For many next-gen consumers, the term “trusted brand” seems like an oxymoron. The combined 140 million Gen Y (aka millennial) and Gen Z cohorts are responsible for a combined $165 billion in annual U.S. sales. Yet they influence a staggering $350 billion in annual purchasing. Plus, they share a mutual distrust of self-aggrandizing brands, unless they meet their own next-gen litmus tests. Two of my Robin Report colleagues recently highlighted this very point. Jasmine Glasheen states “Gen Z shops with retailers for their value, and shops with …
Nike Is All-In on Wellness
Taking a Deep Dive, Nike Live is Reborn as Nike Well Collective When Nike introduced its House of Innovation its impetus was to take their “flagship” to new heights while pushing the boundaries of immersive brand experiences. The high-concept store launched in 2018 in New York, with subsequent openings in Paris and Shanghai. All three were over-the-top “brand stands,” as much interactive museum as store. Going Local It was also around this same period that Nike embarked on a much-publicized divorce from many of its long-term wholesale …
The New Retail Space Race
All you contrarians unite: Store-based retail is very much alive -- even on fire. In fact, according to real estate services firm CBRE, the rate of available retail real estate fell to 4.8 percent in the second quarter, the lowest level in 18 years. And as store-based retailing evolves to become less transactional, more experiential, with higher efficiency, and more environmentally sustainable, other forces are also at play in reshaping the retail landscape. Space’s Down, Rent’s Up Real-estate investment trust Macerich notched its …
The Ralph Lauren Renaissance
Few fashion brands have been as enduring over the past five generations as Ralph Lauren. Now even Gen Alpha and Metaverse avatars are wearing RL. But it all hasn’t been perfect in RL paradise. This iconic brand, like so many others in these fickle it’s-in, it’s-out, and it’s-in again times, has had its share of highs and lows along the way. The recent news of Ralph Lauren returning to New York Fashion Week after a four-year absence reflects the brand’s ebb and flow. Dressing Celebrities One of the keys to RL’s six-decade endurance is an …
AI and the Law Team Up Against Organized Crime
Shoplifting, shrink, or shrinkage in retail is not new, however, the insurgence of organized crime is. Fueled by the large-scale, untraceable “fencing” of stolen goods over the internet, combined with a new level of unprecedented criminal brazenness, the safety of both shoppers and retail employees is being undermined. It is also causing a catastrophic hit to the bottom line of retailers, both large and small. Taking Aim at Organized Retail Crime (ORC) After a considerable congressional lobbying effort on the part of retail trade …
Mall Fall and Rebirth
I have been bombarded with news stories speculating on the mall’s new proposition, and I suddenly had a 25-year-old flashback. The aha moment reminded me just how long these so-called new propositions have been gestating. Mall Fall Deep in my aging memory banks, I recalled a pivotal piece of journalism published in Metropolis Magazine eons ago. With Google’s assistance, the May 1999 article resurfaced with its focus on reuse and was entitled “Call the Mall Doctor.” Journalist Ellen Barry summarized: “Existing buildings, whether the …
From Ikea to Kaiyo, Furniture Recommerce Resets the Table
Up until the middle of the 20th century, much of the furniture found in American homes was handed down from previous generations, and most of the pieces were handmade. The origin of the “wood goods” was from East Coast furniture manufacturers, like Virginia-based Bassett (1902) and New York and North Carolina-based Stickley (1900), among others. They drew on a bounty of available hardwoods and softwoods grown in the region as well as the talents of New England craftsmen, many of them immigrants. Heirlooms on Decline Back in the day, it …
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Retail Brands Expand Services to Boost the Bottom Line
When Minneapolis-based Best Buy bought the then eight-year-old Geek Squad from founder Robert Stephens back in 2002, the move seemed anything but intuitive. Now, over two decades later, mergers and acquisitions of specialized service companies by retail brands have become commonplace. Smart Service Amidst ever tightening margins, major retail brands are seeking new profit centers, as well as attempting to burnish their brand loyalty and lifetime customer value. These “anti-Amazonation” inoculations, are seen as antidotes to ecommerce …
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