SFH; decks cleared, now strategy refresh

Now that the knife to 300 stores has been announced and the CEO has been shown the door, time for strategy refresh, to build on continued eCommerce push and CityChic US expansion:

1. Amazon (Australia) Marketplace: can’t be ignored, decision to be made, brands like Crossroads and Autograph fit the bill for this sales channel.
2. Store magic: reduction in stores inherently enables management to be more presentation focussed for remaining stores - Selfridges growth 16% comp. largely credited to excellence in presentation of stock etc, store magic. This has been stop start for SFH in past, Katies and Millers format refresh programs have done well where executed properly. What do the window displays look like? The ones I’ve seen in many of SFH’s locations recently were boring, often with mundane looking tee’s, skirts, standard outfits in the windows. In store there was no background music, dead silence, some of the Rivers stores felt unsafe to walk around in. Unacceptable. ‘It’s the shopping experience stupid’.
4. Staff training, dressing the customer skillset investment: again, less employees provides opportunity for a more focussed and well trained staffing skill set. Dressing the customer, even in fast fashion, a competitive advantage compared to pure online. ‘It’s the shopping experience stupid’.
5. Future lies in a well balanced bricks and mortar, online penetration format: Walmart has demonstrated it can be done, beyond food as well. SFH’s huge geographical spread a strong competitive weapon for customer click and pay product collection. Move in right direction, more to be done in product speed to store, innovation with pricing for courier charges, visual online experience and engagement.
6. Store clearance strategy: Myer and Macy’s (Macy’s Backstage) swear their strategy to aggregate old stock in specified locations is working well.
7. Online following drive: SFH’s online following is presently unacceptably low on key social media channels, numbers are poor per brand for the likes of Facebook, Instagram etc. Dramatic uplift necessary, being killed by competitors till now.
8. In store partnerships: beyond Afterpay, 700 store format a competitive advantage for in store partnerships, lack of leverage and missed opportunity for now, poor execution to date.
9. Category review: each brand has a somewhat confused approach to categories other than apparel, perhaps with the exception of Rivers in shoes. Strategic decisions wanting here, jewellery, bags etc readily come to mind as areas in dire need for refocus, amongst others.
10. Fashion and marketing strategy: absolutely the lowest of the fruit to pick. Some recent improvements noted (CityChic, Autograph), remains largest turnaround opportunity. Average product selection still poor, daggy product generally prevails. Lead design teams and head marketing staff need to be bulleted in the tired labels within brand portfolio.

A new CEO with fashion sense, best of class fast fashion credentials and deep online experience, strong cost control focus. Worth waiting a little for the right candidate.