The future of retail will be shaped by a hybrid shopping model based on the new normal of highly interconnected experiences that serve specific target markets. Local, personal, smaller, curated, and customized. The cookie-cutter approach of building more and bigger stores does not resonate with today’s consumer mindset. The pandemic has left consumers with a new set of values, a higher expectation of what service means, and very little patience when things don’t go the way they should. Here is how retail needs to evolve to meet consumer …
Quiet Quitting Is a Clear Call to Repair Employee Engagement
Quiet quitting has become a growing phenomenon thanks in part to social media, with TikTok and YouTube among the biggest influencers. But before we embark on a deep dive into the rise of one of the largest shifts ever in employee attitudes about work, let's take a step back and reflect on what our workers have been through in the past two years. It may provide some perspective. Past Tense The pandemic hit the U.S. landscape in a major way in 2020. Many businesses closed and many employees were laid off. Those who continued working had to …
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The New Rules of Work
Striking the right balance between asking workers to return to the office and providing opportunities for work-at-home has become a challenge for corporate retail executives. So far, workers have been in a position of power to make demands around schedules, but as the labor market tightens up, the employers may have more of a say in the policies of a hybrid work environment. The evidence is clear that employees want to work from home at least for part of the work week. A recent survey from McKinsey found that 58 percent of Americans have the …
Retail’s Growing Channel…Recommerce
Although companies have been talking about sustainability and the circular economy for years, and retailers have been trying to make the production process more sustainable, customers will be the driving force to make sustainability practices stick. The growing consumer demand for preowned products may the accelerator for the circular economy. Strong Revenue Growth Across Recommerce Channels Used-clothing store sales revenue was up 37 percent in 2021 compared to 2020, and 25 percent ahead of 2019. These numbers only account for retail …
Old Anti-Union Tactics Will Not Work with Today’s Workforce
Amazon workers’ recent warehouse unionization win Is one small step for workers and one giant leap for labor unions. Christian Smalls, a former Amazon employee who started the Amazon Labor Union, has become a hero for many workers around the country. While the feat of winning a unionization vote for the JFK8 warehouse in Staten Island that employs 8,300 workers might be a small one in comparison to the 165 million workers across the U.S., it marks a pivotal moment in the history of unionization in the retail industry. The second-largest …
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How Target Hit $106 Billion in Revenue
Target’s yearly results are nothing short of amazing, hitting $106 billion in revenue as part of the pantheon of the largest retailers in the U.S. market (and the world) including Walmart, Amazon and Kroger. Comp sales were up 12.7 percent for the year with revenue growth of $27 billion since 2019. So, how did they get here? We all remember the best hires we’ve ever made in our careers. For Target it was undoubtedly its current CEO, Brian Cornell (my opinion of course, but the facts back me up). In 2014 when he was hired, Cornell made the …
Power Plays
We’ve heard it, seen it, and are experiencing it as a customer or retail management. The employee is calling the shots. There’s a great power shift that’s giving employees the upper hand. Workers are leveraging their power to choose employers that meet their needs – professionally and personally. Which means it’s a buyer’s market when it comes to employment options. This should put retail management on alert. The old rules don’t apply anymore, and if you’re asleep at the wheel you’re going to miss out on top talent that can make or break your …
America’s Great Service Crisis
Even before the pandemic hit the U.S. market, customer service has been on a decline. Looking back over the past year and half, America's “Great Service Decline” has continued, accelerated by a number of disruptive post-Covid issues. Check out our podcast Platinum Service Turns to Tin with Robin Lewis for an interesting conversation! Pre-Covid Service Shifts Let’s take a look at a brief history of the service decline. Retailers and brands have been steadily reducing effective in-store employee training and some have turned to online …