Chosen Retailer:

ROBINSONS,being Departmental Store is classified as General Merchandise Retailer  

History about Robinsons:

Originally known as Spicer and Robinson, it was founded in 1858 by Philip Robinson, an immigrant from Australia and James Gaborian Spicer, a former keeper of Singapore Jail. It started as a family warehouse at Commercial Square, now known as Raffles Place, and was renamed Robinson and Company at the end of 1859 when Spicer left the business and a new partner, George Rappa, was brought in.


Today, Robinson & Co. Limited is a retail company which has department stores in Singapore and Malaysia. The company owns the Robinsons department store, John Little in Singapore and has franchise outlets of Marks & Spencer in both countries. The company has grown into one of the country's most renowned department stores. Robinsons celebrated their 150th Anniversary in 2008.In its 150-year heritage, Robinsons has also come to set the standard in service excellence as a result of its deliberate and focused mission to provide consumers with the highest level of service and best retail experience. 

Photo taken @ Robinsons Raffles City

Display Method

(Examples of promotional signage)

 Robinsons uses signage like promotional and locations to identify themselves. They also use visual communication (lighting, colors, music and scent) to stimulate customer perceptual and emotional response to affect their purchase behaviors.   We observed that Robinsons uses a mix of classical or soothing music to encourage their shopper to slow down, relax and look at their merchandise, use warm colors like red on their promotional signage so as to attract shopper’s attention.

We observed that Robinsons display most of their expensive products such as branded perfumes and watches in a glass case. This prevents items from begin stolen and also allows customers to view the products from different angles. A sales assistant will be to assist if a customer wants to get a closer view and feel of the products.

When all items of the same category are arranged together, it increases sales as customers may purchase items such as accessories which would go along well with the clothing they bought. Robinsons displays its ladies wear and accessories using mannequins which will display a full set of different products from top to toe, therefore providing customers with a full solution.

Sustainable Competitive Advantage

   1.      Customer Loyalty

Since Robinsons have been around for more than 153 years, it is one of the country’s most renowned department store in the department store industry.  Robinsons create emotional attachment with customers through loyalty programs such as encouraging consumers to hold on to OCBC-Robinsons Card to enjoy special privileges such as rebates and exclusive card member events. 

    2.      Retail Branding

As it’s a leader in the department store for over 153 years, they offer only the best quality and understands consumers needs much better than any other department store offering quality merchandise from around the world for Singapore’s shoppers for both men and women. 

3.      Vendor Relationships

Robinsons has been the departmental store with the most exclusive brands which had been given exclusive rights to offer exclusive sale of desirable brands around the world.  They offer exclusive brands such as N.Tyler, Blend, Cote Opera, Invidiauomo, Lantona, Axara, Iro Women, Basic House, Mindbridge, Melissa, etc.  

Retail Format

·         Appearance and Feel – Gives a feel of high class ambience and atmosphere with dim and bright lighting to bring out the suitable ambience needed for each department. 

Layout of the store – Neat, tidy, and well categorized (Every floor follows a theme – Center Point Robinsons.)  Each level of the store represents different feel.  In level 1 it depicts a high class feel with promoters from various brands to assist, at level 2 they specializes on ladies wear including intimate wear giving a privacy feel for the ladies and finally at the last level they offer men’s wear, items needed in a home and children’s wear and toys including the customer service counter depicting an all round experience.  These themes when together bring forward a lifestyle concept and a family experience.

·         Merchandise Assortments – Robinsons have a reasonably wide variety of products such as clothes, accessories, toiletries & health supplements, footwear, toys, cosmetics, perfumes and home essentials.  They also have a deep assortment of products under the cosmetics category they have brands such as Bobbi Brown, Chanel, Mac Sheen Supre, Mac Jeanius, Mac CremeBlend and Mac Wonderwoman. 

·        Strong Visual Merchandising    – Products are always arranged neatly and attractively with a clear view, under spotlights.  There are mannequins placed strategically near the escalators so that when consumers take the flight of escalator, they will be welcomed by the sight of mannequins dressed fashionably under the specific brand labels to give consumers new ideas on how to match up the clothes and accessories together to achieve a fashion statement. 

·         Customer Service - Robinsons is well known for its service excellence. Their staffs are groomed, friendly and trained to serve their customers and winning back loyal customers.  They are prompt in their assistance and start to inform and promote their specific brands when customers approach them.  They also offer cross selling by directing customers to other departments.  

Target Market

Robinsons is a departmental store which sells a wide variety of assortments at high quality to the (middle-to-high income) earners in the society. This is due to the nature of the products that they got into store which are the high-end brands sold at a price considerably at the high side. Robinsons want to project an image that is able to meet their target customers’ preferences and needs.

They managed to cover most of their target segments, catering to the different age groups with different styles, personality, tastes and brand preference. This shows why Robinsons carries so many different assortments and varieties with such huge product range, width and depth.


Below pictures have shown how Robinsons attracts its target market.

The specific target market is:

- The Affluent. (Also known as the high income earners)

- Young couples looking for new household appliances for their new home.

- The Family 

- Tourists (Indonesians and the Russians especially)

Merchandise presentation and store design

Store layout

Robinsons’ store layout is designed based on their target customers’ decision-making hierarchy and allows the ease of movement within the store. They have very spacious walkways throughout its store, therefore consumers would feel relax and comfortable browsing around the store.

Robinsons uses the Racetrack Layout Design where there is an aisle which will draw customers around the store to all the departments. The Racetrack Layout also provides different viewing angles, encourage exploration and impulse buying.

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Category Management

Robinsons breaks down its deep variety of products and assortment into different departments for example Cosmetics, Ladies’ Wear and Men’s Wear. This way, each department’s marketing manager is able to judge consumers buying patterns and market trends better by focusing on the entire product category.

The introduction of category management is to ensure that promotion activities are consistent for all brands as these promotions would be beneficial to Robinsons and consumers, not just to a particular brand.




 A key reason for Robinsons to introduce category management is to collaborate with the supplier. The exchange of information and sharing of data with suppliers would help Robinsons draw on the supplier’s expertise about the market, therefore maximising profit and at the same time satisfying consumers’ needs.

Retail Store Strategy

3 Elements of its retail store strategy consists of : 

1. Target Market
2. Retail Format
3.  Sustainable Competitive Advantage

Two challenges faced by this retailer

One of the major challenges for Robinsons is on how to improve the morale of store employees. How to keep employees and staff motivated, informed and educated on corporate vision and goals. 

This is based on our observation when we visited Robinsons at Raffles City. Staffs gathered around and engaged in their own conversation, thus not much  initiative to serve the customer, instead  they are waiting for the customer to approach them for assistance.

Secondly, on how to improve productivity in order to enhance customer experiences in the store and build customer loyalty as we know there are many other competitors (departmental stores)  in Singapore . Some example: Takashimaya, BHG and Tangs,  hence its very important for Robinsons to build on customer loyalty in order to leave deep impression in customer hearts and mindset. One way could be  enhancing customers’ experience when shopping at Robinsons. In this way, it could also give them a edge over its competitors.

The Retailing Environment

To understand their variety and assortment:

Example of products categorized by levels

Variety

Being one of Singapore’s largest departmental stores, Robinsons provide a wide variety of products to attract more customers and therefore gain a bigger market share. Our team have decided to visit Robinsons departmental store in Raffles City. There are several number of well categorized departments on different levels in Robinsons. From ladies' fashion to home, beauty to the Bedshop, there is something for everyone at Robinsons. The above picture have indicated how Robinson catergorised their products on different levels.


Assortment

Robinson also provides deep assortments  and under each department,  we also found out that there is a wide range of brands each having their own unique features and variety. Some brands and products are exclusively found in Robinsons while some others are of consignment terms.

Robinson carries a large number of SKU.
These are some of the assortment brands of the different product category

Some examples :

Skin Care: CLARINS, ESTEE LAUDER, FANCL,LANCOME, ORIGINS

Make Up: BOBBI BROWN, CHANEL, OPI

Chanel Cosmetics

Next, we will be covering the challenges faced by Robinsons.