Having access to exclusive products is key to differentiation for any business. In the supermarkets they use home brands to achieve this while major toy, homewares and gift businesses buy in bulk products exclusive to their banner.
Typo is a good example of an exclusive focussed business. Almost all of what they sell in Typo brand. While you can get similar elsewhere, for Typo the products are tweaked in a way to make then a genuine exclusive.
Exclusivity means price comparison is harder. It also means you can play with your offers in a way that benefits your margin. Take a careful look at Typo and you will see how they do this.
Kikki.k is another store that sells its own products – for all the reasons noted above.
I have been in Hong Kong at the gift fair this weekend, looking at products for newsXpress. At this fair, talking with buyers from major retail groups, the value of exclusivity was reinforced in a brutal way.
On one stand a small business retailer with six shops was looking at a new hot product at the same time a buyer was from a national retailer from the same country. The national retailer buyer was able to commit to purchasing one hundred times the small business retailer could commit to. In return, the buyer sought, and was given, exclusivity.
In this world of borderless retail, having products that no one else has is important. The best way to achieve this is to be as close as possible to the source of the products.
This is a big challenge for retailers who buy by themselves from everyday wholesalers.
It is also a big challenge for banner groups that don’t attend the international trade shows to access new products before their usual local wholesalers have the products in their catalogues.
Exclusivity can be accessed in a number of ways. The best approach depends on the product line and the supplier attitude to exclusivity. I have seen it work well in a range of categories, where exclusive products have been key in driving net new traffic for the the engaged retailers.
Getting the exclusive product is the start, next comes the in-store pitch, out of store marketing and commitment of all involved to make it work.
You can achieve exclusivity in an area by working with enlightened wholesalers who work with and not against by supplying every Tom, Dick & Harry in close vicinity. We changed our main card supplier because of this.
We have developed preferred status with several suppliers. First option to stock, promotion deals, area exclusivity enable us to be a destination store. Being different can be more about what you choose not to stock and who not to deal with.