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Retailers are increasingly trying to utilize the assets they have to facilitate more omnichannel growth. To do this, they are employing 'dark spaces.' While the concept is not new, dark stores and spaces are becoming a more important part of retail strategy. Here's why.
Lands' End is trying to redefine itself. Part of this is using its reams of data to inform future customer experience decisions. The retailer's chief customer officer Sarah Rasumsen talked with Modern Retail about how its overall digital strategy.
Hotel rooms and lobbies are becoming and increasingly attractive area for retailers to acquire new customers. Last week, Rent the Runway announced that it was partnering with Marriott-owned W Hotels. Visitors at four W Hotels will have the option to rent four pieces of clothing from Rent the Runway when they book their rooms, which will be placed in the closets of their rooms when they arrive. And department stores including Nordstrom, Macy's and Bloomingdale's are currently hosting pop-ups in time for the holidays at a handful of New York City hotels, in order to draw more business from tourists.
As Five Below expands, it is straying from the traditional playbook of a discount chain by carrying more expensive products and spending more on brand marketing. So far, it's working. The company reported during its third quarter earnings on Wednesday that net sales were up 20.7% to $377.4 million compared to a year ago.
Since Jill Soltau took over as CEO of JCPenney more than a year ago, there's been no slowdown in announcements touting new executive hires, or store concepts it is piloting, in order to reassure investors that she and her executive team can turn around the beleaguered department store chain. But it's not so much a question of if Soltau can cut losses at JCPenney, but whether she can do it quickly enough.
J.Crew just announced that it's received investor approval to part ways with Madewell. This is certainly a way for the retailer to pay down its massive debt load, but it won't solve the bigger problems facing the aging brand.
Large grocery chains like Kroger are feeling competition not only from new players in grocery like Amazon, but also food delivery services like UberEats and Grubhub. In response, Kroger is getting more aggressive about forming partnerships that will allow its customers to more easily buy prepared meals.
Black Friday sales hit new records, but in-store traffic saw a decline. This doesn't mean that physical stores are dying, but instead hints at the 24-hour Holiday sales bonanza becoming something new that's more convenient -- and less stressful.
More brands are seeking out analog ways to reach out to potential customers. Namely, phone calls and texts. While this may seem like a simple way to make direct contact with a person, it's often seen as intrusive and annoying. So why is this kind of outreach having such a moment?
Direct mail has become an important part of many digital brand's marketing budgets. Now catalogs are having a moment too -- and companies are increasingly melding the digital data they have about customers with the larger pieces of mail they send to their homes.
The holidays are here and retailers are expecting big sales and hoping their infrastructure remains intact. For bigger brands, the fear of online downtime looms. Meanwhile, smaller businesses fear they don't have the correct fulfillment and logistics in place for the increase in demand. As a result, most businesses are trying their best to prepare for the impending storm.
At an industry event, executives from J.Crew and Hatch discussed why the decided to work together. J.Crew is big and Hatch is small, so they both had different intentions in mind. Put together, they highlight a growing tension brands face when trying to expand.
Target reported better-than-expected earnings results, and its stock has been soaring. Much of its recent success was thanks to its growing private label program, which gave the retailer better margins. The question remains whether the company can sustain this momentum as it scales more lines.
In 2017, Home Depot unveiled "One Home Depot," which called for the company to invest $5.4 billion over the next three years to improve e-commerce capabilities, add more fulfillment capabilities like buy online, pickup in-store, and to redesign the website for its business-to-business customers, which the company refers to as "Pros." In return, Home Depot expected sales to hit $120 billion by 2020. But, Home Depot is finding that it's taking longer than expected to roll out some of its new capabilities.
Kroger is continuing to roll out its online wine program. Today, it announced some new features and more locations. Put together, the grocer is trying to be a leader in the alcohol e-commerce space. It's certainly something that's ripe for the picking.
A growing number of health and beauty brands are turning to cloud-based systems that can handle customer, financial and inventory data across all processes, from production to payment.
Payless ShoeSource has come out of its latest bankruptcy proceedings with big plans to relaunch in the U.S. It's provided scant details about what that would look like. But with all of its U.S. locations closed, a large brand and business overhaul will be necessary to keep the retailer alive.
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