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As stores re-open, the shoppers who are coming back are more likely to be on a mission. Many of the shoppers who are venturing out to the store are ones who are going to the store because they know what products they want to buy, but can't find it online. In order to cater to these shoppers, more retailers are rolling out tools to help them get in and out as quickly as possible.
From fitness and wellness, to snacks and lunches, employers are coming to terms with transitioning on-premise benefits to their teams virtually. To offset potential churn -- and even potentially add new clients -- some B-to-B players in charge of stocking startups’ kitchens and providing corporate gym memberships, are expanding what they offer to meet clients where they are. Here are some of the business changes brands have recently made.
Foot Locker has long been a staple of the mall, with an estimated 80% of its stores being located in malls as of 2018. Now, the coronavirus is accelerating those plans, CEO Dick Johnson said during the company's first quarter earnings call. The sneaker retailer has had to rethink its physical retail strategy over the past couple of years, not only to lessen its reliance on malls, but also to give its customers new reasons to visit the store.
The mass adoption of contactless POS technology could finally take over. A growing fear of the virus spreading with credit cards and cash handling has pushed more merchants to implement touchless payment options.
Panic shopping has somewhat subsided, and retailers aren't quite sure how to respond. We've entered a second wave of shopping patterns and they may not last forever. As a result, retailers are trying to scenario plan for something they have not way to accurately predict.
SmileDirectClub just got a new patent awarded pertaining to its orthodonture technology. The company now says it will use this patent to sue competitor Candid and have all of its retail locations shut down. It's the latest tactic the DTC teeth straightening brand has employed to regain positive business momentum.
JCPenney already faced a tough road in re-opening its stores, as the company was struggling to grow sales even before the coronavirus. Now, it has another headache to contend with as it dukes it out with Sephora over its shops-in-shops.
J.Crew has had problems for years — but the coronavirus accelerated all of them. Now, the retailer is filing for bankruptcy. The question remains: how did it get here? And will it ever be able to rebound again?
For the vast majority of respondents, optimizing e-commerce channels is the most important step. As more and more people move to shopping online, retailers of all types are trying to make sure their e-commerce and delivery channels are optimized -- as wine seller Winc’s co-founder Brian Smith said during a Modern Retail Plus talk last week, this is an opportunity to “meet customers where they are” -- aka, at home, on their phones.
As more states are set to allow non-essential retail stores to re-open, one of their first orders of business will likely be figuring out how to get personal protective equipment, namely masks and gloves, for their store employees. But as the plight of essential retailers has shown, getting access to enough PPE for employees is no easy task.
Many department stores and other legacy retail brands are seeing issues they thoughts were months away come to a head now. At the core is the issue of cash-flow. With billions of dollars in debt and stores unable to sell product, these older brands may finally have to face the music.
Temporarily, respondents said they would be “leaving” or reducing the use of nearly every single retail channel, except mass retail stores. The majority of respondents were leaving pop-up shops, shop-in-shops, permanent brand stores, as well as “retail-as-a-service’ platforms.
To many, Facebook Marketplace is a destination for used goods and/or oddities. But more brands are looking to the online marketplace to sell their goods -- especially as they experience woes with Amazon. While there is more interest in the social network's commerce tools now, it's unclear this wave is longterm.
It's impossible to predict the future, but Vuori senior director of retail Catherine Pike thinks "huge advancements in brick and mortar retail" are coming now that brands are out of their comfort zone.
Apparel retailers have a ticking time bomb on their hands while stores remain closed. They have to figure out how to move what will likely be an unprecedented level of excess inventory once stores re-open and beyond, while taking as little of a loss on it is possible.The challenge is two-fold: first, retailers have a huge amount of inventory in stores that they can't sell right now. That inventory also risks becoming more out of season the longer that store closures drag on. Second, because it's unclear just how much consumer demand there will be the rest of the year, retailers are also trying to figure out what's in the pipeline for the rest of the year that they can still cancel, so they don't risk being left with too much inventory in the fall and beyond.
Business owners are eager to stabilize and create a survival plan, and pricing is crucial. In a new guide, learn how to set prices in real-time by analyzing historical sales data and rapidly adapting to market changes.
Foot Locker has long been a staple of the mall, with an estimated 80% of its stores being located in malls as of 2018. Now, the coronavirus is accelerating those plans, CEO Dick Johnson said during the company's first quarter earnings call. The sneaker retailer has had to rethink its physical retail strategy over the past couple of years, not only to lessen its reliance on malls, but also to give its customers new reasons to visit the store.
Read MoreExclusively for Modern Retail+ members: Hear from Hugh Thomas, Co-founder & CEO at Ugly Drinks, on how to find customers where they are.
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