Floor Space Gramicci’s Real Estate Investment by Martin Vilaboy Gramicci doesn’t claim to be revolutionizing the retail buying process. Rather, buyers within the largest retail segments, such as food and drug, mass merchandise and department stores, for years have handled ordering and replenishment in much the same way that Gramicci is proposing, says Marty Weening, Gramicci president. That’s not so much the case within the outdoor segment, however, and so Gramicci’s new “visual merchandising matrix” program and the corresponding buy plans represent a possible point of evolution for its outdoor specialty dealer base. The outdoor industry’s traditional buying process for apparel, which forces buyers to pour over extensive products lines, cherry pick the particular SKUs that might appeal to their specific customer base, estimate demand for the units and then merchandise the disparate garments together on the sales floor (repeat and reorder), lacks simplicity, efficiency and fails to address a key element of the retail business, say Weening. “Retail is a matter of real estate,” he says. With that in mind, Gramicci has simplified purchasing, re-ordering, inventory control and point-of-sale merchandising for its dealers via three pre-established buy plans based on the fixtures and square footage a retailer is willing to dedicate to the brand. The three different visual merchandising matrices, meanwhile, quickly show how the garments and collections merchandise together on the retail floor, each being a three-dimensional representation based on the allotted square footage. “Buyers are under a tremendous amount of pressure,” says Matthew Kaseta, Gramicci vice president of sales, faced with a growing number of brands, expanding product lines and shorter deadlines. “So our goal is to make it as easy as possible for them.” Gramicci Buy Plan Sample, Women’s Date Units Dollars G 350 Buy Plan (Space requirement, less wall, 350 square feet) Delivery 1 6/15 450 $10,000 Delivery 2 8/1 520 $15,000 G 350 Totals - 970 $25,000 G 240 Buy Plan (Space requirement, 240 square feet) Delivery 1 6/15 250 $6,000 Delivery 2 8/1 350 $9,000 G 240 Totals - 600 $15,000 G 120 Buy Plan (Space requirement, 120 square feet) Delivery 1 6/15 188 $3,500 Delivery 2 8/1 184 $6,000 G 120 Totals - 372 $9,500 Retailers can choose from three preconfigured buy plans: G 120, G 24O or G 350, the numbers representing the respective square-footage space requirement. Utilizing their existing fixtures, retailers then receive branded toppers for each fixture and a selection of pre-merchandised apparel to match the corresponding rack space and square footage, the apparel broken down by gender and pre-determined delivery dates. Again, the driving force behind the program is to simplify matters for the buyer. Gramicci realizes its line of apparel is big and broad. And while the company has broken down its offering into four collections (Authentic Originals, Built for Sport, Gramicci Life and Greenicci), the G buy plans provide added focus, reducing the amount of guesswork on the part of the buyer and easing the decision-making process. Of course, “the last thing you want to do is tell a buyer, ‘You have to buy this’” says Kaseta. And so the buy plans and merchandising matrices ultimately that may be serve as recommendations. Buyers are welcomed to tailor and tweak the selection of garments according to their local demographics, climate and so forth. A retailer in Texas, for example, might prefer to swap out some of the long-sleeve tops within a buy plan assortment with more short-sleeve tops, and while each G plan initially contains garments from all four Gramicci collections, a retailer that may be near a college campus can increase the number of garments from the Gramicci Life or Greenicci collections. Granted, opting into one of the Gramicci buy plans require buyers to place a good deal of trust in Gramicci’s designers and merchandisers, possibly reducing the input of any local market expertise and instinct. On the other hand, partners in the VMM platform benefit from Gramicci’s 25 years of design expertise, market research and intelligence. Gramicci also maintains a network of about a dozen retailers across the country, ranging from single-store operations to national chains, from which the company collects sell-through data twice a month, says Kaseta. “It gives us an idea of what is moving, what styles are selling and what colors are selling in what markets.” That data, likewise, can be applied to modifying and updating Gramicci’s buy plans. And more information, in turn, makes any decision-making process that much simpler, “and more accurate,” adds Kaseta. “If we can provide that information and help our retailers improve their sell through, as well as their margin and their confidence in Gramicci,” he continues, “that’s only going to benefit them, and us, as well.” 38 | <strong>InsideOutdoor</strong> | <strong>Spring</strong> 2008
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