little virtual tour (!) - enjoy the rest of your week.</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01608458391146739982noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2669667192588395993.post-6995298511999544032015-02-21T00:31:00.000-08:002015-02-21T00:31:48.265-08:0014th Feb<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Julianne Silk Cami and Short £45 and £39, Catherine Tough, Lambswool Gold Elephant Socks £22, Simone Perèle Joy Bra and Shorts £70 and £45 , Wacoal Embrace Lace Chemise £51, Mimi Holliday Flamingo Bra and Knickers £40 and £39, Eberjey Playsuit £72, Cos Cashmere Socks £17</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I'm working up to a post about what I saw in Berlin, but, in the meantime, I thought I'd offer some thoughts on a lingerie site and the merchandising they went with before Valentine's Day. I looked at their mobile site, not their desktop, so that you're aware.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">First category offered on the homepage was, naturally enough, Valentine's.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Then you had Lingerie, Dd+ and Erotic.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I feel they could perhaps have prioritised the links Sets (their set finder tool is good) and Gifts (they have a great asset that suggest gifts for different personality-types (luxury-lover, someone who appreciates home comforts...) and different occasions (from wedding to date-night - I've not been getting gifts on date-night - going to have to have a word!) </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">If you navigated through to Lingerie, Babydolls, and Basques, Bustiers & Corsets were both above Bras - which seemed quite Valentine's-relevant. There were also links to News, Trends and SS15 Collections - if you were in need of some inspiration.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In the News section, I didn't feel there was a Valentine's focus - the top products were more 'everyday', than 'special'. In the Nightwear News, the products at the top were mainly jersey and very casual.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Good sorting/filtering made up for the lack of initially relevant ordering. You could sort according to price, brand, rating, popularity and newness. And you had the option to filter by size, colour, material, cup (padded/nonpadded/underwired), if the article came in a set....</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So all in all, it would have been a pleasant, if not impeccable, experiencing purchasing a gift for a loved one on this site. Hope you had a good Valentine's!</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01608458391146739982noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2669667192588395993.post-12854441103663892012015-01-26T13:07:00.003-08:002015-01-26T13:07:57.736-08:00Re. Reporting<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWaxN8WafkIo2he7nTvmbgA5cvMBOpeZi6bHrOEiY9MA5N_772IsDlaeqWKXSee3hdUG98U9hlJMwm93UwlxbCpSEMUxwSY73rqn91qlmDMZeBA6TW4Yhpo8pnTXCLO_ee3hmklKzxcSU/s1600/Untitled.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWaxN8WafkIo2he7nTvmbgA5cvMBOpeZi6bHrOEiY9MA5N_772IsDlaeqWKXSee3hdUG98U9hlJMwm93UwlxbCpSEMUxwSY73rqn91qlmDMZeBA6TW4Yhpo8pnTXCLO_ee3hmklKzxcSU/s1600/Untitled.jpg" height="220" width="640" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">SFK Frou-Frou Super Deluxe Camera Strap $95, Cos Melange Knit Hit £13 (down from £25), & Other Stories Short Leather Gloves £23 (down from £45), Surface to Air Le Baron Boots £105 (down from £350) at Avenue 32.com, Christopher Raeburn Arctic Print Rucksac £250 (down from £499) at Coggles.com</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I have been looking with fresh eyes at some of our reporting since the start of the year.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Before Christmas, I began adding some formulas to a spreadsheet we use each week - reducing the number of vlookups and original entries we have to insert. Since week one, I've been testing it and last week showed it to some colleagues. Luckily, they were enthusiastic and we will atttempt to integrate it into our weekly routine. All going well, it'll save a lot of trouble identifying products that are missing from our pages.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Another thing I really want to look at, is how I determine whether a product/category has done as well as it should have in any given week.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Just asking if product/category sales are better than in the previous week is too simplistic, so I started comparing to average sales over the past few weeks.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But sales are always going to go up and down. If stylish underwear sells well in the weeks before Valentine's day and the less well again toward the end of February, I need to be aware when I'm looking at my figures. I don't want to be attributing the trend erroneously, and I don't want to be thinking it will last longer than it will.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So some historic data should be taken into account, but then a direct comparison may not be valid either - everything might be selling better/worse than last year.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">My instincst say that looking at percentage share of sales would be good (the product's percentage share of its category, the category's percentage share of total sales).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I could compare percentage share this year to percentage share last year - but then I'm not taking into account range changes. We might have invested more in, say, sports underwear this year, and so share of sales might naturally be higher.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Ideally, I think I would be comparing the difference between this week and last week's share to the difference between this week last year and last week last year's share.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This should tell me if a product/category is improving or not, and help me decide where to work next. I think the only thing that would skew these figures would be very recent launches of new products/ranges. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I'm mulling all this over, because - on a SKU by SKU level at least - it's a lot of work. Fun project though!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">On a different note, I am - excitingly and excitedly - about to go to Berlin. So above you have some chilly city site-seeing gear.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Have a great week.</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01608458391146739982noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2669667192588395993.post-84769771546259137122015-01-13T13:49:00.000-08:002015-01-26T13:09:08.537-08:00New Resolutions 2<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4WC1rA5XMKfLVpm0AsRoRmeY0QOWOWNOMfTsFXFw6H14hUHj5m4YB_0M_r4r6BrqzEFCkojiSKqEKB4lXNMvTad4gkL1-R0Fcojd6Okvd9rBzPN067KFpvNpq2Y_UAgYsuNoQh-9loKY/s1600/Untitled.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4WC1rA5XMKfLVpm0AsRoRmeY0QOWOWNOMfTsFXFw6H14hUHj5m4YB_0M_r4r6BrqzEFCkojiSKqEKB4lXNMvTad4gkL1-R0Fcojd6Okvd9rBzPN067KFpvNpq2Y_UAgYsuNoQh-9loKY/s1600/Untitled.jpg" height="640" width="611" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Sweaty Betty - Om Yoga Vest £45, Virasana Yoga Bra £38, Dynamic Yoga Leggings £65; Marks and Spencer - Reflective Jacket £55, Gym Slim Sports Bra £28, Graphic Print Leggings £25; Ballet Beautiful Wrap Top £ 145, Live the Process Sports Bra £60 and Paneled Printed Leggings £105 all at Net-A-Porter</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Just after Christmas, I discussed my resolutions for the next year at work. New beginnings seem to be top of everyone's mind right now. All the retailers are talking about detox diets and exercise regimes, kicking bad habits and picking up new skills, purging and enriching...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I've been revisiting all my pages and finding lots to improve upon. What felt right in the autumn just doesn't now (circumstances change of course, and the changes you make, bring about the need for more changes). New opportunities have opened up. And, while some pages have less potential at the moment, they can still be tidied up and put to bed for a while.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Lots to be getting on with!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I wanted to see if I could spot any other merchandising that was starting a-fresh this spring -</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">First, a book-seller: I compared their current homepage to their homepage in early December. Certain things remained the same, certain things had changed.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">They led with the same four categories - Children's, Fiction, Crime, and Food and Drink - and the same images represented these categories. After this however, 4 'New & Bestselling' volumes replaced 8 'Christmas & Best-sellers'.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Both pages ended with 4 'Favourite' books and 8 Category links (to Gifts and some non-book departments), but since December, 3 Books of the Month have been inserted before the 'Favorites'.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">At the moment, several of the featured books have a healthy-eating focus. There's also a noticeable presence of film-related books - because it's Awards Season, no doubt. This was not the case before Christmas.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Currently, a carousel sends you to a page dedicated to New Year's New Starts - with some recent releases at the top and then links to healthy eating, money and DIY, travel guides, language tutorials, even juicing and non-alcoholic beverage books!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The first product on the Food & Drink page is about 'The Art of Eating Well'; on the Home & Gardening page it's 'The Life-changing Magic of Tidying'!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Second, a supermarket: when I looked at their site at the start of December side-by-side with their site now, I saw similar categories but different images - spring flowers instead of wreaths and red bouquets, glasses of rose instead of flutes of champagne. Healthy-eating tips, ways to save money on food and nutritious recipes replaced links to Christmas products, decoration inspiration, gift guides and festive recipes.The carousel contained deals, deals on healthier ready-meals and even a month weight-loss regime.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Products you could consider 'healthy' - ingredients, snacks and meals - are pretty prominent throughout the site. Links to Muesli & Granola and Couscous have the same level of focus as Flour and Oils & Vinegar. Subcategories such as Specialist & Health Food appear much higher up drop-downs than I would have expected.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I also considered some sports brands - which presented new collections, particularly winter running ranges, along with ways to get fit and platforms for sharing exercise-experiences.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Department stores featured links to and content on fitness; while health and beauty stores had offers and rewards on health products.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In the collage above, you can see what I would pick, if I could splurge on some new kit to support my get-fit resolution!</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01608458391146739982noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2669667192588395993.post-34972490649942782312014-12-27T07:28:00.000-08:002015-01-04T07:30:11.259-08:00New Resolutions<div dir="ltr">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Christmas came, the boxing day sales started (as early as 14th December - as I observed it anyway!) and soon it will be 2015.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So here are some deals for New Year's Eve:</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhz9Zqs30W712_cMWScUk7kWfYtyO2mKo7qVxc9w5xXefNT3dI-2ET-JhpwTI5FLITtylEPpvAQA1bZMERC6iAOD9qsGRwdDzujaW3qaCUpSU8yej2q6-i4wt61-Vey4SMuGkvq5KIjRNQ/s1600/Untitled.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhz9Zqs30W712_cMWScUk7kWfYtyO2mKo7qVxc9w5xXefNT3dI-2ET-JhpwTI5FLITtylEPpvAQA1bZMERC6iAOD9qsGRwdDzujaW3qaCUpSU8yej2q6-i4wt61-Vey4SMuGkvq5KIjRNQ/s1600/Untitled.jpg" height="424" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Hoss Intropia Lace Maxi Dress £258 (from £430) ; Closet Floral Dress £34 (from £48) ; French Connection Misty Mountain Shift Dress £44 (from £110) ; Oasis Lurex Drape Dress £28 (from £42) ; </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Jigsaw Metallic Court Shoe £69 (from £139) ; </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Mango Leather Pumps £29.99 (from £59.99) ; Nine West Ispy Wedges £49 (from £85) ; Sophia Webster Xavier Pumps £350 (from £495)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">And, in the spirit of introspection and scrutiny of the year gone-by, here's a list of things I am resolved to do at work over the next few months:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">1. Really sink my teeth into some reports, simplify them and make them more efficient. Among other things, these reports flag products that are missing from our pages - every lacuna is potential inconvenience to customers and/or lost sales. I will have to be disciplined and scrape together some time to do this now, to save time later.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">2. Evaluate the habits I'm falling into when I prepare to, and go about, remerchandising a page:<br /> - I do a lot of research before I start work on a page - into sales values, sales volumes, page views, new and discontinued products, marketing strategy, market trends, supply issues... But I need to make sure that I am not forgetting anything and that nothing is being considered out of order or unnecessarily.<br /> - I think sometimes I waste time starting from square one, when I could refine what's already there. Sometimes I try to work with what I have, but ultimately change everything, in which case it would have been quicker to start from scratch.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">3. Last, I want to pencil in some time to step back and see the big picture. Something of a perfectionist, mired in the little details, I can fail to spot big changes that could make big differences. I should step back more often.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Well, very happy New Year to you then x</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01608458391146739982noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2669667192588395993.post-30987842066504820962014-12-13T10:51:00.000-08:002014-12-13T10:51:06.941-08:00Holidays are coming...<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9qeEiwu5kz3vzbKnrPU0VW0DSZQg-6AUfIdbWEs30Z1DXtmRUdoB1sbHAIfxHSMhukby4BykfJhD0q9Ca0Rhbq4hqGjv1qAuK_FFlHx5g4VCYvYffdfz9wSYWadhRJ1npQmzuWrgKopA/s1600/Untitled.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9qeEiwu5kz3vzbKnrPU0VW0DSZQg-6AUfIdbWEs30Z1DXtmRUdoB1sbHAIfxHSMhukby4BykfJhD0q9Ca0Rhbq4hqGjv1qAuK_FFlHx5g4VCYvYffdfz9wSYWadhRJ1npQmzuWrgKopA/s1600/Untitled.jpg" height="640" width="442" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Wooden House Decoration £3 John Lewis, Tomte Grankvist £23 for 3 cloudberryliving.co.uk, Paper Twirl Decorations £14 for 6 Designers Guild, White and Red Bauble £5 Madam Stoltz at Skandium; </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Geometric Shape Decorations £4 House Doctor at Tate Modern, Multi-Coloured Baubles £8 for 6 Debenhams; </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Glitter Tree Decoration £3.50 John Lewis, Coloured Jute Baubles £9.99 for 3 Zara, Deer in Snow Glass Bauble £4 Paperchase</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So Christmas is nearly upon us again! I for one can hardly believe it, but then I have been very busy at work over the last month and a half, merchandising as many of my pages as possible. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It was a little hard to know where to start, since every page could do with some attention and there was no way I could see to them all.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Marketing strategy led me to focus on certain seasonally-relevant areas (wintery products, products that make good gifts, products that lend themselves to celebrations). I definitely did my best to look after key Christmassy pages.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">At the same time, I didn't want to neglect other important departments just because this isn't meant to be their time of year. So I identified pages with potential and spent time working on them too. I also tried to maintain the pages that were already performing well - you can't let them lose their lustre. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">When selecting these extra sections to merchandise, I was looking for pages that weren't growing commensurately to the website/to their category and for pages that were outstripping average.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">There are still whole areas I haven't been able to touch, though I wish I could have.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So it's been very much a matter of splitting myself and not spending too long on one thing.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">And on that note, I should probably get on with some of my own Christmas preparation. Presents to buy, cards to write, outfits to pick, meals to plan - oh, how I love Christmas!</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01608458391146739982noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2669667192588395993.post-17617606737383503582014-11-30T09:55:00.001-08:002014-11-30T09:55:51.423-08:00The Rise of Black Friday<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOy3UoVVQBdKygh-gi70xbO0V1-Xp47jaEgtCoLZw5LxbPPidV29hpnbCeEV7gYdhidqbB0xneN_t5n3BbI51hDHpP6u7qjxqj1SnihSY3wY-4028nAh96n1eJavSjjqlva7IMB13LC38/s1600/Untitled.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOy3UoVVQBdKygh-gi70xbO0V1-Xp47jaEgtCoLZw5LxbPPidV29hpnbCeEV7gYdhidqbB0xneN_t5n3BbI51hDHpP6u7qjxqj1SnihSY3wY-4028nAh96n1eJavSjjqlva7IMB13LC38/s1600/Untitled.jpg" height="324" width="640" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I haven't posted in a while - it's always a bit intense when you start a new job and, unfortunately, I just haven't found the time. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I was intending to write a second part to my last post, reading into the merchandising on a different retailer's site. But after yesterday, no self-respecting British retail blog could fail to write about Black Friday!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Black Friday was fairly high profile last year, but this time around, Verdict were reporting that 47% of UK shoppers were planning to take advantage of a Black Friday deal and Visa were predicting an increase of 22% on 2013 online sales. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">As it turned out, the police had to be called to several Tesco stores, where the shopping had just got out of hand, while websites such as Argos were inaccessible at several points during the day due to the sheer volume of traffic.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It is interesting that the American post-Thanksgiving promotions have just caught on in the UK. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Though I was very aware of the event, I didn't really shop myself - I was (naturally enough) busy at work (as are a lot of people are this time of year) and, at the moment, my focus is on buying presents - not snagging a cut-price TV or upgrading my phone.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">However, despite the impracticalities, Brits really warmed to the day. My boyfriend started the week asking 'what's this Black Friday-thing?' and ended it ringing me at work in an agony of indecision over whether to buy a 70%-off monitor!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Some retailers could certainly have handled it better and I'm sure they will next year. It means lower margins, but higher volumes for businesses, which should, if everyone is sensible, be very much in the shoppers' interests. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It will be interesting to see what happens on Boxing Day. The start-date of these sales has crept earlier and earlier each year, detracting from the excitement surrounding them. And for some, shopping is always going to be the last thing you want to do the day after Christmas.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">And it will be fascinating to see what happens on 27th November 2015.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Here are the details of the black products above:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Misfit Activity Tracker £79, Pebble Smart Watch £99, Jawbone UP24 Activity Tracker £99, Motorola Moto 360 Smartwarch £199</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Senheiser Momentum Headphones £200, B&W P3 Headphones £170, Bose Beoplay A8 £849, Sony SRS X9 Speakers £599</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01608458391146739982noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2669667192588395993.post-55682456192443737512014-11-03T06:51:00.000-08:002014-11-03T06:51:21.881-08:00Ways of Working 2<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRwvtGHZ2MArIlVikSBlbsJZDVVOvAIC_P5wZbW30_MMC7vZTg1q6CQ7nL0Is81vLgRiE8zPjwGhPE3v1f9lXYGLskjsvMzgROu9uNej_UiYGK4u1sXBbqlDS5zavUM5HQquMICefF3IM/s1600/merchandising.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRwvtGHZ2MArIlVikSBlbsJZDVVOvAIC_P5wZbW30_MMC7vZTg1q6CQ7nL0Is81vLgRiE8zPjwGhPE3v1f9lXYGLskjsvMzgROu9uNej_UiYGK4u1sXBbqlDS5zavUM5HQquMICefF3IM/s1600/merchandising.jpg" height="192" width="640" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Acne Lambswool Jumper £230, Caron Piu Bellodgia Eau de Parfum £105, House of Hackney Palmeral Teapot £70, Deborah Lippmann Nail Polish Weird Science £16, Marni Felt Sandals £355</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So recently I discussed how I've been adopting two strategies when merchandising. The first strategy is, of course, data-driven: number of sales, of clicks... Now the second strategy - style, or function, or colour, etc. - isn't chosen at random. But instinct definitely comes into it. I try to intuit the most common deciding factor when purchasing the products on a certain page and I work with that.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">For example, on a page of serious hiking rucksacks customers are likely to be influenced by technical criteria - capacity, number of compartments, ergonomic design of the straps... While for a page of little daysacks, the look of the bag - colour, print, etc. - might be more important.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Trail and error is of course very useful when selecting a second strategy. And market research no doubt sheds a lot of light.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I looked at the website of one of my favourite department stores, to see if there was any evidence of this shopping-habits-influenced merchandising on their pages: </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I would have expected the skincare pages to be organised by function. They started with a row of anti-aging concentrates/creams, but after this my impression was that they were organised by sales. You saw several cleansers, exfoliants, etc. together at times, but it could have been chance.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">There were eight categories to click into and, in the first two of these, there were four subcategories. On the category pages, the products seemed to be grouped by brand, with a couple of groupings for each brand. Perhaps a high percentage of customers interact with these categories - making the layout of the All page less important. And perhaps the customers also know what brand they are looking for before they arrive at the site, and so don't need to compare different makes of moisturiser... Alternatively, this grouping by brand could just be the result of the product upload process!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">You could filter by price, colour (a bit irrelevant here but I suppose it has to be the same for everything - lipstick to skincare) and again brand. There were two options by which you could sort (price and newness).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The nail varnishes, which I would have thought should be organised by colour, were grouped by brand and then - or they seemed to be anyway - colour. At the top of the page there were some commercial-looking reds and a peach, then some pinks and purples, these were followed by metallics and some rich blues/greens, then primary colours, then pastels and so on.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I wondered whether I would see the candles ordered by fragrance-type - fresh, floral, woody, etc. I found that they were grouped by brand and then there was some evidence of the floral scents all being together, with the fresh scents after and the oriental scents after that, though it could have been chance. There were also some lip balms and soaps in with the home fragrances, which was a bit confusing.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Without knowing more about their sales and systems, it's difficult to say whether this retailer merchandises according to shopping habits for particular products. But I have a feeling they might.</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01608458391146739982noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2669667192588395993.post-91238982609930144042014-09-27T08:54:00.000-07:002014-09-27T08:54:35.047-07:00Unexpected way(s) of working<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHIo1CwGWGatY3tcn99_l5qeKkeF6GtglPwv9Hc6tW8I71265xgdOTpO-s4RjmsIt8VtuVkqvsfVmtwZMQa32ESMlizwNv6MQjUCEqO72J4_yQ4bzmqwJ20zMpb2qJhEMGh_1CS6a-3vg/s1600/Untitled.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHIo1CwGWGatY3tcn99_l5qeKkeF6GtglPwv9Hc6tW8I71265xgdOTpO-s4RjmsIt8VtuVkqvsfVmtwZMQa32ESMlizwNv6MQjUCEqO72J4_yQ4bzmqwJ20zMpb2qJhEMGh_1CS6a-3vg/s1600/Untitled.jpg" height="364" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Rag & Bone Cashmere and Wool-Blend Cardigan £</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">330, Hoss Intropia Zebra Brooch </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">£</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">41, Bunney Silver Initial Brooch </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">£</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">195, H&M Short Cardigan </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">£</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">9.99, Uniqlo +J Stretch Cashmere Cardigan </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">£</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">129, Marni Brooch </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">£</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">180, Cilea Brooch at V&A </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">£</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">85, Mango Cotton Cardigan </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">£</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">29.99</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I’ve been working with a couple of different strategies when I've been merchandising recently. I had expected to use one, namely figures. I thought it would be a matter of identifying the best products – from the point of view of sales, or profit, or clicks, or any other criterion – and placing them in prominent positions.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">However, most pages, I am finding, require a secondary strategy, or logic. It’s like structuring an argument, or an essay, or an article (I think it could be most like constructing an article). You might want to put all your winning ideas at the very beginning, but you have to order them, group them, link them, set each one to its best advantage.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It is necessary to adopt a subsidiary strategy: to use style to determine position, as well as sales, for example; or to consider colour, or function, or price. If I were working on a jewellery page, I might rank my products according to the number of clicks they received, then I might place the top three necklaces on the first row, the top three bracelets on the second, the top three earrings on the third, etc. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I think the order the functions come in (necklace, then bracelet, then earrings) should be determined by individual product clicks (i.e. if the product to receive the most clicks were a necklace, it should lead and two other necklaces should follow it; if the product to receive the second most clicks were a bracelet, it would then come fourth), rather than overall function clicks (i.e. if bracelets receive the most clicks overall, they would lead). If you don’t heed the individual, you might end up with your best products some distance down the page, if for instance you have one or two very strong necklaces and lots of mediocre bracelets.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Now, I think I am feeling the need to use several strategies because it makes the page easier to understand and more convincing. You might have exactly what the customer wants, it might be at the top of the page, but if it is surrounded by dissimilar products, by products the customer doesn’t want at all, it is easily missed. Using several strategies allows you to break your page into sections, so that the customer can see the extent of your range, discard the parts that are not of interest, and focus on the parts that are. A multi-strategy approach improves the page aesthetic, something that must not be underestimated.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So, from now, on I’ll be seeing more in my products than just their figures!</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01608458391146739982noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2669667192588395993.post-9381602002233498542014-08-31T14:20:00.000-07:002014-09-03T14:23:10.297-07:00And fresh p-p-pages<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh42hVO6raLKYwmJpDmR4TxyJfkwB1APBgAqr5GnnUXUXa15EPGKxjGtJvwb14xo19E4bpFe_Ry0ScqNUulc3o-rzFWFUNVu1HV6k6ldfOlB0GKr-zOYZj-w24wVNFBgHaMcL4IVzoKDks/s1600/Untitled.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh42hVO6raLKYwmJpDmR4TxyJfkwB1APBgAqr5GnnUXUXa15EPGKxjGtJvwb14xo19E4bpFe_Ry0ScqNUulc3o-rzFWFUNVu1HV6k6ldfOlB0GKr-zOYZj-w24wVNFBgHaMcL4IVzoKDks/s1600/Untitled.jpg" height="313" width="640" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Muuto (at nest.co.uk) Wood Table Lamp £135, Hay (at nest) Colour Domino Set £39, French Connection Tray Coffee Table £190, Next Bamboo Vase £25, H&M Wood Tray £14.99</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Last week, I started properly merchandising in my new position. </span><br />
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A small professional re-orientation means I'm now working on e-commerce, so - in some respects - my efforts will effect customers more directly and their efficacy will be more immediately measurable.</span><br />
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I can't expect any really reflective results from the pages I've worked on for four to five weeks. But I've been checking them compulsively over the weekend (nothing should have changed, but I couldn't stop myself!) </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">And I'm very excited (and simultaneously a bit anxious) to see initial sales tomorrow.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
I'd like to compare sales since to sales before I remerchandised. But I will check sales overall, and sales of similar products, for the same periods - because your figures natually fluctuate.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> I could compare this year's sales before and after my merchandising to last year's sales for the equivalent periods. And I could look at actual and forecasted sales for the days after I merchandised.</span><br />
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This should tell me if its starting off on the right foot anyway. Exciting!</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01608458391146739982noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2669667192588395993.post-69071433167940399372014-08-18T14:28:00.001-07:002014-08-18T14:30:44.458-07:00Ch-ch-changes<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtGNF6r3vwQzLTs85H_3Qm0ewEtRbR8xSGaRwATLzMgVOL8u1YejSlCPLDGx_bZ8aUZrYa565I0AgD3r8J-Su0AvjipdpBx1H7Cg-pIEhZYNdqTGW2xRijNPGkjrMLzGaHNul98_ZvJBk/s1600/Untitled.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtGNF6r3vwQzLTs85H_3Qm0ewEtRbR8xSGaRwATLzMgVOL8u1YejSlCPLDGx_bZ8aUZrYa565I0AgD3r8J-Su0AvjipdpBx1H7Cg-pIEhZYNdqTGW2xRijNPGkjrMLzGaHNul98_ZvJBk/s1600/Untitled.jpg" height="400" width="126" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I haven't posted in a while, but I hope it's with fair reason. I started a new job a couple of weeks ago and have spent almost all my time since immersing myself in the new company and role.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I've had introductions to our various channels and formats and touchpoints. I've spent valuable time with people in functions associated (directly and indirectly) with my own. I've spent valuable time with people in functions completely unrelated to mine too! </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I learnt about our customers, our products, the experiences we offer and how we offer them.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Most of the time, I met with a passion to share knowledge and, in turn, a lively interest in what I was going to be doing. Then, at times, I learnt through mucking in and doing some work myself.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">More recently, I've been getting down to the nitty gritty, to</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> the job I'm here to do. And at this point, I've been benefiting from the experience and generosity of those who've been doing it up until now.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhApGzAgs8iZBGQWB6C1sUiO3OEcgxzXZ8XI9403QLhEa6UouY8EkkjyaE-nIXkangCzMUlJphpmmWPizBotatMtE6i1CGjPDPxW1T5g7Ei17PcIdaWAl_odv4MeQzsuQU7U7z2bpZUu4/s1600/Untitled1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhApGzAgs8iZBGQWB6C1sUiO3OEcgxzXZ8XI9403QLhEa6UouY8EkkjyaE-nIXkangCzMUlJphpmmWPizBotatMtE6i1CGjPDPxW1T5g7Ei17PcIdaWAl_odv4MeQzsuQU7U7z2bpZUu4/s1600/Untitled1.jpg" height="320" width="164" /></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Whenever I've had a spare moment, I've been reading company literature, </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">trawling the website, versing myself in what makes our brand what it is.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhApGzAgs8iZBGQWB6C1sUiO3OEcgxzXZ8XI9403QLhEa6UouY8EkkjyaE-nIXkangCzMUlJphpmmWPizBotatMtE6i1CGjPDPxW1T5g7Ei17PcIdaWAl_odv4MeQzsuQU7U7z2bpZUu4/s1600/Untitled1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: center;"><br /></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I've never experienced such a comprehensive, expansive induction, and I'm so grateful for it. I'm left hoping I've made the most and that I've learnt enough!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So after two great years in my previous job, lots of changes. And lots to write about in the future, I think!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Pic 1 - Mara Hoffmann for Anthropologie Notebook £12, French Connection Wanda CrossBody Bag £85, Clarks Busby Jazz £69.99</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Pic 2 - Lamy AL-Star Fountain Pen £23.95, Liberty Blue Edge A5 Notebook £16.95, LK Bennett Leonie Patent-Leather Cluch £185, Apologie Pumps £250 at Shoescribe</span><br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01608458391146739982noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2669667192588395993.post-58596090744895298782014-07-10T02:14:00.001-07:002014-07-10T02:14:42.617-07:00Comparative Competitive Shopping 3<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMdsSXQh4E1oP_ZREMvpo6UzLCKbKn6fQu_Mo6Q5d4LjmfNzoUmbVueP1BtqmFCeivrs_lwfxiiSEPFn4KTLlFa4fwwE1TyZ7Vogl5iMNrgt0Y6XWwXMZ6uBfo2Qa88ll1_nxG0yGhNoA/s1600/Untitled.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMdsSXQh4E1oP_ZREMvpo6UzLCKbKn6fQu_Mo6Q5d4LjmfNzoUmbVueP1BtqmFCeivrs_lwfxiiSEPFn4KTLlFa4fwwE1TyZ7Vogl5iMNrgt0Y6XWwXMZ6uBfo2Qa88ll1_nxG0yGhNoA/s1600/Untitled.jpg" height="304" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Staying with my parents, my choice of retailers for a last post comparing online to in-store shopping experience was a little limited. I planned to do homeware, but there's not much available in the city centre - no Habitat or Heals or Conran store.<br />So I went for a brand that started out selling cushions, ironing board covers, etc. though it has diversified since. It's known for its prints and is apparently on the point of being sold.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The windows displayed bags, of different prints and styles, in distressed wooden crates. Inside the store, more crates presented homeware - cooking/baking utensils, tea caddies, biscuits and so on. The front left of the store was given over to further homeware, the right was bags and the middle was smaller leather/canvas goods - purses, passport covers, sunglasses cases... </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">A wall behind a central till unit separated the front from the middle of the shop which was selling children's-ware and stationery, nightware and washbags, and womenswear. Then, there was another wall, behind which were cushions, blankets, bolts of fabric, sewing boxes and wallpaper.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The decor - not what I went in to look at - was quite interesting. If you looked up above the products, there were local postcards, tea towels and samplers; in the kids' section, there were old abaci and alphabet charts. It showed an impressive attention to detail and evinced the traditional but idiosyncratic spirit of the brand. I was impressed.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Above the fold on the website homepage, there was one large image of several bags. As in the store windows, they were a mix of floral, spot and bird prints. They were hanging from some distressed wooden pegs, reminiscent of school pegs, and in the foreground was a Penguin edition of Sterne's A Sentimental Journey. Again, there was something classic but quirky about the book; it might also have been meant to instil wanderlust and a desire for some new luggage.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The images directly under the fold linked to fashion, bags and accessories (purses, etc.); these categories were also the first three on the top navigation bar. So the site seemed to have less of a focus on homeware, and more of a focus on fashion, than the store. All in all though, I would say that merchandise (and brand) was very much aligned in store and online.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So I think this will be the last of my comparative posts. I'm actually about to leave London and start a new job - it'll be a slightly different role, a different industry and a different end of the market.<br />Therefore, the focus of the blog will be changing slightly - should be interesting though!</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01608458391146739982noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2669667192588395993.post-5489918617748945452014-06-22T02:19:00.000-07:002014-06-22T02:27:15.575-07:00Comparative Competitive Shopping 2<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXWDqqj_WA3zRjaUPz6744h8zRTtZvMx8Voqt74031VbVdCZ7aH0jHErlQCnm1uEHcnkI_Cfp57R3qGiGQxCzDBQNUZxj7a6Me3mGcw_tL27hBCmx-DKRbC6y4H9m7nRlm-Qg36OoTxYg/s1600/Untitled.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXWDqqj_WA3zRjaUPz6744h8zRTtZvMx8Voqt74031VbVdCZ7aH0jHErlQCnm1uEHcnkI_Cfp57R3qGiGQxCzDBQNUZxj7a6Me3mGcw_tL27hBCmx-DKRbC6y4H9m7nRlm-Qg36OoTxYg/s1600/Untitled.jpg" height="384" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Lyon 4 Piece Sofa Set £225, Ray-Ban Matte Blue New Wayfarers £125, Navy Canvas Slip-On £20, Tipped Polo Shirt £16, Chino Shorts £16, </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Miami Chair £65, </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Delicate Bracelet Four Pack £8.50, Blue Stripy Sandals £30,</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Navy Playsuit £22,</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Fish Stacking Mugs Set of 4 £12, Teal Bubble Wine Glasses set of 4 £16 </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So my next exercise in comparing the website and stores of brands took me to a large high-street retailer, one that's apparently doing pretty well at the moment.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The first thing I would say is that the shopping experience in the stores I visited was very different to the experience of shopping their site. I got the impression the site aims to replicate, or at least evoke, their iconic catalogue. So, to some extent, expecting it to resemble a store might not be valid.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Anyway, I visited the shops/website last Friday/Saturday. The homepage was promoting summery products, with a secondary focus on Fathers' Day gifts. There was a great image of a man on a yacht, wearing an ochre-coloured, geometric-print shirt.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">When you followed the Fathers' Day link, a page of packshots represented the range of polo shirts, accessories (e.g. leather bags, watches), loungewear (e.g. slippers) grooming (fragrance) and gifts (a brushed-metal hip flash, etc.)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">When you followed the link for womenswear for example, you came to a page which presented subcategories, such as casual, tailored and occasion. If you clicked casual, you reached a page of stories - a light, patterned, denimy collection, festival fashion, casual basics, beachwear... Selecting one of these took you to a series of editorial images, so you felt almost as if you were shopping from a magazine or catalogue. It was really enjoyable.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The first store I visited was quite a small one in the city of London. One window displayed the festival fashion story (pink poncho, etc.) and some denim. There was a menswear window too - summery items with a nautical slant, as on their homepage.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In the store, I spotted a chinzy-print prominent in tailoring online and some embroidered items from a middle east story - really nice but not a focus on the web. Some of the rails were marked with Fathers' Day signs, but you didn't have that much of selection of accessories / gifts.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Imagery was present, but it got a little lost among all the merchandise and it wasn't always imagery I'd noticed on the website. Lifestyle seemed to be conveyed and products seemed to be contextualised a lot less.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I also visited a bigger, flagship store. Here, it felt as if you could really take your time and enjoy your shop. There were some pretty stylish mannequins and striking images. I saw a little of the light denimy story that made up the first of the casualwear pages online. There was also a good choice of Fathers' Day fragrances and gifts by the men's tills.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Interestingly, nowhere I went had much of a homewear section - when this is one of the first options on their homepage. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So online and in-store models differ, obviously, but overall I'd say merchandise and marketing messages were consistent.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The products above caught my eye when I was doing my research. I'm trying to spend as much time outside as possible at the moment (seize the sunshine while you have the opportunity!) These would set you up nicely for lazy day in the garden.</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01608458391146739982noreply@blogger.com0