“Why the Future of Retail Will Blow Your Mind” reads the title of an Entrepreneur article from nearly two years ago. The piece detailed how brick-and-mortar retailers were planning to leverage technology to improve the often mundane in-store experience and boost slowing store sales. A primary way in-store customers were going to be "mind blown" was an "immersive personalized mobile experience" which would ping…
Has e-commerce gobbled up brick-and-mortar? To answer that, let’s start with a brief history. eBay exploded onto the scene in a big way in the 1990s, and challenged some very long-held beliefs: Would people trust online commerce? You bet they would. People not only trusted e-commerce, but devoured it. Zappos, PayPal and countless others ballooned to $1 billion revenue businesses. By…
Sadly, just a little over a year after closing FAO Schwarz's iconic flagship store in New York City, Toys"R"Us is selling off the brand. Toys"R"Us has owned the FAO brand for a little over seven years, and just sold the brand to ThreeSixty Group, a company that designs and distributes toys and other consumer products.…
In a previous article, I reviewed inventory management strategies that retailers can implement after the back-to-school (BTS) season to help make room for the holiday product line. Now I'll focus on the opportunities retailers have to incorporate learnings from the BTS shopping cycle into the critical holiday season. BTS activity serves as an excellent testing ground…
We’ve all seen the headlines. Retailers across the board are shuttering stores or going out of business — Sears, Sports Authority, Kmart, Office Depot. The numbers are staggering. According to data from outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, retailers have laid off approximately 44,000 workers in 2016 alone — all while Amazon.com boasts 31 percent year-over-year second quarter revenues. The discrepancy in retailer…
Even for well-established online retailers, product presentation that yields inspired customers is a difficult feat to achieve. The
West Elm is expanding into the hospitality business. The furniture and home goods retailer announced the expansion of its signature modern aesthetic, West Elm Hotels, in partnership with DDK. The first properties are expected to open in late 2018 starting in Detroit, Minneapolis, Savannah, Charlotte and Indianapolis. In addition, each hotel will offer a unique…
Retail industry forecasts that include external economic factors (i.e., leading indicators) are more accurate in signaling future growth, contraction and major shifts in consumer momentum than traditional forecasts that only take historical performance into account. By monitoring these factors and noting changes, retail executives will have better insight with which to make planning decisions. While…
Merchants were once the only critical players in the retail industry. Their ability to drive the business by understanding the customer and predicting customer behavior made them invaluable to their organizations. However, now that “omnichannel” retailing is the new reality, the merchant’s role is rapidly changing. A merchant must now also be able to absorb enhanced analytics and work even more closely with design and marketing applications to understand and adapt to trends that satisfy quickly changing customer tastes.
Brand authenticity and reputation are more critical than ever in today’s digital economy. While customer experience has always been a factor in the retail equation, the shift to consumer-centric planning has transformed retail’s business model and separated the successful retailers from the rest of the pack.
