In this episode, I share with you how Department Store Shopping is having a huge comeback and how you as a brand owner can get in front of this trend.

 

Transcript:

Howdy. Brad Younger here from Shiny Button. And welcome to Episode 11, where I’m going to discuss how department store shopping is really having a huge comeback and what you can do to get in front of it.

You see, I’ve been speaking to some of the retailers that connect via IDA Connect recently, and they’ve been letting me know, and been letting me know in droves, that they’re starting to struggle a lot to get retail sales from their own website. And they’re seeing more and more people going to places like THE ICONIC, to purchase their stuff.

And I think this is a real comeback of department store style shopping.

You remember the days where you’d go up to David Jones and you’d buy your pants or your skirt and you’d also buy your shoes and your undies while you’re there. It’s that sort of thing. People are now going to THE ICONIC and they’re able to buy all their bits and pieces. Or they got to other marketplaces like Catch of the Day and they’re able to grab their, I don’t know, dog collars while they’re looking at their outdoor furniture or something like that.

So, they’re able to do all the shopping that they want to do within that one session and that one visit to the shop, almost.

No,w what does that mean for you as a brand and you as an online seller? Should you start giving up some of the retail space and looking more at the marketplaces? Personally, I think you should be doing both. I think you should be attacking the retail space yourself, but attacking it in a way where bring back the boutique shopping experience, for instance. Where people come and enjoy … It’s the sort of thing you do when you got a couple of hours to spare when you’re on a holiday, for instance.

Couple of ways you could do that. One way we’re seeing awesome traction on is having things like booking a time where you can have a walk around virtually through the store with the designer. And have the designer help you pick out clothes. That sort of stuff. That’s the boutique experience. And that is what’s going to help drive some of these retail sales on your own retail sites. It’s all about just bringing back that experience and that shopping experience that people expect in a boutique store.

The other thing to do is simply embrace the marketplaces. So jump on to as many marketplaces you can get your hands on. And if you’re not selling at a marketplace yet, I’d suggest just starting out with one. Using the drop-ship model you can add up on a lot of different marketplaces. But just start small, start with the first one.

So if you’re in fashion, I definitely suggest if you’re in fashion in Australia, you get yourself up on THE ICONIC. You can get straight onto Amazon these days. Amazon in the U.S., Amazon in Australia. And start selling that way. Look at places like Catch of the Day, they’ve got an awesome marketplace that’s getting a lot of traction. Just see if you can up there and get listed.

Start with just a few products and get yourself used to what it’s like selling on these marketplaces. Getting things like inventory updated, getting the products listed correctly, making sure you’re hitting the production guidelines of each of the marketplaces. All that is a learning experience and something that you should get a handle on fairly quickly as you go through.

We’ve got a small checklist that I put together. You can download the checklist, it’s just below. Just hit the button and in that is all of those steps that we just talked about and how to go about getting yourself listed on these marketplaces. So, if it’s something you’re interested in,