It’s crunch time for retailers. A recent UBS report predicts that 80,000 retail stores will close over the next five years as the huge upswing in online shopping due to the pandemic becomes a more permanent consumer buying pattern. UBS also expects the e-commerce share of total retail sales to grow from 18 percent in…
Best Buy is the latest retailer to announce it will keep its stores closed on Thanksgiving Day this year, CNBC reported. The company will instead offer its Black Friday deals online for the second year in a row. Best Buy joins a growing list of retailers that have started to share holiday season plans. Both Target…
Walmart has launched Me@Walmart, an app for U.S. store associates designed to simplify daily tasks as well as empower them to easily serve customers and plan for life outside of work. The app's features include scheduling, enabling associates to easily view their shifts up to two weeks in advance; a mobile clock-in feature; push-to-talk, which enables…
Consumer expectations have transformed over the past year, and retailers are looking for new technologies to meet the needs of evolving customer demands. During the first three months of 2021, visits to physical stores increased by 28.5 percent. While many shoppers are eager to return to stores, retailers must find opportunities to ensure that they…
Nearly every industry has been impacted by the pandemic. However, with one year under our belts, we have an opportunity to reflect on what changes might have been for the best. It’s no surprise that with state-mandated shutdowns, social distancing and general consumer caution, e-commerce boomed during the pandemic. Online sales increased 32 percent in…
Was it a rough year for many individual retailers? No doubt. We saw too many organizations close their doors in the past year-plus. However, as a whole, brick-and-mortar retail is booming. Total retail sales rose by 6.9 percent in 2020 compared with 2019, per the U.S. Department of Commerce (via The Balance). The final take…
In this interactive webinar, our speakers will be addressing how retailers can prepare their stores for the forecasted surge in demand.
Retail employee turnover rates are among the highest across all industries at nearly 67 percent for part-time retail employees, and it’s grown amid the pandemic. On average, these turnovers cost businesses $3,328 to find, hire and train a replacement. Not only that, disruption in frontline employees can negatively impact customer service and thus retention. This…
Foot Locker announced on Friday that it will close most of its 231 Footaction stores "to position its store fleet for the future" and "to focus growth on its iconic banners," according to a company press release. One-third of the Footaction locations will be converted into Foot Locker's other banners, such as Foot Locker and Champs…
Google announced that it will open its first-ever retail store, where it will sell Pixel phones, Fitbit wearables, Pixelbooks, Nest thermostats and speakers, and more. The store will be located in New York City's Chelsea neighborhood, specifically in the building that houses Google’s New York offices and is close to an Apple Store. The store is expected to…
