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Nike is cutting ties with some mid-sized wholesale partners. While the move isn't shocking, it brings to light the brand's overall intention to focus on DTC channels. With department stores on the decline, brands like Nike want to focus on getting customers to its own properties. The question remains whether other brands will follow suit.
Sam Dennigan launched Strong Roots with a single item -- sweet potato fries -- in Ireland in 2015. The frozen vegetables company has since raised $18.3 million from private equity firm Goode Partners to expand into the U.S., where Dennigan is now based. His experience on both sides of the Atlantic helps him highlight some of the competitive differences among markets. He was the latest guest on the Modern Retail Podcast.
All big-box retailers are now trying to become tech companies. That's the takeaway from the news that Walmart is teaming up with Microsoft to submit a bid to acquire TikTok. Acquiring TikTok could help Walmart grow its advertising business astronomically -- and that could be a boon for e-commerce startups looking for somewhere else to spend their money besides the Facebook-Google duopoly.
As the coronavirus continues to shift more retail spending online, more retailers are looking to remodel stores to double as fulfillment centers for online orders. Best Buy said on its earnings call yesterday that it would be piloting a new ship-from-store model next month, where 250 of its stores would be remodeled as "hubs" in order to ship out more online orders. Other retailers are likely to follow suit, as demand for online shopping will only pick up as the holidays get closer.
The business landscape was upended overnight when a virus wreaked havoc on the world. Now, digitally native brands are trying to figure out how to operate in this new landscape. In this report, Modern Retail details all the shifts that occurred over the last year.
While parent company J.Crew streamlines operation after filing for bankruptcy protection this summer, Madewell is further building on its loyal following with a revamped rewards program. Chief marketing officer Derek Yarbrough spoke with Modern Retail about the points-based rollout, shoppers' loyalty and bridging the gap between stores and e-commerce during Covid-19.
For years, speciality coffee has been dominated by young, millennial-friendly brands. Now, established roasters who've relied on wholesale distribution for decades are entering the DTC coffee space. Case in point: 44-year-old coffee and tea maker America’s Best Beverage, which just launched Cloudburst Coffee, a line of DTC cold brew. CEO Hovik Azadkhanian says the company has experience and the resources to compete with the likes of Blue Bottle and La Colombe.
The coronavirus has forced retailers to rethink how they approach key events this year. and the holiday season will be no exception. Kohl's CEO Michelle Gass said that the company is anticipating "early holiday demand beginning in October." Target CEO Brian Cornell also said this week that the company will be "spreading our best price holiday offers over a longer timeframe," in order to cater to customers who start holiday shopping in October. As retailers prepare for holiday shopping to begin earlier, they will have to think about how to build out their fulfillment and buying process to handle the unusual shopping patterns.
Back when GT Dave, founder of GT's Living Foods, single-handedly proved that there was a market for kombucha in the U.S., probiotic was hardly a buzzword. "Fortunately today, that hurdle or barrier is no longer there," Dave said on the Modern Retail Podcast. Kombucha is now big business; sales of the beverage exceeded $480 million in 2019, according to Nielsen. GT's Living Foods, which was founded in 1995, makes for a big piece of that pie. He joined the Modern Retail podcast and talked about what's ahead for the company.
Home gym supply brands have seen record demand since the coronavirus first swept the world. Now, even though a few months have passed, the situation has only intensified. Many products remain sold out and companies in high demand are still dealing with supply chain woes to try and get their fitness items into customers' hands.
During the pandemic, Walmart benefitted from being one of the only games in town. Now, as most non-essential retailers have been able to reopen the majority of their stores in the U.S. and delivery times have started to stabilize, the question now becomes how well Walmart is able to retain its customers throughout the rest of the year. During its second quarter earnings on Tuesday, Walmart reported that its e-commerce sales during the period grew 97% year-over-year. It will be tough to match that growth the rest of the year, but Walmart can maintain a strong growth rate if it encourages its e-commerce customers to cross-shop as much as possible.
As more shopping moves online, some property owners are looking for new uses for dying malls or former department stores. Last week, the Wall Street Journal reported that Amazon was in talks with Simon Property Partners to turn some former stores previously occupied by JCPenney and Sears into fulfillment centers for the e-commerce giant. But converting stores into warehouses comes with its own set of challenges.
In the space of a few months, a strawberry-patterned dress has all but taken on a life of its own online. First released in 2019, it was initially moderately successful, including being worn to the Grammys by the American model Tess Holliday in January 2020. But in the past weeks, it’s become almost omnipresent in certain corners of the internet, as a meme.
Over an exceptionally difficult quarter, Diageo reported falling revenue in most countries outside North America, with total sales down 8.4% globally. But Baileys was one small bright spot, with 7.5% in U.K. sales and 9% growth in U.S. sales this year. This was thanks to the company glomming onto social media trends and popular online searches.
Young, digitally-native brands are rushing to figure out what to do with their existing real estate leases. But one brand going against the grain and expanding brick and mortar is menswear brand O.N.S. Modern Retail spoke to founder Brian Chung about why he believes its strategy will help it avoid being the typical money-losing DTC store.
One thing is true for nearly all conversions on Amazon: They’re captured by products on page one of the search results. And a significant share of purchases go to just the top few results.
As one of the brand founders who've vowed to stay away from Amazon over the years, Camille Rose's Janell Stephens had a change of heart when the pandemic hit. In the past year, she went from attempting to stop second-hand product sales on the site to opening an official Amazon store. Speaking to Modern Retail, the haircare brand's founder and CEO discussed the divisive channel's addition to the company's retail expansion.
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