THE ERT INTERVIEW BAREND EZECHIELS
value from the consumer coming into the store. Every product we bring, we want to add value to the market; it’s not just making cheap products and getting high volume – we really want to position ourselves as the premium brand going forward.
Q: What will we see in the near future? BE: We’re working on some stuff for the end of this year, but we’ve also just launched our new 2019 TV range, including our flagships AG8 and AG9, successors to the AF8 and AF9, which are OLED models. They can be pre-ordered now. So there’s still a premium for OLED. But LCD is also still a very big market, and we’re launching a whole new line there as well. So that’s how far I can see into the future. For the rest of this year, there are some other major launches too.
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Q: What’s your view on the current state of the retail market? BE: Over the past few years there’s been a big shake-up amongst UK retailers – there was a lot of consolidation in the market. Also, technology is getting more and more complicated with huge changes in connectivity, picture quality and sound, so I think if you are specialised in certain areas you have a better chance to survive – to make a clear position in the market.
Of course, everybody talks about bringing experience in-store nowadays. I think the biggest reason why somebody goes in- store is to get the reassurance on a choice they may have made online – to get an explanation from the experts.
Make sure you’ve got the quality in your
store, and this applies to our checklist that we call selection, location, condition. Firstly, which products should you sell in which store? Of course, you cannot sell everything everywhere; so a camera shop is unlikely to be hugely successful selling TVs, for example.
Then location – if you have these products,
where in the store do you put them? In the front, in the window, mixed in with other categories? Where you locate the product is really key. And condition – making sure the price tag is
there, the basic product information, the content on the screen, making sure it’s relevant to the story you want to tell. We can help out a lot with this sort of thing – going into stores, training staff, making sure the right POS material is there to support the selling and that there are demo products available. It’s very basic stuff and it’s really key for the
retailer to embrace this, especially in the internet age; if the consumer cannot walk into a store and bring a product home, they’ll just go online and there’s potentially a lost sale.
Q: If retailers believe they’ve achieved all they can at this level, what else can they try? BE: I think, in general, retail in the UK is quite well developed, or very well developed compared to parts of Europe. One thing I can bring from my pan-European roles is my view of other markets and other retailers.
Retailing is about finding a specialty – make
sure you’re a specialist in your area, because then you are a trustworthy reference point for people. If you’re more borderline or a bigger store, like Curry’s or John Lewis, that’s clearly about making sure how you visualise the merchandising, how
you display the products, that your products are readily available, and that staff are trained to a certain level.
But of course everybody also talks about bringing experience in-store nowadays. I think the biggest reason why somebody goes in-store is to get the reassurance on a choice they may have made online – to get an explanation from the experts and to really see and experience the product. So, for me, the basic element of retailing is about helping the consumer and trying to stimulate their buying behaviour.
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