Abercombie Under Fire: Devising a New Approach

Until recently, Abercrombie & Fitch (a retail apparel chain with roots back to 1892), was on a strong roll — particularly among teens and young adults. This was due to its modern styles and risque ads. But over the last few years, the firm has been in real trouble. So, how did a retailing superstar fall so far so fast? And what is it doing to turn things around?
As Mallory Schlossberg writes for Business Insider:
“It’s not really a secret at this point: Consumers don’t like Abercrombie & Fitch. A recent report from the American Consumer Satisfaction Index said the brand was the lowest-rated specialty retailer. Inc. called it ‘the most hated retailer in America.’ Fortune did, too.”
“But that might all be changing. Abercrombie & Fitch has been in the midst of a transformation, and the retailer’s Web site shows an improvement. Abercrombie & Fitch showed a strong fall selection that nearly rendered the brand unrecognizable, but it takes consistency to help consumers change their minds — especially with a retailer like Abercrombie & Fitch, which may have its notorious reputation burned into consumers’ memories.”
Click here to read more from Schlossberg.
And click on the image for a slideshow of Abercrombie’s new strategy of “focusing on more classic, grown-up looks.”

 

 

Posted in Part 1: Overview/Planning, Part 2: Ownership, Strategy Mix, Online, Nontraditional, Part 3: Targeting Customers and Gathering Information, Part 6: Merchandise Management and Pricing, Part 7: Communicating with the Customer | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Wiser’s 2016 Online Retailing Predictions

As we have reported before (see, for example, 1, 2, 3), there are a lot of retailing trends to follow in 2016.
Here is an interesting infographic about retailing 2016 from Wiser. Wiser is an online data analytics firm: “For retailers, it’s all about offering the right product, at the right time, at the right price. We bring Amazon’s wisdom to the world’s top merchants by monitoring over 45 million products daily and analyzing data in real-time.”
Check out the infographic below. 
 

 

Posted in Online Retailing, Part 1: Overview/Planning, Part 2: Ownership, Strategy Mix, Online, Nontraditional, Part 3: Targeting Customers and Gathering Information, Part 5: Managing a Retail Business, Part 6: Merchandise Management and Pricing, Part 7: Communicating with the Customer, Part 8: Putting It All Together, Social Media and Retailing | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

A Fashion Retail Infographic

Fashion retailing is, obviously, a key component of the retailing industry. Yet, it certainly has its ups and downs.
Recently, MarketForce Information did a study on fashion retailing:
“We surveyed 5,722 U.S. consumers and asked them about their fashion shopping habits including brand preference, wallet share, brand engagement, problem experience, and social media usage. Nordstrom was named America’s favorite retailer for the 4th year in a row.”
The following infographic highlights some of MarketForce Information’s findings.

Fashion Retail - Infographic - us
 

Posted in Part 1: Overview/Planning, Part 2: Ownership, Strategy Mix, Online, Nontraditional, Part 3: Targeting Customers and Gathering Information, Part 5: Managing a Retail Business, Part 7: Communicating with the Customer, Part 8: Putting It All Together | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment