Playdress - Singapore-Based Retail Organization

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INTRODUCTION

Playdress is a Singapore-based retail organization which sells women apparels from dresses, tops, bottoms and one piece (i.e. jumpers, overalls etc). It carries an extensive range of uniquely manufactured clothings from casual to smart casual and of course, formal apparels such as evening dresses for formal events like weddings or company dinners. It is established in 2014 and has 3 outlets which are easily accessible, located at Citylink, Suntec City and Jcube respectively. It aims to design clothing’s from ‘preppy to dressy’ that are suitable for any body shape and occasion all year round. Playdress communicates with its customers via its company’s website at https://www.playdress.co/ and social networks such as their Instagram and Facebook page so as to  keep their customers updated about its loyalty programme, sales and also their new arrivals.

REVIEW OF LOYALTY PROGRAM

Unlike other retail organizations like Topshop and even cinemas like Golden Village, Shaw Theatre and Cathay that offers discount to students who purchase their items and movie tickets respectively when they present their student identification (on weekdays), Playdress offers discount to the public (in general, regardless of their occupation) who gets to enjoy more discount when they purchase more. Since the apparels that Playdress company designs varies from ‘preppy to dressy’, it is certain that office ladies and teenagers will be attracted to shop at its store and hence, the loyalty programme it provides to the general public helps to attract more consumers as compared to Topshop and Cinemas who only offers discount to students.

Customer referrals are the biggest benefit of a Customer Loyalty Program to a retailer.  Customer research indicates that about 73 percent of customer loyalty club members.

Customer satisfaction is another benefit of a well-implemented customer loyalty program.  As long as the rewards offered are of interest and of value to the customer, they will feel acknowledged and appreciated and feel grateful towards the retailer in return.

Repeat customers create a steady flow of traffic which creates a steady stream of income.  The larger the customer loyalty program becomes, the more predictable retail sales numbers become.

APPRAISE OF CURRENT WEBSITE

Like most retail organizations, Playdress provides useful information such as store locators, a platform to contact them, social media details as well as look book to assist consumers about their locations and save their travelling time to locate their stores. The look book also serve to save time for consumers as they no longer have to always travel to the outlets to check out its newest collection or if the items are on sales. Otherwise, if the collection do not suit consumer’s style, consumer can save time by not visiting the outlets.   

ANALYSIS AND RECOMMENDATIONS OF LOYALTY PROGRAMS
However, the loyalty programme can be further improvised firstly, by allowing customers to purchase directly from its website as currently, they only allow customer to browse through their collection. This way, it provides convenience to those who does not have time to shop due to long and unfixed working hours. Another improvement that can be made aside from the one mentioned above, Playdress can also create an automated system that automatically send further discount/promo codes to shoppers who have hit a certain range of minimum purchase in a single month or so, be it accumulated or in a single receipt. This way, it helps to attract more customers as shoppers will find friends to chip in, so that they can achieve the minimum purchase at the end of the month to enjoy further discounts for the new arrivals. Lastly, Playdress can further improve their website by indicating the size (accurate measurements), price and colours available for their apparels. This way, it helps to assure consumers that they are paying a reasonable amount for quality goods that they can fit perfectly into.

DESCRIPTION OF CUSTOMER EXPERIENCES AT PLAYDRESS VS COMPETITOR

In accordance to my experience as a customer at Playdress, they have both its pros and cons. l personally prefer to shop alone without a retail staff following me around as i will feel pressurized and eventually leave the store without looking at the items adequately or worse, purchase something impulsively (buying something I do not really fancy) just because i feel embarrassed or pressurized for not buying once I stepped into the store. Hence, Playdress is definitely a place I would shop in as they do not welcome staff at entrance and follow you around like other retail organizations like Topshop, as it may come across quite pressurizing for customers like me. On the other hand, they also do have very limited staff (Jcube’s outlet) in the store and hence, do not have staffs stationed outside the fitting rooms. It will be hassle for customers who wants to try a dress of a different size as they need to change out and re-queue up to try the different sizes out. Hence, I would rate the higher efficiency for Topshop.

ANALYSIS OF SERVICE STANDARDS
The staff in Playdress provides a relatively good service standards overall in terms of their. knowledge of product, helpfulness, patience of the staff and response time.

Knowledge of product - Staff was knowledgeable about product and knew what size was able to fit me well for the different cuttings of clothes and selected suitable dress for the event that I asked for help with

Helpfulness/ politeness -  Was helpful when I asked her for the different colours for the same apparel and acted as if I could not decide

Patience - Staff was patient and waited for me to decide without pressurizing me to purchase item

Response time - Acceptable response time during payment and asking for sizes

Table 1. Service standard analysis for PLAYDRESS

DESCRIPTION AND ORGANIZATION OF TRAINING ACTIVITIES

According to table 1, Playdress provides service standards that are generally beyond average. However, response time could be improved.

Firstly, response time could be improved by having an “automated counter” . This automated counter will automatically deduct the number of items left once the cashier keys in something when a customer buys something and be able to give the relevant information to customers who are asking for availability of stocks i.e when will the clothings re-stock, what colour and sizes are available (in which outlet) etc. This way, the retail staff do not have to search for the item one by one and make the rest of the customers wait.

Secondly, the company needs to understand that cutting down the number of staffs helping out at a retail store should not be an option if they want to save cost. Saving cost on hiring staff will not help to improve revenue of company as this decreases efficiency of service which in turn, could reflect badly on their services.

Lastly, all new staffs are to undergo training programme which helps them practice good service standards and have good knowledge of product in the retail store before working in retail store without supervisors.

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