the 80/20 rule, floorset walkthrus and endless sale FOMO

plus everything I found for you so you can delete the rest of your inbox!

If you have ever worked for a retail company that has brick and mortar stores you are likely familiar with a “floorset walk thru”. As a corporate merchandiser, heading into a floorset walkthrough felt like a moment of truth - where you finally get to see if all those months of planning, negotiations, and product selections actually translate into something that works on the sales floor. Sometimes we were just working with samples and sketches so seeing actual goods in a store was part validation and part anxiety. Do the washes on the denim wall have enough differentiation? how does the knit color palette look on the front table? do all the sections flow in a way that will make sense to customers?

I spent twenty years working at companies like JCrew, Coach, Ann Taylor Brands and Gap that had large store fleets in mostly malls across the US. The corporate offices were always in New York City so we would take a van to a mall in the Tri-State Area area once a month to see a new floor set.

The mall would be a ghost town at 7 AM, with only the distant hum of the HVAC system and the soft echo of our footsteps on the polished floors. We would move through the store like professional anthropologists touching fabrics, checking price points, and evaluating sight lines like we were planning a military operation. We would scan the mannequins to confirm they were in the head-to-toe looks we discussed and all the right items were placed correctly.

Once we agreed on the new full price merchandise we would walk thru the “markdown hall of shame” otherwise known as the sale section. There is an 80/20 rule when planning any business which explains that 80% of your revenue comes from 20% of your products. This means if you correctly identify your bestsellers (20% of your assortment) and ensure they’re always in stock you are winning! Of course they are some seasons when this works and others when it doesn’t and that’s when markdowns happen.

Mickey Drexler (who was the CEO of JCrew during my tenure and taught me so much) would always have us walk over and look at the sale section. It was such a good exercise - staring at an actual wall of garments usually tells a better story than a spreadsheet would. We would diagnose what happened and try to understand why it didn’t sell. Was it a bad color? Bad fit? Did we just buy too much? All of these question and answers would better inform our for future assortments.

I also apply this rule to shopping - especially when you feel like every retailer is screaming SALE! I always have FOMO when it comes to sale and don’t want miss anything - but in a sea of markdowns you have to be discerning. Trust me - there is plenty of niche fashion that you don’t want to get stuck with even if you think it’s a “good deal”. Before you click “Apple Pay” consider whether it will fall into that essential 20% of items you wear 80% of the time - or if it's likely to join the rarely-worn 80%.

In honor of markdowns I thought it would be fun to highlight some of the best items I found after examining the sale sections of my favorite websites. A lot of retailers started their July 4th sale today so now is a good time to get things before everyone else starts shopping. I tried to stay away from the niche fashion - and find you some timeless styles. Don’t be fooled by the endless SALE! emails this week and weekend - it’s a jungle out there. Remember the 80/20 rule and ignore your FOMO! You likely have something in your closet to wear.

You can shop all of my sale timeless styles here!!

Thanks for subscribing and please share with friends! Xo