There’s no such thing as a “Retail Entry Playbook”

I said what I said. Don’t @ me.

“We want to be the Warby Parker of insert industry ripe for disruption here” or “Apple does xyz thing in their stores, so we should too.” 

“We just need their Playbook.”

I hear various versions of the above A LOT.

These statements are totally understandable coming from brands that have never had stores before. Of course the success of Warby Parker as one of the first DTC brands is worthy of admiration (though it is worth noting the brand is still not profitable*). And who wouldn’t want to imitate the exceptional design and customer service one experiences at an Apple store? It is logical and even prudent to want to imitate in order to replicate the success of others.

But let’s get one thing straight—there is no retail entry Playbook that guarantees success if followed to the letter.

*This post is an excerpt from a 2024 Retail is Alive substack article I wrote. Note that Warby did recently report its first profitable quarter, but it was largely due to a tariff refund. You decide if this counts or not.

While this notion of some sort of magical retail playbook is really appealing, it’s simply not a thing. Here’s why:

Brands like Warby and even Apple in its early retail days were born in a different time. In 2001, when Apple launched its first store (actually there were twin openings on the same day—both in suburban malls) consumer behavior was very different. There was no iPhone, no app store, no facebook/meta, insta, snap, or tiktoc. The reason why Apple has continued to thrive–largely in part due to the success of its retail stores–is because it has allowed itself to evolve over time. The “Playbook” has evolved, but the principles have not.

But Apple isn’t a DTC brand you might say. Okay. Let’s look at Warby Parker–arguably the quintessential disruptor DTC brand. Warby Parker opened its first permanent store in NYC on Greene Street in 2013. This, however, was preceded by the Class Trip, which was preceded by the Holiday Spectacle Bazaar, which was preceded by Neil Blumenthal literally inviting customers to his Boston flat to peruse glasses at his dining room table. 

The same argument applies here. Over a decade ago, less than 1% of eyewear sales were made online, retail leases were structured differently, and facebook ads were cheap and incredibly effective.

This “Playbook” would not work today. 

So, what’s an emerging, retail-bullish, DTC brand to do?

Instead of looking at replicating the specific “plays”, let’s instead look at retail entry Principles. 

Think of these as truisms. They are not rigid, but rather should guide new-to-retail brands on their expansion journey. Use these to build your “Playbook” if you must, but beware of becoming overly enamored with running the perfect plays.

Principle #1: Listening is more valuable than telling.

Brands born online are great at telling. It’s all they’ve ever done, really. They tell their story though a website, hire influencers to reinforce that story on social media, and place digital ads on various platforms—all with important brand-building messaging. But it isn’t until they have a physical place where customers can visit, experience and interact, that they are actually able to listen.

Yes, the store needs to be a continuation of that brand story, but the real power of retail doesn’t come from the brand—it comes from the customers. The store is the most valuable customer focus group a brand has if it has the fortitude to use it as such. Visiting stores to observe customer interactions, speak with frontline team members, and talk directly with customers will have a higher yield than any Forrester Research deck will.

Principle #2: Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good.

Whether a brand is going from zero to one, or from 100 to 101, outside forces are always thrusting change into any organization. Once a brand has moved into the physical realm, its ability to remain agile and react quickly becomes just a little harder. Instead of changing a line of code or an image in an ad, now an entire system needs to be ripped and replaced, or the whole store team needs to be retrained. In order to remain adaptable and move fast, things get a little blurry–and that’s okay.

I’ll tell you a secret that you already know: no one will notice as long as the overall experience—which is 90% human interaction—is great. Which brings me to my next principle…

Principle #3: A team is the sum of its parts.

Should a new-to-retail brand hire an ultra experienced former multi-unit leader from Nike to run its first store? Should it go with the long-time store manager with a proven track record of successful stores who is ready for their next step? 

A lot of emphasis is placed on the initial retail leadership hire–for good reason. This person will set the tone and hopefully grow with the brand’s retail channel as both a leader and strategist. But there’s one thing that’s true no matter what: they are still just one person. Which is why the frontline team and key HQ support is critical to the success of the retail store–even with the most seasoned retail leader at the helm.

The composition of the retail team shouldn't just be based on which brands candidates worked for previously, but also on how the individual’s skillset is additive to the team as a whole. For example, if the first general manager hire has a deep background in operations, logistics and inventory management, the other critical skill sets like grassroots marketing, customer service/clienteling, visual merchandising, and team leadership should be rounded out in the rest of the team. Of course everyone does a bit of everything, but typically people have one or two areas where they are particularly strong. 

To think that hiring the right leader automatically leads to the success of the store is a fallacy. It is a strong team as a whole that leads to success.

Principle #4: Failure is inevitable—then what?

What?! (clutches pearls)

I’m supposed to tell you that if you do all of the above, your stores will always be successful, right? If that were the case there would be far less main street vacancies and I would be on a permanent vacation.

But the truth is, even when a brand has done its homework, knows (or thinks it knows) its customer, gets the best leasing deal, and hires an experienced team, sometimes things don’t go as planned. Story time:

I worked with a brand several years ago to open a store in a new market. It was a tertiary market for them, but they already had successful locations in their top 10 markets. They found a great space in the neighborhood where the data said their customers were—rent wasn’t terrible as it was just off of the main high street. They also transplanted an experienced store manager from an existing store and hired a team with great customer service.

But it was still an untested market. And it failed. Foot traffic was abysmal and no amount of marketing efforts seemed to make a material difference. So we pivoted. We overhauled the labor model, changed store hours, and made huge efforts to get out into the community to drive traffic. The store became barely profitable and stayed that way until the lease was up. Then it closed.

I’m not telling this story to scare anyone. I’m telling it to say that if you open enough stores, some will inevitably be duds. Hopefully not the first one–but it will happen eventually.

This doesn’t mean retail as a channel is a failure or doesn’t work. It simply means we’re not magicians or mediums. We cannot predict the future or make people shop where they don’t want to.

I learned so much from that failed store. How to make operations tight. How to adjust labor spend while still giving a great customer experience every time. How to quickly enact field marketing and community engagement efforts.

And when the store reopened on a better trafficked street, all of those learnings came into play.

“Because: Evaluated failure is far more valuable than accidental success.”

And because Retail is Alive®

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