Ascending a sleek new multi-colored escalator, designed by Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas, Saks Fifth Avenue president Marc Metrick is a man vibrating with excitement ahead of its grand unveiling. The escalator’s bright red and blue hues and a large LED ceiling (that creates the illusion of a blue sky) pop in sharp contrast with the grey curtains used to cordon off a dusty construction area. Change is afoot on the ground floor of one Manhattan’s most iconic department stores.

The sense of theatre epitomizes what Metrick, who has been president of the HBC-owned Saks since 2015, is convinced the company has to offer today’s shoppers, particularly at its 650,000 square-foot New York City flagship.

The dazzling new escalator connects the street level—for decades home to a beauty area teeming with sales staff trying to spritz you with perfume—to an opened-up second floor. The new ground floor space is a 53,000 square-foot emporium for leather goods and handbags, the “gateway drug” for luxe shoppers, as Metrick puts it. By late summer this year, the renovations will include “The Vault” on the lower level, once a storage basement but soon home to Saks’ priciest jewelry like Chopard watches.

萨克斯第五大道精品百货店的总裁马克·迈特里克乘彩色扶梯缓缓而上，为即将举行的盛大节目仪式激动不已。扶梯由荷兰建筑师雷姆·库哈斯亲自设计，外形靓丽时尚，色调为明亮的红色和蓝色，顶上是巨大的LED天花板（看上去像蔚蓝的天空），与四周围着的灰色窗帘形成鲜明对比，窗帘之外则是尘土飞扬的建筑工地。在曼哈顿最具标志性的萨克斯精品百货店一层，变化正在悄然发生。

商场里有种剧场感，正是迈特里克希望让当代顾客感受到的氛围，尤其在面积达65万平方英尺的纽约市旗舰店里。迈特里克自从2015年以来担任HBC旗下萨克斯百货店的总裁。

酷炫的新自动扶梯将商场一层与二层开放空间相连。数十年来一层都是美妆区，挤满了往人们身上喷香水的促销人员。新的一层则是面积达53000平方英尺的皮具和手提包卖场，用迈特里克的话来说，这些都是奢侈品消费者的“入门药引”。到今年夏末，翻新工程将包括地下“金库”，以前是储藏室，很快会用来陈列最昂贵的珠宝，比如萧邦手表。

The buzz of activity comes at a time when Saks has some wind in its sails again after faring a rough patch three years ago. Sales were declining quarter after quarter. It was losing market share and the Grande Dame of New York luxury, a fixture since 1924, had lost much of what made it stand out.

Now, Saks has reported seven quarters of comparable sales gains in the last eight, including a 7.3% jump in the third quarter. And, to Metrick’s big satisfaction, that recent performance bested those of two major rivals—Nordstrom and Neiman Marcus—over the same period. But those competitors are not idling: both Neiman and Nordstrom are adding their first namesake department stores in New York this year.

The luxury market might be crowded but it is booming: according to Bain & Co, the U.S. personal luxury goods market rose 5% to $85 billion in the United States. What’s more, Spectrem Group estimates there are now 10 million Americans with a net worth between $1 million and $5 million, up 67% from a decade ago.

A run of the mill store just won’t do, both in terms of the physical location but also how tech is integrated into them. Ergo a $250 million invested in the multi-year remodel of the flagship of a 41-store chain.

“There is no better time to cement your strategy as a luxury retailer than when you’re about to put a quarter of a billion dollars into your flagship store,” says Metrick.

While the renovation doesn’t feature anything outlandish like the indoor ski hill Saks installed in the 1930s (try getting a CFO to sign-off on that today) it’s still trying to channel that spirit as it looks to make the Fifth Avenue store a modern-day destination.

Last year, the beauty section moved up a floor but not without getting 40% more space and new amenities like facial workouts and offering anti-cellulite treatments. The area, historically on street level to generate shopper visits, offers clean sightlines with more natural light from outside, a feature all floors will have by 2021. (The next project is men’s shoes, now spread out over three floors, but soon to be concentrated in one lavish area.)

萨克斯之所以大翻修，是想重振旗鼓加速发展，因为三年前萨克斯经历过一段艰难时期，当时的销售额一个季度比一个季度低，市场份额不断缩小。这位诞生于1924年的纽约贵妇独特的韵味逐渐淡去。

现在，萨克斯宣布之前八个季度里有七个实现了可比销售增长，其中第三个季度增长率还达到7.3%。而且，迈特里克非常满意的是，近期表现超过了同期两个主要竞争对手诺德斯特龙和尼曼集团。但竞争对手们也没有闲着，尼曼和诺德斯特龙今年都在纽约开了新店。

奢侈品市场竞争是很激烈，但正在蓬勃发展。贝恩公司称，美国个人奢侈品市场上涨5%，至850亿美元。此外，市场调研机构Spectrem Group估计，现在有1000万美国人净资产在100万美元到500万美元之间，比十年前增加了67%。

不管地段多好，也不管如何应用技术，作坊式经营都是行不通的。所以才会投资2.5亿美元花好几年装修旗舰店，目前萨克斯共有41家连锁店。

“作为奢侈品零售商，投入25亿美元翻修旗舰店是巩固战略的最佳时机。” 迈特里克表示。

相对来说本次装修比较正常，不像20世纪30年代曾经在室内放过滑雪山（现在想让首席财务官批准可能比登天还难）。不过萨克斯将第五大道精品店打造为当代时尚先锋过程中，仍在传承当年的精神。

去年，美妆区搬到了二层，但空间增加了40%，也多了一些福利，例如面部锻炼和抗脂肪治疗。之前美妆区一直在一层，目的是吸引更多顾客，现在则更加清爽，还能沐浴在自然光线里。到2021年，所有楼层都能有自然光线。（下一个调整的品类是男鞋，现在分布在三层楼各处，很快将集中在一个奢华的区域。）

Shopping isn’t the only component of Metrick’s vision for Saks as a New York destination: the evening of a recent press preview, Saks had its first VIP dinner at L’Avenue, a new high-end Philippe Starck-designed restaurant on the 9th floor. It’s the only outpost of the Paris eatery that attracts A-list names like Rihanna and Beyoncé.

While Saks is thriving now, it was a different story just a few years ago. HBC, a department store conglomerate that also includes its namesake Canadian chain and Lord & Taylor, bought Saks for $2.4 billion in 2013.

There had been turmoil in the c-suite, strategy lurches, and the prevailing opinion that Saks was an icon adrift. So when Metrick, now a 23-year veteran of the brand, took the reins in 2015, he immediately began with a deep dive into customer perceptions. Among the humbling results: Saks and its archrival Neiman Marcus were interchangeable in shopper’s eyes.

“After years of trying to be all things to all people, Saks didn’t stand for anything,” Metrick recalls.

The problem, he says, was the Saks had come to play second banana in shoppers’ minds to the brands it sold. Case in point: the only time Saks and its logo were front and center in advertising was when it was holding sales events. Otherwise, Saks was an afterthought, its square logo relegated to the bottom of a fashion brand’s billboard. Metrick’s rallying cry for his troops has since been to make Saks the “hero” in customers eyes “The goal is for people to say, ‘I got this at Saks’ or ‘Have you been to Saks lately?’”

迈特里克对萨克斯在纽约发展的愿景还不只是购物。近日一个邀请媒体参观的晚上，萨克斯在L'Avenue举行了第一次VIP晚宴，L’Avenue位于九层，是由大师菲利普·史塔克设计的高端餐厅。该店总部在巴黎，纽约店是其唯一分店，吸引了蕾哈娜和碧昂丝之类的一线名人。

虽然现在看起来萨克斯欣欣向荣，就在几年前还是另外一番景象。百货公司集团HBC旗下有同名的加拿大连锁店和Lord & Taylor，2013年出资24亿美元收购了萨克斯。

收购之后高管层大动荡，战略出现了动摇，人们普遍认为萨克斯品牌发展方向没有定论。因此，到现在已积攒23年品牌经验的迈特里克于2015年执掌品牌时，立即开始深入了解顾客的意见。调查结果令人羞愧，在顾客眼中，萨克斯和主要竞争对手尼曼完全可以互换。

“多年来，萨克斯一直想为所有人提供所有服务，却一点特色都没有了。”迈特里克回忆说。

他说，顾客想到某个品牌时，萨克斯都只是配角。举例来说：萨克斯标志唯一一次出现在广告的前面和中心，是在举办促销活动时。除此之外萨克斯总会往后放，其方形标志只能出现在时尚品牌广告牌的底部。从此之后，迈特里克对公司的号召就是让萨克斯变成顾客眼中的“英雄”，“希望能让人们说：‘我去萨克斯买的这个’，或者主动问起‘最近去过萨克斯吗？’”

And that’s no small order, what with some 85% of any luxury department store’s offerings overlapping with rivals. It’s also not getting easier at a time brands themselves are opening more of their own stores and taking more control of how their wares are presented.

The high-end department stores added to their own problems in the last decade by getting more promotional, says Bain & Co partner Vandana Radhakrishnan. That led many brands, from Coach and Ralph Lauren on up to focus more on their own stores.

But luxury brands, particularly smaller ones, can only do so much with their own sites and stores in reaching a wide audience. So great, well-trafficked stores and strong e-commerce are remedies for that problem. Notably, Metrick says he can give detailed customer data to luxury brands, including what other brands they like.

Yet the question remains: If you want to buy a Gucci sweater that is available at Saks, Neiman, Nordstrom, a Gucci boutique, or online at Net-A-Porter—why buy it at Saks?

That’s why Metrick sees reinventing the flagship as so important, with many ideas being adapted to the 40 other stores in the fleet.

E-commerce, where Nordstrom is seen as a best-in-class operator, is another area of Metrick’s focus. Steps taken include ramping up Saks’ social media (on Instagram it now has 1.4 million followers compared to 300,000 in 2015) and introducing services like Salesfloor, where an actual sales person working at a store, and not a chatbot or overseas call center operator, is available to provide tips and book appointments at Saks for you.

Metrick says that’s already paying off: online return rates are typically 40% to 50%, a cost that pinches margins. That drops to 20% for sales clinched via the Salesfloor service.

Every year, some 30 million people visit a Saks store, while Saks.com gets 150 million visits. At stores, 20% of visits yield a sale, while online the rate is more like 2.5%. And so while not as flashy as a designer escalator, ecommerce is crucial for maintaining momentum.

“She’s thinking about every other online experience out she’s having today and is Saks as easy as all that,” says HBC CEO Helena Foulkes of the prototypical Saks shopper.

实现目标并不容易，奢侈品百货公司有85%的产品与竞争对手重复。而且越来越多的品牌也在自己开店，对商品的展示方式控制也更严，可以说越来越困难。

贝恩公司的合伙人范达娜·拉德哈基里什南表示，过去十年，高端百货公司促销活动过多，也导致问题更严重。正因如此，从蔻驰到拉尔夫·劳伦等一众品牌越发注重发展自家门店。

不过奢侈品品牌，尤其是小品牌在自家网站和商店里发挥的空间毕竟有限，吸引更大范围人群不容易。所以还得借助大型人流密集的商店，还有做大电商业务。值得注意的是，迈特里克表示可以向奢侈品牌提供详细的顾客数据，包括顾客喜欢的其他品牌等。

但问题仍然存在：如果你想买件古驰毛衣，萨克斯、尼曼、诺德斯特龙、古驰精品店都有卖，也可以去网上的Net-A-Porter，为什么要去萨克斯买？

这就是迈特里克认为重修旗舰店非常重要的原因，他对其他40家连锁店也有许多调整计划。

人们普遍认为诺德斯特龙的电商是业内一流的电商，这也是迈特里克着重加强的领域。具体措施包括加强萨克斯的社交媒体运营（目前其在Instagram上有140万粉丝，而2015年只有30万粉丝），还推出卖场销售等服务，可以让真人销售员，而不是聊天机器人或海外呼叫中心接线员帮顾客在萨克斯提供购物建议和预定服务。

迈特里克表示，相关服务已见成效。一般来说，网购退货率在40%到50%之间，非常影响利润。然而通过卖场销售服务成交的订单退货率已经降到20%。

每年，萨克斯一家门店里的客流量约有3000万人，而Saks.com的访问量达1.5亿。实体店里20%的访问量可发生购买，在线访客购买率接近2.5%。因此，尽管电商业务没有设计精美的彩色扶梯华丽，但对保持发展至关重要。

“她会想到其他的在线购物体验，比较在萨克斯有没有同样便利。” HBC的首席执行官海伦娜·福克斯在介绍典型的萨克斯顾客时表示。

Saks was recently reminded of how hard it is to win over the modern shopper, even on its home turf. In January, it closed a women’s store in Lower Manhattan after only two years.

But Foulkes, previously president of CVS pharmacy’s $80 billion retail business, won kudos from analysts for dropping an underperforming location and zeroing in on where Saks can win. “The next dollar I invest has to be in the place with the most upside,” she says.

To enable that, Foulkes has been busy in her first year on the job making big moves to undo much of HBC’s aggressive expansion in the last half decade, one that led it to “go around chasing stars,” as Scotiabank retail and consumer analyst Patricia Baker puts it.

That has included paying down HBC’s sizeable debt by selling off half of its struggling European business, its Lord & Taylor flagship 10 blocks south of Saks’, and Gilt Groupe; moves that won it recent upgrades from debt agencies. HBC also recently announced the closure of up to 20 Off Fifth discount stores and halted its Canadian expansion of Saks, which had called for seven stores, opting instead to cap it at three.

That’s not to say HBC is only in contraction mode—the company is planning a new Saks store at the American Dream mega-mall being built in East Rutherford, New Jersey.

But it does signal that HBC is doubling down on best performing business—Saks—particularly the flagship. Though HBC doesn’t break out individual stores’ numbers, the Manhattan flagship generates at least $600 million a year, or 15% of so of Saks’ total sales.

最近萨克斯刚体会过想赢得获得购物者支持多么困难，哪怕是在自己的大本营。今年1月，萨克斯关闭了曼哈顿下城的一家女性时尚店，从开张到关门才两年。

福克斯曾担任CVS pharmacy总裁，负责 800亿美元的零售业务，曾经因为果断放弃业绩不佳的门店而收获分析师赞誉，她当前重点是找出萨克斯的突破口。“我投资的每一美元都要尽可能获得最大回报。”她表示。

为了实现目标，福克思上任第一年动作不断，大刀阔斧撤销了过去五年HBC积极扩张的多数项目。加拿大丰业银行的零售和消费者分析师帕特丽夏·贝克认为，之前的扩张计划导致业务发展“东一下西一下没重点”。

其中包括通过出售一半苦苦挣扎的欧洲业务，出售位于萨克斯以南10个街区的Lord & Taylor旗舰店以及Gilt Groupe以偿还HBC的巨额债务，种种举措推动近期债券机构对HBC的评级上升。最近HBC还宣布关闭多达20家Off Fifth折扣店，也叫停了在加拿大的扩张计划，之前萨克斯号称要开七家店，最后决定只开三家。

这并不是说HBC业务全线收缩，公司也计划在新泽西州东卢瑟福市的美国梦大型商场新开设萨克斯百货店。

但种种举动确实表明，HBC正在加倍努力推动业绩最佳的萨克斯百货店发展，尤其是旗舰店。尽管HBC没有公布各个门店的业绩数据，但曼哈顿旗舰店每年至少能带来6亿美元收入，占萨克斯总销售额的15%。

“The Saks brand is only going to be as strong as that Fifth Avenue store,” says Scotiabank’s Baker. And Saks doesn’t want its so-called “branches” to be seen as backwaters. So edgy brands like Vêtements and Jacquemus are now sold at other stores too, not just Manhattan.

Other ideas have also made their way to its “branches” in other markets. Take ‘The Collective’, an area that focuses up and coming brands, including to solidify what Metrick calls “Saks’ fashion authority.”

“Our role in the fashion ecosystem is to be the place to introduce brands to our consumer,” he says.

A more subtle part of Saks’ store remodel has been to mix up price points and brands rather than consign all ultra high end designer items in the same areas, as they were before. On the fifth floor for instance, more accessible brands like Acne and Alexander Wang are next to designers like Comme des Garçons and Simone Rocha.

Under Metrick and Foulkes, Saks has a much faster metabolism now. Fail fast and move on. And that, he says, is merely a reflection of how customer behavior has evolved. “The luxury consumer is certainly less forgiving and less patient that they used to be,” Metrick says.

“第五大道旗舰店是萨克斯百货连锁店的门面。”丰业银行的贝克表示。不过萨克斯不希望所谓的“分店”变成死水。所以现在Vêtements and Jacquemus之类前卫品牌也在分店商店销售，不仅在曼哈顿提供。

其他新想法也进入了其他市场的“分店”。举例来说，“集合”业务主要关注新兴品牌，也包括巩固迈特里克口中的“萨克斯时尚权威”。

“我们在时尚生态系统中的角色就是向消费者介绍品牌。” 他说。

改造萨克斯店铺安排时有个更微妙的点，将价格定位和品牌混合起来，而不是像以前一样将高端设计师的产品放在同一区域。例如，五层有Acne和Alexander Wang之类亲民品牌，旁边就是Comme des Garçons和Simone Rocha等设计师品牌。

在迈特里克和福克斯领导下，萨克斯的新陈代谢大为加快。快速失败，然后继续前进。他表示，这只是对顾客行为变化的反映。“很显然，奢侈品消费者不像以前一样宽容和耐心。”迈特里克说。（财富中文网）

译者：Pessy

审校：夏林