Palace Store and Supreme Store: Comparison Assignment

I shopped at Palace Store located at 49 Howard Street New York. The physical address of the store is NY 10013. The store opens as from 11am to 7pm on Monday to Saturday. On Sundays, it opens as from 12 noon to 6pm. I visited the shop at 2pm on Tuesday, 26th September, 2017. The stores online store can be accessed by following the link

https://www.palaceskateboards.com/new-york-shop/ Accessed 27th September, 2017

I also shopped at Supreme Store located at 274 Lafayette St, in New York. The physical address is 10012. The store opens from 11am to 7pm on Monday to Saturday. On Sunday, it opens at 12pm and closes at 7pm. The following is the link to the website

http://www.supremenewyork.com/shop. Accessed 27th September, 2017

The primary store under discussion in this paper is Supreme store located in Lafayette in New York. Conversely, the competing brand for Supreme is Palace store. The competitor selected for this discussion paper is Palace store. Palace store in New York opened in 2017, and is an affiliate of the London based clothing line. The selected product category for discussion is the hood.

Supreme store sells different types of goods which include skate boards, t-shits, shirts, hoods, and sneakers among others. The business charges a premium price on its items because they are high quality.

The key items include hoods, hats, skateboards, and t-shirts. To a large extent, it appears that these items are the opening pricepoints for the department. The critical price points for palace include the hoods, skateboards, and sneakers.

The most notable fashion items displayed in the companys store include shirts and pants.

However, all items contain the brand name and trademark of the business. Therefore, it is clear that the company is slowly shaping itself as a fashionable store for the residents of New York. Supreme store classifies products into various categories which include street wear, sportswear, casual wear, and official wear. Some of the items include hoods, sneakers, t-shirts, pants, caps, and shirts. As for the hoods, there are plain and printed hoods for sale. However, majority of the items fall under the street wear category.

Ultimately, the firm targets young and middle-aged individuals who can afford to pay a premium price for branded items. Thus, it appears that the clients may belong to the middle-class individuals living in New York. The target customers for Palace include middle-aged and young people who love fashion.

The merchandising message visible in the store is the companys logo supreme. In fact, the stores brand name is the main fashion statement notable in the facility. The predominant color print in the store is red. The merchandise (hoods) is located in the far right section of the window of the store. They appear in various colors which include black while others are printed. However, the merchandise is not organized in different categories such as color. However, specific types of hoods are arranged in a particular shelf. The hoods are located in the middle of the store near the t-shirts and caps. The merchandise (hoods) has different prices which range from $130-$188. The business offers a deep assortment of the hood items within its product. The majority of the items in the store include proprietary and national brands. There are about 6 fixtures devoted to each brand. The store uses a premium pricing strategy for the hoods category in the national brand to increase its profit margin. As for the key items, the store charges a standard price to attract buyers. The store is privately traded, thus, there are no available financial statistics for the last quarter.

Conclusion

In a similar fashion with Supreme store, Palace offers skateboards, shirts, t-shirts, and hoods at a premium price because the items are branded under its name. The key items include hats, skateboards, and t-shirts. The critical opening price points for palace include the hoods, skateboards, and sneakers.

However, the fashion items for Palace include t-shirts, hoods, and shirts. In contrast with Supreme store, Palace store has street wear and sportswear product categories only. Since it is a new store, it may consider adding new product categories to attract more customers. However, it has similar hood products with Supreme store. As for Palace, the fashion items include t-shirts, hoods, and shirts. In a similar vein, Palace targets young consumers in the middle class social group in New York.

Palace store has a different merchandising message at the front of the store. The stores message is that the entity offers quality items that meet the demand of the buyers. In the middle section before the entrance, the company showcases a large letter P cherub fountain. It makes a formation where one can sit before making a shopping decision. The predominant color is cream-white on the walls while the floor has black prints.

Palace Stores organization is similar to that of Supreme store because both of them use the product category to classify items. That is, there is a hoods, t-shirts, and shirts section. However, the hoods are organized in accordance to the color and trend. The hoods are stored in the upper left corner of the store near the t-shirts and pants. The price range for the item is from $100-$200. The business offers a soft assortment of the hoods, as there are only 3 fixtures of the product. This is quite different from Supreme store because it contains a deep assortment of items. However, Palace applies a premium pricing strategy for the hoods similar to Supremes approach. However, it only charges a standard price for the sneakers and other key items. Palace is privately traded.

In my opinion, the stores exhibit more similarities than the differences through their merchandise. However, I believe that they can improve on their service delivery if they improve on store design to avoid congestion and long queues. Clearly, both stores have different pricings for regular priced merchandise and sale merchandise for the hoods. For instance, Supremes regular priced hood costs $168 while the sale merchandise costs $188. Conversely, Palaces regular priced hood costs $154 while sale merchandise costs $171.

Website Analysis

Supremes homepage contains a list of items that one may follow to navigate the site or view a product. The website has a similar merchandising message with the physical store because they both employ strong visual representation to encourage shoppers to purchase their items. Also, Palaces website merchandising message is that it offers simple, but quality products for the buyers. It appears that both businesses employ a simple merchandising message to attract buyers. The message is similar to the one appearance at the store entrance.

Supremes website is easy to navigate because it showcases almost all product assortments. Palaces website is also to navigate, but it does not contain relevant features such as links for more information. For both websites, the items are organized in accordance to their categories. Supremes online store contains exclusive styles that are not found in the physical store. Therefore, shoppers should plan differently by making a visit to the store before making an order. However, Palaces website does not have exclusive styles that are not located in the store.

Both websites do not offer suggestions to the shopper. Mostly, they display the selected item, its price, a short description. However, Supremes site suggests to the visitor to check the next available item in the product category. To a large extent, the hoods available in the online stores for both businesses have similar prices with the ones in the physical stores.

In conclusion, Supremes website is easier to navigate than Palaces because it contains links and sufficient product description. Additionally, the home page is organized in a unique way, thus, allowing buyers to shop easily. As a result, Supremes site is more customer-friendly than Palaces online store because it displays a deep assortment of items as well as allows buyers to view items only by clicking at the needed hood. I suggest that Palace store should improve their website by introducing more customer-friendly aspects. For instance, they may include links that offer suggestions the current outfits. Also, Supreme store should install a new section where buyers can write their reviews about it to enhance accountability.