Some tips from a retail master

We pay attention when Mickey Drexler, Ralph Lauren, Georgio Armani and Renzo Rosso talk about running a successful lifestyle retail business, for obvious reasons.

J. Crew just reported a strong fourth quarter ‘07, with revenues, same-store sales, gross margin and operating income up nicely over the prior period.

What’s driving this excellent performance at J. Crew in a souring retail market? Here’s some insight from Drexler, Chairman and CEO:

“It’s all about inventory today and differentiation… It’s about the quality of goods, service and innovation. We are in a game right now of beating the competition. The winners will win not because they’re cutting expense. Long term, they’re winning because they are innovating their product.”

Drexler said the key to J. Crew’s continued success has been being “obsessively focused on our customers and our product,” down to the stitching, the buttons, the colors and all the details.

And further on, another telling excerpt re: Madewell, J. Crew’s fledgling new retail concept:

“New businesses are really hard to start. They only work if there is strong long-term vision and tremendous passion and a product that’s focused on the consumer… I can’t emphasize the importance of having a store about 10 blocks away… We are in there every day looking at it and we’re living and breathing it…”

Enough said. My underlines.

Photo: detail of work by Kon Trubkovich, Marianne Boesky Gallery