Photo: Pere Hortigüela / Jero Martinez
ABSTRACT
How many stores have you seen closing down as you walk around your neighbourhood? It’s a truly devastating scene. Each shop that has closed down tells a story of pain and sadness.
Yet, haven’t you also seen queues in some bakeries that sell products that are far from cheap? Haven’t you [...]

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Photo: Marcel Germain (flickr.com)
ABSTRACT
Structural problems are emerging in the printed press industry and affecting its business model. A result of new consumer trends, decreasing number of points of sale, the sensibility of newspaper sales vis à vis special offers, and the high percentage of contents produced from agency releases or inserts. The “keep up to [...]

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ESADE recently asked me to record a short movie with my reflections on retail management, and this is the result.
This video offers a sequence of various micro themes that create a link between marketing and finance, describing how to become the customer’s preferred choice and illustrating some common errors.
It also includes an episode on how [...]

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Photo: C. de Psiquiatra (flickr.com)
ABSTRACT
Before coming up with a solution, we’ve first got to know what we’re dealing with. To begin with, if we’re talking about ‘crisis’, we should do so in the plural. Otherwise, a wrong diagnosis will lead to ineffective decision-making.
To address the crises, we encounter a good ally in the direct [...]

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Desigual stand at the Bread&Butter show.
ABSTRACT
Against all odds, there are those who are capable of seizing the opportunity to grow in times of crisis. And they do so because they have the courage to cast off old-fashioned concepts; they invest in their brand, and transmit their brand culture in the stores. They make the world [...]

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ABSTRACT
Filling the shopping trolley is one thing. However, when it comes to “going shopping”, it is not only a question of having the money but also of the future expectations we have.
Projecting an image of leadership that is in tune with the customers’ life experiences and conveys a positive message despite the adverse circumstances is [...]

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Photo: David Naylor (flickr.com)
ABSTRACT
When stores want to increase their sales or profit margins, they generally use textbook merchandising techniques.
But oftentimes, these techniques do not address the ultimate goal of a retail company: to become the customers’ long-term preferred option. Because if customers don’t come back, no technique will do any good: the shopping trolleys will [...]

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ABSTRACT
Selling directly to end customers allows controlling the entire purchasing process. This means you can create the perfect mix of commercial and marketing strategies to differentiate yourself and sell without restrictions. In addition, retailing allows companies to make branding by giving customers the chance to experience with their five senses what the brand means. Those [...]

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ABSTRACT
One of the most effective ways of innovating in retail is to draw inspiration from philosophy, culture or other humanity-based themes.
Ourense’s Aqui é is an example of a new-generation supermarket that is based on a contemporary philosophy and discretely uses technologies to give shape to the concept.

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Photo: T. Smiley (www.flickr.com)
ABSTRACT
Mercadona changed its assortment strategy in an intent to re-orientate its business model towards the hard discount. Its choice of eliminating many items with a slower store rotation history coincides with a growing trend of suppliers selling directly to the final customers.
Suppliers are complaining and ostensible consumer organisations are protesting against the [...]

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