Friday, October 22, 2010

Research

Now when I go shopping, it also doubles as business research.  How much fun is that?

Yesterday I had some time to kill between an appointment and lunch with a friend.  I didn't want to go home and turn around and come back to the restaurant so I visited a close by shopping mall.  I did so with two major purposes in mind: 1) to see what brands the stores carried and 2) to look at merchandising strategies.

I will say that I will now never shop in the same way again.  As I looked at prices, I calculated what they had paid for the items wholesale.  I'd look at the whole store and estimate just how much the merchandise (inventory) had cost in total.  I'd look at the selections and think about who their target audience would be.  My eyes are wide open!

This afternoon, I'm reviewing the final set of wireframes from Web Designer Mark and starting to work on some content for the site.  He'll be sending me mood boards for the site in the next two weeks!  I am so excited - I love how the site is coming together.

2 comments:

  1. So does that make shopping more or less enjoyable for you? It's kind of like once you know the tricks of a magician - you'l never again have quite the "wow" factor, but you certainly can admire the skill level.

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  2. I do think that shopping will now always be less enjoyable. Your analogy of knowing the tricks of the magician is perfect. I think now that I know the secrets, I can't just enjoy it for the sake of enjoyment. (If that makes sense).

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