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While most subcategories across apparel grew, menswear, footwear and out-of-category pushes towards home and beauty were highlights in earnings conferences this quarter. To speak to these consumers, retailers curated menswear towards a younger consumer, expanded active and casual footwear offerings and built online and offline hubs to segment their forays into both beauty and home.
LCL shipments have more than doubled in popularity since the start of the pandemic -- a trend that points not just to the rising popularity of LCL itself, but also highlights the extent to which brands are still scrambling to manage a highly volatile and expensive international freight system.
Warby Parker is the latest direct-to-consumer company planning to go public. The eyewear brand, which was founded in 2010 and currently has 145 stores, is preparing for a direct listing on the NYSE. The debut will come after years of major revenue growth coupled with operating losses.
Farmer's Fridge makes fresh salads in plastic bottles that used to be distributed via push-button machines in highly-trafficked areas -- like airports or hospitals. Its model was essentially business-to-business. When the pandemic hit, the company was forced to build out a direct-to-consumer sales channel -- and fast.
Big CPG brands are hoping for a big back-to-school season as classrooms return to in-person sessions. General Mills, for example, is testing out click-to-buy capabilities across its breakfast cereals and snack brands. The rollout also coincides with the return of the company's Box Tops rewards program.
Modern Retail rallied a squad of marketing leaders and entrepreneurs from top brands to come together for the Marketing Leaders Forum. The speakers brought their varied talents to the table to share their experiences and offer suggestions for marketers on how to ride out the storm to succeed in 2021 and beyond. Here are the highlights.
After acquiring Transplace for $2.25 billion, Uber Freight is cementing its status as an important player in the growing world of digital freight brokerage. But it is also opening itself up to an entry into the parcel shipping space.
Digiday Media’s CMO Summit on July 19-20 covered some of the big issues facing marketers in this pivotal year, including the new timeline for the phase-out of third party cookies.
Retailers like Walmart and Amazon are increasingly displaying customer reviews from their e-commerce site, on their shelf labels in-store. These new shelf labels are not only deepening the connection between e-commerce and physical retail, but they are also heightening the stakes for brands around customer reviews and search placement.
Brand and retail employees have mixed feelings about returning to the office full-time. In an April-May 2021 Glossy and Modern Retail survey of brand and retail employees, 28% said they've gone back to work full-time, and 32% said they'd be willing to go back to the office full-time in the next month.
As retail brands migrate their ad dollars toward commerce-focused sites like Amazon or Instacart, or up-and-coming social apps like TikTok, outlets like Nextdoor, are also getting a second look. Brands like Stop & Shop, Imperfect Foods and Hershey’s have all invested in Nextdoor ads over the past year, and the social platform is especially gaining interest among grocers looking to run heavily local campaigns.
These days, brands going viral on TikTok is becoming the norm, leading these brands to build on the buzz by creating challenges or releasing in-demand products. The latest example is Gap, which is re-issuing its recently-viral vintage hoodie and crowdsourcing which new color it will release next.
In early May, Instacart quietly added a new feature called “Product Library,” which lets brands whose products are bought and sold on Instacart edit how their products appear on the platform. The Product Library update might be small, but it showcases the extent to which Instacart, as it becomes an increasingly ad-focused company, has tried to make itself more friendly to brands.
This week Pattern Brands -- a holding company formed by the former members of branding agency Gin Lane -- announced that it was pivoting away from launching its own brands, and instead would look to acquire a number of smaller brands in the home goods space. It's a move that has been in the works for over a year. Modern Retail obtained a pitch deck that Pattern Brands sent around last summer, laying out its vision for the holding company it hoped to build.
The last year has taken a significant toll on company culture across brands and retailers -- stores were shut down, people lost their jobs and teams were separated from one another. But new research from Glossy and Modern Retail shows that, while worries about mental health still remain, morale across these industries is improving.
Away's new line is yet another sign that retailers are catering to new travel habits, which involve an increasing amount of car trips, close-to-home getaways, and outdoor adventures.
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