Jos de Vries The International International blog overview

With the succesfull launch of the German language website we now have 6 international pages from Jos de Vries The Retail Company.

We invite you to take a look at these international websites, next to the English version www.jdv-trc.blogspot.com you are currently visiting.

Jos de Vries The Retail Company (Dutch): www.josdevries-theretailcompany.blogspot.com

Jos de Vries The Retail Company (German): www.josdevriesretail.blogspot.com

Jos de Vries The Retail Company (Russian): www.josdevries-design.blogspot.com

Jos de Vries The Retail Company (Spanish): www.josdevries.blogspot.com

Retail Bouw Management (Dutch) www.retailbouwmanagement.blogspot.com

Please contact Maurice van der Kooij by sending an e-mail to m.vanderkooij@josdevries.eu for further questions.

Retail strategy store development: Visual merchandising

Toolbox Revisited

Within a succesfull branding process, a clear basic idea and the uniqueness of the products offered are not enough. The result should also be attractive in its elaboration. The quality of the translation of the basic principles into the store image is therefore an extremely important succes factor. In order to carry out this process in the best and most complete way possible Jos de Vries The Retail Company has developed a practical toolbox. This toolbox contains all the tools to create a complete and distinctive store concept. Using this toolbox, you will avoid making random decisions about the store´s image. They will always be rooted in the basis principles of the formula.

The various parts included in the toolbox are:
Tool 1. Store lay-out

Tool 2: Store design

Tool 3: In-store graphics

Tool 4: Visual Merchandising

Tool 5: Shop front Design

Tool 4: Visual Merchandising

One of the most underrated, but also most decisive parts of the store formula is product presentation or visual merchandising.

It is also a part of the formula that cannot be developed and supervised by others, but which you should create in the store in collaboration with the employees. Even if you have successfully linked a fantastic layout to an attractive store design with the best possible lighting, your store will not achieve the desired result without a proper presentation. So this part of the formula also entails an additional difficulty.

The purpose of store formula management is to think in processes as much as possible and to develop systems in order to manage the store by remote control at low management costs. Visual merchandising should be created by experts in the store. This requires vision and skill on the part of the employees. However: you also want to keep the costs under control!

To this end, good visual merchandising concepts always combine two factors.

First, they are developed on the basis of a system, whereby the presentation can be created using the product itself, without using too many tools. Secondly, the concept is connected to a training programma for employees focusing on the use of the system created and its application in the store.

The costs of a good visual merchandising concept are always recovered. Examples are known where, without any further adjustments to the store formula, a 5% in turnover was realised plus a remarkable margin improvement, merely by enhancing the formula. Just by offering the right combinations of products. And this, without investing a penny in hardware!

In actual practice, a good visual merchanding formula jeans:
- that the focus is on the product in the store;
- that the desired ambiance in the store is created by ´merchandise pressure´
- that the consumer is almost unable to avoid buying the product;
- that impulse buying is stimulated in this way (´it really looks delicious´,´what a great offer´ or ´what a fantastic product´. I want… no I have to have this!)
A good visual merchandising concept provokes this emotion in the customer.

Therefore visual merchandising does not only determine the ambiance in the store, but is also the driving force behind the turnover. When a store designer starts to work on a new store formula, he first has to think about how to fit in the visual merchandising concept when he draws the initial sketch. This is because the desired result will only be achieved if the store design and the visual merchandising concept are approached in an integrated manner.

This chapter is part of the Book "Let me tell you a store" Please contact Jos de Vries The Retail Company or m.vanderkooij@josdevries.eu for further information.

Since many years Jos de Vries The Retail Company is a well-known organisation in the retail business. We are specialised in analysing, designing and realysing shop concepts all over Europe. We know for a fact that the successful presentation of shops and products can not only bring about a positive image but also achieve above-average successes.

A world of diference: DIY developments in Europe

By Nico de Jong, creative director with Jos de Vries The Retail Company

From my beginnings (in 1999) in the ‘Do-it-yourself’ sector until the present day, I continue to see DIY store retail concepts develop rapidly. A scant 10 years ago, DIY stores were rectangular, metal boxes with an enormous assortment of products on display. To make this possible, the box was laid out as efficiently as possible, with shelving units and a straight path down the centre. A DIY store felt like a warehouse, and the customer was expected to find his way as best as possible. The enormous competition between DIY centres has lead to the understanding that this concept needed an overhaul.

10 years ago, a DIY store was a rectangular box, efficiently laid out with shelving.

The average DIY store sells tens of thousands of different articles. Consumers must be able to find precisely the product they are looking for. Surveys have shown that customers prefer not to read signs. This means they will have to be lead around the store in a different way. Currently, concept developments featuring ‘worlds’ are becoming increasingly important. Wood, construction, electrics and tools are a DIY store’s standard ‘worlds’. However, the decoration departments such as light, paint and décor are becoming increasingly important. Each ‘world’ has its own atmosphere. Thanks to these different atmospheres, the DIY centre is being divided into departments. These departments lie along the main aisle, which is capped by an inspiring focus point. This point entices the customer to walk the entire main aisle. This leads him past each world. In turn, each ‘world’ has its own focus point. This makes it even more interesting for customers to walk into other departments and make impulse purchases.

DIY centres that entice and inspire are successful

The inspiring focus point is an essential part of a ‘world’. But due to the diversity of the various worlds, it is important to maintain a house style. This creates unity in the store. At Jos de Vries The Retail Company, we continually work on developing these concepts further. My experiences to date have shown that DIY centres that work with enticing and inspiring formulas are most successful.

Please contact n.d.jong@josdevries.eu for further information on DIY-projects.

Retail architecture - creating success in the retail sector

By Ir. Jasmijn Prinssen, architect with Jos de Vries The Retail Company

For many architects, ‘commercial architecture’ is a dirty word. ‘Commercial’ is linked to ‘compromise’ in the minds of many; the art and architectural vision must make way for commerce. People rich in money but poor in taste have the last word, and many spatial artists view this as selling your soul to the devil.
But I see this extra dimension as a challenge. In addition to the fact that a building must harmonise with the urban planning and meet reasonable requirements for prosperity, each building should strike a perfect balance between space, form and function. The challenge in designing a shopping mall is not only about seeking this balance, but also about adding that extra layer allowing it to become a commercial success. So, what factors come into play?

Attractiveness
The building must be accessible, stimulate a certain degree of curiosity and be inviting. The goal is to encourage people to visit the building more often, how dynamically and flexibly can the building be used?

Addressing the desired target group
Awareness of your target consumer is no different than for any other public building. But the design may appeal to a certain group more than others. Modern or traditional? Show the visitor what he can expect, or will it remain a surprise, hidden behind a shining façade?

Experience
People are not only destiny shoppers, heading straight for a single store. Some of them are just looking for a day out; the shopping mall in lieu of the amusement park. Larger shopping malls often integrate services from other sectors, such as cinemas, performance spaces, metro stations, etc.

Routing
What retailers will be in line of sight, which ones can you hide away? Seduction and surprise begins with interesting routing. It must be varied, stimulating, but also provide easy shopping. A boring layout does not create return customers, while an exciting view is the key success.

Plenty to think about and play around with. It is important that a retail architect is involved in the early stages of developing larger buildings, hypermarkets and shopping malls. The success of the design can be determined at this stage, success that will ultimately be reflected by the turnover figures.

Portal Store Design and Retail Management: 5.000 visitors!

Today we have seen the 5.000st visit on the Jos de Vries The Retail Company. The high number of e-mail responses and the high rate of returning visitors show that we are on the good way. The number of 5.000 is special there we started on the 13rd of november with this online version, many changes already took place. We will change much more, we will try to make it more interactive and our experts will write more interesting articles for you based on the latest retail trends.

As you probably know this weblog is not only available in the English language, but also in Dutch, Spanish and Russian. Soon we will present you also the German version. Ofcourse we will inform you on any changes.

We want to thank you for interest and invite you to share your opinion on maurice@josdevries.eu or via the comment fields below every article.

Jos de Vries The Retail Company: How to keep up in a quickly changing retail world

By Dr. Alexis Mavrommatis, Retail Strategy Consultant for Jos de Vries The Retail Company

Every single day, we, the human species, ask ourselves: “where is this world going?”. As far as I’m concerned, the answer is simple; I have no idea, but wherever it is, it’s going there at a breakneck pace! Likewise, in the world of consumerism, we no longer live in an era of consumers but rather in the era of “prosumers” and “transumers”.

A “prosumer” is the fusion between a consumer who is also a producer seeking to sell the goods or services he/she has produced or owns to other consumers. Take the eBay phenomenon, for example, or even more surprisingly, sports retailer Decathlon, where second hand products are being sold in the store!

“Transumers”, on the other hand, are consumers driven by a transient lifestyle, freeing themselves from the hassles of permanent ownership and possessions. So-called “pop-up stores” are springing out of the ground to cater to these new demands, as well as traditional luxury retailers renting their goods instead of selling them (e.g. Beg, Borrow or Steal).

So how do you keep up with this quickly changing world? While everybody seeks their answers in that magical word, Innovation, I believe there is no innovation without creativity. Generating innovative products or services requires a preliminary phase, namely the creation of new ideas that could be (and not should be) converted into a final product. Unfortunately, many companies today tend to overlook or ignore this fundamental preface to Innovation as they consider it a waste of time. I understand this preoccupation, as it has been statistically proven that only 1 out of every 89 new ideas is actually converted into a “possible solution”. But it is so easy to do! There are many techniques that can help you generate new ideas. Take SCAMPER, for example. This technique, developed by Bob Eberle, is a checklist that helps you to think of changes you can make to an existing product in order to create a new one. You can use these changes either as direct suggestions or as starting points for lateral thinking. SCAMPER stands for:

S - Substitute – What can I substitute i.e. components, materials, people
C - Combine – What can I combine with other assemblies or services, integrate
A - Adapt – What can I adapt/alter, change function, use part of another element
M - Modify – What can I increase or reduce in scale, change shape, modify attributes (e.g. colour)
P - Put to another use – What can I put to other use
E - Eliminate – What can I remove, i.e. elements, simplify, reduce to core functionality
R - Reverse – What can I turn inside out or upside down, also use of Reversal.

So go on, try it with any product, service or idea you have in your mind right now. Just ask yourself these 7 simple questions and see where it takes you… and remember one thing: leaders of today anticipate the demands of tomorrow, for which you first must be creative and then innovative.

Mercator supermarkets Slovenia: Clear positioning on the luxury segment.

In August the 1600m2 large supermarket Maxi in the Slovenian city Ljubljana reopened. The concept focuses on luxery and convenience, cleary supported by the store-design.

Regularly visitors of this Maxi are members of the parliament, tourists but also students. The variety in visitors is offered a clear luxury and fresh assortment with a lot of personal sales, this all offered in a pleasant environment due to the visual merchandising. The store concept is developed by Jos de Vries The Retail Company. The environment is stimulated by the furniture, shelving and communicatin. Various “convenience”-islands are introduced in the supermarkt.

Please take a look at the Jos de Vries The Retail Company-website for further information.

3000 time Jos de Vries The Retail Company!

Today we have seen the 3000st visit on the Jos de Vries The Retail Company. The high number of e-mail responses and the high rate of returning visitors show that we are on the good way. The number of 3000 is special there we started on the 13rd of november with this online version, many changes already took place. We will change much more, we will try to make it more interactive and our experts will write more interesting articles for you based on the latest retail trends.

As you probably know this weblog is not only available in the English language, but also in Dutch, Spanish and Russian. Soon we will present you also the German version. Ofcourse we will inform you on any changes.

We want to thank you for interest and invite you to share your opinion on maurice@josdevries.eu or via the comment fields below every article.

Food Court Maxi-Mart, MERCATOR, Slovenia

For Mercator, we designed Ljubljana’s most beautiful supermarket, with a floor space of 1,600 m². MERCATOR, Slovenia’s largest trading firm, asked Jos de Vries The Retail Company to transform the ‘aging’ supermarket concept at Ljubliana’s Maxi department store into an exclusive food shopping concept with a high percentage of delicatessen products. In creating the concept, Mercator also wanted us to take account of the historic architectural style of the department store, as well as of its orientation toward the target groups: parliamentarians, functionaries, tourists and residents of central Ljubliana.

The starting points for the project were: luxury, expert service, high quality and customer-orientation. As the store is often frequented by students, the concept also needed to contain a convenience-food department of a high standard. As the food level is a department within this department store, we deviated from certain elements of the classic supermarket layout. The entrance area needed to give customers a free-flow feeling.

As a result, linear check-out zones were largely avoided. Small circular paths for the checking out were placed in the shop-in-shop departments, Convenience Foods, Bio/Herbs, as well as Gifts. In the fresh-foods area, however, the customer does receive the impression of being in a classic supermarket. The fresh products department forms the heart of the supermarket. All the departments are supported by means of communication elements, in which graphic representations and 3-D visual merchandising alternate, mounted on the rear walls. This stimulates an intense high-quality freshness experience. The idea is to give customers the feeling that they are receiving high-quality products for their money.

With the goal of providing everything for one’s daily needs, the assortment of the rather small Dried Products Department was given a luxury orientation. In the Wine Department, the exclusive, high-quality wines and spirits are given maximum appeal through the use of walnut shelves and dimmed lighting. The market’s reopening took place in late August 2008. The Results have exceeded the market’s expectations and goals, thus demonstrating that a good strategy, together with a well-realised shopping concept yields successful results.

Jamin whetting Dutch appetites again

Jamin has been a household name in the Netherlands for 125 years. Its famous macaroons, super smooth ice-creams and assorted delicacies for Easter, Sinterklaas and Christmas have made Jamin the number-one specialist in sweets and confectionery. In 2008, Jamin had 145 franchises and eight fully-owned stores.

At the beginning of October this year, two pilot stores incorporating the new Jamin concept were opened in Zwolle and Geleen. Jos de Vries The Retail Company devised this new concept and RBM aided the construction and layout of the two brand-new stores.

Minno Venema, operations manager at Jamin Winkelbedrijven, explains the partnership:
‘With the advent of a new management at Jamin at the start of the year, it was decided to breathe a new lease of life into the company. Although Jamin enjoys widespread popularity, we were keen to know exactly how customers view the brand image and product range in 2008.

What attracts customers to Jamin?
The current store concept was put under a microscope. We came to the conclusion that the stores were missing two key elements: communication with the customer; and the focus on Jamin’s history and tradition.

We have a great deal of in-house experience with store concepts, but we were looking for a fresh look. We therefore approached a number of retail strategy and design agencies to help crystallise our ideas. Ultimately, we selected Jos de Vries The Retail Company. We identified the most with their vision. No revolutionary change in store image, but the expansion of our model store in Rijswijk into a modern-day concept.

The fact that Jos de Vries The Retail Company is under the same roof as Retail Bouw Management, was instrumental in our choice. Cooperation between all parties involved was extremely favourable. We are quickly able to translate design into implementation. Not only does it lead to savings in time, but we are well within budget.

We have high hopes for the future and we have ambitious plans. It goes without saying that the new store concept will lead to higher turnovers per store. If we attain these results, our aim is to expand to over 300 stores throughout the Netherlands.’

Further information:

http://www.rbm-retail.com/

http://www.josdevries.eu/

http://www.jamin.nl/

Jos de Vries The Retail Company: Retailing needs change

How to transfer to the fifth retail generation

Without doubt, the current financial crisis will change consumer behaviour and shopping patterns at unprecedented rates. Retailers, who want to survive, will have to radically rethink their position and strategy over the coming period. Inevitably, the key-phrase in this process of change will be ‘how to stay connected with my customer’.

How, as a retailer, is it possible in these difficult times to identify with customers and serve their changing requirements effectively? Retailers who wait for customers to come to them to share their new ideas, will probably have missed the boat. Retailers therefore, should be proactively seeking out customers and trying to understand their changing needs.

So get out there and find out what they want, take it back to your store tomorrow and … explain how much you care and demonstrate your willingness to help.

That economic and social trends impact on retailing is, of course, nothing new. The retail industry is influenced by social change like no other. Developments taking place today define the behaviour of the shopper tomorrow, the reason why the retail sector is often run on a day-to-day basis. Successful retailers however, know that day-to-day operations have to take place within the framework of a long-term strategy.

With the consumer being bombarded with a constant flow of bad news, formulating a long-term strategy is no easy task. To do this effectively, it is necessary to understand the development of the retail business and to look at it retrospectively. Current developments in retailing can be defined as the transformation from the third to fourth generation concepts. This change is already underway, but the process is being stepped up by current economic developments.

Retail generations
The traditional small-sized corner shop was the first generation in retailing. These ‘Pappa and Mamma stores’ had a strong social relationship with the customer.
This first retail generation was the first stage in the disassociation of producer and consumer. Before that, producer and retailer were one and the same: the baker sold his own bread and the farmer sold his own vegetables at market.

Later, in the second retail generation, the first supermarkets evolved. The direct social relationship between retailer and consumer disappeared. Now price, product range and location became the determining factors connecting customers with the store.

In the eighties and nineties, third generation retail concepts began to develop. Retail marketing was introduced; from store concept to store brand. The store focused on its own customer-base and, with the right communication and concept, a strong store identity was created to differentiate itself from the competition. Many retailers are still engaged in the process of store-brand creation and market differentiation.

A few retailers are now entering the fourth retail generation: multi-format concepts. This means that they are targeting individual consumers using different formats, at different locations and a different times of the week. Segmentation is the keyword in this process of change. It goes without saying that retailers entering the fifth retail generation - multi-format and multi-channel - are few and far between.

In this fifth generation, the retailer has almost total control, optimising management of the complete flow of goods from producer to customer … and in doing so, they are closing the circle: industry and retailer are almost synonymous once again.

Having to change to stay the same

Retailing is about running the day-to-day operations, especially in such turbulent times as today … but always based on a long-term strategy. This long-term strategy is not as difficult as it may seem. Just determine the stage of development your company is at, compare this to overall developments in the retail industry and connect up to these developments.
Join the fourth retail generation now and, when you’re ready to take the leap, go for the fifth generation - multichannel and multiformat - and take total control!

Doove is a store for people with a handicap

from Jan Kroon

They can order wheelchairs and other equipment to deal with the physical problems they have to solve. It sounds like a store without happiness.We choose for another view on this kind of customer. Most of them are not pettyfull.

They have a very positive view on life and why shoudn't we make that feeling stronger by creating an enjoyfull environment. Most of the time there are familymembers (friends) who are coming with the handicapped customer and why don't we trigger them also to buy things for a healthy life. So we've made a wellness departmentstore with enjoyfull/ healthy products on the groundfloor like spa-baths, fitness equipment, sauna's, relaxing-massage chairs, soap, towels etc.

To make a statement for this concept we designed a juicebar and terrace on this floor connected to a health library/shop, an informal spot where you can talk with the staff members and have a healthy drink.
The second floor shows the sleeping part of life healthy beds (components), pillows, knee chairs etc. The upperlevel shows scootmobils, wheelchairs, special bikes. To make this level more attractive and sportive the customers can test the products on a testingtrack whit obstacles.On the wall you can see moodphoto's whith a bright view on life, the challenges we have to overwin. Al the floors are connected through a high 'bamboe' wall wich is standing in the middle of the open space. From there you can have an overview of all the product groups.

Who are we?

Since many years Jos de Vries The Retail Company is a well-known organisation in the retail business. We are specialised in analysing, designing and realysing shop concepts all over Europe.

We know for a fact that the successful presentation of shops and products can not only bring about a positive image but also achieve above-average successes. But how can the retailer anticipate and react to the trends of today and the developments of tomorrow? And how do you transform a shop-identity into a brand-identity and still be distinctive from other shop formulas?

Your total solution supplier in retail!

We can help you with this. Through shop-analysis, a strategic plan and the development of a complete and unique shop concept design we provide you a total solution for your formula. Furthermore, you benefit from our long-term customer supervision and you rapidly realise the positive influence small details have on large balances.

www.josdevries.eu