The genesis of the state of the retail industry today in the U.S. began about a quarter century ago as a slowly rolling transformation resulting from the launch of the smartphone. And you could add Amazon into the mix as an accelerant. The slow roll was catapulted forward at warp speed with the onset of Covid-19 early this year. It propelled both the demise of those retailers who were pivoting too slowly or not at all, and the success of those who were strategically shifting their business models to align with tech-armed next-gen consumers. The …
Warby and the Natives
Tons have been written about DTC native brands, the startups, viral unicorns still trying to make a buck, and those new brands who are making lots of bucks. Most of them were created by young tech geeks, business school grads and kids with a lot of common sense and empathy for what people want. Digital-native retail brands address the pain points that people do not want to experience to acquire their wants and desires. And most of these young entrepreneurs have a technology bandwidth that was growing exponentially in their brains when they were …
A Radical Visionary Envisions Nike’s Dominant Future
When you see the image of a swoosh and hear or read the words “there is no finish line” or “just do it,” what brand immediately comes to mind? If your answer is “I don’t know,” then you have been living on another planet. Nike has been just doing it, over and over again, as if there were no finish line. Doing what? Continuously innovating new products to maximize performance; advances in technology that elevate the efficiency and productivity of operations and inventory optimization and distribution to over-deliver to their insanely loyal …
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Levi Builds Community for Over 165 Years
If you go to Levi site, you will read in big, bold type, "Been innovating since the birth of the blue jean in 1873." In fact, 1873 was the year that Levi Strauss & Co. and Jacob Davis received a U.S. patent for an "Improvement in Fastening Pocket-Openings." By adding metal rivets to work pants, which would be known as blue jeans, they created stronger pants for working men. And over the last 147 years, Levi Strauss & Company has indeed fundamentally innovated across their business model, its products and every operation throughout their …
VF Corporation: A Retail Radical of The Year
Headquartered in Denver Colorado (appropriate for its outdoor and action sports brands), the VF culture, formed during the 80s, endures as a quiet, under the radar relaxed group of leaders and team players. They live the VF lifestyle and wear its brands attire. However, this casual culture should not be interpreted as relaxed. They are fierce competitors, but they just don’t waste any energy bragging about it. They eschew “breast-beating” to the press for keeping their collective heads down, focused on growth. Growth Propulsion And grow …
Ulta Beauty Radicalizes Retail
What does Ulta stand for? Up until about seven years ago when Ulta was tucked away in Bolingbrook, Illinois, it might have been the world of beauty's best-kept secret. Or worse, beauty consumers might have defined it as an acronym for Union Leaders Training Award or Union Labor Temple Association or Utah Land Title Association --- before recognizing it as the beauty products retailer it was. Founded in 1990 as Ulta Salon, Cosmetics and Fragrance, the business plan was a unique model that would offer more cosmetics and fragrances than any other …
Target: A Retail Radical of The Year
The pandemic provided select essential businesses an open field to rake in billions of consumer dollars. Shoppers moved purchases from thousands of shut-down nonessential stores, as well as a huge expenditures in travel, entertainment and other nonessential services to the essentials. And while Target was one of the beneficiaries of this dramatic windfall, they were hitting the ball out of the park even before Covid became a household term. In fact, their numbers coming out of the third quarter of 2019 showed eight straight quarters of …
JC Penney: Too Big to Fail
I'm no Andrew Sorkin, who given the chance, could probably make another blockbuster book, Too Big to Fail: JCP the Sequel. However, he would probably have to give the story a massive spin. While the notion of "too big to fail" might peak interest in the retail world, it most certainly doesn't contain the kind of drama, suspense, the edge of crisis and sheer magnitude of a potential economic collapse of Great Depression proportions, as Sorkin was able to brilliantly narrate in his famous book. So, I will take a shot with a mere article-sized …