How do you successfully lead a fashion company through times of disruption and uncertainty? This is precisely the question that Isabelle Guichot, managing director of the luxury conglomerate SMCP, which includes Sandro, Maje, Claudie Pierlot and Fursac, addressed at the Fashion Reboot 2023 congress organized by the Institut Français de la Mode (IFM). The manager gave seven lessons to the professionals present to help you achieve success.
Lesson 1: Adjusting the collection structure, simplifying merchandising, protecting margins
To minimize financial risk, Guichot advocated reducing the size of collections, increasing the number of permanent items and introducing new items to break up the season. To protect margins in an inflationary environment, she called for optimizing transport, energy and raw material costs and adjusting prices depending on geographical zone.
Guichot also suggested improving the readability of the collections in stores by simplifying merchandising and paying more attention to residual value, the value of a product at the end of its useful life. In short, having the right product, in the right place, at the right time, in the right quantity
Lesson 2: Show your creativity, your authenticity and your know-how with voice and commitment
Guichot recommended communication that reflects the brand’s values. Therefore, don’t hesitate to engage your community via social networks and innovate with unexpected campaigns, concepts and collaborations.
Lesson 3: Adapt to market conditions through local relevance while maintaining brand identity
For the director of SMCP, geographical diversity is a strength. This means adapting to the needs of each geographic market through exclusive items, capsules and an appropriate online presence.
Lesson 4: Expand your horizons by capturing your customers at every touchpoint
Store-to-Web, Clienteling (a marketing strategy based on actively building consumer loyalty), Travel Retail, Cross-Border Stores, Physical Stores, Marketplaces, Live Shopping, Direct-to-Consumer (D2C), Social Media businesses – all of these are “seamless” customer experiences that have to be processed like pieces of a puzzle. “In absolute terms, each store will develop its own presence,” said the managing director.
Lesson 5: Sell with passion and optimize in-store processes to create bonds with customers and strengthen the shopping experience
After the corona pandemic, the relationship to work has changed. Given this finding, Guichot suggested making working conditions more flexible, especially weekend work, and upgrading sales staff through career prospects and financial incentives.
On the consumer side, she recommended creating an omnichannel channel that is linked to incentive systems (stimuli) for customer loyalty by sales staff. This includes strengthening the sales ceremonial, especially through silhouette recommendations, and the use of new technologies to optimize the process and procedures in favor of the time available to customers (in other words: less handling and more service).
Lesson 6: Organically integrate ecological responsibility into the business model
This is about creating increasingly responsible, high-quality and traceable products, entering into the circular economy, for example with a second-hand offer and a commitment to diversity and inclusion. The idea is that corporate social responsibility is inextricably linked to growth.
Lesson 7: Use technology to get to know your customers better and strengthen your business
Ultimately, there is no business without modern tools. That means investing in data to personalize relationships with customers, strengthening retail fundamentals, and paying close attention to new technologies to accelerate development. Guichot concluded by stating that in today’s world there are no longer any priority investments: “Everything has to be coordinated”.
This translated article previously appeared on FashionUnited.fr