ETD: 928 Cost of opening a retail store; US Online Holiday
Sales Bring Good Tidings To Retailers; What Makes a Shop that Pops!
E-Tailer's Digest
etd_post at gapent.com
Tue Nov 1 11:39:38 GMT 2005
E-Tailer's Digest --- Everything for the Retailer
Issue #0928 November 2, 2005
George Matyjewicz, Moderator mailto:georgem at gapent.com
Published by: GAP Enterprises, Ltd. http://www.etailersdigest.com
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CONTENTS
[1] Greetings
[2] Cost of opening a retail store
[3] US Online Holiday Sales Bring Good Tidings To Retailers
[4] What Makes a Shop that Pops!
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[1] Greetings.
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Hi All:
List member Marty Brill has provided Phyllis
Lanin with the information she sought in
establishing retail stores. Marty is an
extremely knowledgeable retailer, with executive
experience in name retailers like Jones Apparel
Group, J. Crew, Hanover Direct and others. I
had the pleasure of working with Marty for two years at an engagement.
List member Jules Kaplan has some information on
the expectations for this year's holiday season. Looks good.
Pam Danziger is researching material for a new
book and is looking for retailers who have a Shop
that Pops!. If you have one or know of one, let Pam know.
Now, let's get to everything for the retailer.
Sincerely
George Matyjewicz, PhD
Chief Global Strategist, GAP Enterprises, Ltd.
mailto:georgem at gapent.com
http://www.etailersdigest.com
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[2] Cost of opening a retail store
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As you may know my company Sweetwater Consulting
Inc., works with small apparel manufactures on a
variety of marketing issues and apparel specialty
chains on positioning and new store concept
development. Phyllis Lanin is looking at roughly
$600,000 to set up a store in the first year, but
that depends allot on square footage, location
and their vision for décor and fixtures. If they
can do in the ballpark of $800,000 annually with
a gross margin above 45% they should be close to
break-even at the end of year two.
As manufacturers they should be able to hit
around 75% initial mark-up which is a big
advantage over store that need to purchase their
inventory from the market. They may also need to
add other categories such as accessories to round
out their assortment and drive up their average order at the register.
They should be speaking to commercial real estate
brokers and mall operators in the area that they
are interested in opening their first store. They
can put her in touch with local store designers
and contractors and should get a good sense of
these expenditures before they commit to a specific location.
Best,
Marty Brill
Sweetwater Consulting Inc
http://sweetwaterconsulting.com/
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[3] US Online Holiday Sales Bring Good Tidings To Retailers
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Despite growing concerns over consumer confidence
and the impact of gas prices, online sales will
rise by 25% this holiday season to hit $18
billion. Although the Web will certainly feel the
effect of these negative offline trends, the
sheer number of new online shopping households —
and the lure of free shipping for these shoppers
— will sustain online sales through the end of
December. After that, online retailers should
brace for a weak Q1 due to offline gift card
redemption, consumer disappointment with on-time
holiday delivery, and skyrocketing heating prices.
As reported in Forrester Research
Jules Kaplan
Chairman / Founder
Inovium Corporation
702-254-6385
http://www.inovium.com
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[4] What Makes a Shop that Pops!
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In the world of retail it used to be enough to
have an interesting idea for a store, find a good
location, and fill it with a nice selection of
attractively priced merchandise. With those
factors right, you had a pretty good shot of
making a go in retail. But not anymore.
Today making a retail concept work is far less
about the tangibles or objective aspects of the
business — product, location, price — and all
about the intangibles that color and flavor the
shoppers’ experience in the store. In retail
the bar has been raised and to be successful a
retail concept today must offer an enhanced,
truly memorable and distinctive shopping experience to their customers.
We have begun research on my next book that will
help retailers large and small serving local
communities and nationwide clientele succeed in
the new experiential retailing paradigm. Shops
that Pop! will be published by Dearborn Trade Publishing fall 2006.
In the past thirty years we have seen the retail
industry morph through dramatically different
incarnations. In the 80s it was the explosion of
the mega-shopping malls anchored by major
department stores. In the 90s that all changed
with shoppers turning away from the confines of
the malls and their department store anchors to
free-standing discount stores where the prices
were good and getting in and out of the store easy.
Then in this first decade of the 21st century,
fickle shoppers got tried of ‘how low can you go’
pricing and instead turned to stores that offered
greater and greater luxury value at a reasonable,
though not necessarily cheapest, price. Thus the
boom in luxury retailing got into full swing,
with retailers like Target, TJ Maxx and Kohls
offering luxury for the masses; Nordstroms and
Neiman Marcus presenting luxury for the classes;
and retailers Coach, Ralph Lauren Polo and Estee
Lauder offering luxury for everyone in between
through their range of branded full-priced
stores, department store boutiques and discount outlet stores.
The Pop Equation: Field Guide to Shops that Pop
The next new thing that will transform retail in
the coming decade will be a shift toward entirely
new kinds of shopping experiences. Shoppers are
rejecting the old concept of ‘hunting and
gathering’ shopping in favor of a more involving,
interesting, dynamic retail experience. The
shops that pop, which will be profiled in this
new book, are stores on the cutting edge of the
new experiential retailing paradigm. The
distinctive features they have, called the Pop Equation, include:
o High levels of customer involvement and
interaction: Shoppers don’t just browse the
aisles. Shops that pop encourage customers to
touch, feel, taste, try on and participate in the
store in a more involving way, like
Charlotteville’s Feast! gourmet food store and
Atchinson, Kansas’ Nell Hill’s home store.
o Evokes shopper curiosity: Shops that pop excite
consumer curiosity to explore and experience,
from the shop windows and entrance through the
different displays. Altanta’s Boxwoods Gardens
and Gifts lures shoppers through a maze of
wonderful displays that promise a new treasure around every corner.
o Have a contagious, electric quality: A shop
that pops exudes energy and excitement. They are
so kinetic that even shoppers not all that into
the category feel there is something in the store
for them, like lifestyle boutique Anthropologie.
o Convergence between atmosphere, store design,
merchandise: A shop that pops presents a
comprehensive vision that captures all the
tangible and intangible elements. Colonial
Williamsburg Gift Shops and Stores are true to
their colonial 18th century roots throughout.
o Values-driven concept: A shop that pops is
more than just a store selling stuff. It is
conceptually driven and reflects a visionary’s
values. It transcends being just a store into a
new realm of experience, like Rapid City’s
Prairie Edge where we can touch, feel and
participate in Native American culture through
art, crafts, fashion, jewelry, books and home furnishings.
o Accessible, non-exclusive and free from
pretensions: Shops that pop have all the
preceding qualities, plus another essential
feature — they are immediately accessible to
everyone, free from pretensions of exclusivity or
snobbishness. The new lifestyle shopping
centers, like Columbus, Ohio’s Easton Town
Center, get rave reviews from shoppers because
they are so much more accessible than the
old-fashioned enclosed mall. Las Vegas’ Grand
Canal Shoppes at the Venetian opens ultra-luxe
shopping to the masses through an engaging,
theatrical shopping environment where the hoi
polloi rub shoulders with the high-rollers and everyone feels comfortable.
Do you want to join the above list of great,
exciting, cutting edge retailers, including
internet retailers? Or do you know of a store or
a website that is your personal favorite and that
I should definitely make a point to look at? If
so, please use this link
http://www.unitymarketingonline.com/reports2/shopping_retail/shop_pop.html
to nominate a ‘shop that pops’ for my next book.
Pam Danziger,
President
Unity Marketing
http://www.unitymarketingonline.com
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