WHAT’S HAPPENING TO THE DEPARTMENT STORES?
A 120 year old Dutch Chain of 67 V&D Department Stores is about to go under, notwithstanding the latest finance help it received, the group is bound for disaster.
WHY IS THIS SO DANGEROUS?
Of course the new reality of ecommerce has caught up with the old style of doing retail, but it’s most prevelant in the Department stores. However, there is more I fear because the biggest threat to department stores are three fold:
–> Too much floor space in too many places have created a real problem in 2015;
–> Secondly, mall managers lack real retail experience;
–> Thirdly, ROI driven managers are usually bad merchants and retailers.
SOLUTIONS
Firstly, lets bring back manageable scale. Get rid of useless floorspace in the wrong areas even if that means that staff may have to lose their jobs in the process. Over supply of retail floor space in this day and age will drag down any retail concept, but most of all department stores need to exude a magnetic pull again for the consumer rather than just functioning as your average convenience store.
Dare to be different and dare to be bold!
Secondly, lets also put real and passionate retailers in charge of managing retail. Let them get rid of all the ROI driven managers that only think short term and share no passion for the consumer and the Art of Retail.
Lastly, lets create more excitement in-store, with new ideas and more flexibility. Dare to be different and dare to be bold again.
Only if one faces up to these realities, does the department store have a hope of survival.
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