gallagher99
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- Feb 18, 2015
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Hey guys. I've been living in Rio - Brazil in a city with 80k people.
Long story short. It is a family business. We produce denium clothes and we sell in our local store retail. It is a HUGE place in the center of the city, actually it is one of the biggest points in town. I mean, it is central, but like 2 blocks away from the "good" local commerce center where people buy stuff from the giants of the retail in this country.
This company was founded in 1979 and was insanely well known in the past, i mean we used to SELL A LOT (more than 100k clothes a month if we cound the localshop) people would come all over the country to buy from us. Sadly the family went bankrupt, lots of problems, happened and we lost pretty much 95% of our public and market-share. We went bankrupted in 2008 maybe, but since that day we never actually closed the shop but our reputation went really down.
Since I got the control of the company in July 2017. I've been fighting a lot to grind the situation but the brazil economy + huge number of competitors + my point of sale (the place my shop is located) is not the best + not having cashflow = things not going well.
There are very few people actually crossing my street and "impulse buying". Like I said, it is somewhat well located, but it is like 2 blocks away from were there are thousands of thousands of people walking, and my competitors have the advantage of better point of sale.
Our good "fame" was that we actually had the industry of the denim (manufacturization) and we could sell a really nice denim clothing for a really really nice price.
So pretty much Local Shop (retail) and the industry (manufacturization) IN THE SAME POINT. Yep, client goes inside the store and you can listen to your clothe actually being manufactured, my salespeople are actually speciallized in denim, so they have a really nice knowledge they can "teach" the client all the process and how his pant is actually made (this endomarketing is still under construction), I learned a lot from Zara, so every monday a new product gets a promotion, and every wednesday + every friday I have new products in the store to sell. So pretty much I ALWAY HAVE prices going down and always have new products to sell, which it is what clients would want (it isn't working well yet).
My shop is one of the nicest in town, we have this 30~40's vibe from the visual merchandsing. The uniform is really cool like a tailor and we use this cool "apron" (not sure if thats the word) because we want to show the image that we are F*cking specialists in what we do (work in progress).
Pretty much no one can copy this process of industry+retail in the same local.
Obviously the client doesn't see machines and the noise isn't high (but you can listen sometimes the machines working), unless they ask to see or if our salespeople shows them, or actually they go to the bathroom they can see the industry/manufacturization.
The product is good, I've been buying REALLY GOOD fabric/wool/cotton (not sure how you guys say it) and it fits well, it is well made, it looks really well. My selling price is the best in town.
We've been doing decent online propaganda with facebook, whatsapp, instagram. Numbers could be better. But well, we've been doing posts everyday pretty much ...
What am I doing wrong? Is it my point of sale (where the store is located?) Is it the brazilian economy?
I've been trying really hard to be better than my competitors, to gain market-share, to CREATE GOOD products. To make my store look great, to provide a nice distinct vibe and an unique experience. But when the results doesn't show... it just feels bad
Just a quick update:
This thread is more dedicated for B2C sales.
Yes, most of the wealth from my family was created because of B2B business and I WILL focus on that on the next few months , but my local shop will probably remain in the same place nevertheless, so increasing the sales in the retail shop IS A MOST anyway.
I have lots of plans, like selling e-commerce, marketplaces, partnership with other stores and online stores, selling outside Brazil, etc. But let's just focus on the B2B businnes for now.
Long story short. It is a family business. We produce denium clothes and we sell in our local store retail. It is a HUGE place in the center of the city, actually it is one of the biggest points in town. I mean, it is central, but like 2 blocks away from the "good" local commerce center where people buy stuff from the giants of the retail in this country.
This company was founded in 1979 and was insanely well known in the past, i mean we used to SELL A LOT (more than 100k clothes a month if we cound the localshop) people would come all over the country to buy from us. Sadly the family went bankrupt, lots of problems, happened and we lost pretty much 95% of our public and market-share. We went bankrupted in 2008 maybe, but since that day we never actually closed the shop but our reputation went really down.
Since I got the control of the company in July 2017. I've been fighting a lot to grind the situation but the brazil economy + huge number of competitors + my point of sale (the place my shop is located) is not the best + not having cashflow = things not going well.
There are very few people actually crossing my street and "impulse buying". Like I said, it is somewhat well located, but it is like 2 blocks away from were there are thousands of thousands of people walking, and my competitors have the advantage of better point of sale.
Our good "fame" was that we actually had the industry of the denim (manufacturization) and we could sell a really nice denim clothing for a really really nice price.
So pretty much Local Shop (retail) and the industry (manufacturization) IN THE SAME POINT. Yep, client goes inside the store and you can listen to your clothe actually being manufactured, my salespeople are actually speciallized in denim, so they have a really nice knowledge they can "teach" the client all the process and how his pant is actually made (this endomarketing is still under construction), I learned a lot from Zara, so every monday a new product gets a promotion, and every wednesday + every friday I have new products in the store to sell. So pretty much I ALWAY HAVE prices going down and always have new products to sell, which it is what clients would want (it isn't working well yet).
My shop is one of the nicest in town, we have this 30~40's vibe from the visual merchandsing. The uniform is really cool like a tailor and we use this cool "apron" (not sure if thats the word) because we want to show the image that we are F*cking specialists in what we do (work in progress).
Pretty much no one can copy this process of industry+retail in the same local.
Obviously the client doesn't see machines and the noise isn't high (but you can listen sometimes the machines working), unless they ask to see or if our salespeople shows them, or actually they go to the bathroom they can see the industry/manufacturization.
The product is good, I've been buying REALLY GOOD fabric/wool/cotton (not sure how you guys say it) and it fits well, it is well made, it looks really well. My selling price is the best in town.
We've been doing decent online propaganda with facebook, whatsapp, instagram. Numbers could be better. But well, we've been doing posts everyday pretty much ...
What am I doing wrong? Is it my point of sale (where the store is located?) Is it the brazilian economy?
I've been trying really hard to be better than my competitors, to gain market-share, to CREATE GOOD products. To make my store look great, to provide a nice distinct vibe and an unique experience. But when the results doesn't show... it just feels bad
Just a quick update:
This thread is more dedicated for B2C sales.
Yes, most of the wealth from my family was created because of B2B business and I WILL focus on that on the next few months , but my local shop will probably remain in the same place nevertheless, so increasing the sales in the retail shop IS A MOST anyway.
I have lots of plans, like selling e-commerce, marketplaces, partnership with other stores and online stores, selling outside Brazil, etc. But let's just focus on the B2B businnes for now.
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