Fashion retailers have always had their own challenges; staying relevant, customer focused and within a constrained budget. Now Lidl has launched their own fashion range for women, with stock selling out across the UK, the supermarket wars are back on.
Having never worked in fashion before many sceptics are dubious of Lidl’s ability to understand and provide for an industry that is so fiercely competitive. The biggest and most obvious challenge Lidl will face is their retail space. Lidl currently takes a no frills approach to their stores with clear cut signage and shelving units. The new clothing range is similar with off the peg clothing to be popped in to the trolly with your food shopping. This may seem very charming to Lidl customers, fed up of navigating large clothing departments but can a fashion retailer sustain its self on this alone? George at Asda and Tu as Sainsbury’s realised that as customers mature, they expect more and more from their supermarket experience. Lidl will already be thinking about how they can upscale their retail spaces as demand for Lidl fashion grows.
The supermarket chain may already considering making a separate retail space for their fashion lines in the future such as Asda Living. The Asda Living store concept was created to lure shoppers who are in rush and has helped Asda maintain its market share for the year. Newly built stores will have already addressed the issue of stock space as the supermarket has been planning for the launch of its new fashion range for years. The key question is how does Lidl plan to convert already existing stores into fashionable and engaging places for their customers to browse clothing? This is something Lidl is already clearly planning but keeping under wraps for now. Steve, Creative Director at KSF Global is used to dealing with redesigns of store layout and shares a few of thoughts on how Lidl can move forward.
“Lidl are likely to focus on their ‘essentials’ range of clothing which is a very good decision”, Steve informs us. “’If KSF were to redesign Lidl using the typical size of a store and how the walls are dominated by the grocery stock we would create a new fashion are. This would be a focus point in the middle floor to attract attention and give easier access to the shoppers”.
Steve is an expert in creating stores that meet the needs of customers and staff. Presenting products to customers quickly and at a saving to time and money is his forte. “Finally, I believe that modular store fixtures would be perfect for this kind of layout to give the flexibility of implementation. The system should consider both merchandising and stocking to increase the visibility while reducing necessity of shelf replenishment”.
The KSF Global team have over 25 years of experience in designing POP, shop fits and redesigns for brands across the world. Lidl’s move into fashion retail present their own challenges but ones that KSF Global revel in perfecting.
Images from Cityam
Does your store need a redesign? Contact our team for a consultation on how we can support you.