VM Unleashed

The ‘ZtoA of Retail Disruption’ blog

Tim Radley 'The ZtoA of Retail Disruption'

The 6 Best Retail Strategies for 2022: No.6 Retail People Strategies

People: The shopkeepers of today Select any retail business, and you are most likely to discover a culture of colleague collaboration, trust and respect. However, retail has a chequered history of human resource management and interpersonal approaches, to say the least. Even in the best run businesses today there is still plenty of scope for further innovation and disruption to the traditional personnel models. Overall, there is a growing appreciation-

The 6 Best Retail Strategies for 2022: No.5 Sustainability Strategies

Sustainability: Making more from less Time has long passed, from when a sustainable initiative was not much more than a smart marketing strategy. Sustainability has now irreversibly developed into something essential to establish commercial traction with many customers. Responsibility for sustainability has also shifted, from the marketing department to every department across a business. Products are being held up as icons of the sustainable age, and so too are the-

The 6 Best Retail Strategies for 2022: No.4 Physical Shop Strategies

Physical shops: Places in our hearts & minds COVID was supposed to be the death knoll for physical shops. It was of course immensely damaging and resulted in many shops closing and businesses folding. Customers naturally migrated to digital channels, some permanently and others temporarily. Despite the whole channel being closed, the physical shop, in its best incarnations has already continued to bounce back. Despite everything, it is still the-

The 6 Best Retail Strategies for 2022: No.3 Supply Chain Strategies

Supply Chain Partners: In the same boat together The relationship with suppliers has never been so important. The COVID lockdown exposed the dangers of weak supplier integration, whilst the move to remote digital communications highlighted the opportunities for technology applications across new supply chains. Trust between some suppliers and retailers hit an all-time low as orders were cancelled and payments frozen. The repercussions of such actions will set back the-

The 6 Best Retail Strategies for 2022: No.2 Product Assortment Strategies

The Product Assortment. ‘The Crowning of the King’ ‘The Product is King’ or so the old-adage goes. It seems strange to doubt this statement. After all, retail is the process of bringing the product and the customer together. Product is still at the heart of retail, of course, but its role as ‘absolute king’ is changing. Whilst in some businesses it is still everything, in others it is just a-

The 6 Best Retail Strategies for 2022: No.1 Touchpoint & Location Strategies

Touchpoints: ‘Taking it to the customer’ The relationship is shifting from distinctive channels to a continuously changing number of touchpoints. These touchpoints cut across digital and physical channels. They are used by the customer as they please, often with little predictability. Speaking of channels is irrelevant. It is one brand delivering retail services to a transient customer. The touchpoints are used by the customer in two fundamental ways. For inspiration-

Made.com: fabricating a new approach to furniture

Made.com: fabricating a new approach to furniture Made.com was founded in 2010, as an online retail enterprise. As a product of recent times, it exhibits the same entrepreneurial culture, a desire to innovate, and an appetite to disrupt the traditional way of doing things in its own sector, as other digital-first businesses. Imagine a furniture concept that throws out the baggage of the traditional ways and re-invents the whole process-

What are the 6 ‘Astute Strategies‘ for 2022?

Creating a balanced organisation, flexible process flows, and a culture for change will benefit you little, unless you channel these attributes correctly into the brightest opportunities. Every retailer will have different opportunities that will depend on the product and service sectors that they inhabit, the markets in which they operate, their level of ambition and current delivery, and their business strategy. Some opportunities will be common to all. The first-

Building the Retail Organisation of 2022: The Retail Business Funnel

A Complex ‘House of Cards’ ‘The journey to being a modern retail organisation’ will take us on a path through brand propositions, organisational structures, process flows, functional teams, support teams, innovations teams, and external collaborators, all bound together within a dynamic business model which is digital-first. We need to bring together the stability of the organisation, with the dynamics of retail markets and customer behaviour patterns. It is always important-

“Saving Planet Retail” Encouraging Lifecycles with the Customer

Lifecycles with the customer The retail industry’s awareness and considerations about the product lifecycle must now be extended forwards to the customer purchase, their relationship with the product, and its disposal. The retail lifecycle must evolve into the product lifecycle. Changes in retailer mentality The solution is to make more use, and more uses, of what the customer buys. To turn away from the throwaway, to embrace and enjoy possessions.-

“Saving Planet Retail” From ‘Economies of Scale’ to ‘Scale of Economies!’

From ‘Economies of Scale’ to ‘Scale of Economies!’ The principle behind making money from ‘economies of scale’ is to produce high volumes of products, which reduces the individual unit cost. The more you make and the more you sell the greater the margin and the greater the profit. ‘Economies of scale’ profit is made in the buying process. The principle behind making money from ‘scale of economies’ is to generate-

Zara: moving stylishly from linear to lateral processes

Zara: moving stylishly from linear to lateral processes Linear processes push product through the system and into shops. They make money from buying & supply efficiency. Lateral processes consider at every stage the qualitative attributes of the product. They enhance and add-value to the assortment. They make money from selling. From selling more, and selling better. Zara at its inception, disrupted the balance of linear and lateral processes in its-

Apple: a business designed on simplicity

Apple: a business designed on simplicity The best advice I ever received in Design College? Keep things as simple as possible. The temptation always when seeking beauty through design is to add more ‘beautiful’ elements to it. In fact, the way to design beauty is to be brave enough to remove as much as you dare to reveal the absolute beauty of simplicity. I’m sure that Apple needs no more-

Online retailing is becoming ‘expert in ‘selling’ but forgetting ‘how to give’

Online retailing is becoming ‘expert in ‘selling’ but forgetting ‘how to give’ I am sure I am not the only one to have been disappointed and disgusted at the condition of some products that arrive on my doorstep, from online retailers. My latest experience was the receipt of some ladies coats from one of the largest online fashion specialists. A business whose strategy I have up until now admired. The-

The Evolution of Inventory

The Evolution of Inventory Agile retail businesses are shifting the supply chain to support a major strategic and operational focus on new inventories. The traditional approach of producing an inventory which is then sold, as much as is possible, is being transformed into an approach where a partly, or fully, virtual inventory is showcased as much as possible, and then produced to order. The enablers of the new processes are-

Introducing the new book ‘Meaning in the Retail Madness’

How to be an essential retailer Every retailer must now be essential, supporting the emotional lifestyle and well-being of the customer, as well as simply supplying products.‘Meaning in the Retail Madness’ explains how touchpoints have replaced channels, how linear supply chains will become circular, why assortments are increasingly virtual, how physical is turning to local, and why products and shops are not necessarily made for each other anymore.It supplies a-

What makes a retailer essential?

What makes a retailer essential? Our viewpoint of what an essential retailer is has been re-focused by the covid19 era. Consumer goods were put into perspective within the wider social context. The people in our lives, and those who effect our lives, were recognised with a new clarity as being essential. The existential threats and the exciting opportunities now emerging for many retailers have been growing for some time. What-

The Land of Creativity: The Future for Visual Merchandising

The Promised Land of Creativity: The Future for Visual Merchandising There’s always much talk about the future of visual merchandising but surprisingly little about the evolution of the role of the visual merchandiser. It’s almost as though beautiful stores happen by magic. And that misconception is certainly one that still holds back the VM profession, its recognition and rewards. However, all markets and individual retailers are on a retail journey.-

Community Location Planning: A Circular Approach

Community Location Planning: A New Angle on a Circular Approach Retailers are having to drastically re-think many of their commercial practices. Location planning departments will be at the head of the queue when it comes to looking for new answers. Scratching their heads for an alternative strategic approach to where and why they open and close stores. Traditional traffic analysis and demographic profiling should still be the bedrock of decision making.-