Sandro: Final Presentation

Sandro Final Presentation on Prezi

Sandro & Supply Chain Management

SCM (Supply Chain Management) is the most important component to e-commerce as it affects so many variables: CPFR, VMI, CRM, JIT, brand awareness, behavior, attitude, segmenting, targeting, and positioning. It ensures that merchandise arrives to the customer as efficiently as possible, and that inventory levels are balanced to keep stocking-costs down. With current technologies, SCM is accomplished via the Internet.

The goal of CPFR (Collaborative Planning, Forecasting, and Replenishment) is to set a guideline so that each of the employees in the manufacturing process understand the order in which tasks must be completed. It emphasizes the role in planning in successful retail selling. As seen above, the manufacturer (Sandro) is comprised of more than just a factory manufacturing the garments; employees of Sandro are also responsible for logistics, market data analysis, and production planning, among other jobs. It is important to note that in most companies, all of these tasks are not completed under one roof, which is why communication is so imperative to completion of manufacturing of merchandise. CPFR aims to support and assist each of these employees with their tasks, while also making it easy for them to communicate with the interior circle next to them: those employees who are charged with sales forecasting, order planning, and fulfilling orders, among other tasks. All of this planning eventually leads to the customer who is perfectly serviced because the merchandise she wanted is in the store at the right time, at the right price, in her size.

VMI (Vendor-managed Inventory) is the most pertinent to Sandro, as its goal is to create a symbiotic relationship between supplier and retailer. The supplier receives purchase orders from the retailer, who agrees to maintain a certain amount of inventory from the supplier. When inventory levels fall below a certain point, the supplier is notified and a replenishment order is shipped to the retailer. Because the two have a symbiotic relationship, employees of Sandro working in the store have a relationship with those working in the supplying office; each works for Sandro. This ensures that all Sandro employees are knowledgeable about the brand. However, an issue with this method of selling is that both parties run the risk of inventory not selling and being stuck with the inventory.

CRM (Customer Relationship Management) involves the use of technology to effectively organize, and simplify business processes; especially those in sales, marketing, and service. As with every initiative, the goal is to improve the amount of customers gained through sales, marketing, and service, retaining current clients, and ensuring that they come back to purchase again.

Sandro does not do enough to retain their current customer base now, let alone acquiring new customers. The website has acquired a great number of email addresses, yet has never sent an email about favorited items on sale, new merchandise, or a new lookbook.

Sandro needs to use their resources to segment and target their consumer base. By segmenting their target market, Sandro has a more clear focus of what the needs of their market are, and which products they will need going forward. For example, if their market is recent college graduates, Sandro can be their go-to for career development clothing with their classic skirts and silk blouses. More so than segmenting the market, Sandro needs to use all of the information that they have gathered to understand how to market to them effectively.

Also, as mentioned earlier, they do a poor job of utilizing behavior analytics to determine the wants of the customer. To improve this, Sandro needs to be more involved in social media by holding contests to gauge which products their client base is attracted to, and to pair with bloggers who have a great influence and can generate brand awareness. Depending on the blogger used, the blogger can help to solidify brand image in the eyes of the consumer. There is a girl wearing the clothes, giving the clothing a personality and a voice. See the evolution of CRM to SCRM (Social Customer Relationship Management) below.

(JIT) Just-in-Time Business

JIT (Just-in-Time [Business]) relies on certain signals or markers in order to communicate about production of merchandise. For example, there are triggers which signify when it is time to re-order merchandise (an empty shelf, or when inventory falls below a certain number in a product). Sandro does not have to worry about this so much because their inventory is relatively consistent throughout the season. The brand is too new and moves so little inventory in the United States to warrant having a JIT business.

Sandro: Marketing Campaign + Suggestions

Because Sandro's lookbook is its most graphically interesting commodity, it should be used to generate discussion and interest in the French brand. The images are French and cool; the styling represents the brand better than any of its brick-and-mortar stores and the majority of its website. Because the lookbook is not seen outside of the Sandro website, it is a great missed opportunity. As part of the marketing campaign, Sandro should send a digital copy of the lookbook to blogs like FabSugar and Refinery29 (with whom it already has a relationship) and they will publish the book on their blogs. It is a common practice for these two blogs in particular to educate their readers about the newest lookbooks from the hottest brands, like Zara:

There is a link at the bottom of the picture that goes directly to the brand's website. Even if the current lookbook does not match the product offering on the site, publishing the book on a well-known blog will encourage users to visit the site. Through linkage agreements, it is easy to track how many customers respond to this style of marketing. If successful, there should be an increase in online purchases in the products featured in the lookbook.

Additionally, Sandro should send digital copies of its newest lookbook to all the clients for which they have email addresses. They have so many email addresses accumulated and currently do little to retain their customer base. By sending the lookbook as a PDF file to its customers, it may remind customers why they purchased from Sandro and give insight into their future products. Through linkage agreements, it is easy to track how many customers respond to this style of marketing. If successful, there should be an increase in online or in-store purchases in the products featured in the lookbook.

Next, Sandro should invite bloggers like the Man Repeller to style their windows, as she did for competing brand, Maje in the beginning of the summer:

It is an interactive way to involve a blogger who clearly loves Sandro, as she posts about wearing their clothes often. Instead of providing monetary compensation, Sandro can offer Leandra Medine (the Man Repeller) a gift card to use at Sandro. The hope is that Medine will feature the clothing on the blog and, through a linkage agreement, link it back to the Sandro website. Sandro can easily measure the effectiveness of this event through the amount of merchandise that is purchased due to the links on Medine's website. Additionally, Sandro can measure the increase in foot traffic, and the demographics of foot-traffic that enter the store which Medine decorates.

Finally, it is imperative for Sandro to be more involved with social media, particularly Pinterest. Their Pinterest account currently has just over 330 followers. That is not nearly enough to generate the traffic that they need. A good way to increase their Pinterest following is to hold contests where users create outfits based around the key item of the newest Sandro campaign and pin it to a board that must have a specific name. A condition would be that the user must follow all of Sandro's boards. A social media coordinator at Sandro's headquarters can easily search all of the entries by the specific board name or hashtag, and choose a winner. There should be an incentive for the winner - perhaps another gift certificate to Sandro for a specific dollar amount. This is a popular contest used by many brands, including Victoria's Secret.

The beauty in this contest is its ease in measuring metrics of success. Sandro can easily see how many users participate in the contest by looking up the board. Additionally, this contest should directly correlate to the number of users that follow Sandro on Pinterest, since the user must follow Sandro before being allowed to participate in the contest.

Sandro is already popular on Facebook and Twitter, but its involvement and globalization can't stop there. Both accounts are primarily published in French. Instead, the brand should translate each post to English and post twice. Vogue Paris does this, and it ensures that many more users can follow and understand their Twitter. Sandro makes a point of having both a European and American website, so it must cater to its English-speaking, American customer. An easy way to measure benchmarks of success is to calculate how many more Americans follow their Facebook or Twitter. Each user provides their primary location, so it will not be a difficult or time-consuming calculation.

Additional Suggestions

Sandro is shooting itself in the foot by refusing to show complementary and similar products on its website. Inserting pictures is simple and the opportunity for increasing dollars-per-transaction and units-per-transaction is great. If successful, there will be an increase in the amount of complete outfits (shown together) purchased online.

Though it may be a great cost, Sandro needs to invest more money in its homepage of its website; it needs to be changed more than two or three times a year. Having the homepage look identical for four to six months out of the year does not suggest that there are new products being offered. A customer sees that and immediately signs off; there is no stickyness. Even if it just means pulling another look from the lookbook, Sandro should change its website once a month. Its page could include seasonally appropriate verbiage and graphics to entice the shopper. Finally, Sandro needs to measure the ratio - minutes spent browsing the website to the amount of product purchased per user. It will allow them to calculate their stickyness.

Because social media is the most effectively way to inexpensively generate discussion about a brand, it is important that Sandro integrate its social media more closely with its website. When logging on to the site, it is impossible to know that Sandro has a Pinterest account. Like their Twitter account, the Pinterest should be integrated directly into the site so the newest post is at the bottom of the screen on the start page.

Sandro: Security + Behavioral Analytics

One of the first things that is suggested to the customer upon arriving at the United States version of the Sandro website is to sign up for the Sandro newsletter. The user enters their email and a chosen password to create an account with the brand and receive emails. I signed up for this service in September and have yet to receive an email or an update from Sandro. I have checked spam, and still no email. It is still unclear how often these newsletters are emailed.

As far as security is concerned, Sandro automatically logs the user out each time the browser is closed. It is infuriating to constantly log-in, but the automatic log-out soothes the user who may be concerned that their information is saved. Should the user lose their laptop, he or she can rest easily knowing that their information is not stored on the computer. However, the information is stored with Sandro at their headquarters. If the Sandro site is hacked, a hacker does have access to all of the customer's information including: their email address, a shipping address, and a billing address.

The Privacy Policy is directly stated on the Sandro website.

A major downfall of Sandro's website is their lack of use of behavioral analytics. Though the site captures location information based on the billing and shipping information of the user or the GPS located inside the computer surfing the website, there is no coordination of location of the user and the product shown. The website homepage does not change based on location. This is an extremely large expense, and may back-fire on Sandro due to too much market-segmentation, however, it would be helpful to many customers to see  a more dynamic site. Additionally, there are no calculations that track the items that customers have clicked on and can suggest similar or complementary products; there is no opportunity of cross-selling or up-selling on the Sandro website.