Stay in Touch
In 2021, consumers are returning to accessory rental, though prioritizing more casual styles than a pre-pandemic past. Moreover, lured by the potential to reach younger consumers after a tough sales year, luxury brands are opening up to the model.
Gender-neutral fashion and apparel is rapidly being embraced by large retailers. While branding is a major factor, some industry experts believe the trend is a long time coming and will only help popularize the category.
Last September, Gap Inc. relaunched its loyalty program in order to encourage people to shop and redeem rewards across all four of its brands -- Banana Republic, Old Navy, Athleta and the namesake Gap brand. Now roughly ten months into the program, Gap is making a greater push to get more people to sign up, by making it easier to redeem points and adding more perks.
The rise of TikTok as a recruitment medium is important given that the retail industry is currently battling a hiring problem. That is pushing some major retailers to look to new, as-of-yet-untested platforms for hiring.
In the past, refurbished technology was typically associated with second-rate or used, unwanted inventory. But thanks to the secondhand boom, consumers are increasingly considering professionally refurbished electronics over new ones. As a result, some online marketplaces are boosts in sales.
Retailers like Walmart and Amazon are increasingly displaying customer reviews from their e-commerce site, on their shelf labels in-store. These new shelf labels are not only deepening the connection between e-commerce and physical retail, but they are also heightening the stakes for brands around customer reviews and search placement.
Nordstrom announced it's purchasing a minority stake in British fashion group Asos, the owner of brands Topshop, Topman, Miss Selfridge and HIIT. The deal is the latest attempt by the department store to diversify its apparel assortment and attract younger shoppers.
TikTok viral recipes drive billions of views, thousands of videos and even increase product sales. To capture this interest, brands have started investing in viral recipe content, creating responses to already established trends, building out new recipes in the hope to spark engagement and subsequently scaling TikTok trends to other owned platforms and in product development.
Last year, sales of a few specific items -- like hand sanitizer -- largely kept the travel-size goods market industry afloat. Because of lingering concerns about supply chains, shuttered gift shops and potentially downstream impacts from the collapse of business travel, the recovery of travel-size goods might happen more gradually compared to other travel-adjacent industries.
Despite a record-breaking year helped by online sales, Apple is moving forward with opening more stores this year. The tech giant confirmed that after a nearly a year of relying on e-commerce, it's ready to resume building more physical locations and expand its global footprint.
Many fashion retailers see resale as a way to grow business, diversify income streams and capitalize on their existing inventory. But despite consumer appetite for used clothing, even established resale platforms haven’t yet figured out the profitability puzzle.
Just months ago, physical gyms were predicted to be a thing of the past. But as coronavirus cases drop, in-person workouts are making a comeback. As such, fitness chains are rushing to create a hybrid gym model, with some owners doubling down on opening new locations while also keeping some virtual classes.
As L Brands prepares to spin off Victoria's Secret into its own company, its other brand, Bath & Body Works, is also starting to prepare for life as a separate company. Analysts say that Bath & Body Works' investment in off-mall storefronts, decreased promotions and pivot to home fragrances have been critical to its success -- investments that will continue as Bath & Body Works becomes its own company.
Visual search is witnessing a resurgence in interest that retailers may find difficult to ignore. On the one hand, social media and web giants are pushing visual search to the forefront of their platforms. Meanwhile, many retailers are opting to incorporate the feature directly into their existing apps, either individually or with the help of specialist tech startups.
The pandemic ushered in shorter shopping trips, mainly due to pickup and delivery options becoming more popular. With customers rushing in and out of stores, the adjacent spaces like cafes, restaurants and bars have taken a hit. Now, retailers with this type of space are betting on its value to drive traffic.
Every interaction a customer has with a brand is an opportunity to nurture the customer-brand relationship. This report highlights tactics that top brands are using to improve the customer experience.
While other states have had conflicting rulings over Amazon's liability risk -- a court in Texas last month said Amazon wasn’t on the hook for a battery sold by a third party, for instance -- the growing number of legal authorities who are holding Amazon accountable is a concerning sign for the company. The U.S. Consumer Products Safety Commission lawsuit is only the latest.
Read MoreAt Modern Retail’s Livestream Commerce Trends, we’ll explore how the growth of livestream and video shopping trends are transforming how retailers, brands and marketing teams are engaging with consumers in-stream and live across social and owned-and-operated websites.
REGISTER
