Christmas 2017 - Debenhams (8 January 2018)
8 January 2018
Guess the price for this plastic Movie box of Sweets and Popcorn.
Answer at the end.
Express Checkout:
1) Debenhams were over burdened with gifting pre Christmas.
2) The range was stale and in many cases, similar to 2016.
3) Price points were far too high and represented poor value.
4) Post Christmas, gifting still remains abundant in stores.
5) The discount / clearance in store has been ineffectual.
Gifting at Debenhams Major issues for Debenhams last week with their gifting woes, plus the age old retail problem - what do they stand for? Why do customers visit them?
In core retail, it was hard enough for the generic department store to find relevance and a 'primary need' for customers. One only has to think about Allders and BHS and wonder what they actually stood for...
Gifting as a category has been under pressure for a few years now, but it was surprising to see Debenhams actively cite this range as a reason for their recent woes. Given the gap in the market left by BHS, it's somewhat surprising that Debenhams couldn't fill the void.
However, having seen the price of some of these lines pre Christmas (tweeted on the 13th December no less!), it was of no surprise that customers were turned off.
Customers who, as we've discussed are finding things harder and didn't have disposable income to spend on gifting, or perhaps more accurately, went to other retailers first.
The wider marketplace saw Tesco competitive on various gift sets, Asda ran a 3 for 2 deal on all gifting alongside Boots. Also consider that Sainsbury's, Morrisons et al are all present in this sector.
Equally we shouldn't rule out B&M and Home Bargains as takers of the secondary gifting spend given their far lower prices...
A fair range of Popcorn based gifts in Debenhams, all with hefty price tags and packaging that can make it unclear what the customers gets for their money...
Plus Cinemas are hardly known as bastions for value are they?
2016
2017
These large jars of Sweets are good, the 'retro' trend for Sweets did somewhat pass around 3 years ago however.
A number of the ranges are similar to the year before, certainly these Sweets were trotted out in former years and the higher price point makes these unattractive when customers are considering where to spend.
The top image is one from 2016, with the image below from 2017, near identical and customers won't keep buying broadly the same product, at broadly the same price - or higher(!)
Note here that the clearance efforts pre Christmas (20% off) were entirely inept.
a) What does 20% off mean to a customer? Calculators at the ready? There was no sign of the was/now pricing or any ready reckoners.
b) One store, but the signage was hardly plastered everywhere. It would have been easily missed on some displays, perhaps stopping some customers who may have bought...
2016
2017
Not a great deal of work has gone in to the Costa range year on year here, whilst the packaging has changed, the buy is near exactly the same - no innovation and no excitement.
Price points would have been hefty once again too, branded product such as this generally leads to a higher price (£10+) which is too expensive for generic / branded lines that you could get elsewhere.
Plus once you buy it for a relative, you're hardly going to buy a similar product the year after.....
In fact, near identical products with the giant Cup and Ribbon, alongside the Cup and Sauce also featuring year on year.
Looks like the Summer range either arrived late, or didn't sell and was rolled over in to Christmas.
Apparently, this was the Christmas gifting range, intended for Christmas within the Caribbean motif, however it didn't make a great deal of sense when it was put together with the wider assortment.
Inherently uninspiring as far as a gifting range goes. The product is over packaged and doesn't actually showcase the supposed premium product well at all.
The 'wooden' effect packaging actually cheapens the product and it then becomes harder to see against the backdrop of the floor..
I think the calculations were that it cost £11 for the box for this product, given Tesco were / are 4 for £6 on bottled Ales.
That's literally all there is. 4 bottled Ales in a box at £17 is beyond belief almost, if a customer looked at this as their first product, they're unlikely to look at anything else.
A shocker of a price and even where there's a 3 for 2 deal active, it'd be far too expensive. Without any wider economic challenge, customers are increasingly seeing through these sort of products.
That Popcorn box of Sweets / Popcorn / Treats at the top was a mere £16 to you, dear reader.
Whereas at B&M, for £3.01 less, you could buy a Popcorn maker to physically make the Popcorn yourself, no Sweets included however.
Whilst B&M and Debenhams are perhaps as far apart as you can imagine as retailers, there's likely a decent crossover in areas like gifting...
Gifting is a category that customers browse and B&M are increasingly a secondary shop sort of retailer, therefore a customer would view B&M alongside Debenhams and Boots even for their gifting needs, if they were aware of B&M in their shopping habits.
Clearance is still proving a challenge, even now. Gifting stock remains online (never a good sign) and the hefty markdown of 40% means the product looks expensive.
The 60% off the Christmas themed bag is still too little as those lines are firmly out of season now - as we're in January.
It wasn't all bad news though, some of their Tween focussed lines (Pugs, Unicorns et al) were reduced to 40% pre Christmas and appear to have sold through.
These products were on trend and in line with the likes of Topshop and Claire's et al. However with the markdown pre Christmas, the price points were still too high.
A fair amount to do for 2018 then, price points need to be lower, with an over arching deal (3 for 2) perhaps worth considering and a focus on gifting under £5 / £7 etc would also be worthwhile.
Not ranging the entire Costa gift range would be another one to think about one suspects....
From the Grocery Insight newsletter archive, first sent to subscribers on 8 January 2018. Steve now writes at read.groceryinsight.com. See also the blog archive and briefings.