FRACOMINA
RETAIL DEVELOPMENT
We’re igniters and advisors on how to implement each brand’s uniqueness into a business strategy. But we like to build and develop working in teams, always staying very close to our clients, their employees and business partners. In this business case we present how we closely collaborated with the company's internal team during a year and half long journey, to set up a retail strategy for the fashion brand Fracomina.
Fracomina is a relatively young, fast growing fashion brand from Italy. It is well distributed in multibrands in Italy and Mediterranean markets, seating together with brands like Liu Jo, Twin Set, Guess and similar brands in best boutiques. Recently the company started with monobrand stores and e-commerce, and we’re engaged to set up the retail division, creating a structure and a system.
The aim of the project is to define a proper retail strategy, create a new store concept with the elevated value perception, refine the existing stores (some have to be closed, some re-fitted), fine-tune the store management operations and later transmit the know-how to potential franchising partners.
Virtual Reality Tour of new store format (Archo Architecture)
Stores are the windows to the Fracomina World and thus the most important platform for presenting the brand lifestyle. We started by defining the values that the brand has to transmit to the final customer, and around those values design together with local architectural studio the store concept and shopping experience.
A new store concept was launched in Naples, in 2017. A perfectly balanced material combination – gold metal, bronze mirrors, white lacquered finishes and textile elements in neutral colours – create a warm elegance. The stores are characterised by the large visible through windows, warm light, open spaces, and minimal architecture. To guarantee a perfect and functional merchandise presentation we inserted so called lifestyle islands with sets of nested tables in the centre of the store, a dedicated denim wall and shoes and accessories area.
In parallel we started working on setting up the structure of the Retail team, upgrading the IT tools and introducing budgeting and reporting, to support all channels of Retail: on-line stores, regular stores and outlets.
As retail is fundamentally based on customer service, we put the main focus on the stuff and activities that helps increasing the quality of the service, starting with recruiting and trainings. A great emphasis is put on developing services that help partners to smoothly open and run the store. We developed two sets of services. The first set provides all the necessary support for store planning and store construction. The second set is helps our customers with store operations and customer experience. We also developed a set of tools, like VM guidelines for each floor-set and staff training materials to ensure sustainable operations.
Below are some pages from the Partnership Manual.
