The NeXtime online consumer store (www.nextimestore.com) is intended for consumers but is visited by retail staff too. Whilst there was some resistance from retail to the NeXtime consumer store we embraced this opportunity fully in 2013 and will continue to do so. Why is NeXtime doing this?
First of all: the NeXtime consumer store operates and will continue to operate at minimum advertised pricing, while our retail partners can opt to promote to sell more product. We do not look to disrupt the retailer’s business and we believe that any other setup is counter-productive to the business as a whole.
Despite being the brand and trademark owner, and operator of the NeXtime consumer store, we choose to concede top search positions to our retail partners. The logic behind our concession is that we look for the consumer to go to the retailers to buy our clock designs. Nonetheless we’ll continue to create buzz around the NeXtime consumer store because there is no better property to educate consumers about our designs than our own web store. So the primary purpose of the NeXtime consumer store is not to sell, but education of consumers and retail staff.
Retailers that dominantly show NeXtime designs in a brand-like presentation in their store notably record more NeXtime sales than before. Clearly a strong NeXtime in-store presentation that showcases a good number of our designs drives both sales as foot traffic. It is only these stores that NeXtime rewards with the title ‘brand centres’, and it is only these ‘brand centres’ that appear in the store locator and where consumers that buy from the NeXtime consumer store are directed to: the (nearest) brand centre’ of their choice.
In the end it is how the customer perceives the full shopping experience: from browsing the web store up to picking up the NeXtime clock in a ‘brand centre’.
What do you think? Is our click and brick approach to engage the consumer during a happy NeXtime shopping experience the right strategy?
TIME & DESIGN BLOG 
Thumbs up for Nextime–we sadly broke the glass of our Nextime Charles, but their Clock Doctor found us a new one, so we can enjoy the clock once more–thank you so much!
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