Variety Assortment
The store is geared toward amateur explorers, travel enthusiasts, adventure seekers and environmentalists and it featured items produced, sourced or selected by National Geographic.
Key product lines include National Geographic's Rugged Basic, International Traveler and Explorer Gear clothing lines and accessories; casual and expedition-style footwear; a full range of optics, from eyewear and binoculars to telescopes and cameras; journals, calendars and other stationery products; maps, atlases and guidebooks; watches; home furnishings and decor, with a special emphasis on reclaimed wood pieces; and a wide selection of children's products. Moreover, there is a unique "experience zones" in the store for multisensory activities like Rain Garden workshop designed to stimulate, educate and inspire visitors.
Under these departments, National Geographic is also divided into several categories as shown in the table.
In this case, National Geographic has a wide variety but narrow assortment of merchandise.
For Example, there are 3 types of footwear that National Geographic is offering: Adventure Travel, Designed and Espadrille. These foot wears revolve around the 4 collections concepts. For example, adventure travel is brought in to match the rugged basic, desert and Tropical concepts. Designed will thus be bought to match the International Travel concept. Lastly, Espadrille for rugged basic.
Challenges faced by National Geographic
The most serious challenged faced by Nat Geo is that they have difficulties looking for staff. Nowadays, job unemployment is rather scarce and there is shortage of people in the environment. On top of that, people hardly want to find a retail job. Working as a retail sales assistant, the job is rather personalized. It is important to get the right people who are willing to commit.
Moreover, Nat Geo is a unique branding. They need to find staffs that have the right attitude as well as the passion for the brand. Only then would they be able to fit into the culture as well as being the ambassador for the brand itself. When the correct attitude is there, staffs will be more willing and will take initiatives to providing personalized service for each customers. GEMS encourages staffs to provide better service, but however it is still up to the individuals.
What is the culture? As we know National Geographic is mainly about the 3Rs- reduce, reuse as well as recycle. The retail assistants would need to learn the art of being thrifty and minimize usage as well as wastage. Therefore, they need to be able to cultivate the habit of asking customers if they would need a carrier with every purchase.
As National Geographic’s shop front is four times the size of other normal stalls, and is almost equivalent to the first floor of CK Tang and with the change of shift of the staffs, it makes communication rather tough for them. Communication is essential and with store size so big, they need to ensure that each and every one of the staffs have a common understanding regarding the upcoming event, promotions running as well as the stock level in the store.
To overcome this challenge, a communication book is kept within each departments and that they would ensure that constant updates is being done.