Month in Online Merchandising : July

Here are a couple of crisp shirts and chic sunnies, to keep and look cool this summer:

Uniqlo Premium Linen 3/4 Sleeve Shirt £19.90, Chinti and Parker x Net Broderie Anglaise Shirt £150, Alexander Wang Cropped Short Sleeve Poplin Shirt £109 down from £182, Jigsaw Alex Sunglasses £60, Anna-Karin Karlsson Rose Rouge Glasses €495, Eleven Paris Lusilver Glasses £79

And here's what is top of my to do list this month:

- 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.

- 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.
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. And if there are any opportunities for relevant content, I will work with colleagues to produce it. 
I am also preparing a promotion - helping to decide where and how it will be communicated, and forecasting accordingly.

- 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.

- 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.

- 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.

That's been quite enough to be getting on with for the last few weeks - it might keep me busy into August even!

Hope you've had a great month so far!

Month in Online Merchandising : June

KitchenAid Artisan Stand Mixer Green Apple £429 (from House of Fraser), Cuisinart Ice Cream Deluxe £67.50 (from John Lewis), Magimix Le Glacier Ice Cream Maker Chrome £79.97 (from Selfridges), Zoku Classic Ice Lolly Mold £13.50 (from John Lewis), Antillasse Ice Cream Dish £7 (from the Conran Shop), Rice Melamine Cups and Spoons £14 and £8.25 (from nettlegreen.co.uk), Zak Ice Cream Bowl £7 (from Selfridges), Mechanical Ice Cream Scoop £10 (from John Lewis)

Here is what I expect to get up to over the next few weeks:

- 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.

- 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.

- 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.

- Training and archiving activities - I am studying materials and starting to compile.

- Looking forward to some post-summer promotions - Initially, I want to check what needs to be done and when.

- 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.

Enjoy the start of summer!

The Rise of Black Friday

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. 
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!

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. 
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.

It is interesting that the American post-Thanksgiving promotions have just caught on in the UK. 
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.
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!

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. 
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.
And it will be fascinating to see what happens on 27th November 2015.

Here are the details of the black products above:
Misfit Activity Tracker £79, Pebble Smart Watch £99, Jawbone UP24 Activity Tracker £99, Motorola Moto 360 Smartwarch £199
Senheiser Momentum Headphones £200, B&W P3 Headphones £170, Bose Beoplay A8 £849, Sony SRS X9 Speakers £599

Sale, in France at least, is about to get under way. It was difficult to say when sale started in the UK, what with pre-Christmas offers and then '50% off' to be seen in windows as early as the 21st. By 26th, some stores were on their second markdown. Lacked punchy opening and climax - but it pulled up the figures a bit.

In France, everything is very regulated, so despite the bad Christmas, sale starts tomorrow.
We have a package of promotions - various percentage discounts on several selections of stock. Should go well.

I'm going to get down to some in-depth analysis tomorrow, but for now again, I'm just waiting.
So to pass the time, here's my pick of the remnants of the sales here and the sale in its first flush in France.

Shu Uemura, Bon Marché, Anti/Oxi Cleansing Oil and UV Underbase Mousse by Takashi Murakam, €70.40 from €88 (their classic A/O Oil and Underbase Mousse, but 20% off); Paul & Joe Beauty, asos.com, Pressed Powder Compact with UV Protection £17.50 from £28, Lipstick Refill £10.50 from £14 (what better excuse to buy a beautiful case!); Kusmi Tea – receive a free wellness tea for every €30 spent on their site; Orla Kiely, Forest Flower Wash Bags, £44.80 from £66