I’ve just got back from a trip to the US that included a sweltering week in New York.
Not having taken a holiday for a while, it was interesting to experience retail purely as a customer, and to do so in the company of my wife and daughters. I would recommend it to all retail professionals- although if you’re a male accompanying females I’d steer clear of Victoria’s Secret. Why? Because you might be there for a while.
Let me elaborate. I’ve been pondering recently on the relevance of shops. I mean, in recent years my own shopping habits have migrated almost totally online. Music comes from iTunes and eMusic, books now come in handy electronic format from Borders online, and my running shoes come from
Wiggle.com.
I’ve found a great site in Korea for unique bike jerseys and recently got a great deal on a wetsuit from somewhere that turned out to be in Holland (Note to triathlon wetsuit retailers: I would have bought one here in Sydney but no one ever has any stock.)
More alarmingly, these are not low involvement categories for me: it’s not like I’m getting the best deals on commodity items like vitamin tablets.
Clearly shops must now offer something a lot more engaging and useful than just a collection of merchandise, even if it is in stock and well priced. They need to not only get customers interested and engaged with the offer but to keep them coming back. To use a term coined by Malcolm Gladwell, they must become 'sticky'.
Which brings me back to Victoria’s Secret - it’s retail flypaper.
It seems that the perfect bra is the Holy Grail for most women - often talked about, seldom seen. All three of my girls managed to find several of them at Victoria’s Secret.
So what exactly is the Secret?
It all starts in the fitting rooms. Victoria’s Secret in Soho comprises about 1000sqm divided into eight rooms, each devoted to a particular theme. Two of these make up the Bra Salon. The fitting rooms are additional to this and form an intriguing suite at the back of the store. The rooms themselves are comfortably furnished and feature dimmable lights so that the customer can create the environment she is comfortable with, and a buzzer for assistance. The customer is first measured in the fitting room by a staff member, who then offers a couple of different bras to check the exact fit.
The staff member then brings in a number of different styles, in the correct size, in a box. The customer is given a card with her name, size and preferred styles, and is taken to the armoire unit in the Bra Salon that best matches her preferences.
Styles are shown in the display, and sizes are accommodated in drawers, which the customer is encouraged to open and fossick through. If this isn’t enough to encourage multiple purchases, all coordinating panties are value priced at three for $30, and the customer is given a large Victoria’s Secret shopping bag to put everything in. The path to the cash register is through the cosmetics area and there are plenty of add on purchase opportunities. It’s all very simple and low tech - no touch screens, no iPads.
The beauty of the system is that when that customer returns - and, from personal experience, she will - she has the right information to go straight into the selection process, secure in the knowledge that what she chooses will fit.
And of course the same process enables the customer to confidently buy online. The 'stickiness' factor is obvious - I like Victoria’s Secret, it just fits.
I eventually did find the sticky factor in one of my own favourite categories. A small midtown triathlon store, imaginatively named SBR (Swim Bike Run) offers a clever but simple service for triathletes. They have given over a part of the store to an 'endless pool' and offer in-store swim coaching and stroke correction.
What better way to get a wetsuit fitted than to try it out swimming? And what better way to encourage traffic for this category than signing up customers to learn to swim faster?
They still didn’t have my wife’s size in stock but by offering the coaching service, or even a combined package, they could have easily persuaded her to wait for it to be ordered in. Plus, even more so than Victoria’s Secret, their web site is an integral part of the offer. Go online and subscribe to their newsletter, and you will be offered a plethora of excellent reasons to go to the store: bike maintenance classes, run clinics, swim clinics, product demos - mostly inexpensive, some free. There are SBR sponsored events and links to tri clubs all over the US. Plus a Facebook link and a facility for live chats with a gear expert - and believe me the sport of triathlon is so gear-focused I wouldn’t be surprised if it was invented by a retailer.
In a price competitive and increasingly online world, it’s the tangible brand experience and the useful integration into people’s lives that keeps stores relevant.
Think sticky!
* Gary McCartney is MD of design company Brands in Space, (www.brandsinspace.com) He can be contacted on gary.mccartney@brandsinspace.com.au