Listing issues? – Try shopgifting…

Instead of wasting time trying to wind down on Saturday and gearing up again on Sunday, why not devote this weekend to ‘shopgifting’ in stores that have so far resisted your presentational skills?

Follow Julian Evans' lead and "shopgift" them onto shelves.

Julian Evans founded his children's wallpaper murals company Walltastic eight years ago, growing it into a £2m-turnover international business, but sells very little in the UK.

Following rejection by all UK retailers, the founder of Walltastic* childrens’ murals has been shopgifting i.e. strategically placing his goods in store, so customers pick it up and try to buy it (causing demand at checkout, got it?).

Walltastic now sells over 5,000 units every month in over 35 countries, and has products stocked in large online retailers such as Amazon as well as 150 other online shops specialising in homeware and children's goods.

Why not have a really different weekend, from the NamNews Team?

High Street Silver Lining…?

Given falling rents on UK High Streets, Crate & Barrel, the US homeware chain, is just one of a handful of overseas retailers heading for London to open new stores, despite tough times on the high street.

The Chicago-based, German owned company is planning to bring CB2, a smaller version of the Crate & Barrel concept, to the UK and is in talks with UK landlords to find small 5,000 sq ft stores

CB2 is joined by Marmot, a Californian-based outdoor clothing and equipment retailer that was founded in the 1970s, is set to open stores in London and the South-east.

The Spanish young fashion chain, Coolway, is close to signing leases for two stores in London and Bluewater, while the Portuguese group, Sacoor Brothers, has also entered into agreements to open shops in the South-east.

US retailers American Eagle, Victoria's Secret and Forever 21 are all planning new stores in the UK, and last week the New York-based womenswear brand Kate Spade signed up for a 10-year lease on a Sloane Square store, which will open in September.

The right place at the right time...?

UK unveils first ATM for gold…

Given the pressure on sterling and economic uncertainties this weekend, why not avail of the new gold-to-go machine at Westfield Shopping Centre? Risk-neutral KAMs will probably avail of the 1g gold bar, costing about £41 and "about as cheap as a bouquet of flowers but sure not to wither", an offer that may prove irresistible to partners that matter….

Westfield's gold ATM will sell bars and coins in various sizes, including a special 2.5g bar with the London skyline engraved on its reverse.

Makers Ex Oriente Lux said its products are sold in "top quality" boxes and are "a great gift idea".

...and even an opportunity for risk-seeking KAMs to profit from the 10 minute interval in gold price updates...?

Go on, have a precious weekend, from the Namnews Team!

Trade credit-pulled TJ Hughes appoint administrators

Just three months after its suppliers reportedly had its trade credit insurance pulled, the discount department store collapsed into administration.

Given that retailers can enjoy 45+days free credit, often combined with daily delivery, it still surprises suppliers that their customers can run out of (their ) cash…

For instance, a supplier having a net profit before tax of 5% needs incremental sales of £3m for every customer that goes bust owing them £150k.

If a supplier’s wholesaler’s (say 1% Net Profit BT) customer goes bust owing £150k, the wholesaler needs incremental sales of £15m, in this market!

For this reason it is always worth running the numbers on customer exposure, especially in the current climate.

It can be unfortunate to go bankrupt, but crazy to go bust because someone owes you money….

Six months austerity in the High Street

• So far this year, 15 UK High Street chains* have gone bust
• Some blame the consumer, others the multiples
• Real issue is supply and demand mismatch
• Consumers are cutting back predictably in response to unprecedented economic pressures,
• Savvy shoppers demand convincing of value
• All Multiples started as 1-shop operators
• Grew by matching demand with efficiency
• Efficiency driven by shopper-focused management of state-of-art retailing
• Doing simple things very, very well..
• …and minding the money, driving down prices to match need
• Others can survive, perhaps even thrive, by doing the same
• Rocket-science comes later…

In case you had not noticed, the year so far…

January

British Bookshops & Stationers Bust, 40 jobs lost

March

Henleys Clothing In administration, closed all 18 stores and lost 200 jobs.

Officers Club Clothing shop into administration; lost hundreds of jobs.

April

Oddbins Administration, 300 jobs lost.

May

Focus DIY Administration, 55 stores sold, 3,000 jobs being lost.

HMV Closing 60 stores.

Mothercare Up to 120 stores to close.

JJB Sports In difficulty, with 95 stores.

June

Homeform Announced some stores to close, 1,300 staff jobs under threat, plus jobs of 1,500 fitters used by firm.

Haldanes Supermarket Administration; 26 stores and 600 jobs threatened.

Habitat Administration, 30 shops closed, 750 jobs at risk.

Thorntons (below) Plans to close up to 180 stores, putting 1,125 jobs at risk.

Jane Norman Administration, sold 30 stores but 1,000 jobs at risk.

TJ Hughes Administration, 57 stores, 4,000 jobs at risk.

Carpetright Profit warnings, closure of up to 50 stores

Tesco Virtual Commuter-shop, a killer-app?

Tesco Korea have used mobile phones to create what might be the most clever use of mobile barcodes. By combining QR Codes, smartphones and Tesco’s existing home delivery service, it has transformed a South Korean subway station into a convenience store.

In Korea, Tesco Home Plus faced tough competition from market leader E-Mart,who have a far greater number of retail locations than Tesco. So Tesco decided to apply technology to the problem, and came up with a really smart solution: virtual shops.

Tesco has placed large billboard-style ads in a metro-station in South Korea. The ads are designed to look like shelves in a grocery store – as you pass by, you see the goods lined up as if you were in a store:

Every item has a QR Code beneath it. To add the item to your shopping basket, you simply scan the QR Code with your phone. When you’ve finished shopping, you send your list to Tesco’s on-line delivery service, and they will bring it straight to your home.

Deliveries are arranged to arrive in minutes or hours, rather than days, so the groceries will be in the shopper’s kitchen that night and there is no need to wait in to collect them.

Just like everybody else, South Koreans are busy at home and tired after a long day at work so offering the opportunity to shop while doing something else has a lot of value. Tesco settled on commuters waiting for their train: they have time on their hands and the most have jobs, so they’re likely to have money but little time.

A killer-app for any commuter-hub, anywhere…

Add-on ideas:

- Escalator-ads: a good use for the unused space beside the hand-belt and wall?

- Platform-ads: how about making them mobile, with a slow-scroll down every aisle?

NB. To work in the UK, two vital pieces of infrastructure would be required: mobile connectivity on all forms of public transport, including the tube networks in London, Glasgow and other cities, and a fleet of delivery vans set up for fast reactions.

Alan Haberman, father of the barcode, died 12th June 2011, aged 81

He was largely responsible for standardising the barcode’s design and introducing it into the world’s supermarkets, a development that has revolutionised retailing and countless other activities.

Despite resistance from conspiracy theorists, who considered barcodes to be intrusive (!) surveillance technology, and from some Christian groups who thought the codes hid the number 666, more than five billion of the codes are now scanned in shops worldwide every day; the technology has yielded savings running into the trillions of dollars

Slow to start, the breakthrough came when the “pile-em-high-sell-em-cheap” retailers got in on the act. In 1984 Wal-Mart, Kmart and Bullocks decided to introduce the barcode and other chains soon followed suit. As the system developed it enabled retailers to keep track of inventory with unparalleled accuracy, making possible the introduction of “just-in-time” ordering, minimising the need for storage and waste, and providing a huge range of sales data which allowed greater responsiveness to customer demands.

If you have any doubts as to the fundamental change caused by Haberman’s drive, think how unexciting the KAM role would be without barcodes…

Snake-farming opportunities and threats..

Courageous KAMs with a farming/gardening bent and seeking a little excitement may like to consider rearing snakes for food and traditional medicine. Cobras, vipers and pythons are everywhere in Zisiqiao, aptly known as the snake village in China’s eastern Zhejiang province, where the reptiles are deliberately raised to bring in millions of dollars to a village that otherwise would rely solely on farming.

The original breeding method was simply putting males and females together, but now meticulous research is done on how the snakes breed, how to select good females, investigation into their diet, and how to incubate eggs so survival rates rise.On the downside, the snake farmers said they had been bitten, some by deadly snakes, and were saved only by injection of anti-venom medicine.

Today, however, more than three million snakes are bred in the village every year by the 160 surviving farming families

Meanwhile, why not prepare by having a venom-free weekend, from the Namnews Team!