🍀 basic principles of merchandising

ON THIS EPISODE OF GO-TO-MILLIONS

I did want that Siegelman Stable zip up. But I’m not getting it because it doesn’t have matching sweatpants. 

It has matching sweatshorts but I’m REALLY not the type. 

Now that it’s not the middle of the night and I’ve come to my senses, I went out and tried to find a sweatsuit to buy. By went out, I searched on my phone. 

My efforts showed me how hard it is to merchandise. And, how even the best, most tech-enabled brands and retailers struggle so hard with basic principles. 

So that’s what we’re going to focus on right now.

Because Siegelman Stable’s website is bare bones in terms of tricks and engineering. That’s a fact – we all have eyes. And yet, it’s easier to find a sweatsuit on the Siegelman Stable site than it is on both Shopbop (OWNED BY AMAZON) and MR PORTER.

And, before we say, “Of course it’s easier to shop Siegelman Stable – they carry 1 brand (their own) and have maybe 200 items”. 

I would like to show you that on both the Shopbop and MR PORTER mobile apps (which I had downloaded already and have purchased before), IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO INTUITIVELY GET TO LOUNGE OR SWEATPANTS OR SWEATSHIRTS OR MATCHING SWEATSUITS using the navigation. 

You can search and find some – but only what returns in the search. There’s no real way to utilize the mega nav and to find these items. 

They carry hundreds of sweatsuits each. But, Shopbop nor MR PORTER makes it possible to understand that. 

I’ll show you. 

SHOPBOP

On Shopbop’s app, I navigated from Shop -> All Clothing -> AND DAMN IT I’M STUCK ALREADY!!!!

Please find the 18 options I have to choose from under All Clothing. Which 1 would you intuitively think would lead you to sweatsuits?

Not Sleepwear. 

There’s no Loungewear. 

Matching Sets is promising. Maybe. Let’s go see. 

Oh no, we saw. We land and see Veronica Beard. Not what we’re looking for. A lot little too buttoned up and missing the elastic waist. 

No matter, we’ll filter and find matching sweatsuits, right? 

Wrong!!! 2,253 results and the options to filter under Matching Sets are by Size, Color, Designer, and Price.

NO! I WANT TO FILTER BY CATEGORY!!

AND I WANT THE CATEGORY OF SWEATSUIT OR LOUNGE OR LOUNGEWEAR.

I’m 5 actions in and my search returns sweatpants. Which you think I’d be happy about, but I’m honestly back WHERE I STARTED. 

Because look: 

The 1st row of my filtered search shows FREECITY merchandised with a white t-shirt on each pair.

That’s not a matching sweatsuit. The 3rd result is again shown with a white t-shirt. THAT’S NOT A MATCHING SWEATSUIT. Which means I know, and they know that I know, that those 3 pairs of sweatpants do not have matching sweatshirts. If they had them, and if Shopbop carried them, that’s how it would have been photographed.

And, the 4th option, that camel colored outfit is a fuck no. My eyes burn. 

So, I abandon the app. SHOPBOP IS OUT!! Because I can’t spend any more time looking for matching sweatsuits on this app. Nor on their in-browser website (same experience). 

I know I will fall in love with pants that have no tops and tops that have no pants. And, I would have been able to shop here had there been a better way to navigate myself to a very core category for Shopbop. But I’m not because whoever decided this sitemap forgot about sweatsuits. 

And, we see this too often. That a single miss in this matrix makes shopping impossible. 

MR PORTER

Same shit. Where am I supposed to navigate???? I won’t break it down but it’s exactly the same issue as Shopbop. 

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SIEGELMAN STABLE

Not a perfect website – they forgot to add the new collab with Ford that launched on Friday to some of their collections – like Matching Sets (where other sweatsuits live). But, we forgive as that collab is the full homepage takeover.

My quest away from Siegelman Stable (because of the sweatshorts) doesn’t lead me back to them after a failed run at Shopbop and MR PORTER.

But it does lead me to start looking at sites that sell fewer items. I’ve had enough sifting.

I go to Daily Drills.

I go to PARKE.

I go to Nili Lotan. 

I go to Alo for goodness sakes. I’m desperate at this point. 

Merchandising is kinda an art form but not really at all. It’s BASIC. We should all be able to pick a random micro-category in our assortment and watch someone who has never been on our site beeline for that product line with no issue.

That’s the next step I’d like us to please leave with. Please go randomly ask someone to find something on your storefront. Watch their screen. See if they understand how to get there.

If they hesitate or go down the wrong path, there’s work to do.