What a Wonderful Retail Experience!

My cousin came into town this weekend and we decided to go downtown on Sunday afternoon to eat lunch and do a little shopping. After eating at Basics we walked around stopping in different stores such as Island Passage, Urge of Edge, and finally Aqua Fedora. When we walked into Aqua Fedora there was one women working and she was sitting behind the counter. We commented on how awesome the record player (playing Led Zeppelin) was in the store and how the paintings on the walls gave the store a really cool personality. As we walked around the small shop the sales representative talked about our style, bonnaroo, and what type of music we liked. This was the first time either of us had ever been in Aqua Fedora and the look of the store already made a great impression on us but because the employee was so friendly and personable it made us like the store that much better.

I read this article titled “One Size Fits all approach doesn’t work for Retail” and it pretty much sums up my experience at Aqua Fedora. It explains that retailers must refresh their strategy so their operating model can quickly respond to changes and trends in the marketplace and among their customers. It says how important improving the in-store customer experience is by connecting the employees and the physical with the customers. It is important for retailers to differentiate themselves by reconfiguring talent, physical space and store operations to meet or exceed customer expectations. I think Aqua Fedora does this very well and I would recommend friends to go there and check them out!  

http://www.retailingtoday.com/article/one-size-fits-all-approach-doesnt-work-retail

Tweeting in the World of Fashion!

I read an article today from the UNCW library database online about fashion in the marketing industry. It was interesting to find that many companies are hiring people exclusively to manage social media. For example, Dallas from Neiman Marcus hired Jean Scheidnes to send out tweets full time for the luxury retailer. Jean talks about how wonderful her job is by saying: "Yes, yes, I get paid to look at the most beautiful fashion in the world and I get to meet designers and I get to tweet and write about it."

This shows how important social media is in the fashion industry. It gives followers the inside scoop on not only what's being sold in the stores but also what's happening in the stores. There aren't many people (especially women) who want to be fashion backward. Social media such as Twitter helps consumers become fashion forward by tweeting about fashion shows, new deals or taking pictures of upcoming merchandise. It's a way consumers can be invloved with the brand they know and love.

After reading this article I felt the need to check out Neiman Marcus on Twitter and see what Jean tweets about. These are two tweets I found, each provided a picture:



Clothes for the tribal story.



Colorful clutches and small #handbags at Ken's shoot

Jean is showing off the clothing and handbags and tweeting about it to exaclty 56,873 followers and counting. Each follower sees these tweets, takes a look at the pictures and then hopefully decides she needs these items and makes her way to Neiman Marcus. After undergoing a successful purchase they then Tweet back to Neiman Marcus telling them how great their service and quality of purchase was, making Twitter a way to communicate from retailer to consumer (or vice versus).

Jean is educating and hearing back from Neiman's consumers and doing it in 140 characters or less!