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Nearly a year after acquiring online commerce startup Hero, Klarna has launched a virtual shopping offering of its own. Through Virtual Shopping from Klarna, shoppers can connect with in-store experts via live chats and video calls to get advice. Klarna Chief Marketing Officer David Sandstrom told Modern Retail that the virtual shopping offering is just the first among many social shopping capabilities the company is working on, signaling its bet on social commerce.
More retailers are trying to encourage people to pick up their groceries and conduct their primary care visits in one trip. Walmart announced last month that it is opening five new Walmart Health locations in Florida, offering services like primary care, behavioral health and dental. Meanwhile, Walgreens' and CVS's health care ambitions are picking up steam as fewer people visit its stores for Covid-related services.
Nike’s impending absence in shoe stores is leading to a shakeup in the wholesale space. Adidas announced a long-term partnership with Foot Locker last week that includes the development and expansion of franchises in women’s, kids and apparel. Meanwhile, wholesale retailers and sneaker brands alike have been recalibrating their strategies; DSW has been highlighting other athletic brands -- such as New Balance, Skechers and Brooks -- after Nike said it would stop selling products through DSW
After pausing physical expansion during the height of the pandemic, piercing studio startup Studs is plotting a rapid expansion throughout 2022. In the past few weeks, Studs opened two new shops, bringing its total to 11 locations across the country. Five of Studs’ current stores opened during the first four months of the year. As it expands its footprint, Studs is trying to strike a balance between shops in high-trafficked shopping hubs and residential neighborhoods.
These days, many brands start out online, where they have control over their merchandising and displays. However, once they start selling through retail partners, they face more challenges such as competing for shelf space and high-traffic aisles. This is why blender brand BlendJet is creating its own store fixtures to cultivate a store-within-store feel.
The pandemic has cost businesses located in city and large town centers 35% of their potential takings since March 2020, according to a January report from Centre for Cities. As work from home life continues for many, retailers are seeing growth opportunities in opening stores where shoppers live.
Meta -- formerly Facebook -- is betting on a brick-and-mortar store to sell people on its metaverse business. The concept is the latest signal of Facebook's intentions to diversify its revenue streams beyond advertising. However, analysts are skeptical about the mainstream adoption potential of some of these metaverse technologies.
Over the next two years, the direct-to-consumer furniture and lifestyle brand will open 10 new stores. Burrow opened its first store in Soho back in 2018 and has used it as a testing ground to understand what customers look for in physical stores. About four years later, Burrow is ready to apply those findings to its new physical footprints.
Next weekend, Champs Sports will host the grand opening of its newest retail concept, a 35,000-square-foot store in southern Florida complete with an indoor multi-sport court. It's a new retail concept that Champs is dubbing Homefield, and is the largest Champs store to date. By integrating more sporting events, as well as by carrying more inventory, Homefield is Champs' attempt to serve both the performance and lifestyle needs of modern athletes.
This week on the Modern Retail Podcast, Adam Wacenske, Gorillas' U.S. head of operations, spoke about the online grocery service's growth plans and strategy. Gorillas is a grocery delivery app that began in Europe, but is currently only available in New York. Its main value proposition is that it can give customers their items in the blink of an eye -- usually in less than 15 minutes.
The pandemic-driven shopping habits growing alongside retail thefts have made the use of RFID increasingly important. Retailers like Walmart and Nordstrom are now requiring suppliers to use RFID tags. Here's our guide about how companies are using the technology.
As part of its efforts to modernize its department store shopping experience, this week Macy's announced a new employee training program. Dubbed Own Your Style, the program is aimed at training and retaining store associates interested in styling customers and racking up sales commissions.
Greeting card company Lovepop is focused on owned brick and mortar sales for growth in 2022, with plans to open three new stores in the year starting first with a location in New York's Grand Central terminal. To get ahead, Lovepop focuses on store locations with diverse foot traffic and keeps merchandise curated rather than cluttered.
B8ta quietly shuttered its U.S. operations earlier this month, according to a notice on its website. CEO Vibhu Norby said that the company shuttered after failing to reach a deal with landlords that would allow it to stay afloat. This came after the company decided last year to more than halve its store count due to it not seeing a strong enough recovery in foot traffic after the height of the pandemic.
2021 was the year of the virtual fitting room: Walmart, Shopify, Amazon and Snap all invested in AR/VR tech to help customers visualize what clothes might look like on, as Covid-19 kept them at home. Now in 2022, however, apparel brands are betting on a return to in-person shopping, and upgrading their brick-and-mortar fitting rooms in turn.
Target's operating margin dropped from 30% to 26% year-over-year, as the retailer discounted inventory, navigated supply chain issues and increased staff wages. Analysts explained that Target's earnings highlight the increasing difficulty of getting the right product at the right time amid headwinds ranging from inflation to continued supply issues.
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