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After years of focusing on growing within large cities like New York and Los Angeles, skincare startup shop Heyday is going the franchise route to expand. The company, which closed a $20 funding round this month, is hoping the addition of a virtual consultation platform will help it gain a bigger presence.
Companies like Walgreens and CVS have managed to keep revenue growing during the pandemic -- but they've also been hurt by falling sales of products in non-essential categories like beauty. Before the pandemic, these companies were trying to reinvent themselves as primary care destinations, by adding more spaces in store and online for health care products and services beyond just refilling prescriptions. Now, the coronavirus pandemic has only made that transformation more urgent.
This week, Tonal announced a store-within-store partnership with Nordstrom to bring its workout machines to a national consumer base. The move shows that as the virtual fitness field deepens, so does competition for retail space and customers.
Burger King is the latest quick service restaurant to announce it's launching a customer rewards program. This week, the fast food chain joins rival McDonald's in piloting a loyalty program that encourages repeat purchases and digital orders. Many of these businesses incurred increased losses during the coronavirus outbreak -- and they likely see new digital programming as a way to try and garner more customer engagement.
Buy now, pay later services had a record year in customer acquisition during the pandemic. Now, companies like Afterpay and Affirm are turning to physical stores to market their installment payment options for customers. What began as an e-commerce checkout tool is becoming the latest tool to get shoppers back into stores.
As retailers increasingly open more stores in strip malls or open-air shopping centers, they're also rethinking what these locations should look like. Locations of Macy's new off-mall chain, for example run only 20,000 square feet, tens of thousands of feet smaller than the typical department store. As other retailers like Sephora and Foot Locker are looking at opening more off-mall locations, they're following similar playbook.
While gyms rush to build out virtual workout products to retain members, seeking out corporate clients has become a growing trend within the industry. From nationwide players like Equinox and Gympass, to regional studios like Fhitting Room, the race to be featured in employers' wellness offerings has begun.
In 2020, retail workers could no longer just be salespeople. They also had to be safety officers, virtual stylists and shepherds of buy online, pickup in-store orders. The job of the employee changed every single month," said David Marcotte. senior vice president of cross-border retail at Kantar Consulting. In 2021, retail workers shouldn't be pulled in as many different directions -- but the lines between roles will likely continue to blur.
2020 was a big year for Walmart. Not only did the big box store benefit from essential bulk shopping throughout the pandemic, it also overhauled its image as a hub for not only big CPG brands, but young DTC labels. With an aggressive strategy to appeal to every type of consumer, Walmart is proving that at the end of the day, millions of Americans end up turning to it for their needs.
Since the fall, Minnesota-based Mall of America has teamed up with live-stream shopping app Popshop Live to stream products from within its network of stores. Simon Property Group -- a commercial real estate company that owns over 100 malls in the U.S. -- has reportedly struck a partnership with another livestream app, ShopShops. As the pandemic continues to exacerbate long-term revenue declines, these companies are hoping that livestreams will sell products without customers ever needing to enter a store.
With Christmas just days away, retailers are doing everything they can to try to get customers to not add to the online shipping backlog. While, at the same time, still getting customers to buy. For most retailers, that means offering extra incentives for last-minute customers to use same-day fulfillment options like buy online, pickup in-store, or to buy gift cards. But for retailers who don't have buy online, pickup in-store enabled at all of their store locations, they are instead charging extra --upwards of $20 -- for expedited shipping. It could cost them some last-minute shoppers.
With endless delays and and influx of last minute shoppers, retailers are turning to same day delivery to fulfill holiday-related orders. This has led many brands, including popular destinations like Apple to Best Buy, to offer same-day or two-hour home delivery.
Rite Aid's rebranding effort showcases the drugstore industry's ongoing need to stay relevant. Thanks to disruptors' arrival in recent years, chains like CVS, Walgreens and Rite Aid have found even more reason to elevate their services and modernize their stores. Rite Aid's new strategy is yet another example of national pharmacies attempting to stay relevant in an increasingly digitized world.
This holiday season, the plethora of online shopping is already proving to be exhausting. To ease checkout and discourage store crowding, high end retailers -- typically rely on brick and mortar spectacles, decorations and enthusiastic store associates -- are offering "gifting experts" to ease the lift.
The role of the retail associate has historically been focused on store upkeep or helping customers. With the pandemic's lockdowns earlier this year, many retailers have found opportunities in asking their employees to adapt to their new hybrid online-brick and mortar strategy. These days, many workers are juggling fulfilling online orders, enforcing safety protocols and taking on virtual customer service duties.
Emilie Arel joined Casper in late 2019 as its president and chief commercial officer. She oversees all the disparate and growing parts of Casper's retail business. Arel spoke on the Modern Retail Podcast about what she's focused on during her tenure, as well as how the pandemic through everything into disarray. "I don't think we recognized how much people would invest in their home so quickly," she said. "We had no clue we'd still be sitting in our houses almost a year from then that was not on the horizon."
Read MoreAt the Modern Retail Summit LIVE, retail executives will come together virtually to discuss effective strategies for driving sales by building a loyal customer base both online and offline.
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