"We're all in this together." How many times have we heard and read this statement, and from how many different leaders: mayors, governors, congress men and women, heads of major corporations and the President of the United States? Indeed, we are all in this together. One for all and all for one also comes to mind as how all of us should be treating one another. And united we must stand or united we will surely fall, which is the ultimate societal and economic possibility, should we fail to set aside our selfish needs, grievances, bigotry and …
COVID-19: Short-Term Opportunity, Long-Term Problem
To overstate the obvious, in this understated war against COVID-19 we are trying to hide from an enemy we can't even see, smell, touch or hear. Therefore, the suggested default solution for survival is to hunker down in our homes and send invisible digital messages, invulnerable to the invader virus, to resupply our needs. Non-metaphorically speaking, online shopping will obviously spike up during the unknown duration of this pandemic. And from a long-term strategic perspective, pre-virus in-store shoppers who are learning the convenience (and …
COVID-19: Short-Term Opportunity, Long-Term ProblemRead More
Whole Foods: Amazon’s Huge Mistake
At some point just around the birth of Amazon, Jeff Bezos said he must get big fast, (to own unreachable market share ahead of copycats) and he must get two categories right: grocery and apparel. He accomplished getting big fast in spades. Probably faster than he expected. The grocery and apparel parts of the declaration, not so fast and not nearly right. He is still fiddling around with both. Genius, Visionary or Megalomaniac? So, just because Amazon's market value is around a trillion dollars, give or take a billion or so, doesn't mean by …
Macy’s: Out of the Box or a Different Box?
Macy's is going bold and fast with Market by Macy's! The 20,000 square-foot boutique opened recently in the Southlake Town Square lifestyle shopping center in Southlake, Texas, an affluent suburb of Dallas. By suggesting Macy's should go bold and fast, it's another way of saying I hope this is the beginning implementation of a grand long-term strategy for Macy's to de-massify and de-couple itself from its mall "anchors," (as ironically, the malls have become -- literal anchors dragging down most of their legacy tenants. Market by Macy's may …
The Robin Report Unveils the Retail Radicals: The Movers and Shakers of Legacy Brands
We are pleased to announce the winners of The Robin Report 2020 Retail Radicals. We have worked in collaboration with SAP on our second annual awards program that focuses on identifying radical thinkers and doers (innovators and entrepreneurial leaders) exclusively in the legacy (brick-and-mortar) sectors of the retail industry. These radicals are clearly driving the major transformations within their respective retail brands. We celebrate traditional, legacy radicals because they face challenges that are much larger and more complex than those …
The Robin Report Unveils the Retail Radicals: The Movers and Shakers of Legacy BrandsRead More
Walmart and Jet.com Failed “Marketing 101”
The leadership team at Walmart failed to develop a positioning strategy for the two brands. It appeared that the strategy was simply to operate the two brands separately on the front end (the consumer facing functions), while integrating the back-end operations, creating a synergy for both. As I wrote in 2016, analyzing Walmart (Jet) versus Amazon in terms of its online power, there were some key metric differences. Jet.com gets: Walmart's size and deep pockets, (pushing to three-quarters of a trillion dollars vs. about a hundred billion …
How Quaint: Stores Are Back in Vogue
Whenever expert sources float out a major lemming-like prediction, there are three sequential reactions. The followers react in exaggerated ways, going to the extreme opposite Then they realize they over-reacted And finally, they learn that reality is somewhere in between the prediction and their exaggerated response This accurately describes the retail industry's three-phased reaction to Amazon's mercurial rise and the onset of e-commerce, particularly on smartphones. Extreme Measures The first extreme response was shock and …
RH Ahead of Wall Street Transforming an Industry
In late December, I had two out-of-this-world experiences. Out of this world, but into the universe created by RH CEO, Gary Friedman. The first experience was among the thousand-plus Champagne drinking celebrators attending the opening of The RH Gallery at Easton Town Center in Columbus, Ohio. The second was a deep immersion into the world of Gary Friedman. The opening was the launch of museum-quality RH Galleries, housing upscale furnishings. There are now about 70 Galleries across the US. A little over a year ago, Warren Shoulberg, a …