Merchandising - Stradivarius Store Case Study (Spanish Clothing Brand)

Extract

[...] Then, the organisation of the store is rather free. The spaces are organised in a relatively coherent way. The clothes are sorted by categories (hence the interest of the involvement of Category Management). The customer is then completely free to move around the store and has no specific path to follow, which more easily stimulates impulse-type buying. In addition, this freedom of movement in the store implies that salespeople must be trained on all products and not just on a category (which complicates staff training, but which facilitates the customer's purchasing process, who, if necessary, will not be confronted with a situation in which he asks for information from a seller, who does not know this category of products at all and who, as a result, guides the customer badly or makes him wait while they find a colleague; in both cases, this slows down the consumer's buying impulse since the latter is frustrated). [...]

[...] But this rule, even if it is still valid as a definition, its application alone no longer allows a brand to develop an effective long-term marketing strategy. But based on this principle, the merchandising strategy is a pillar of the strategy related to the lifespan of a product. Especially in the case of a product launch, or sales, the products must be positioned so as to catch the eye more than normal; because if unsuccessful, then this one strategy error could be a mistake with serious consequences for the launch of a new product of a brand. [...]

[...] And merchandising is all the more important in retail stores. Due to the abundance of products on offer, and the large size of the stores. Indeed, our current society pushes us to mass consumption. But consumption is also fast and efficient. Customers want more and more efficiency in order to expect less. Because 44% of purchases in supermarkets are made without hesitation on the part of consumers, and 28% of the choice of products for these same purchases are made in about 10 seconds. [...]

[...] Now is the time to enter the store to analyse the "internal merchandising" imposed by the Spanish brand. First of all, the design inside the Stradivarius store is relatively subdued through floors and walls in black, grey and white tones. The materials used by the brand are mainly wood, which contrasts very well with the colours chosen for the store. (The colours, therefore, go very well with the positioning of the brand in terms of the product: rock, glamour and urban). [...]

[...] The brand mainly targets women and belongs to the large "Inditex" group. The Stradivarius brand began as a family business that was bought in 1999 by the Inditex group and which today has established itself around the world. Indeed, the brand is present in more than 62 countries thanks to its 925 stores. France now has 27 stores of the Spanish brand. But what about its merchandising? First, we will analyse the storefront of one of the brand's stores. It is, therefore, a question of analysing "external merchandising". [...]