Essential Maternity Working Wardrobe..

OK, at the risk of alienating some of my loyal readership, I am going to dip my toe into the niche waters of the maternity clothing market, of which I have recently become rather more interested (I think you'll only need one guess) and highlight a few observations I've gathered.
It's unchartered territory for me, and having been spoilt by the plethora of magazines and websites advising on every aspect of fashion for the non-preggos amongst us, I have recently found myself in something of a fashion wilderness, struggling to figure out the basics such as where (and when!) to get maternity jeans that look like actual normal jeans, how does one dress for a formal work environment when all the maternity tops seems to be billowing crinkle smock creations, what about a swimsuit that won't make me look (as much of a) beached whale...?

Tips on all these and more coming up... And anyone with any knowledge of these, or any related matters, please leave a comment and I'll add your feedback to this or a subsequent post. But first topic I'll tackle will be:

Formal Workwear

Also known as, what a nightmare. The first question is, what should I buy? Yes I'm going to be pregnant for months, but then I won't be, and I'm not particularly inclined to spend a fortune on workwear that will subsequently sit in a drawer for years (plenty of other things I can blow a fortune on now, after all).

The answer is, with the following well-priced staples that will work well together, you can build a decent capsule working wardrobe around the existing stuff that you still fit into- one that won't blow the budget but will still leave you looking sharp (as is possible with a large bump protruding from around the area where you used to have a waist). They are all fairly sober colours which are typically more flattering, versatile and smart, qualities that won't go amiss in the coming months.

1. Black Trousers. No need to explain this choice, but I will recommend these Classic Trousers from Mamas and Papas which come in short, regular and long, and look smart, but importantly are comfortable too. These ones are 'under bump' which is fairly self-explantory, but I think for trousers this looks smarter.

2. Black Skirt. Another wardrobe staple. You'll probably find that you ave a numbe rof tops (particularly knitwear) that still fit so with smart maternity bottoms you can give these a new lease of life. It has to be a pencil skirt to give you a smart streamlined sillhouette, and in this instance I think 'over the bump' looks better, with the illusion of a 50s style high waiste. Check this one out from TopShop- it's jersey so still comfortable, and double layered so no flashing your undies in the sun.

3. Plain Dress. Dresses will become like your best friend who you don't phone enough- forgiving, flattering, and always available when others just don't fit the bill. You may be lucky enough to have smart jersey dresses (especially wrap styles) in your wardrobe already, in which case these should come in handy for at least a while yet. Maternity dresses sometimes don't tend to be smart enough for a really formal business environment, but I think this Summer Shift Dress from Seraphine is perfect, also this Pencil Shift Dress from TopShop is lovely but selling out fast. Unless you've really kept up with the pregnancy Pilates, I'd recommend dresses with a sleeve or at least covering the top of the arms, this looks smarter and more refined. And keep it plain, that way you cna get away with wearing it more often..!

4. Top. OK, like I said, plenty of tops out there but very few I've found that are smart or formal enough- and so few decent shirts??!! This Grey Pinstripe Shirt is sharp, and comes in White as well. The other thing you could really do with are a selection of Maternity Vests (I prefer these to 'bump covers' as I think they're more versatile) so that you can remain your demure self with nothing on show, despite an ever expanding bust and bump. These Long Vest Tops are 3 for 2 from Mamas and Papas, and I'd recommend you get the White, Black and Grey for work. (Long enough to cover the zip that won't quite do up if you haven't gravitated towards the Maternity Trousers yet- added bonus). Yummy Mummy has a nice line in maternity wear also, this Silk Top looks good with black separates.
5. Trench Coat. Although the weather is fairly questionable at the moment it's still a little early for Coats so not a great deal to recommend yet, especially as this also depends on your dates and when you'll need one for. I'd play safe with a black or beige trench coat for now, such as This One from Seraphine again (who incidentally have a lovely range). In terms of Jackets/Blazers, if you're lucky you'll be able to keep wearing (albeit open) the ones you have for quite a while- if you can get away without buying one then great.

Of course a suit with a well-fitting jacket would come in handy- but in all honestly I haven't found one I like enough yet. Which isn't to say it's not out there somewhere, but give that maternity suits are not cheap, and that you're able to build a smart stylish wardrobe with pieces such as the above, I'm not sure one is strictly necessary. But of course if I find one I'll keep you informed.

And finally, shoes with a small heel or wedge, such as these Carvela Wedges, will ensure you can continue to observe at the twin alters of Comfort and Style- and the accessories? Well I'll leave that bit at least, down to your imagination... Although I will tell you that I don't think a cocktail ring ever looks out of place.

Hope that has been helpful, more to follow at some point!

Multi-channel: Top of the Pops

The worlds of multi-channel and social media are becomingly increasingly intertwined, as smart retailers embed their social media strategies within the heart of their business. None the less, following on from today's post focussing on the social media end of that relationship, some more news, this time with more of an e-comm/multi-channel focus.

Show Me the Money!

The latest annual IT in Retail report which researched the UK's leading 100 retailers has revealed that for the first time ever, top retailers' priority for IT investment is e-commerce and mobile commerce.
The research by Martec International found that e-commerce and m-commerce as an investment priority has grown from 17% last year to 23% this year; overtaking investment in store systems- the focus for the previous nine years.
The research also found that 16% of the retailers now use m-commerce (big increase on last year's 5%0, with a further 12% planning to take it up.

Whilst some retailers said the investment was being used to set up a transactional web site for the first time (24% of the top 100 do not have one, although 5% are planning to set one up) for others, e-commerce was an investment priority to :

1. improve the customer experience



2. add more products, ranges or brands



3. internationalise their web site



4. improve multichannel integration.

Also relevant: investment in new or replacement head office systems was also up, with 25% of retailers planning to replace merchandise management systems, (up 8% over last year), and 15% said they intended to replace their planning systems (whilst 6% were implementing one for the first time)
As Brian Hume, managing director, Martec International, points out : “Many retailers are struggling to keep pace with the rapidly changing requirements of multichannel operations with legacy systems slowing them down. Replacing these systems is vital for gaining competitive advantage. Consumers expect a seamless experience across all channels and retailers need to offer a single stock pool that can be accessed from all customer touch points, such as smartphones to check stock availability, pricing and product information.”

Richard Lowe, CEO, BT Expedite, concluded “Retailers are generally holding IT spending constant again in 2011, but there’s a positive indication of an increase of retailers planning to upgrade key business systems to keep pace with the continuing shift to multichannel retailing, as well as the growth of mobile internet access and m-commerce. .”

We Know What you Like

And in a recent example of investment in .e-commerce..
As was reported at the SMI 2011 conference, consumers are becoming increasingly demanding- in these straitened times, it simply takes more to convince us to part with our hard earned cash. One of the ways retailers can do that is to personalise their offering to us, making it more relevant and therefore more likely to appeal. With this in mind, Planet Retail reports that Dixons has launched personalised product recommendations across its e-commerce websites.The personalisation and analytics technology was implemented at http://www.dixons.co.uk/, http://www.currys.co.uk/ and http://www.pcworld.co.uk/ sites. The technology will provide customers with individualised recommendations based on the preferences and personal attributes each shopper has shared, the data the retailer holds on relationships between products or product categories and the behavioural patterns of similar shoppers. All recommendations include an explicit message about why a product is being suggested.

N.B. The company plans to offer shoppers the personalisation seamlessly across multiple channels, re-inforcing the continually made point about consistency of message and offering across the multiple platforms upon which a retailer may operate.

Social Media Retail Round-Up

The rise and relevance of social media within retail continues un-abated, with news and developments on a near daily basis at the moment.

Here's a summary of the most interesting recent social media news...

The Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything..

Retail Customer Experience reports that somebody (well http://www.hitwise.com/ digital marketing intelligence provider) has finally managed to calculate the value of of a Facebook Fan to a retailer.
It's 20. ( not 42 surprisingly).
That’s the number of additional visits Hitwise analyst Robin Goad said a retailer receives for every Facebook fan it acquires. Goad explained “We took the top 100 retailers ranked in the Hitwise Shopping and Classifieds category and benchmarked visits to those websites against the number of fans those brands had on their Facebook page”. He said Hitwise then used its Search Sequence tool to see the propensity of consumers to search for retail brands after visiting Facebook.
Very interesting statistic for those still doubting the value of a social media strategy in driving real sales.

Collaborative Consumption

As I've reported in the past, as we become ever more demanding, our purchase decisions are becoming increasingly collaborative as we rely on reviews, recommendations, group buying, and similar to help us make the right choice.
John Lewis is rarely one to miss a trick, and The Retail Bulletin reports that JLP has launched a product review service on its website. The system enabling customers with a JL account to write comments on products and to rate them one to five.
In an additional smart move John Lewis said that nearly 100 partners (staff) have also been writing reviews, using their product knowledge and expertise to help customers choose the best products for their needs, Andrea McDonnell, commercial director at John Lewis wisely oberving that “As a multichannel retailer it is a challenge to recreate the instore experience online. We have already introduced made-to-measure services, 'how to' videos and buying guides, and the launch of product reviews is a really exciting next stage."
The retailer is hoping to have 130,000 reviews by the end of the year with new comments coming from both customers and Partners.

On a similar note, Debenhams report that they have acquired 12,000 of those all important 'brand advocates' following its introduction of a new social media advocacy programme which encourages customers to become advocates of the Debenhams brand by promoting positive retail experiences via social media channels using an automated referral process. These 12,000 have in turn made recommendations to over 1.5 million friends and followers, a massive win.

And Finally... Still Plenty To Do..

Whilst all that might sound like UK retailers are embracing the potential of social media to help grow sales and loyalty, research says different.
A new study which looked at the online sales channels of the UK’s top 100 retailers, has revealed that many top retailers still have inadequate social commerce solutions.
According to the research, carried out by,One iota, only one e-retailer – ASOS – offers a fully transactional Facebook shopping experience to its customers. This is despite 75% of the top 100 retailers having Facebook pages... (which conversely means 25% of our top retails don't even have a FB page...!)

Speaking of the findings, Damian Hanson, co-founder and CEO of One iota, commented: “Our research shows that many retailers still aren’t up to scratch in terms of their e-commerce strategy. Each Facebook fan translates into 20 extra visits to a brand’s website in one year – retailers need to wake up to the opportunity that social commerce is offering them.By engaging with customers in an environment where they spend a growing proportion of their time – on Facebook or on their mobile phones – retailers can maximise the opportunity to sell and open up new revenue streams.”
Hanson added: “It’s clear that retailers need to innovate in order to compete within the marketplace, but progress appears to be slow. E-commerce, and in particular social and mobile commerce, is a necessity for brands and retailers, particularly in the current economic climate.”

And on the bombshell.. (a ha)... Let me know your thoughts- who do you think is doing social media, or indeed not so well, what more do you think retailers could be doing in this space? (E.g. GAP's recently reported innovative tie in of print media to social media in the September issue of Glamour magazine- with a Facebook icon embedded in its ad in the mag that will allow readers to use a Glamour digital app to scan it, launching Gap's mobile FB page?)

Getting my social media on!

Inspired by my recent day spent at the Social Media Influence conference 2011, a reminder that you can follow me on Twitter as @seeallherfaces1, and become a fan of the page See All Her Faces: Retail Blog. Both are updated regularly with latest retail news and views, please join me and let me know your thoughts!

BTW hello to those reading overseas, stats suggest that this week as many page views in the US as the UK, plus also readers in Germany, Poland, Russia, Netherlands, Canada? Welcome!

Blood on the High Street...

It's been nothing short of a blood bath on the High Street over the past week or two, with a number of well-known retailers closing a number of stores and/or plunging into administration, the headliners being:

Jane Norman,
TJ Hughes,
Thorntons,
and Habitat...


None of the names will probably come as a huge surprise to you, in fact you mgiht be struggling to remember the last time you bought anything from any of these- which is the crux of the matter. Quarter-end may have pushed these retailers over a cliff or at least into taking drastic action, but they've all struggled to convince us to buy in sufficient quantities from them in recent years, because they haven't managed to put together a sufficently enticing, unque proposition for us...

Jane Norman: the market for low-mid tier priced clothing for 16-25 yr olds is absoutely saturated these days, and with some very competitive players such as Primark, Asos, New Look, leaving Jane Norman, despite a strong presence on high streets, with little room to manoeuvre..

TJ Hughes: the disocunt department store retailer who again, has struggled against a backdrop of increased competition and reduced consumer spending, to remain a 'go-to' destination

Thorntons: Well many actually think the decision to starting supplying supermarkets was always going to be the death knell for many of their stores- by making themselves so widely and easily available as part of the weekly shop, they not only brought the brand down-market but rendered many of the stores unncessary... Watch this space..

Finally Habitat, who've had continued difficulty in justifying their relatively high-end price points for the minimalist style favoured by founder Sir Terence Conran, having inspired a number of cheaper imitators such as Dwell, Ikea etc...

There are further potential bad news stories on the horizon, but I don't want to end on a depressing note when the sun is shining and the tennis is on...
At the end of the day, the retailers who are going under are the ones you would have predicted- those who simply can't sell enough stock these days. Retailers who continue to exploit their USP, whilst innovating, finding new ways to offer more to customers will always be ok in the end....

Social Media Influence 2011

A full house at the SMI conference this year, with some interesting themes emerging, the most important being the most obvious- that the aforementioned ‘influence’ of social media continues to steadily grow...
This year the conversation had moved on- the question was more of a ‘what are we trying to do?’ as it became clear that, although a majority of businesses now have a social media manager and strategy, it is still unclear for many what they should be trying to achieve- what the key deliverables should be for their business; that will add value, whether directly to the bottom line, or indirectly through building brand loyalty, repositioning the brand, finding a new audience and so on.
The key words that were repeated throughout the day were: engaging, listening, sharing, evolving, authentic stories- these are referenced in the take-away points below..

Building a successful social business strategy
The most successful social media strategies are those which are able to engage people; adding value and thus spreading through a variety of media for example:
Creating memorable moments (the recent Old Spice and VW Darth Vader offered up as examples)
Engaging with the local community in a positive way (such as the recent Dulux campaign)
Strong content- an authentic story that captures interest (such as Palladium’s documentary on the art scene in struggling Detroit)
Being useful- Adding value to customers (such as exclusive deals, sale previews)

We like sharing
The way we use the internet, the way we shop, is changing. Recommendations are becoming increasing significant- if we read an article, find a website, or a pair of shoes we like the look of, increasingly we will tweet about it, ‘like’ it on FB, or if Google have their way, we’ll use their new “+1” functionality to recommend it (the growth of ‘collective buying’ websites such as Groupon or LivingSocial demonstrate this well). In essence we are turning implicit knowledge into explicit knowledge in this way.

Make sure you’re connected
Corporate social strategies need to get a far more ‘connected’ relationship with customers; with influencers, and within their own organisation- they need to listen, and acknowledge before they engage, and join up the internal and external conversations they are having to drive positive change and evolution of the brand/product offering. Demonstrating that you are listening and learning builds loyalty, trust and thus Brand Advocates- a social media strategy built upon a succession of ‘campaigns’ on FB simply isn’t good enough.

The platform is less important
More emphasis is now being placed on how Social Media can be brought in Commerce, and embedded into the business’s behaviour, rather than simply bringing Commerce into Social media without perhaps a well thought out strategy. There was an acknowledgement that Apps have their limitations; and that businesses should actually be focussing on displaying content that is optimised for whatever medium it is being viewed on- to maintain consistency across channels, and better embed the brand and site in the customer’s day to day dealings.

Leveraging Social Media
The difficult bit after implementing a social business strategy is leveraging it for gain where possible- for example as the ‘collective buying’ websites have been able to, or using social CRM data to derive recommendations and actionable insights; with a drive towards more real-time data, again embedded in the business culture to drive behaviour change and improve engagement- but with a note of caution- that businesses need to ask themselves what customers are ‘getting out of it’ to ensure they are adding value whilst asking customers to share data or a message.

And to finish off with- a very interesting case study from Tesco fashion that I think sums up what retailers can get out of a well-executed social media strategy.
Tesco were trying to raise awareness of their F&F brand of clothing amongst the fashion and money-savvy audience with their social business strategy- and through judicious (but not entirely smooth) use of Twitter and FB to interact and build a relationship with customers and influencers (such as fashion bloggers) gain insight, deal with queries, they achieved some big wins such as:
Repositioning the brand
Reaching a new audience
Pushing the core message of affordable fashion
Creating interest and advocacy in the brand
Gaining valuable customer insight
Driving over a £1m in additional sales through social media originated activity