MARKETING MANAGEMENT III

MERCHANDISING

Mathilde GOIFFON / Justin CONSTANCIAS

 I. Presentation
Sfera was set up in 2001. It’s a chain of stores specialized in fashion and accessories with a wide
range of clothes for men, women and children. The targeted styles are classic fashion lines, sport-city
fashion, and clothes for the weekend and parties.

They also highlight their own collections of women's lingerie, men's underwear and a special line for
babies.
El corte Ingles is the owner of the Sfera brand. The brand has been launched to compete with Zara in
Spain.

Location:
The address of the store is: Calle Puerta de Murcia, 11, 30201 Cartagena, Murcia. It’s the main
commercial street of Cartagena, so a good place.
II/ Exterior design:
Entrance: The entrance of Sfera is different to those of other stores. There is no door to push or pull.
This is just a huge window. When we are on the street we are almost in the store thanks to this idea.

Windows: The area for the shop window is small, there are only 2 models. We could see the clothes
clearly. The price is on the floor. This can be explained by the entrance. Indeed, as there is not a
door, we can clearly see all the articles inside. We don’t need to see more examples. In this store, the
windows are here to show the price band.

Logo/colour: The colours used in the shop are simple (black, white, grey). We think that the brand’s
aim is to be considered “semi luxury”, with high quality products.
 II. Indoor design:
Store atmosphere:

 The Music is not too loud. The style of the music is current and chilled/Spanish songs.

 The temperature: the store doesn’t use air conditioning or heating.

 There is an assorted products. Indeed, we can buy clothes, accessories (jewellery, belts),
bags, shoes, underwear, decorations.
The decoration: It is very simple. This gives the image of a casual/classy store. So, we can find less
than 10 models, no more. At the same time, this allows them to show ideas for clothing combina-
tions. It’s useful because sometimes people don’t want to buy something because they don’t know if
they have something to wear it with.

Light: The store plays with the light. The store is divided by target customer (men, women, children).
In each area the atmosphere created by the light is different. In the men’s area, the room is not very
bright. The lights are pointed at the clothes, but the rest of the room is dark. In the children’s area,
it’s very bright. It’s basically the same for women.
Poster: They are not many posters in the store. We can find one at the entrance of the different ar-
eas. Furthermore, we can see posters with prices at the top of each clothing island.

Cash register: The cash register is not overcrowded. There is nothing on the table. This is the
opposite of a store like Mim. However, the accessories (jewellery, scarves…), home decorations and
underwear are close to this place. We suppose that this is the reason: we go into this store to buy
clothes and the other things can be considered impulse buys. So, these are the equivalent of the gum
next to the cash register in a grocery store like Carrefour)

On the right picture (Sfera),

the cash register table is
empty whereas the cash
register table on the left
picture (Mim) is full of
items.
Shelves: We know 3 types of shelve organization: grill, free, ear. In the store, we can see 2 of these
types. At the entrance, the women’s clothes are stored following grill shelves management. Like we
can see in the picture, they alternate between huge horizontal shelves and small vertical shelves. In
the kids’ part, it’s the free shelves management that is used. There is less order.

Horizontal shelve

Vertical shelve

Horizontal shelve

Throughout the store we can find islands. They are arranged by items of clothing. For example: tops
are together, jeans are together… Most of the time, the prices of the clothes on these islands are
lower than the price of other clothes.

Traffic: We can’t say that there is a specific traffic like in IKEA or ALE HOP. However, the fitting rooms
are located at the end of the store. So, you must see all the articles if you want to access the fitting
rooms.
 An example of traffic in an Ikea store

Men’s Fitting room

CHILDREN’S SPACE
MEN’S SPACE
In this representation of the store,
we can see that the fitting rooms are
far from the entrance.
CASH REGISTER

WOMEN’S SPACE

Women’s Fitting room

ENTRANCE
Vertical merchandising: In all the shop, the vertical disposition is the same for the men and the
women. On the top we can find the bags, then there are the top clothes and the bottom clothes.
Finally, the shoes are on the floor. This matches up with the way people get dressed.

Bags
(Head)

Clothes
(Optimal perception)

Shoes
(Floor)