Recently, we’ve witnessed many retailers respond to a decrease in foot traffic with attempts to make their brick-and-mortar shops more flashy and fun. A good idea on the surface, unfortunately, plenty of them miss the mark when it comes to brand authenticity. The most popular fad of 2018, Instagram selfie backdrops, may have made a…
Shopping has become so easy these days even a parrot can make a grocery list. Rocco, the African grey parrot, did so with the help of Alexa. Whether the list was made by you or your pet, the ease of shopping has reached new heights. Over the last few years, we’ve seen large retailers innovate…
Last week, the 2019 Shoptalk conference featured one of its best speaker lineups and attendance to date. Over 8,000 e-commerce professionals gathered to hear presentations from 185 retail and e-commerce experts about trends and technologies impacting the industry. In particular, four great sessions stood out that demonstrated two main themes of the conference. One theme…
Ross Stores will be opening 100 new store locations in 2019. So far this year, the Dublin, Calif. off-price department store chain has opened 22 Ross Dress for Less and six dd's Discounts stores across 12 different states. The new locations are part a company plan to add approximately 100 new stores, 75 Ross and 25 dd's…
Teen apparel retailer Abercrombie & Fitch said last week that it plans to close up to 40 stores by next February, with the majority of closures slated in the U.S. Abercrombie, which also owns Hollister, has been closing stores regularly over the years. For example, over the last eight years, it has shuttered about 475…
In a keynote presentation earlier this week at Shoptalk in Las Vegas, Art Peck, president and CEO of Gap Inc., detailed four key areas that retailers must not be willing to compromise in order to continually meet rising customer expectations and drive profitable growth. Coincidentally, Peck was on stage a mere four days after Gap…
In this episode of Retail Right Now, Joe Keenan reports live from the Exhibit Hall floor of Shoptalk 2019 in Las Vegas. He discusses the variety of Total Retail's coverage of the event, including a Q&A with Erik Nordstrom, a video interview with Forrester's Brendan Witcher, podcast episodes with retailers Vineyard Vines and GREATS, insights from sessions…
What do I mean by “start anywhere, end anywhere?” I mean that today’s consumers are using more methods of engagement than ever before in their path to purchase, and retail brands must be able to keep up. Better yet, you must understand customer behavior to the point where you not only can meet them where…
Engaged and productive employees are critical to the success of any organization, but retailers in particular are dependent on having the right people in the right place at the right time. When associates don’t show up for work, their absence affects everything from staff morale to customer satisfaction, creating stress and hindering store performance. How…
Charlotte Russe will close all of its stores over the next two months. The women's clothing company joins a growing group of retailers that couldn't survive bankruptcy. The company didn't want to shut down. It filed for bankruptcy protection a month ago and announced plans to close only 94 of its 512 stores nationwide. The goal was…
