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The Fit Fitting Room - Part 2: Color Counts

Posted by alerttechnologies on Aug 27, 2013 8:14:04 AM

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.

The Fit Fitting Room - Part 1: Size Matters!

Posted by alerttechnologies on Jun 7, 2013 6:14:17 AM

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

Why Retail Fitting Rooms Are Awful & What To Do About Yours

Posted by alerttechnologies on Apr 7, 2011 5:47:01 AM

Fitting rooms and their service, as well as how to outfit and staff them, are passions of mine. That’s why I was excited to be included in the article in the Wall Street Journal about fitting rooms yesterday. As I was reading the story though, I had to re-check the date at the top of the page because it sure sounded like it was 1995 all over again. The writer focused once again on why making fitting rooms productive is so elusive for the brick and mortar apparel retailers.

Why is keeping the dressing room area free of dirt and dust too much for some, while others think a laser focus on tweaking paint colors, adding couches and posters will ‘seduce’ customers? All under the misnomer of service? Why wasn’t the importance of the fitting room in relation to sales and other performance metrics the true story in the WSJ rather than an episode of HGTV for dressing room chic?

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Topics: Customer Service, In-Store Experience, Fitting Rooms, Lean Payroll

Where Did All The Browsers Go?

Posted by alerttechnologies on Apr 5, 2011 2:44:56 PM

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.

Victoria’s Secret Success is No Secret

Posted by alerttechnologies on Feb 4, 2011 8:01:24 AM

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

Technology and the In-Store Customer Experience

Posted by alerttechnologies on Jan 15, 2011 5:30:05 AM

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

Retail Margin 101: Grow It or Kill It

Posted by alerttechnologies on May 30, 2010 11:59:57 AM

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

The Ultimate Cost of Service

Posted by alerttechnologies on Mar 5, 2010 11:26:45 AM

Seth Godin’s blog yesterday, Open Buying and Open Selling, made me think about retail customer service in a different way. He writes, “When the customer does a lot of work for the seller, the seller can afford to sell it cheaper.” And he ends his blog by saying, “The cost and method of selling (and buying) have a lot to do with the ultimate cost (and benefit).” Sort of a “duh," but the ideas are brilliant in their obviousness.

I posit the following to all brick and mortar retailers, big and small: It doesn’t matter whether you give your customers one on one personal service or require your customers to service themselves, either way you’re paying for it.

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Topics: In-Store Experience

A Review of the Aberdeen Group Report: "The Automated and Connected Store"

Posted by alerttechnologies on Dec 8, 2009 4:16:15 PM

"The Aberdeen Group, a Harte-Hanks Company (NYSE: HHS), surveyed 138 retailers (between October and November 2009) to reveal that the foremost business pressures prompting a renewed focus on in-store experience include dynamic nature of customer buying preferences due to current market uncertainties (40%), and growth in sales channel preferences (40%)." – Alpha Trade Marketing, Dec 8, 2009 http://bit.ly/8MDTQ5

The report, "The Automated and Connected Store: Next Generation Shopping Experience," clearly states the case for Retail 3.0. I think the current recession has accelerated the need, but it is the internet that created it. The 3.0 internet experience gives the customer full control of their access to the product and information available at a given retailers website. The retailer, on the other side, has full visibility of their customers as they navigate through products, payment, and fulfillment. They can warehouse this data and use it to build meaningful “after the sale” programs that build repeat visits and brand loyalty.

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Topics: Customer Service, In-Store Experience

Big Retail Needs to Think Small

Posted by alerttechnologies on Sep 2, 2009 8:13:37 PM

by Marge Laney

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Topics: Customer Service, In-Store Experience

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