Upsell in the air!

Free discount - Retailcoaster.comAmsterdam Airport: time to leave the country! This time not for work but for a once in a life time experience: travelling the world for the next 9 to 12 months together with my wife. Exploring culture, nature and the theme park industry on the other side of the world.

We are heading to the KLM lounge to get some drinks prior boarding. Nothing special to post about the lounge since all services are complementary. Once on 33.000 feet after our breakfast KLM started to increase the Average Transaction Value with their inflight shopping program: Sky High Collection. I fly frequently with KLM and used to see the shopping cart being pushed through the isle after the announcement via the speakers. I always wondered what the average spend onboard was. Actually I still do since I have never seen any passenger purchasing a Mont Blanc watch or KLM merchandise. Of course I have seen passengers on flights like Ryan Air or Air Asia spending on board but that was on food. Continue reading Upsell in the air!

Key elements in managing staff

Like the bigger companies I have worked for: I use to say that staff is the most important capital of the business: they make it or break it. All companies I worked for had core values referring to you as a person and that we as managers take care of you and do not treat you as a number. However despite the fact that we have it written on paper, advertised on the intranet or communicating during the recruitment process there are times we easily forget the value of staff. Exactly these periods were we are losing the focus on our teams are the most important ones: peak season or key trade periods. Teams are at maximum size, operation is at full speed and now it is time to make the difference. During peak trading the pressure on all of us is the highest especially when you are part of a multinational. Continue reading Key elements in managing staff

Upsell: Medium or Large?

One of the easiest ways to drive your sales is by implementing the upsell strategy. You should be familiar with upsell since you are facing it on a daily basis! Whether you buy your lunch or you need to refuel your car. Upsell is part of the daily sales tactics which will increase the average transaction value and therefore must be part of your retail strategy. If you never heard of upsell than you can start to improve your business from today. Continue reading Upsell: Medium or Large?

Retail in Happy Valley Beijing

Happy Valley Beijing

Last week I had the chance to visit Beijings’ most popular theme park Happy Valley. The park opened in 2006 as the 2nd of the 6 Happy Valley parks in China operated by OCT. Happy Valley has its own metro station ‘Happy Valley Scenic Area’ which creates the opportunity to start the experience from here, like Disneyland Hong Kong and Paris do with special Mickey trains towards the park. However the station just looked like an ordinary metro station in Beijing. I have missed the clear routing within the station to the nearest exit to the park. The entrance does not matched the experience of the (Chinese) website however in front of the entrance there is a kind of a ‘monument’ which is colorful and includes the characters of the park (would be better to place something similar to this on top of the entrance). So the start was not really inspiring but I was curious to understand the commercial strategy of the park. Though the right experience will increase impulse purchases.

Retail in Happy Valley Beijing

Continue reading Retail in Happy Valley Beijing

6 excuses to skip Retail analysis

There are several reasons why we don’t crack the numbers to understand our business performance:

  1. Operational challenges:
    1. Staff sickness and turn over: we do not have the operational resources at the moment.
    2. Tight staff budgets: again the lack of resources
  2. Time:
    1. Due the operational challenges we think we do not have the time to sit down and track our performance on a weekly basis.
    2. My manager wants me to be on the floor and I am not fully available for retail since I have to work other shifts as well.
  3. Priorities:
    1. We are hands on: analyzing is not part of the habit and since we don’t have time it never will be.
  4. Skills:
    1. I am hands on and this is what my manager expects. I am not pushed to analyze my performance, never did and I do not know what and how to analyze.
    2. I started within the company 10 years ago as a sales person, due staff turnover I worked my way up from team lead to Retail Manager.
  5. Will:
    1. Again I am hands on, have 10 years operational experience and rather be on the floor than at the office. I do not want to spend time at the desk.
    2. I do not know what to analyze so I do not like to analyze.
  6. Tools:
    1. I am aware of the value of Retail Analytics however I do not have the tools:
      1. The software is not automatically delivering me data on: best sellers, dead stock, effect of promotions, spend per head, space planning
      2. My manager is not letting me spend time on the calculations.

Do you have another reason to skip Retail analysis?

Product Zoning: lost in a department store

Preparing myself for the trip to Asia I was clearing my apartment and found some gift cards from ‘de Bijenkorf’ a premium department store in The Netherlands with shop-in-shop formulas from Nike to Gucci. I needed a pair of sneakers and a Lonely Planet of Indonesia. I was hunting for sneakers quite a while now and visited several sport stores before deciding to go to the Flagship Store in Amsterdam. As usual I checked the webshop first to take a look at the assortment and found some nice ones online. Knowing what I want it was time to pay a visit. Continue reading Product Zoning: lost in a department store

The value of Stock Management

It is one of those Mondays in August 2015 and your store is fully operational. Spends are amazing due new arrivals in May and you have trained your team well. During the day you have visited the stores and saw what you used to see: a crowdy store with a small queue at till point. End of the day you are checking the spend of your stores and spend is slightly below the average but still over budget. Must be an ‘off’ day, can happen. Next couple of days the same occurs however the trend is declining every day. Continue reading The value of Stock Management