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THE REALITY OF LUXURY RETAILING

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THE REALITY OF LUXURY RETAILING

Luxury retail is thriving in Australia

- as could be seen by the lines of people on the footpath, queued up almost daily to get into Luxury stores in capital cities. The recent investment that Tiffany committed to in their new Sydney flagship store also implies confidence in the local market, and Paspaley had started a process to select a designer to upgrade their beautiful Martin Place Sydney flagship store, with a $10 million plus, budget.

High end luxury vehicle marques were also experiencing a great result - Rolls Royce predicted that their sales would increase by between 10-20 percent in Australia in 2019-20 and Lamborghini, Porsche and Ferrari also had a similar story. Upmarket furniture retailers, were generally also going from strength to strength, not only with imported European furniture, but also with high end Australian designed furniture.

So, does the 2020 Covid-19 disruption to Luxury retailing require us to completely rethink the strategies?

LIGHTING AND ATMOSPHERE

LIGHTING AND ATMOSPHERE

Lighting and Atmosphere

The atmosphere of the store must be controlled, with light on the display groupings and shadow in between the display - when retailing larger items such as furniture - whereas, smaller items such as jewellery must have local individual lighting to illuminate the product in an intimate manner and create sparkle. Naturally each store’s requirements are different, depending on mood desired and product to sell.

Specialty lighting can also be implemented in conjunction with overall indirect ambient light for general illumination.

HOTEL THOUGHTS

HOTEL THOUGHTS

WHY CHANGE?

In the expeditiously moving world, it literally “pays” to keep up with current thoughts

Get Real

With guests, especially millennials demanding authenticity in their hotels, companies and designers alike, need  to find ways to maintain a sense of   location in each property’s design.    When staying at a hotel  in  Milan,  New York  or Singapore, the guests want to feel local.  That sense of location could be reflected in the property’s food, or in the guest room artwork.  You need a local aspect.  That must be the direction in the design.

The  growth of  “soft”  brands, has  made  authenticity  and  locality  easier.  For a true  “soft”  brand,  there’s  very  little oversight to how far you can push the envelope.

As branded hotels compete with Airbnb in the more in-demand markets, flexibility in brand standards is vital.  Fortunately, most companies have learned this and the “hard” brands are offering more latitude, as they move into valuable markets.  There is a need from all demographics, to offer a unique experience from every property.

The hotel should be locally relevant - and it shouldn’t look like the last one.  In the past, it was all the same.  Now, it’s not.   Marriott developed a new guest room prototype for its flagship brand, several years back and worked with its designers  to  let  owners  select  colours, vinyls, joinery finishes, drapery, tiles and flooring for each property, so that each hotel could have it’s own look.

THE 3 KEY BENEFITS OF RETAIL BRANDING

THE 3 KEY BENEFITS OF RETAIL BRANDING

The 3 Key Benefits of Retail Store Branding

1 ) Retail branding creates a distinctive customer perception about a store and also influences customer’s decision where to shop and induces store loyalty - increasing revenue and profitability.

2 ) Retail branding insulates a company from competing retailers and establishes a visual identity in the minds of the potential customers.

3 ) Retail branding can possibly indirectly decrease purchase costs,  by increasing the retailer leverage as the identity becomes better known with the brand’s suppliers.

Aspect and Potential of a Retail Brand

For a retail brand, the customer purchases products in an ambience created by the retailer, and experiences the product in a multitude of ways eg:  by the store design and layout, the quality of  the products, the product assortment, the merchandising, the price, the staff interaction, in-store and post-sales service etc.

The experience of a retail brand, therefore, is more multi-sensory in nature and retailers have opportunities to create a retail brand experience through a whole set of activities that contact the customer and, not just rely on external advertising.

ELEMENTS OF RESIDENTIAL INTERIOR DESIGN

ELEMENTS OF RESIDENTIAL INTERIOR DESIGN

THE 7 ELEMENTS OF RESIDENTIAL INTERIOR DESIGN

When thinking about interior design, words like creativity and flair immediately spring to mind - but many would be surprised to find there is a degree of science involved. Professional interior designers will usually follow a set of informal “rules”, based on specific interior design principles and elements. These interior design elements include - space, line, forms, light, colour, texture and pattern; and keeping them balanced is the key to creating an aesthetically pleasing interior.

In addition to enhancing the appearance of a room, getting these elements to work together in harmony will also bring an increased functionality. To start, an interior designer will assess the room according to these interior design elements, and then use them to disguise or enhance the various features and flaws of the space. As a minimum, the following seven elements should always be considered in the creation of any interior.

Space

The foundation of an interior, space is a fundamental concept to understand, ensuring you’re best equipped to take advantage of what is available to you. The available ‘space’ usually can’t be easily changed (though sometimes a designer may have the luxury of doing so), so you need to work with what you have within the physical boundaries of the room.

In interior design we have the luxury of working within three dimensional space (length, width and height). This three dimensional space can be filled or left empty, depending upon what you need to achieve from a functionality and design perspective.

THE FUTURE FOR FURNITURE RETAILING

THE FUTURE FOR FURNITURE RETAILING

Most furniture showrooms look more or less the same with only minor variations to the details.

Generally, the showrooms retailing more expensive furniture have less display with more circulation and open space and the showrooms retailing less expensive furniture have more items on display - packed in tighter with less open space and less circulation space.

Some have dividing screens in one form or another while others do not - and just place everything into an open space.

Most showrooms have large posters - illuminated or non-illuminated, of people sitting on the furniture with some positive marketing words about the product or the brand.

The reason for the two concepts of layout display mainly relates to the perceived upmarket and exclusivity of the expensive furniture - that due to its higher purchase price, requires the sale of fewer items to cover the overheads.

The lower priced furniture is more often promoted in discount sales - and customers generally perceive a packed showroom displaying items crammed in together, as an indication that there is a bargain to had - which is sometimes true and sometimes not.

So is this the “end-all” and “be-all” of furniture retailing?  Definitely not.

WHAT MAKES A GREAT RESTAURANT EXPERIENCE

WHAT MAKES A GREAT RESTAURANT EXPERIENCE

Customer service is the cornerstone of a great restaurant experience, but what does that mean exactly?

While each customer’s preferences are different, there are a few markers that standout restaurant experiences share in common.

We set out to define the factors that make for a great customer dining experience because ultimately that’s what generates positive online reviews, compels more diners to book online reservations and skyrockets your revenue per service.

What makes a great restaurant experience?

What consumers expect from a restaurant experience certainly varies depending on the restaurant type, but there are some fundamentals that separate the great restaurant experiences from the forgettable ones.


THE FUTURE FOR NEW AUTOMOTIVE RETAILING

THE FUTURE FOR NEW AUTOMOTIVE RETAILING

With the advent of e-commerce, retailing has changed in the way we buy almost everything, even our cars.

Many people research major and even minor purchases on their home computers and make comparisons between different brands, before deciding to buy.

Generally, they have a preference in mind when they begin the research and are mostly attempting to reaffirm their thinking.

This is especially true with cars and the manufacturers websites give them the ability to specify and “build” their desired vehicle - with the hope that it will lead them to request a brochure - requiring them to give their contact information and to visit a dealership, arrange a test drive - and hopefully buy the vehicle.

However, there is a long way between the home computer and the showroom floor.