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By Wendy Liebmann
The Grinch Tried to Steal Christmas
Last month we spent time with clients from the UK visiting stores to study holiday retail experiences. We visited two centers in New Jersey: Garden State Plaza and CityPlace, an outdoor lifestyle mall in Edgewater.
Shopping at Garden State Plaza was a most unsettling experience. The mall and most retailers in it looked as if they’d given up the ghost. As if they’d decided that the only solution to the tough economy was to put up another sale sign, turn down the lights and music, cut back on staff and hope the season would be over really soon. The mall had very few decorations or holiday music to put people in the mood. Santa looked like he’d had a ‘hard night, and service in most stores was non-existent. The products, gift sets and packaging were uninspiring. The department stores looked as they did in the early ‘80s. Try as they might, our clients had few ideas to take home—they usually have shopping bags full.
Good News . . . The Grinch Failed
And yet, there were standouts, thank heavens! Apple was one. Its windows were whimsical and irreverent. Made you smile. In one, an elf stood on a little mound of snow holding a colorful iPod nano-chromatic. He was plugged into a fluorescent earpiece. The message behind him read, “There’s a color for every stocking.”
In the opposite window, Santa was glowingly connected to an iPhone with the message, “What to give the person who does everything.” No surprise then that even on a Monday morning the store was busy.
The moment you entered Williams-Sonoma, Christmas was in the air. The smell of mulled wine and fresh-baked cinnamon cookies made you want to buy—especially the Build-A-Bear cakes.
Williams-Sonoma and Build-A-Bear (the make-your-own toy retailer) designed Build-A-Bear cake molds and decorating kits for the holidays. You instantly wanted to put on your apron and bake a Princess bear, a Footballer bear or a Santa bear for friends and family.
At $52, the mold plus decorating kit was worth every penny, every morsel.
A “Twelve Days of Christmas” theme ran throughout the store, on everything from tablecloths to serving plates to ornaments. There were bottles of maple syrup with Santa hats. Plenty to buy at every price point, from everyday cooking essentials to affordable amusements.
The windows at Sephora, the beauty retailer, stopped dispirited shoppers in their tracks. One red, one green. With a fireplace, mirror and candlesticks, and a cheeky beauty beckoning shoppers. A sexy, bold, Christmas scene Santa would enjoy as he shimmered down the chimney.
At J. Crew simplicity and color were the focus. Your spirits rose just to be there. Scarves of all hues were simply rolled and presented en masse in silver buckets. Color coordinated Cashmere Cuties (wooly hats, scarves and gloves) made it easy to pick a
perfect gift. Highlighted on the walls at the entrance and behind the cash register were 10 gift ideas for women, men and kids. It all Looked like a page taken right out from the J. Crew catalog.
In all, the retailer made the stress of holiday shopping disappear. It was easy, affordable, fun.
At the CityPlace mall, fashion retailer Anthropologie won the prize for the best Christmas tree. It was a mannequin in a ball gown with a skirt made from recycled wood, splashed with gold paint and topped off with a wonderful cardigan. Thank heavens for those retailers with fabulous merchandise, presentation, service and just plain whimsy. Kept the Grinch at bay.
A View from the Crystal Shopping Bag: Trends for 2009
Was there ever a year when you anticipated the future more, even with all the challenges that face us? Here are some opportunities
to consider as we raise a glass to a better
New Year.
1. Innovate, Innovate, Innovate
This is not the year to cut back on innovation. In our recently published How America Shops® in Crisis report, 80 percent of women said they didn’t want to shop for anything they didn’t really need, and 69 percent said they were cutting back because they weren’t sure what would happen to the economy. The key, then, if we want people to buy (beyond 90-percent-off) is to create discernably new, innovative products, services and concepts that shoppers need and want.
The retailers we mentioned earlier are doing just that.
Apple keeps adding services to its iTouch and iPhone, new colors (e.g. nano-chromatic iPods), and new technology to its iMacs.
Anthropologie’s parent company, Urban Outfitters, Inc., has opened new concepts (e.g. Terrain garden stores, a new mall Space15Twenty). J. Crew has added new service (“Just Ask”), new concepts (The Collection Store and Men’s Shop @ the Liquor Store), and made everyday products such as T-shirts even more desirable with new fabrics and colors.
2. Service Really Matters
Cutting back the level of service doesn’t help if you want people to spend. The good news is that there are so many ways to enhance service today. It’s not only having staff in the store. It’s the way you use them (e.g. showcase the happy experts up front). It’s the tools you give them (e.g. hand-held scanners so they can check out shoppers quickly anywhere on the sales floor). It’s how you use your Website to help shoppers get more information, to respond to their needs, to help them shop. There are kiosks to deliver product fast. And these are only a few suggestions.
If you wonder why Best Buy is still going strong and Circuit City is not, one of the key factors is service.
3. DIY is a Beacon of Opportunity
As shoppers find more smart ways to save, Do-It-Yourself has become de rigueur. Whether it’s DIY dinner or hair color.
In How America Shops® in Crisis, 69 percent of women said they were now making more meals at home, 64 percent were cutting back on salon services, with 56 percent doing their own nails and hair color at home. And that’s only some of the DIY trends.
There are lots of opportunities to embrace as a result: easy to prepare food, quick recipe ideas, fail-safe at-home beauty treatments, easy ways to redecorate, paint, cut the lawn, clean the house, cut the kids’ hair, wash the dog and repair clothes, among other possible choices. Smart ways to help already busy, stressed folks do it themselves.
Also, consider opportunities to give poor Mum a little treat. Most of the DIY work falls right back on her and she already has enough on her plate.
4. “Fix It” Booms
If you’re wondering which businesses really offer opportunities, think “Repairs.” If you’ve tried to have shoes repaired, clothes altered or an appliance fixed recently, you know what we mean. You have to wait days, even weeks to have the work done.
More and more people are repairing instead of buying new. As a result, repair businesses of every kind are booming. If you’re a retailer, this is a business to consider adding. If you’re a manufacturer, think about products you can offer to help people repair at home. If you’re a magazine, handy repair tips will be well read. I’m just waiting for repair videos to show up on YouTube. Most people have forgotten—or never learned—how to repair anything in our very service-oriented economy.
5. The Secondary Market Grows
Buying and selling used goods is another retail opportunity. Again, in our How America Shops® in Crisis report, nearly four out of 10 women, and half of teens surveyed said they bought pre-owned items if they couldn’t afford what they wanted new.
Beyond books, music, DVDs and cars (the pre-owned categories shoppers bought first), respondents said they were now increasingly comfortable buying pre-owned clothes, home products and even toys.
If you’re in the Home category, you need to figure out how to incorporate this into your offer. When women tell us they’ve purchased pre-owned home décor (57 percent of respondents), furniture (48 percent) and baby furniture (46 percent), you can see why. Consignment shops, vintage clothing, eBay and Amazon are stealing market share. So consider how to take advantage of this trend right now.
6. Generation “Next” Arrives
The economic issues we’re facing are only part of what’s transforming our shopping life. There’s the fact (unspoken or unrecognized) that your kids or grandchildren, who have grown up almost exclusively in a virtual world, have now come of shopping age, with their own money to spend.
Their points of reference are so different from ours that now, as they consume products and services, they will do so only if you help them shop in their own vernacular. Their means of communicating, forming friendships, absorbing news, defining themselves, valuing brands and shopping have all been learned in an age completely and unabashedly different from ours.
Over this past year, in The Edge, we have offered examples and revealed the nuances that define this new generation of shoppers. Hopefully you paid attention because those young shoppers are about to use their debit cards (note – not credit) and cash, and hopefully become your customers.
The threats we face from this global recession almost pale in significance to those we’ll face if we don’t recognize and respond to young shoppers’ needs.
Last Thoughts . . .
2009 is the year we will face a vastly changed retail environment. The issue of over-storing will finally be resolved (sadly, but it will). Value will become newly considered. After all, when retailers offer 75 percent off (as high-end luxury retailer Bergdorf Goodman did last month), shoppers have to question if the original price was ever really worth it.
In the end, with all the restraints on American shoppers, the only way to get them to buy beyond essentials will be to offer them products, services and messages presented in ways that are truly differentiating, really worth it and highly relevant.
With that said, may we promise you just that: truly differentiating shopper insights that help you continue to build a relevant and profitable shopper-focused business in 2009.
See you from The EDGE.
