On a recent shopping trip to a well-known fast fashion retailer I decided to try-on a few things. Since fitting rooms are my thing I always approach the fitting room area with great anticipation. I have a mental checklist that I work through as I proceed through the fitting room process.
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Topics:
In-Store Experience,
store design,
Fitting Rooms,
conversion,
dressing rooms,
color,
apparel retail,
Customer facing,
Alert Technologies Inc.
I’m often asked what constitutes a good fitting room from a customer point of view that would take into consideration things like size, color, and environment. This is the first in a series of blogs on what I think about each element of fitting room design and the impact each has on the overall customer experience in the fitting room.
First up is size. Size matters! Unfortunately, there is no standard size fitting room. Sizes range from a box about the size of a phone booth (remember those?) which are so small they make you lean up against the door when trying on, or the curtained ones that your butt pokes out as your balancing on one foot, to eerily large rooms that make you feel isolated and deserted.
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Topics:
Customer Service,
In-Store Experience,
store design,
Fitting Rooms,
conversion,
dressing rooms,
apparel retail,
Customer facing,
Alert Technologies Inc.,
Markdowns,
Margin
Back in 2003 Envision Retail published research that confirmed – “The fitting room customer is 71% likely to buy versus the customer who browses the sales floor at 28%”. They further declared that this proved that getting customers into the fitting room was good for business.
Recently, Envision updated this statistic and now states – “Conversion of customers in the fitting rooms is 67% compared to those who do not use the fitting rooms of only 10%, making the fitting rooms the most commercially valuable space in the store”!
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Topics:
Customer Service,
In-Store Experience,
Fitting Rooms,
Mobile,
Technology,
Customer facing,
Alert Technologies Inc.
The last chapter is closing on Holiday 2010 with the release of the January retail sales figures. It was pretty much as we all expected, maybe a little stronger than some had guessed, but overall pretty good for most retailers.
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Topics:
Customer Service,
In-Store Experience,
Fitting Rooms,
Mobile,
Customer facing,
Alert Technologies Inc.,
Margin
One of the sessions that I attended at the NRF convention in New York this past week was conducted by McMillan Doolittle where they unveiled their "8 C's Model of Customer Experience." The model included: Clarity, Convenience, Choice, Communication, Cast, Control, Consistency and Connection.
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Topics:
Customer Service,
In-Store Experience,
Technology,
Customer facing,
Alert Technologies Inc.,
Margin
The word on everyone’s lips today in retail is margin. From the gurus on Wall Street, to the management teams steering the ships of big retail, everyone’s preaching, ‘Enough with the cuts already!’ ‘We need top line growth and margin improvement!’ So why is it when I walk my local mall and enter almost any store I’m greeted with “Hi, welcome to fill-in-the-blank! Check out our buy-one, get-one stuff and our 40% off whatever!” Or my favorite, “…we just did a whole bunch of new markdowns, come check them out!”
I’m not speaking to discount self service retail here. They know who they are and they pay for their service model with margin. I’m talking about the retailers who preach that they do put customer service first and attempt to provide personal service to their customers in the name of adding value which translates to higher margin.
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Topics:
Customer Service,
In-Store Experience,
Fitting Rooms,
Lean Payroll,
Customer facing,
Alert Technologies Inc.,
Payroll Allocation,
Markdowns,
Margin
Coming to a Retailer near You...
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Topics:
Alert Technologies Inc.