design:retail - September/October 2019 - 36

INNOVATION

DESIGN:RETAIL

SEPT/OCT 2019

PERSPECTIVES

Blow Up Your
Map, Blow Up
Your Metrics
EMILY ALBRIGHT MILLER FROM
BIG RED ROOSTER DISCUSSES NEW
METHODS TO SUCCEED IN TODAY'S
RETAIL REALITY
EMILY ALBRIGHT MILLER

have obsessed over sales performance at the individual store level-measuring
daily, even hourly, transactional commerce
(which usually includes conversion and traffic,
too). But footfalls are declining. E-commerce and
m-commerce are ever-rising. And digital is influencing and impacting every step of the consumer's
journey. These dynamics are driving retailers to
rethink their entire brand strategy and rendering
measurements of individual store performance increasingly myopic. As brands continue to evolve-or
revolutionize-their retail strategies, a foundational
enabler is loosening the confines of dated metrics.
➞ FOR DECADES, RETAILERS

IT'S A MAP, NOT A METRIC
Today, commerce can happen anywhere-across
a multitude of channels, spaces and times. To
maintain (or gain) competitive advantage, retailers
must think outside of and beyond the box, measuring something much bigger than any single
location: the total market map. At the end of the
day (or hour, if they're tracking same-store sales
that frequently), traditional store-based metrics
simply cannot successfully measure a holistic,
consumer-oriented portfolio strategy. In addition,
a market-based approach can provide the context
that is critical to today's commerce-competitive
landscapes, market dynamics and changing consumer demographics. Understanding these forces
will allow retailers to carefully calibrate against
their entire portfolio of experiences, from pop-ups
to flagships and everything in between.

VICE PRESIDENT, STRATEGY
BIG RED ROOSTER, A JLL COMPANY

"Success comes
down to fostering
a culture that
dissolves the
silos between
marketing and
merchandising
and finance and
operations."

OLD METRICS ≠ NEXT-GEN RETAIL
Imagine your retail strategy involves closing
one of your average stores and opting to invest in
a smaller format in the same market. Traditional
retail principles would say that you focus the assortment on top-selling SKUs across categories-in
an attempt to maximize sales performance in that

single location. A consumer-first portfolio approach, however, might suggest that you narrow
to a single category-presenting that product in a
way that is the most comprehensive, immersive
and attractive to your target audience. This same
approach could consider the role of this location
in creating consumer-generated digital and social
content, showrooming to drive online and mobile
sales, and looking at the fulfillment role this location plays. So, even in a scenario where square
footage is sacrificed, a portfolio approach can create
new awareness, fresh consumer demand, and lift
the category's sales both online and in larger stores.
This type of evolved retail strategy requires new,
holistic metrics around total market lift and impact
to your customer file.
ENABLING AN EVOLVED PARADIGM
Ask yourself: Are your metrics based on a
consumer-first strategy or based on an organizational structure in which each group is responsible
for measuring the success of a single channel? Are
you efficient in measuring KPIs but, paradoxically,
unable to be agile and responsive to the market because of them? Success comes down to fostering a
culture that dissolves the silos between marketing
and merchandising and finance and operations.
And migrating from the traditional, channel-based
metrics to a total map-based reality. Only then,
when you focus on different KPIs, create alternate
approaches to measurement, and define new ways
to drive growth, can you create superior brand experiences that perform.
➞ BIO EMILY ALBRIGHT MILLER, Big Red Rooster's vice president, strategy, has been spent the past 18 years designing multichannel campaigns that
break through to today's consumers. Miller's experience includes leading
brand strategy at Victoria's Secret and Abercrombie & Fitch. Her retail experience combined with her prior digital and branding agency experience
have made her a thought leader in the consumer marketing space.

design:retail - September/October 2019

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