Retail Merchandising in Fashion Industry - Case Study Example

Retail Merchandising in Fashion Industry: The Case of John Lewis Partnership and Mark & Spencer Introduction Thispaper will examine the store atmosphere of two fashion retailers, in particular, within-store design factors that affect consumers’ perception of store image and consumers’ expectations of product quality. This paper will compare two fashion brands in their brick-and-mortar environments. John Lewis and Marks & Spencer are two fashion retailers in the United Kingdom. John Lewis Partnership is one of the largest retailers in the UK. John Lewis was founded by John Speden-Lewis, who opened his first store in Oxford Street, London in 1864. Marks & Spencer is one of the leading merchandising chains that sells clothing in over 1,000 stores located in more than 40 countries. Marks & Spencer was established by M. Marks and T. Spencer in 1894. M&S had its first operations in Leeds and later expanded to Manchester, Birmingham, London, Cardiff, and Liverpool (Snodgrass 2013, p. 391). Over time, M&S has won numerous awards including Queen’s Award for Enterprise in 1980s, the award for futuristic clothing in 2000, and Queen’s Award for Enterprise in Sustainable Development. Marks & Spencer had experienced a downturn in its sales since the 1990s. However, M&S has been redesigning its brick-and-mortar stores, and this has made it realise some growth. In May 2015, M&S High Street bellwether M&S declared a 13 percent increase in profits in 2014 financial year. However, the customers still found the store design difficult to navigate. Both companies place special emphasis on visual presentation of their stores as well as their products. International Visual Company lists Marks & Spencer and John Lewis as some of its high street stores clients (International Visual 2014, slide 2). The International Visual specializes in visual merchandising, displays and store environments. This evidence shows that both fashion retailers place great importance in their brick-and-mortar fashion stores. Discussion In-store retailing is important because it performs marketing functions that enable consumers to access a wide range of goods and services. In-store retailing is considered to be the final stage in marketing channel because it is one that delivers a product to the customer. Brick-and-mortar stores deliver goods and services directly to the final consumer. Huddleston and Minahan (2011) emphasise the importance of in-store retailing because it combines the joy of shopping with entertainment options. It is also known to assist customers to select goods because the in-store retailers seek to maximise the overall in-store consumer experience. Today, technology is being used by brick-and-mortar fashion stores in order for them to seize strategic opportunities. In 2010, JLP adopted the services of Cisco Internet Business Solutions (IBSG) who designed a virtual fashion mirror which gave JLP an opportunity to differentiate the in-store experience (CISCO 2012, p. 2). The virtual mirror consists of a life-sized mirror where the customer’s image is overlaid with images of different fashion items that are selected via a gesture-based interface. This mirror enables customers at JLP brick-and-mortar fashion stores to create outfits by mixing and matching a wide range of clothes uploaded into the mirror. Another advantage that JLP customers derive from the virtual fashion mirror is that it provides them with expert recommendations for clothes that complement the ones they had selected. JLP idea to adopt the virtual mirror was to enable its customers to browse and quickly match a wide range of clothing items without having to walk around the store looking for items. This mirror has given JLP customers a unique shopping experience because they have an opportunity to edit their selection. The selection via the virtual mirror offers customers the fun, inspiration, and convenient experience. JLP has named its virtual fashion mirror as Cisco StyleMe (CISCO 2012, p. 2). Another customer experience includes allowing customers to control the screen using gestures commonly referred to as “the gesture-based user interface.” The user interface for StyleMe reflects the look and feel the John Lewis brand while meeting the requirements of a gesture-based interface. StyleMe has ushered a new way for JLP brick-and-mortar stores to provide their customers with a unique shopping experience and a differentiation of its brick-and-mortar stores. The virtual fashion mirror is one of the JLP’s merchandising strategies for capturing customer attention. JLP’s StyleMe is a very sophisticated way of virtual merchandising, and it can lead to even greater effects. Such a retailing method can even drive consumers to do impulse buying. Both JLP and M&S also uses visual merchandising to capture the attention of the consumers through the use of mannequins. Mannequins are dominant in almost every brick-and-mortar store environment. Visual merchandising is the language of a store, and it is also the art and science of presenting items in the most visually appealing way. Visual merchandising is mostly associated with fashion retailing, and there are many ways to present many fashion items to their best advantage. Both M&S and JLP display clothes and other fashion products elegantly using mannequins. Visual merchandising leads customers even to impulse buying. This shows that visual merchandising has contributed greatly to the success of the two fashion providers because it directs the shopper’s attention to specific fashion items, triggering unplanned purchases. According to Ebster and Garaus (2011, p. 2), research studies have shown that consumers make up to 80% of their purchase decisions right in the store. Previous studies have revealed that store atmosphere influences consumers’ perception of product quality. Appealing store image can even make a customer do an impulse purchase. Impulse purchase is a spontaneous purchase where a customer buys an item he/she had not planned to buy. According to Beatty and Ferrel (1998) impulse buying is a personal characteristic that makes him/her to get a sudden unresisting urge in-store shopping to satisfy his/her impulsive desire to own the product. Impulse purchases make brick-and-mortar fashion stores to realise significant sales. The main purpose of merchandising is the presentation of products in a unique way that makes them move fast and at the highest possible retail margin. Fashion retailers can obtain customer loyalty through attractive stores in terms of interior design, window displays, and products presentation. The atmospheric environment in a brick-and-mortar store includes stimuli, such as color, sound, taste, layout, space, and scent. Turley and Milliman (2000) defined and categorised the attributes of store atmosphere in brick-and-mortar stores. Visual merchandising also encompasses the design of a store layout. A store layout gets heavily influenced by the assortment and variety on offer and is greatly constrained by the size and structure of the shop itself. In retail merchandising, there is a need for a large space especially in the fashion industry. John Lewis store have large operational spaces that enable them to maximise their opportunity in visual merchandising. M&S in-store merchandising is constrained by space. M&S stores have small operational spaces. Store design presents another way of visual merchandising. The Store design is a fascinating, multifaceted field. Unique designs make shoppers tick on a daily basis. The brick-and-mortar store is supposed to help the shoppers navigate the store with ease and simplify their search for products. According to Ebster and Garaus (2010, p. 3), shoppers’ confusion kills every sale. Shopping floor layouts greatly influence the in-store traffic patterns, shopping behaviour and atmosphere, and efficiency in operations. The external design also serves to attract customers. John Lewis brick-and-mortar stores have a unique design. For example, the JLP store in Wales, John Lewis Cardiff has a glass prow that transforms a straightforward four-floor square block into something unique. The wall is double grazed with a glass enamel frit technique. The double grazing creates a uniquely coloured pattern. This design is considered to be the most substantial retail development in the city for 30 years. Peter Jones store in Sloane Street, London is another example of unique exterior design. Peter Jones is one of the Grade II listed buildings, and it features the first curtain wall in Britain. Most recently, JLP renovated the wall and transformed Peter Jones into a modern departmental store. John Lewis designs its brick-and-mortar fashion stores for long term using a consistent architecture language which enables JLP to achieve the simple elegance of JLP style. The JLP, Leicester store exterior design is a celebration of the historic importance of the area’s textile industry. The design of the Liverpool branch is a representation of a focal point that links the city’s commercial district to its historic waterfront (JLP 2014, p. 32). The interior design of a fashion store plays a significant role in the success of that business. According to Rafiq (2014, p. 173), the interior comprises the ceiling, walls, floor, and lighting among other items for the presentation of merchandise. The design and layout of a brick-and-mortar store must provide the backdrop to best present the merchandise mix a number of typical layouts for some specific areas of retail design. The fashion brick-and-mortar stores are commonly referred to as boutiques. The sales floor, walls, and the roof should be built around a shopping theme that focuses on the individuality of the fashion items. A less than inspiring shopping experience within the stores was one of the contributing factors to the downfall of Marks & Spencer in the late 1990s. However, M&S has taken steps to address the problem, and this has revived the company. Currently, both companies under investigation have been the key instigators in the development of the UK’s National Vocational Qualification in Visual merchandising which was launched in 1998 (Varley 2011, p. 173). In 2011, Marks & Spencer announced the plans to segment its stores in order to create a more in-store environment and to enable the customer to navigate the store easily (The Guardian 2015). The Urban Salon Architects newly designed the store in 2009. The aim of using the services of Urban Salon Architects was to create a unique and desirable shopping experience and appeal of the in-store clothing brands to younger and more fashion-conscious customers. Urban Salon Architects offered an in-store design that has helped to transform M&S. The design was produced after the consultation of Company’s history and imagined future in-store retail trends. The architectural design was rolled out, and it created consistency across the company’s varied architectural portfolio. The refurbishment of M&S store design represented the largest retail refurbishment plan project in Europe. The majority of increased in-store sales at M&S has been attributed to Urban Salon’s refurbishment of M&S. The new Marks & Spencer in-store design is defining the UK shopping experience (Urban Salon 2010). The Liverpool store interior has brighter atmospheric lighting and free-flow walkways. The Liverpool store is the one that offers the widest selection of M&S fashion items which include menswear, women wear, children wear and a wide range of beauty products. The store also has trained bra-fitters who have the ability to measure by sight. The store has a fresh and modern look. The new look includes a new exterior, new-style store interior, and bespoke clothing display equipments such as mannequins. The new M&S look offers the customers a good in-store shopping experience. After numerous negative results, Urban Salon Architects helped M&S redesign its environment and make it right (Burns 2013, p. 223). The much praised design made M&S stores brighter, lighter and more contemporary. It featured white tiles in clothing units replacing carpets and laminate flooring, new display styles, staff uniforms, and mannequins among other features. Another merchandising strategy that led to the transformation of M&S was the improvement of its service levels by investing in customer training programme. The training was based around Mary Gober Method and dubbed “Your M&S – Our Service Style” (p. 224). Nevertheless, M&S is facing a lot of competition from other renowned fashion retailers such as John Lewis, and Sainsbury among others. The intense competition made its profits before tax to drop from €781 million in 2011 to €658 million in 2012 (Burns 2013, p. 224). The attitude of the employees also influences the customer’s choice. John Lewis Partnership is a byword for honesty, quality, and great customer care in the United Kingdom. In-store customers are assured that they will receive assistance from JLP employees. Employees make JLP great at buying and merchandising and at refreshing the ranges. JLP employees are highly motivated by the fact that they are also partners who share in company’s profits. Therefore, customer satisfaction in brick-and-mortar shopping environment remains high. It is also important to focus on the principles of balance and promotion. John Lewis focuses on the basic principles of balance and proportion that are vital to successful visual merchandise display (Bailey and Baker 2014, p. 26). In a symmetrical display, the format or design is identical in either side. This is commonly known as a formal display. John Lewis uses a symmetrical display in its brick-and-mortar stores. This format is used to present a clean and clear product layout, making it easy for customers to shop in a methodical and sequential way. Vetter, Poggio and Bulthoff (1994, p. 18) emphasised the importance of symmetry. Conclusion In conclusion, visual merchandising plays a very important role in the brick-and-mortar fashion stores. JLP’s case of Virtual Fashion Mirror and the visual merchandising exploration of the two companies under investigation have shown that fashion consumers are no longer influenced by the sellers. Instead, they are influenced by showcases, a product of the merchandiser. Store design and the overall in-store shopping environment for fashion stores is the key determinant of how much time the shopper is going to spend in the store. Visual merchandising in fashion stores through store design and item display is important because it can either make the customer to come back or not. Consumers respond to store characteristics such as lighting, floor layout, friendly environment, and unique product displays among others. Brick-and-mortar stores have also been linked to a number of benefits including increased possibility of sales, increased likelihood for a customer to return, and increased time spent in the store. Brick-and-mortar fashion stores are known to have unique merchandising strategies such as music and desirable atmospheres, unique displays, and window displays among others. References Beatty, S. and Ferrell, E. 1998. Impulse buying: Modeling its precursors. Journal of Retailing. 74(2), pp. 169-191 Burns, P. 2013. Corporate Entrepreneurship: Innovation and Strategy in Large Organizations. London: Palgrave Macmillan. Cisco. 2014. Leading U.K. Retailer, John Lewis, Pilots Unique Cisco StyleMe Fashion Mirror to Help Capture More Cross-Channel Shoppers. Available at https://www.cisco.com/web/about/ac79/docs/retail/John-Lewis-and-Cisco-Virtual-fashion-mirror-case-study.pdf John Lewis Partnership. 2014. The John Lewis Effect. Available at http://www.johnlewispartnership.co.uk/content/dam/cws/pdfs/our%20responsibilities/our%20communities/Local%20investment/The%20John%20Lewis%20effect.pdf Rafiq, M. 2014. Principles of Retailing. Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan. Snodgrass, M. 2015. World Clothing and Fashion: An Encyclopedia of History, Culture, and Social Influence. New York: Routledge. The Guardian. 2015. Marks & Spencer reveals 13% profit rise and store revamp. Available at http://www.theguardian.com/business/2011/may/24/marks-and-spencer-profits-rise Urban Salon. 2010. A new store design and architectural strategy for Marks & Spencer. Available at http://www.urbansalonarchitects.com/marks-and-spencer/ Varley, R. 2001. Retail Product Management: Buying and Merchandising. New York: Routledge. Vetter, T., Poggio, T. and Bulthoff, H. 1994. The Importance of Symmetry and Virtual Views in Three-Dimensional Object Recognition. Current Biology, 4, pp. 18-23. Read More