Robinsons Trip, 1st November.

On Monday the 1st November, Carmela and I visited the Robinsons store. The aims of our visit were to:

Take photographs of the store.
Record all of the brands within their portfolio.
Walk around the Bawtry area.
Discover more about the Robinsons core consumer.
Find out more detail about the Robinsons Christmas window and what they are expecting from us.
To discuss our thoughts on Robinsons and potential ideas we have for the store.

Upon arrival in Bawtry we took a walk around the area to learn more about the local businesses. Unfortunately, most shut on a Monday so we were only able to go ino a few. We visited ETC ETC ETC, a home and accessories store and found lots of inspirations for Robinsons Christmas window.

Once in Robinsons, we did a quick walk of the entire shop so that Carmela could get a feel for it as she had not previously visited. We made notes of a few things that could be improved upon such as the use of size cubes and lots of different hangers, the visual merchandising in general, the fact that it feels like a pure menswear store downstairs and there is not much invitation to go upstairs and the intimidating feel of the womenswear floor.

We had a long talk with James discussing many aspects of Robinsons, clearing up any queries we had. We also showed James some of the pictures we have been using for inspiration for the Christmas window and through this decided on a loose theme for the window - spherical. We agreed that Carmela and I would source the props for the window and that James would send us the measurements to make this easier. James mentioned that he was cautious about the use of accesories in the window due to theft so we are working on a solution to this, as accessories are an obvious best seller for the Christmas season so it is important for the window to showcase these. James also mentioned that although they have a range of accessories many are only stocked in singles so if used in the window there would need to be a back up to replace it.

The Robinsons Christmas window installation will be made on the 18th/19th November.

The next step for us in terms of the window is to continue to research window inspiration, begin to source our props in a cost effective way, mock up the window and send these to James.

We are also continuing out visual merchandising research in general with a scheduled trip to Liverpool on the 10th November.

We will be conducting primary research including focus groups, surveys and questionnaires within the next month to discover what brands consumers want to see in Robinsons, general surverys regarding new media and the new Robsinsons website and much more.