Lesson #5 from a year in China: Still Learning After All These Years.

As I am wrapping up my year-long assignment in China, I am also reaching out to the market looking for my next assignment. Spending a year on a different continent tends to take one out of the loop. So my partner and I started to brainstorm about what our approach should be. He commented that we could both now say we are experts in China retailing. I thought about that for about 2 seconds and said, "Uhhmmm…not so fast. You've been dealing with China and the Asian Pacific market for 3 decades. You might be an expert. I'm not sure my one year qualifies me as an expert. I can sign up for being an expert on the client we just spent a year with, but not the entire market." And after thinking for another few seconds I had another question for my partner. "Have you had success in the Asian Pacific market because you are an expert in that market, or because you are a really skilled merchant/designer who has figured out how to regionalize and localize good, sound fundamental merchandising and design…??? There is the concept, the process and then there are the market-specific details. We can take our concepts and process anywhere…and then regionalize with market-specific details. I want to work in Europe, the Middle East, Canada…the USA. I love China…can't wait to go back. But it's a big planet!"      

 My expertise is not about a specific continent. I am prepared to call myself an expert merchant. I have had my share of best sellers and markdowns while having full P&L responsibility for meaningful businesses. Retail and wholesale. Department store and specialty store. Private label and branded. I have taken a couple of laps around the track. And now I can help make brands, retailers and wholesalers smarter about how they operate their business.    

 The graphic above represents the filtering process we use at Merchandising Metrics. I have removed all the details except for one…the first filter. All the arrows are different inputs and all the layers of the funnel are different filters for pressure testing. But most important is "Finding Commonality - Understanding Differences". What is the Brand Promise? And in apparel, how is that Brand Promise fulfilled across several regions and climates simultaneously? In China there is Beijing, Hangzhou and Shenzen. In the USA there is Boston, Atlanta and Miami. It's November 8th…do they all have the same assortment on their floors? Or it's April 19th, 2018 and I am watching it snow outside my home office window in western Massachusetts and my inbox is full of emails selling shorts and tees and swimwear…all on sale of course.

 So absolutely product has to be regionalized. AND it all still has to be true to the same Brand Promise and share the same Aesthetic & Attitude. Common AND different. Nothing easy about the apparel business.