International retailers | Retail Advice

LC WAIKIKI – Welcome to South Africa

December 30, 2018February 11, 2020 admin

On the 8th December 2018 LC Waikiki opened a store in Tygervalley mall Capetown. The store offers a range of Ladies, Men’s, Kids and infants fashion merchandise at very affordable price points. This is a fairly mature business founded in 1988 in France and operates as a Turkish based fashion retailer. The companies motto is “Everyone Deserves to Dress Well” which drives the affordable prices. My assessment is the product range and price structure fits into the retail category which hosts Mr Price, Cotton On, and H&M. Looking forward…

Zara…..Is the writing on the wall!

June 26, 2017 admin

Just over three years ago Stuttafords closed its doors in Tygervalley shopping mall in Capetown. This retail space then became available for any new tenants looking to represent their brand in this up market shopping venue. Along came Zara and carved out a significant piece of the space and built a stunning store probably close to 2,000 m2 offering ladies, men’s, and a large kids department to the Capetown northern suburbs shopper. When I first visited the store my initial thought was “This store is definately far too big for…

Swarovski – No interest in assisting a customer!

August 5, 2016September 22, 2016 admin

How hard is it to come out from behind the point of sale and assist a potential customer when that customer has made a decision to come into your store? We all know retail trade is not easy in South Africa at present. Consumers have high levels of debt, they are struggling to deal with school fees, Eskom accounts, escalating food prices, expensive fuel purchases and many more items which take hard earned rands from the family wallet. Our malls are overflowing with attractive retail stores both from local businesses…

Puma looking good but no urgency to sell!

August 3, 2016September 22, 2016 admin

A few years ago I bought a pair of puma driving shoes in Hong Kong and was fortunate enough to find the style I wanted on sale at the time and paid just over 300 Hong Kong dollars which was around the R600 mark. I have been extremely happy with the shoes, they have worn really well and are really comfortable especially when driving. Not looking to replace them just yet, I happened to walk past the Puma store in Canal Walk mall. Thought I would just have a…

H&M – Accelerated success.

June 23, 2016September 22, 2016 admin

On 17th October 2015 the first H&M in South Africa opened its doors at the V&A Waterfront mall in Capetown. A very confident statement by this company, committing a store in an unknown market the size of 4,700 m2 The week after opening I wrote a blog titled “H&M to change the retail landscape in South Africa”. My sources tell me, and I have no reason to boubt them that within six months of opening this Capetown store was the third largest H&M store from a revenue point of view…

Typo – What a different exciting store!

January 7, 2016January 8, 2016 admin

I am sure you have noticed these new Typo stores popping up in all our South African malls. It’s just so different from anything we have locally and its definitely causing a stir. My visit in the Somerset mall store this week was a great new experience going through lots of product I have never seen before. The store was really busy and certainly attracts the teen market. Prices are reasonable with great value for money items. I bought a cover for my notebook for R150 on sale, very cheap…

Cotton On – Congratulations you have done a great job.

December 16, 2015January 8, 2016 admin

Firstly let me say to Cotton On congratulations you have achieved amazing progression in a foreign country and taught the local retailers a lesson in thier back yard! Cotton On is a global brand with its roots in Australia. In 2011 it opened its first store in South Africa with a range of merchandise and price points the local consumers fell in love with. It was not long before the rapid expansion started, into top malls dominating the young fashion gap missed by SA retail stores such as Mr Price,…

Hamleys – The oldest toy store in the world now at the V&A Waterfront

December 8, 2015January 8, 2016 admin

The oldest and most exciting toy shop in the world is open and trading in the V& A Waterfront mall. Even if you don’t have kids, this store is a must for a visit for all. The amazing range of merchandise from traditional to hi tech offers something for everyone. You may not buy but the experience of walking through this environment and interacting with the product is fun for free! From Lego to play doh to cuddly toys to look alike babies, this store has it all. Get down…

Top Shop – Did you know?

December 4, 2015June 28, 2017 admin

I’m not sure how many people know Top Shop in the waterfront have a facility offered to customers called “Personal Shopper”. Essentially you as the customer can make an appointment to visit the store at a pre arranged time convenient to you and a dedicated personal shopper will spend time with you to assist you in choosing a wardrobe. Example. You make the appointment at 10am on a Saturday for mother and daughter. You arrive and meet the PS in a custom build private room which is designed for your…

Shopping at H&M

November 5, 2015January 8, 2016 admin

As not everyone has the opportunity to visit the exciting new H&M store at the V&A waterfront in Capetown I thought I would do a little shopping and show you some items I bought. Firstly I just want to mention unlike shopping in Edgar’s, H&M have an abundance of sales associates. In fact they possibly have far too many however it confirms the attitude of this retailer, customer service is very important to them. Summer is arriving so a pair of new shorts would be a requirement. After browsing through a…