DDi - August 2010 - (Page 20)

20 | New insights from the 2010 Global Department Store Summit show the department channel is innovating and poised for a comeback By Alison Embrey Medina, Executive Editor ith the theme “Winning in the New Retail Environment,” the 2010 Global Department Store Summit proved the department store industry has not just sat back and waited for the customer to return to normal. The Summit, held June 10-11 at the Times Center Stage in New York, is the largest and most international gathering of senior executives from the department store industry, with more than 300 delegates from 36 countries attending. The event host, the Intercontinental Group of Department Stores (IGDS), invited DDI to attend this biennial summit. In his opening address to the audience, Steve Sadove, chairman and CEO of Saks Fifth Avenue, challenged the audience with this sentiment: “Don’t let a good recession go to waste.” His words were reiterated by other industry leaders throughout the two-day conference. “Nobody is on an island— we’re all in this together,” Sadove added. “It’s going to take change and innovation to compete.” The summit program was divided into four Macy’s Inc. CEO Terry Lundgren speaking at the Global Department Store Summit. W sessions, with themes including how department stores can win with their products, people, technology and with their “store as a stage.” In her keynote address, Wendy Liebmann urged the department store retailers in the room to adapt to the new consumer and transform their brands to redeﬁne what they stand for. “Be bold or fail,” she said. Winning with products When considering the department store sector, looking at the product selection, mix and value is key to success in today’s economy. “If the last two years have taught us anything, it’s that product is king,” said Roger Farah, president and COO of Polo Ralph Lauren, which has reinvested $2 billion back into the company in the last ﬁve years toward product innovation. His advice to department store retailers is to take the magic already present in major ﬂagship stores, and spread it out over more of the stores in the chain. Preparedness really is key regarding product innovation on the retail ﬂoor. “If you’re comfortable, then you’re not innovating,” said Bernie Brooks, CEO of Myer, Australia’s largest department store chain. “Department stores were potentially going to become dinosaurs,” he explained. “We have exited categories where we couldn’t get a point of differentiation or innovation. We have to have the uniqueness, but also have to be on top of the latest blog, tweet, etc. If the consumer wants it, we’ve got to have it.” Brooks added that his stores welcome more than 300 million shoppers per week, and only about 25 percent of them actually make a purchase. “We have to change the way the product is displayed more frequently,” he said. “We can create a constant state of ﬂux, a sense of modernity.” Winning with people When the 2010 Winter Olympics marched into Vancouver last February, Canadian department Design Perspectives “ Edward Calabrese Retail Group Creative Director Mancini Duffy, New York Recent department store design work: Saks Fifth Avenue, New York, and Bloomingdale’s, Santa Monica How has the department store category changed over the last few years? Consolidations and store repositioning over the past few years have inarguably changed the business. This has produced a new generation of stores that appear to have better offerings, because they are tightly edited and more customer-based. We see stores being successful in their sensitivity to each region’s customer needs and desires. | August 2010 Photo: Courtesy of IGDS

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of DDi - August 2010

Display & Design Ideas - August 2010
From the Editor
Newsworthy
Shopper Insights
Greentailing
Editor’s Choice
Design Snapshot
Department Store Focus
Contents
Anthropologie
Store Windows Showcase
Right Light
In-Store Technology
Product Spotlight
Advertisers
Calendar
Classifieds
Shopping with Paco

DDi - August 2010