Darlington Rail Heritage Quarter + Hippodrome
Challenge
After substantial redevelopment, Darlington Rail Heritage Quarter sought to commission specialist advice on how best to achieve the targets through appropriate stock selection and merchandising and add to the exciting new visitor experience through retail.
Process
This project included many of the requirements included within the Glastonbury Abbey brief including those highlighted below:
Audience profiling
Retail strategy development
Supplier sourcing and product recommendations
Space planning
Buying plan and range development including margins, budget & COGS
Staffing and management
Implementation pathway
Outcomes
Detailed recommendations on merchandise selection
Options for other souvenir merchandise
Plan for onsite merchandising, which includes visitor flow routes, retail locations and high-level fixture requirements
Guidance on operational workflows for inventory management, visual presentation, systems and processes
Guidance on training of retail staff
Range plan balanced to budget, price, category and story mix to appeal to customer profile.
“Stephen, John and Catrina are a pleasure to work with. They bring to the table a great wealth of knowledge and experience from high-profile visitor attractions, but don’t apply a cookie-cutter approach. In order to deliver their incisive recommendations they took time to understand our business model, our building, our operations and staffing structures, our customer base, and what we were seeking to achieve.
Recommendations were delivered alongside a clear and structured path to implementation, and Stephen and his associates took time to talk this through with us and make sure we felt confident to proceed. We now have a clear, workable and measurable strategy to move forward with. We would not hesitate to recommend Stephen Spencer + Associates to other arts, culture and heritage organisations.
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