Transforming CD-RAMA from Decline to Music Culture Hub

Recently, I've been spending quite a bit of time reorganising a few of CD section projects and thinking about how different categories should evolve. Somewhere along the way, a thought came back to me. When people talk about retail transformation, the conversation is often about digitalisation, AI or omnichannel. Yet one thing that has quietly stayed with me over the years is my CD-RAMA department ... the Music section. Around 2023, I began to see it differently. Instead of viewing it as a department that facing declining sales, I started asking myself: What if this wasn't just about selling music, but about preserving music culture and creating an experience that streaming could never replace? That simple question shifted my entire approach. The goal was never just to improve sales. It was to reposition and uplift the image of the entire CD-RAMA section—transforming it from a traditional media department into a destination where people could reconnect with music, discover vinyl culture, and experience something that streaming simply cannot offer. Throughout a 2025 re-cate project, I held on to one belief: retail is not only about selling products, but also about preserving culture. Not every initiative was expected to deliver immediate sales growth. Some were designed to strengthen the long-term relevance of the category, inspire curiosity, and keep the culture of physical music alive for future generations. We refreshed the visual identity, strengthened category storytelling, introduced vinyl lifestyle concepts, and explored brand collaborations that made the section feel more immersive and meaningful. One of those ideas led to a collaboration with Syitren & Audio-Technica, where retail display space became a branded experience showcasing turntables and vinyl culture, rather than simply another product display. Looking back at this photo today, I'm reminded that merchandising is never just about arranging products on shelves. It's about understanding people, recognising cultural value, building meaningful brand partnerships, and creating experiences that give customers a reason to stop, explore and connect. Sometimes, the biggest transformation doesn't come from introducing something new. Sometimes, it begins by helping people see something familiar in a completely different way. And sometimes, our responsibility in retail is not only to grow a category, but also to preserve what makes that category worth remembering. Looking back again and again, I realised CD-RAMA was never just about a retail section. It was about giving music culture a place to continue telling its story. #Music #CD #Vinyl #MusicCulture #TheComeBack #Retail #CategoryManagement #Merchandising #RetailStrategy #CustomerExperience #VisualMerchandising #CommercialThinking

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