On a recent afternoon, I saw two twenty-something women photographing vegetables at the bustling Whole Foods store on Sixth Avenue and 42nd Street in New York City. After taking several shots of organic beets and swiss chard in various arrangements, they posted the images on Instagram, giggling as the “likes” and “comments” began to arrive almost instantaneously. Were they food bloggers, I wondered? No, as it turns out, these young ladies were just highly engaged consumers going about their day. Food has always been a social differentiator. …
The RealReal: High-End Disruptor or Gateway Drug to Luxury?
On a recent Friday, Dr. Stephanie Crandall took the morning off to hold an important meeting at her spacious Westchester County, New York home. The physician, who asked to not be identified by her real name, wasn’t sitting down with an interior designer to plan the next phase of her home renovation, nor was she hosting her book club for a morning of coffee and literary discussion. The 40-something mother of four was meeting with a woman who would help her purge her overstuffed closets of the Chanel bags, Dolce and Gabbana shoes, Tom Ford …
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Housing and Home Improvement: Intertwined or Diverging?
The U.S. housing market, which has been undergoing a relatively steady recovery since the Great Recession, seems to be hitting a speed bump. However, that doesn’t necessarily spell trouble for home improvement retailers, according to a report published in September by Goldman Sachs co-authors Matthew J. Fassler, Samuel H. Eisner, Rachel Binder, and Chandni Luthra. Whereas a decade ago the slowdown might have raised a red flag for the home improvement retailers like Home Depot and Lowe’s, shifts in consumer expectations and lifestyle trends and …
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Debunking the Millennial Brand Preference Myth
Millennial shopping habits differ greatly from those of prior generations. But their apparel brand preferences? Not as much as one might think. After arriving home last month from college, Jake Thomas (not his real name) spent the next few days doing what any young man emerging from a fortnight of final exams and papers would do: He slept until noon; ate enough home-cooked food to make up for a semester of dining-hall fare; and spent eight hours a day on social media and Netflix binges. Then, when he realized his summer wardrobe needed …
How Mass Merchants Are Waging the Battle for Brick-and-Mortar Share
It’s no secret that people are shopping less in physical stores. Walk through any mall on most days and you are struck by a noticeable lack of shoppers. Shrinking crowds are a well-documented phenomenon, a result of double-digit e-commerce growth that, although it has slowed, has been outpacing brick-and-mortar sales increases for the last several years. But to write off physical retail would be premature, and a big mistake. People are social beings. We like to go out. And we are more demanding than ever regarding the products we buy, so we …
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Apparel Finally Joins the Online Shopping Revolution
One of the biggest disruptors in retail over the past several years has been the shift from brick and mortar to e-commerce. Empowered by smartphones, and driven by a need for convenience, choice and price transparency, consumers are flocking online to buy everything from light bulbs to laptops. Between 2010 and 2015, e-commerce sales grew at a compound annual rate of about 15 percent, more than six times that of retail, says the U.S. Department of Commerce. As recently as 2014 most of those sales were in electronics, hardware, office …
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Move over LULU
Upstart Activewear Brands Are Nipping at Yoga Giant’s Heels Colby Ziegler and her mom have a lot in common. They both have deep hazel eyes, a passion for Egyptian art, and a twice-a-week yoga habit. What they no longer share, however, is a devotion to Lululemon. “When I was in high school I loved the brand,” said the 26-year-old software developer. “But now I don’t want to wear what my mom wears. I need my own look.” It seems Colby is not alone in feeling this way. Although many young consumers still flock to the $2 billion retailer’s 350+ …
Lundgren Center Conference Focuses on Consumer, Technology and Doing Things Differently
Retailers who improve their connection with consumers, give instant service, and find new ways to enhance the shopping experience will be the ones who survive and thrive in this disruptive period in our industry’s history. That was the overarching message at the 20th Annual Global Retailing Conference presented last week by the University of Arizona’s Terry J. Lundgren Center for Retailing. The conference, entitled “Retail is IN: INtimate, INnovational, INstant” was held at the beautiful Loew’s Ventana Canyon Resort in the foothills of the …
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