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Amid store closure closures left and right by mass brands from Gap to Victoria’s Secret, malls are being forced to figure it out or face their fate. The former has translated to offering leases customized to emerging brands’ needs (ample perks included), bringing in businesses that deviate far from retail, and giving potential visitors a trip-worthy experience by getting thoughtful about the amenities and ambiance provided.
Over the past three years, Walgreens has been culling the number of products it has been carrying under its private label brands, placing a greater emphasis on categories like health and beauty care, while at the same time creating new brands around certain categories to help them stand out more.
As a retailer targeting teens, Forever 21 faces stiff competition as bankruptcy has rattled the category. But Forever 21's specialty -- fast, disposable fashion released on a seemingly never-ending cadence -- has helped to protect it. Middle-of-the-road retail has been susceptible to being squeezed out as customers skew to the high and low ends of fashion's totem pole.
In the past, Foot Locker had to figure out how to market products from companies like Adidas and Nike after it had already been created. Now, CMO Jed Berger and Foot Locker are working more closely with vendors to develop product exclusively for their stores, using customer data and insight from Berger’s marketing team that its vendor partners don’t have access to.
Showfields, the experiential rotating retail space in New York City, opened on Tuesday its fourth floor, which had been under construction since the store’s opening in March. Rather than dedicate the fourth floor to more retail space, Showfields designed it to be a coworking space.
Loyalty program members are often a retailer’s most valuable customers. So to get the most value out of these customers, retailers are analyzing their purchase behaviors, including how responsive they are to certain email promotions and other marketing messages.
At its investor day yesterday, CVS Health announced that it plans to open more HealthHubs -- which are redesigned drugstores that include more health services and products -- in Houston, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Southern New Jersey and Tampa this year. By the end of 2021, CVS Health expects to have 1,500 HealthHubs.
While startups brands shift their marketing spend to physical catalogs to break out of crowded digital platforms, Ikea is taking its print catalog to Pinterest. With a shoppable catalog built into Pinterest boards, Ikea hopes to drive both awareness and conversions.
J.Crew and Gap are looking to spin off Madewell and Old Navy respectively, in an attempt to generate some short-term cash infusion and help their parent companies regain a sense of focus. But both of their recent earnings reports show that, even though these soon to be independent companies have been reporting solid growth for the past couple of years, they still have a tough road ahead.
As Walmart's sought to build out a technology operation to compete with Amazon, it's changed the way it thinks about the role of its tech executives. The company has gone from thinking of its e-commerce and tech teams as entirely separate divisions to giving its top tech leaders more responsibility over multiple parts of the company.
Lowe's and Home Depot are taking two different approaches as they seek to grow the small but lucrative B2B sides of their businesses, which are focused on selling to contractors.
Despite having a retail footprint that's still heavily concentrated in malls, Bath & Body Works continues to experience double-digit sales growth.
Urban Outfitters this week became the latest retailer to launch a clothing rental service.
Kohl's is building out a partnership and store strategy in a bid to attract younger shoppers.
As Google's advertising growth is slowing, it's getting more aggressive in courting retailers -- and is turning into a commerce platform to do so.
Location data is no longer limited to geo-fencing, which typically triggers a text or app notification when a person enters a street or store.
Physical retail strategies have become integral to the growth of direct-to-consumer brands, as they seek out customers they can't reach online. Members of the first generation of DTC, like Warby Parker and Casper now have aggressive store expansion plans. Home goods brand Parachute is one such brand that's undergoing a rapid physical expansion. After launching in 2014, last year Parachute raised $30 million in venture capital to open 20 stores by 2020. Right now, the company now has seven stores in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland, New York, Chicago and Dallas.
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