We lost market share!?

Today we were at Triangle Town Center's, off of Capital Blvd, Belk location. Upon arriving we all met Ellis and a host of mall staff (Lauren, Lori, Tom, and several others) that were somehow all associated in some way or another with Polo or they were at least concerned with the well being of the store. One of the first things that was brought to our attention by the upper level mall staff and Cynthia was the fact that this particular store lost some of its market share to Macy's and Dillard's at this mall. So naturally, there was only one thing to do...go investigate.

First we ventured to Dillard's where we met Andrew, the sales associate at Polo at that Dillard's. Cynthia told us that she was shocked that this store had crept up on us because their presentation is typically poor but they make up for it with lower price points and sales. However, as we approached the store I noticed that the store actually looked pretty exceptional. Andrew started working at that location about 3-4 months ago and since had gotten there had really taken it on himself to rid the store of its reputation of having a poor layout and presentation; he had done just that. The only thing that Cynthia noticed was that his manikins were not outfitted with the directives that were prepared in the labs. After asking him we realized that he didn't necessarily get the directives. He had a notebook with some up to date information and some outdated information pertaining to what the stores fixtures should look like. Other than that he was simply using his fashion knowledge to outfit the manikins and it didn't look that bad. I can see why they had a little cut into the market share at this location after visiting their shop.

Back across the mall we trekked until we arrived at Macy's. This location somehow stole a good portion of the market share and if you heard that as you were looking at the shop, it would baffle you. I'm still not actually sure how they did it honestly. We walked in and didn't see an associate at any point during our 15-20 minute visit. There were clothes all scattered around the store in what seemed like any kind of order or where ever there was space. They had the Bohemian Club items in the very back against the wall, as well as some new arrival oxford and linen shirts, and I can imagine that nothing or very little throughout the store was actually sized. The whole store just seemed "out of whack". There was a Lauren Ralph Lauren sign above the mesh shirts at their first table when there was absolutely no womens wear in their store. I even remember seeing Tommy Bahama and Nautica jeans on their jeans rack in the back. The notion that this store took a good portion of the market share away from the Polo Shop, looking like it did on our visit, was dumbfounding.

We spent the rest of the day moving fixtures and making sure everything met standards at the Polo Shop with the goal to take back our market share. Just while we were there I saw items that were barely touched in their previous positions (linen shirts) not only finally receive some attention but actually being bought and taken out the store. Its amazing to me, as a supply chain guy and a typical male shopper, how much goes into the layout of a retail floor and how affective the methods really are. Anyways, we pressed on in the shop determined to make it look ship-shape with the motivation of beating Macy's but for me that was a distraction as I thought about that most of the day. It still behooves me that they cut into the market share with that kind of service and presentation.