I recently read a meme that said, “Nothing sacred is for sale, period.” While selling spiritual wares at a premium is not a new concept, this phenomenon as it pertains to “alternative spirituality” has recently skyrocketed. I wrote about spiritual brands for RetailWire back in 2019. But a lot has changed since then. The sale of spiritual wares has exploded and the goods that are being sold look a lot different than they did four years ago. In a pandemic addled world where even common viruses like the flu have become more destructive than …
Retailing in Dystopia: What to Expect in 2023
It’s hard to talk about fashion going into 2023 without using words like “surreal” and “otherworldly.” The reason? Dystopian fashion reached new heights this year. From the “eyebrowless” makeup trend to Balenciaga’s beat-up leather wallet fashion show invites, helping customers look the way they want has never been such a strange journey. Speaking of strange journeys… cosplay hit the runways this year. Models looked more like characters from the Rocky Horror Picture Show or breakout club kids from the 90s than anything from catalogs we grew …
J. Peterman’s Retro Style Meets a New Era of Customers
Is J. Peterman a brand, a Seinfeld character, or glimpse into retail’s aspirational past? The answer to this question depends on who you ask. In truth, J. Peterman is all of these things. J. Peterman is the brand that laid the foundation for retail catalogs as we know them today. In 1995-1998, actor John O’ Hurley played J. Peterman on Seinfeld. On the other hand, J. Peterman the brand was founded in 1987, coming in hot with a preppy safari vibe that set the company apart from other retailers on the scene. Let’s take a look at how J. …
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Retailers’ Policies Deter Memberships
“Never again,” I told myself as a I struggled not to grind my teeth. I was ten minutes into a phone call with the Fabletics Customer Service Team, answering a painstaking list of “are you sure” questions from their CX rep. I’d tried to cancel my policy the self-respecting way… online, with minimal human interaction. But Fabletics has no online cancellation form. You have to call and answer a list of questions from a live customer service rep who is desperately trying to get you to stay just to cancel your membership –– an experience that …
The Social Media Networks We Grew Up with Aren’t Cool Anymore
I clearly remember first time I was told Facebook was for “old people.” I was at Mayfair Mall in Milwaukee, Wisconsin with my Gen Z step sibling, who was the conveyor of this shocking information. Sure, direct marketing invitations to join Lularoe “flash sales” and imbibe “revolutionary diet smoothies” had increased since I joined the platform. But it was hard to imagine that the second social media network I had ever joined –– after MySpace –– had already become passe. This was eight years ago. Instagram was, as of yet, still a flash in the …
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Dress Codes Are Back, But Consumer Response Is Mixed
Retail operates like a pendulum. For years, the fashion pendulum has been swinging towards the hyper-casual. I wrote about the alleged “death of athleisure” as a false alarm nearly a decade ago. Not to be that smartest guy in the room, but my prediction was accurate that athleisure is here to stay. Today, so-casual-its-hilarious companies like Crocs are collaborating with the likes of luxury brands Stella McCartney and Balenciaga. The pandemic exacerbated this trend, with manufacturers unleashing a surge of jewelry and dresses built for the …
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Will Gen Z’s Mental Health Challenges Bring About Societal Change?
What does it take to create revolution? The answer, in part, is the willingness to buck against societal norms in ways that put one’s own comfort at risk. The generations that came before Gen Z weren’t willing to do this, largely because they were taught that conformity was king. To illustrate this, consider that 40 percent of the 1986 Yale graduating class applied to work at the same company — an investment-banking firm called “First Boston.” But Generation Z is more interested in paving their own life path. Even if it means that, for a …
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The LARPing World Comes to Mainstream Retail
LARP or Live Action Roleplay is no longer relegated to creative high schoolers in parking lots. As we emerge from the pandemic, consumers of all ages are driven to escapist, in-character retail experiences. The reason? Most consumers nowadays have more to escape from and looking “cool” has become more about individualism than conformity. It’s the perfect environment for people to get weird. “Experiential retail” isn’t just a buzzword that retailers whip out to describe pop-up locations or in-store events. Themed experiences such as the …