At TGC, we develop novel,  structured approaches to increase client revenue.  We recently worked with a national resort and active experiential entertainment company to reinvent and re-engineer their grab-and-go convenience shop concept, achieving a dramatic 61.3% improvement in revenue

Please contact us to learn more about this case study.

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 At TGC, we provide our clients the most experienced industry experts to tackle the most difficult challenges faced by omnichannel retailers, digital natives, vertical brands, and investors around the world. Despite the ups and downs of the industry, we have been able to grow and expand our business, a testament to our business model and our incredible team.

 With offices in New York and Los Angeles, our reach extends to twenty-six countries across the Americas, Europe, and Asia. Our talented team is distinguished by their deep, hands-on experience and their ability to adapt to the industry’s rapidly changing landscape.

 David Ball, our President, and I are both proud to continue the legacy of our founder, Bob Grayson, who retired 7 years ago. We would like to thank our clients for their unwavering support and invite those of you we have not yet served to reach out and let us introduce you to our capabilities.

 Please do not hesitate to contact us to explore how we might serve you. We look forward to hearing from you soon.

 Thanks again,

 Kevin Mullaney

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Farm Rio, a vertically integrated Brazilian apparel company that designs, produces, and markets colorful print garments inspired by its local cultural and environmental roots, was founded in 1997 by Marcello Bastos and Katia Barros. In 2010, it became part of the newly created Grupo Soma, a multi-brand company which has grown to be one of the largest apparel groups in Brazil.

The brand began planning for its US debut in 2018 and a year later opened a store in the SoHo section of New York and then one north of Miami in Aventura Mall, along with a few experimental pop-up stores in select markets. Within a year of opening stores, COVID hit. Against all odds, Farm Rio’s US sales grew within 3 years from zero to $50 million, fueled by a strong and differentiated product and brand aesthetic and a multi-pronged distribution strategy that encompasses stores, e-commerce, and most critically, a robust wholesale network that includes Neiman Marcus and Nordstrom, among others.

In the next five years, Farm Rio plans to open between 25 and 40 new stores in the US, in addition to SOHO, Aventura, and a recently added store in the Venice section of Los Angeles. Fabio Barreto, CEO of Farm Rio Global, engaged The Grayson Company (TGC) to assist in defining and navigating Farm Rio’s expansion plan for the United States.

TGC recently sat down with Daniel Martinez, Farm Rio’s Global Retail Director to discuss his new role, the current state of the business and the US retail strategy that TGC developed with the Farm Rio team.

TGC: Our work with you included two phases: first, devising a store operating model to maximize productivity and profitability; and second, developing a store expansion/location strategy including identifying descriptive customer geodemographics, clusters of likely customers and shopping centers/districts that serve them, and an estimate for US store location growth potential. What were the most important learnings that came from the project?

Daniel: We learned a great deal, but our key learnings can be classified into four buckets-

First, understanding the customer by using sales and customer data to clearly define our US customer. The entire team, including the CEO, was very impressed with TGC’s methodology using sales information available via wholesale, retail, and e-commerce channels to paint a picture of who the client is by deploying geodemographic segmentation as well as AI analysis of cell phone tracking data, and then finding population clusters of look-alike customers across the entire US.

Second, site selection strategy. The customer analytics made site identification very easy for us and also makes it easy to understand how to prioritize new stores based on where we find more households and a bigger penetration. This methodology gave us a very data-driven approach to selecting the MSAs that are best for the brand. The detailed maps TGC provided within the MSAs that identified the concentrations of our customers, the centers and shopping districts at which they shop, and competitor locations give us detailed information on how to proceed and prioritize our expansion.

Third, store growth potential for the US and the need to populate a pipeline. We had no idea at first about how many stores we could have in the United States. TGC’s deliverable gave us an idea of how many total stores were possible. Post-COVID with everyone switching back to physical retail locations we need to be competitive. Using the customer, site selection, and store growth information and analytic methodology we could present a strong case for growth to our investors. The list of stores is broad but very specific with enough locations identified that I can be patient and confident in my decisions. I don’t need to accept a bad deal in Brooklyn because I have so many other potential locations in LA and San Francisco. Austin is a great example of a market in the pipeline for which we are exercising patience. The data shows that we could have a store there and we would love to, but at the moment it is hard to find a space.

Fourth, the need for a US-centric retail organizational structure, skill sets, and operating model that empowers the US team to think and act outside the box. Neither Aventura or SOHO had 12 months of operational history before COVID hit the US. Some of the learnings TGC shared were eye-openers for us. We were operating the way we were accustomed to in Brazil, but you made it clear that we needed a US-centric structure with US-based leadership. One of the key take-aways for the stores was TGC’s “Echo-Amplify” framework for best sellers. Before, our visuals focused purely on what looked good. After the insights, we now consider what is selling as well as what looks good together. You were able to convince the visual team of the effectiveness of this approach as well. We have hired a new manager at our Venice store with very strong experience in the US and we have empowered her to think outside the box using this new US-focused approach and the new recommended merchandising, working culture along with Clientelling. That store is now our top performer, with the highest sales per square foot, conversion, and average transaction value.

I inherited the TGC project when it was nearing completion.   My only regret is that I was not part of the project from the beginning. But in the end, it didn’t matter because the project was such a success.

We knew there were no simple solutions or silver bullets, and Farm Rio even changed the scope multiple times during the project. TGC was very flexible and not only delivered great recommendations, but the recommendations were very actionable. We are highly pleased with the results.

TGC is a consulting group that offers a full range of consulting services to retail, ecommerce, wholesale, and omni-channel businesses, as well as investment firms focused on the consumer sector. Our team brings “best of breed” resources to bear on every functional area of the business.

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Highlights frrom the podcast:

1:00 Into to Kevin Mullaney and The Grayson Company

2:25 Kevin discusses Brick & Mortar’s impact on Ecommerce

4:56 What is the right balance between Ecommerce and Brick & Mortar?

7:45 What’s hot in NYC?

12:00 How a brand should approach expanding in NYC

15:06 Target’s pregnancy predictability factor

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The doorbuster deals are set and the Black Friday ads are out, perennial indicators that the holiday shopping season is in full swing. The National Retail Federation predicts $655.8 billion in holiday sales this season, up 3.6% from 2015.

In addition to securing enough working capital and inventory, you’ll want to prepare for the rush in other ways. NerdWallet asked Steve Goldberg, president of retail consulting firm The Grayson Company, for tips on how to get started.

1. Advertise early

To attract early shoppers, your marketing needs to be in front of the right consumers at the right time. According to a survey by the NRF in the first week of November, 56% of respondents had already started buying gifts.

But hope is not lost if you’re getting a late start, Goldberg says. Small-business owners can react more nimbly than larger stores, he says. “They can make decisions without having to wait — that’s their secret sauce.”

There’s still time to use free, customizable advertising for your storefront, website and social media to promote Small-Business Saturday — an initiative started by American Express in 2010 to encourage shopping locally the day after Black Friday. Nationwide, the event brought in $16.2 billion for independent retailers and restaurants in 2015, making it the most successful Small-Business Saturday to date.

2. Coordinate employees

Scheduling your employees during the holidays can be an absolute nightmare. Amid travel requests and family obligations, you still have a store to staff and a business to run. Make the idea of working the holiday a little more attractive by offering incentives or increased compensation.

You can consider hiring seasonal help, Goldberg says, but it depends on what roles you need to staff. It’s relatively easy to fill positions with responsibilities like working a register, wrapping gifts or stocking shelves. But if you own a restaurant or you provide a service with highly specialized skill sets, like custom framing, you’ll need to decide whether you feel comfortable leaving your business’s reputation in the hands of people who aren’t familiar with the product or service.

“The optimal scenario is to have a trained seasonal staff willing to come back year after year,” Goldberg says.

3. Improve your website

This year, half of consumers plan to shop online for gifts, according to a Deloitte holiday survey. You’ll want to make sure your web business can handle increased traffic from online shoppers, and that your site is easy to navigate and up to date.

Consider taking advantage of a “buy online, pick up in store” feature, an option that nearly half of shoppers said they were interested in using this year, according to a survey by Accenture. “It’s definitely a feature and function the small-business owner can use as leverage to compete with bigger stores,” Goldberg says. “It’s a wonderful, seamless way to take care of customers.”

An added benefit: Shoppers end up in your physical store, boosting the chances of a spontaneous purchase. In fact, 71% of consumers in the Accenture survey said they’d likely make additional purchases when heading to a store to pick up an item bought online.

But a word to the wise: If you’re already behind on holiday planning and prep, now is not the time to alter your e-commerce platform, Goldberg says. Instead, wait for the busy holiday season to wrap up before dedicating time to set up the feature.

4. Review the store’s layout

Throughout the season, take inventory of your store’s layout. If you notice hard-to-reach items, congestion around displays or other pain points for customers, address them immediately.

Checkout lines are especially important; not only do you want to make sure there is ample room for shoppers, but you should also add displays to encourage last-minute purchases. In particular, showcase items people tend to forget to pick up in their shopping rush, like wrapping materials or gift cards, to help save them an extra trip.

5. Decorate strategically

When setting up displays, you want to be careful not to block a customer’s sight-line, Goldberg says. This goes for window decorations and product displays. Place products you want to showcase in the front of the store, but make sure they don’t block a customer’s ability to look beyond. And if a product is on display, make sure it’s available and easy to find.

Don’t forget: Connect with the community

The holidays, in particular, are an excellent time for business owners to connect with their customers on a deeper level, Goldberg says. Remember names, give smiles and offer extra help.

“That doesn’t cost a thing,” Goldberg says, “and it’s such a gigantic way for small businesses to separate themselves from their large competitors.”

To view the published article, click here.

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By Allison Zisko | November 2, 2016

Big boxy Ikea may ultimately prove that slow and steady wins the omnichannel race—and be surprisingly nimble at it in the process.

After a relatively slow digital start—Peter Agnefjäll, president and CEO of Ikea Group, told CNBC one year ago that the Swedish retailer “could have been faster” getting into e-commerce—Ikea in September reported strong online sales for fiscal 2016. Agnefjäll told Reuters that online revenues grew 30 percent, to $1.54 billion, without entering any new online markets. Back in January, he told Bloomberg Business that the company’s goal is for online revenue to represent 10 percent of total sales by 2020.

“On a journey to become the world’s leading multichannel home furnishings retailer, Ikea Group is increasing its focus on integrating physical and digital commerce to enable customers to shop in ways that suit their needs,” the retailer said in a statement accompanying its fiscal year report in September. Total sales were $37.7 billion, and sales in comparable stores grew a healthy 4.8 percent.

Over the past year Ikea—which had 328 stores in 28 countries as of Aug. 31, 2015— has opened 19 “pick up and order points” (none currently in the United States), which enable online or Ikea store shoppers to pick up their products closer to where they live. The retailer said it is developing a flexible distribution network to support that effort. Ikea also piloted a virtual reality app in April that enables consumers to envision three differently styled kitchens. Ikea’s full 2017 catalog is available digitally (under a new URL) as well as in print, and is available for smartphones and tablets with videos and features that offer a 3D feeling of home furnishing solutions, and an augmented reality feature that allows users to virtually place and view nearly 400 products in their own homes. The app also connects with the latest version of Apple TV.

“In the coming year we will put even more effort in providing a great Ikea experience for visitors across all channels,” Agnefjäll said.

Physical and E-Commerce Integration

While Ikea U.S. declined to be interviewed for this story, retail analysts and consultants have a strong point of view about Ikea’s business.

Ikea U.S. is broadening its vision from a traditional brick-and-mortar focused retailer to encompass an omnichannel experience, said Paul Dubie, manager at Boston Retail Partners. “At present, this transformation is still in its infancy. With broader product selection available for online purchase and delivery, mobile shopping and catalog apps, it is easy to see the retailer’s vision to offer its customers the omnichannel experience they now expect.”

Steve Goldberg, president of The Grayson Company, a retail consulting company, has been following Ikea for 30 years. He believes that almost no other retailer is as uniquely suited to omnichannel retailing than Ikea. But its slow entry into the omnichannel business does not surprise him because the Swedish giant is known for its methodical and meticulous approach to all aspects of its business. “They are extremely deliberate about everything,” Goldberg said. “They are careful. They experiment. They test. They don’t succumb to trends. They are very, very, very careful.”

That caution applies to every business decision, Goldberg said, from store site selection to product assortments to the move from giant catalogs to smaller ones.

The pick up and order sites, which Dubie referred to as a “an experiment to extend the reach of Ikea’s e-commerce unit” could be seen as another example of Ikea’s careful deliberation. “They are extremely operationally oriented,” Goldberg said.

“Ikea’s growth through pick up and order points in Canada is a crucial part of our business and allows Canadians to have increased accessibility to our products,” said Stephanie Kerr, corporate press officer for Ikea Canada, which operates six pick up points; the Quebec City location is Ikea’s busiest worldwide. “The pick up and order points are allowing Ikea to expand quickly into markets that have been identified as having potential.” The global test program also offers a high level of customer service and can give e-commerce customers a lower cost option than home delivery, Kerr said.

Ikea already has the pieces in place for a successful omnichannel operation, according to Goldberg. It was in the business of mass customization long before anyone else and understands the tools that go along with that, he said. It offers unique products, enjoys end-to-end margins and cannot be comparison shopped because it only sells proprietary brands and products. It has perfected the model of buy, pick-up in the store and wheel to the exit, and offers the opportunity to buy online and pick up in store as well. “It has the space, the customer service and the organizational structure to make that happen,” Goldberg said. “The buildings are warehouses themselves. Each store is an ecosystem. “No one

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Customer Service Strategies that Help Maximize Holiday Sales

By: Catherine Conlan

The holiday season is make-or-break time for many retailers, hospitality employers and service companies. Perhaps your company is feeling the stress of relying on seasonal employees to generate the holiday sales you’ll need to finish the year in the black.

The best way to remedy this situation is to focus on better customer service– especially during the all-important holiday season. Chances are your competitors are already working on improving theirs.

“There have been a lot of lessons learned about customer service failure,” says Steve Goldberg, President of The Grayson Company, a retail and investment consulting company in New York City. “They’re being much more careful.”

Here’s how to boost your holiday sales with great customer service.

Train Employees in a Scalable Way
Retailers are focusing on training their holiday hires more effectively, Goldberg says. “Some of the training is virtual, and some of it is in person, but there are absolutely stronger efforts to make sure employees reflect the environment they’re working in and understand it,” he says. Including brand and service expectations in these training sessions is vital to offering strong customer service, he says.

Look for scalable options when it comes to training, says Ani Collum, a partner and consultant at Retail Concepts, a Boston-based retail consulting firm. Training processes that can be easily replicated help ensure that holiday hires are on the same page as your usual employees.

Remember too that customer service relies on employees who can solve problems without running for the manager, so in addition to clarifying providing clear instructions and protocols, be sure that your training also empowers employees to make decisions on behalf of the organization.

“Empower frontline employees — seasonal or otherwise — to make decisions that do right by the customer to eliminate potential friction between customers and the retailer,” Collum says. Walk through common customer service scenarios as part of your employee training.

Streamline Your Checkout Process
“Efficient execution is the No. 1 way for top retailers to ensure top customer service during the holiday season,” says Jeffrey Peretin of Connors Group, a retail, distribution and manufacturing consultancy headquartered in New York City.

“One of the main areas of focus that we are seeing retailers put effort behind is the checkout experience. Consumers do not have the time or patience to wait in long lines, and have been shown by companies like Apple that there are ways to improve the experience.”

Adding two more cashiers throughout the holiday hiring scenario isn’t necessarily the way to do it, especially if you only have a small number of registers in the first place.

“Creating register teams of two people per station with divided duties and distinct roles will do it,” Peretin says. These service levels and processes may differ from those that work for your company the rest of the year, and so you may need to experiment as you approach your peak season.

Automate When Possible
Self-service can help take a load off your retail employees and give them the time to directly serve customers who are undecided about a product.

“As wages continue to rise and hiring gets harder, it will become even more compelling to automate the service aspect of businesses,” says Jan Rogers Kniffen, a retail consultant headquartered in New York City. You may need to invest in self-serve or self-checkout tech tools to make it happen, but doing so can help you redeploy your holiday hires more effectively.

If you’re not able to automate this year, keep it in mind for later. “The robots are coming,” Kniffen says. “Maybe not this holiday season, but soon.”

To view the published article, click here.

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The $29 annual membership test program offers 20 percent discounts on all orders

Posted on October 13, 2016 by Allison Zisko

NEW YORK—Bed Bath & Beyond’s new fee-based loyalty test program draws the specialty retailer into an increasingly crowded arena that has had mixed results with the strategy.

Bed Bath & Beyond’s new annual $29 membership program offers 20 percent discounts on all orders across all of its retail platforms, according to published reports. The program is believed to be in test mode, and it is unclear whether the new fee-based program would lead to the elimination of its popular 20 percent off coupons, which are individually applied to one item.

Withdrawing discounts once they are in the market is risky, noted retail analyst Steve Goldberg, president of The Grayson Company. “Altering buying patterns is always a challenge,” he told HFN. Discounts with expiration dates must also be carefully monitored and need systems to support them, Goldberg said. In the past, Bed Bath has been known to accept long-expired coupons.

Fee-based programs can work, Goldberg added, “but not many have.” Amazon Prime is the exception, and Prime customers, who pay a $99 annual membership fee, receive benefits beyond free and expedited shipping. The Grey Card from RH, which launched in the spring, costs $100 per year and grants 25 percent off any item, has so far led to higher median order values but has had little impact on purchase frequency, according to Second Measure, a company that analyzes consumer purchases for investors.

Bed Bath will have to weigh the benefits of repeat customers versus discounts, Goldberg said. “The jury is out,” he said, offering his take on the reported program. “No doubt they spent a lot of time giving this some thought.”

To view the published article, click here.

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