Personal Stylist, new frontiers

Human Progress is linked to the access of the masses to products and services that were only at the reach of a few in the past. Only a small number of privileged wealthy members of the society had access to cars before Henry Ford revolutionized its method of production and made them accessible for the general public. Probably, our grandparents started to watch the TV by the local store windows or at the closest neighbor house who decided to 'invest' on that new device. Equally, personal stylism was considered not so long ago, a service who could afford only an minority: movie stars, politicians or celebrities in general. This is not the case anymore...

I asked one of my former colleagues, who had a reputation for spending big money filling his wardrobe, why he was buying most of his clothes in the web MrPorter.com:  'because I don't have much time to create my own outfits, Mr.Porter makes my life easy". It is true, webs like MrPorter (or her 'sister' Net-a-porter.com) among other virtues, they simplify the purchase process by creating combinations of clothes from different brands that are compelling and credible. This is what I call a Stylist phase I service. A global stylist.

Companies like stitchfix.com or trunkclub.com are evolving the online Stylist service by deeping a bit more into personalization. After requesting relevant information of the potential customer (sizes and shape, brands she/he wears, purpose of the purchase...) these companies deliver a curated set of clothes that match customers' style within their budget. Interestingly enough, recently has been published that Thread, a London based startup, has raised $8million to scale their personal styling service with the participation of Hi-Tech capital into a project that tries to blend art (Stylists) and science (Algorithms) to provide the perfect outfits to their customers (Thread). By the way, it is not a surprise that Thread will appoint Terry Betts as Head of their Business Development, a co-founder of MrPorter.com. This evolution is what I call a Stylist phase II service, since we move from generic to personal outfitting.

So, personal stylist is not a niche anymore, it will grow and more companies and brands will tap into this type of services that represent a 1 on 1 conversation opportunity with the consumer, a true personal relationship with your customer. So, what can we anticipate as future business opportunities in this area?

-First of all, I believe that there is a Fashion Stylist phase III opportunity (and even phaseIV). Today, all these services are coming in an 'static' way: they can analyze your sizes and tastes and propose you a set of clothes that match tastefully that information, but we all have history, tones of clothes in our wardrobe that we still can use. Who is going to help us to combine the old and the new to multiply exponentially the number of outfits available for us? What about our jewelry, our glasses, our watches, our make up... can we be offered a more holistic service, more personal and equally affordable?

-A Stylist service is about a 1 on 1 commercial relationship that can be easily transferred to many other areas of our life. For example, Food and Health: today we go to the Nutritionist to know what to eat and separately attend Cooking lessons (on line of physical) to become the Master Chefs, at least in our home... can somebody merge these two and offer us a tailored made Cooking course adapted to our taste and our health situation, a very personal service!

-And finally, will that 'make it personal' trend represent any opportunity for local small business? Last week my wife received the attached 'personalized' ad in her Facebook account. They found out that Monica was born in Barcelona, Spain and it is resident in the USA, so somehow they thought that if she received a design with a map of Spain, our national flag and the words 'Barcelona' and 'Spain', she would be so touched by the offer that, in tears, would order that T-shirt not only for her but also for the rest of the family and friends... The effort was fruitless, since, without entering into any political/cultural details, the proposed design was irrelevant and distasteful. This is an extreme example of a missed online personal connection for lack of local and personal relevance. I believe that there are many opportunities out there for small business, integrated in the communities where they are located, to create premium personal experiences. No make mistakes, though: local and small should not be a reason to operate outside the latest technologies.

Hmmm...Merchandising, really?

I tittled my first entry of this blog "Let's talk about Merchandising..." and I guess that some (or many) of the readers who gently took the time to read my thoughts, questioned if all that was really about Merchandising. The term Merchandising is used in very different areas and that's why it can create some sort of confusion. For example:

-Merchandisers (not Merchants) are the ones that work on the retail floor setting the store, loading product on the shelves, folding clothes at the tables, etc..
-Visual Merchandisers are the ones that make sure that the external look of the store is compelling. Normally they organize the floor lay out, take care of the windows and make sure overall the store look sellable.
-Merchandising is also what the Walt Disney organization masters: sell the intellectual rights generated by their movies and characters to companies that manufacture and commercialize products. They are a well-oiled machine to licensed their 'brands' and collect massive fees for that (Did you know that the top sold wedding dresses in the US are licensed by Walt Disney and inspired in their princess characters...?). Professional sports clubs (NFL, NBA, European Soccer clubs...) generate extra incomes thru the commercialization of products (mainly apparel) bearing their logo; they call this Merchandising revenues.

Nothing wrong in any of the points above, however my use of the term MERCHANDISING is way more holistic; a modern approach to a function that I firmly believe should be elevated in any consumer company that operates in multiple channels of distribution and geographies. The main role of the Merchants in any organization will be to create the maximum number of different premium consumer experiences in the marketplace. They will sit between the production and sales team and determine the assortments that need to land in the different countries and channels of distribution to enable the strategic targets of the company. Easy to say, very difficult to accomplish.... I will touch on all this in my next entries.

Let's talk about Merchandising....

I have to confess it: I wasn't able to buy a pair of glasses at warbyparker.com; I tried... but I couldn't. I am 47 years old and wearing glasses since I was 3, to my far-sightedness and astigmatism, when I turned the glorious forties I added the need of reading glasses, or in other words, progressive lens. WP are kindly enough to send you up to 5 pairs to your home so you can try them and then return all of them with your prescription so they can set up the proper graduation to the pair(s) you choose...all free of charge. However, they also need another piece of information: your pupillary distance (PD), this is what the optician marks in your lens to measure the distance between your pupils, and you need to find it yourself with the help of a 'card with a magnetic strip'... Hmmm, it doesn't seem to difficult but what if I do it wrong, I am pretty clumsy... really, is it worth the risk?

Don't get me wrong, WarbyParker.com is a terrific e-commerce concept, with a well thought sales process designed to overcome any potential mental obstacle that consumers might find (or create) to buy glasses on line. But, there will be always consumers like me (who knows, perhaps it is because I am not one of those Millennials geeks but a proud Generation X scout) that will prefer to be attended by an optician who will give them a professional advice on the kind of glasses that fits better with their shape of face and who, at the end of the sale, will measure their PD...

I love watches, I own a small collection, definitely less units than what I would love to have and for sure way more than what my wife think I need... I say that it is an investment, it is not... Anyway, my favorite brand is Rolex but I would never buy a Rolex in an Rolex-only-store, why? Because buying a high-end watch, a master piece of manual craftsmanship, is a very special event and I need to feel that I am giving other brands and models the same chances to be bought; I also need the expert advice of a sales clerk who, in the end, will probably confirm that I need to buy the model I thought I will buy even before I set a foot in the store.

I also love to drink coffee, not those massive mugs of lattes or similar that you can buy anywhere in the world but just a simple shot of expresso (perhaps with a little bit of milk); when it comes to a cup of coffee for me, less is more and sugar is a must. Have you ever bought coffee at an official NESPRESSO store? If you haven't done it, I would strongly recommend you to swing by one of these outlets and, if yes, I am sure that you will agree that the consumer experience is absolutely premium (store lay out, visual merchandising, customer service...); I have to admit that I receive a better treatment buying a few boxes of Livanto Cupsoles in a Nespresso store that cost me less than $50 than my experience buying my last car of a pretty premium brand whose name I will spare in this blog. As a result, I am consuming now more coffee than before.

On the tittle of this entry I was proposing to talk about Merchandising, and that's what all of this is about. Mastering the basics of Merchandising, companies will be able to maximize the number of premium retail consumer experiences and hence maximize their revenues in the long term:

-The online channel is, without any doubt, the one that offers the maximum potential of growth; some companies (many) will have to figure out how they will play in this area before the train has left the station and it is too late. Some others, like WarbyParker started online but perhaps will have to explore the possibilities that a brick and mortar expansion can offer them to reach, for example, risk-averse consumers like me.

-Obviously, it is easier to control your own retail and many companies are expanding what they call their Direct To Consumer operations, opening their brand only stores in different formats (flagship stores, inline stores, factory, etc...). This represents a tremendous opportunity to connect with their consumer without any bias and if the retail is done properly an extra margin generator thru the vertical operations. But, not every company can or should create their own stores and definitely not all consumers want to buy alway in a mono brand environment, no matter how much loyal they are for a given brand, like Rolex.

-Sometimes the opposite of Premium is not 'cheap' but ordinary. Any brand can present themselves in a premium way even in an entry level retail environment as long as they do it an extraordinary way. Nespresso stores are premium and different to a general grocery outlet where you can buy a bag of coffee beans. The final product, the cup of coffee, is pretty much the same, the buying experience is different  and the consumption of coffee at home has increased because there are more way to have access to the same product. Consumer companies need to figure out how they build their product lines to assort different retail propositions; if they do it successfully, they will achieve a healthy long term growth.

In the next entries of this blog I will talk about the different aspects of the Merchandising function and how if implemented properly in the modern organizations can be a key enabler to achieve the strategic objectives of any corporation.