Earlier this year, we wrote about Japanese retailer Ranking Ranqueen, which takes a radical approach to sales. Every product in the store is part of a top 3, 5 or 10 list. Whether it's the top 3 bath powders, the top 5 nose hair removers, or the top 10 pasta sauces. Popularity and ranking are based on sales data from parent company Tokyu's department stores, and numbers from independent research companies. Needless to say, the store is an excellent place to survey the latest consumer fads and crazes.
Ranking Ranqueen takes curated consumption to an extreme, and caters to people's love of numbered lists (to see how popular lists are online, just check out web buzz tracker popurls.com). The stores are tiny, and located in high traffic areas like train and subway stations. Although Ranking Ranqueen hasn't released sales figures, Tokyu recently announced that monthly revenue per store is up 10 to 20 percent over the past year, and there are plans to double the number of stores to 15 by 2008. Time to bring the concept to the rest of the world?!
Website: http://www.ranking-ranqueen.net
Contact: rk.rq@tkk.tokyu.co.jp
This article is very well timed. I have a similar idea on the way. Watch this space. It may even appear on Springwise soon (hopefully).
:)
PS: Keep up the good work, Springwise is grrrrreat!
A similar store exists in Australia. Top 3 By Design stocks the top 3 products in a category, alhtough they are ranked by merit of their design rather than their popularity. It's a beautiful store, which stocks products by Alessi, Georg Jensen, Marimekko, Ole Henrikson and Kikki-k just to name a few. At the moment there are only 2 stores in Australia, both in Sydney, but they ship all across Australia and to New Zealand.
In Turkiye, the same concept is only at (limited)bookstores. You can browse top 100 books on various bookstores.
Ozgur Alaz | July 14, 2006 3:23 PM