Stay in Touch
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.
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.
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.
Under Armour, like many other brands that have relied historically on wholesalers to sell its product, wants to generate more revenue from its own website and stores. But, its direct-to-consumer business has struggled for a couple of reasons. In order to right the ship, Under Armour is looking to open more full-price stores, continue to highlight the technical innovation in its apparel and performance wear, and build a new e-commerce platform.
As livestreaming shopping videos have become increasingly popular in China, they've also become critically important to brands' strategies for the biggest shopping holiday in the country, Alibaba's Singles Day. Overall, the number of merchants who incorporated livestreaming into their Singles Day campaign was up 200% compared to last year, according to Alibaba.
Walgreens is reportedly looking to go private, highlighting just how difficult it is for drug stores to remain relevant as a mix of big-box and online competitors encroach upon their retail business. Drug store chains like Walgreens and CVS generate a large portion of sales not only from medications, but also from sales of snacks, cleaning products, and other consumables -- often referred to as front store sales. But as customers are finding it more convenient and cheaper to buy these products from Amazon or other big-box chains like Target and Walmart, drug store chains have to give shoppers other reasons to buy more than just prescriptions from them.
The RealReal's latest earnings results showed the company still in the red, but growing revenue. Wall Street considered it an overall success. Most companies in the resale space are trying to grow quickly, and have yet to turn a profit. Despite that, investors continue to be interested in the space.
Retail leaders attended the Modern Retail Summit to discuss the biggest issues plaguing the industry. Topics included: customer acquisition, retaining talent, sale attribution and, of course, Amazon.
GrubHub's most recent earnings sent its stock price spiraling. The poor results and meager Q4 outlook point to a crowded restaurant delivery space. The 15-year-old company used to be the leader in the space and new entrants with slightly different business models are giving GrubHub a run for its money. The question remains whether any of these businesses are sustainable.
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.
In its early days, being direct-to-consumer meant lower prices. Because there was no middleman, so the theory went, companies were offering better quality goods at more competitive prices. But as the industry matures, there has been a shift away from branding DTC products as the most affordable alternative to traditional retail shopping for personal products. The strategy to offer “no markups” was integral for the success of Warby Parker and Everlane, among others when they launched a decade ago. However, that’s no longer the case, as evident from a new crop of luxury DTC brands that are looking to duplicate the model’s biggest success stories, in diamonds, luxury fashion and more.
Read MoreAt the Modern Retail Summit, we’ll bring together hundreds of senior retail marketers to discuss the challenges they’re facing and the solutions they’re seeking in the era of smarter retail.
Buy Passes
