Over the past decade, "omnichannel" has become one of the most common buzzwords in retail. Retail executives, industry consultants, and analysts all agree on the importance of integrating the brick-and-mortar and online channels so that customers can move seamlessly between them. Yet while there's consensus about what retailers should do, adapting to this new way of doing business isn't simple. Of course, some prominent retailers like Target have made omnichannel look easy. Target got a late start, having made a boneheaded move to outsource …
Finance
Don’t Lose Your Customers Over Credit Card Fees
It all started with gasoline stations and small businesses-- you remember, the percent added to sales purchases that is passed on from the retailer to the customer. A $36 mug is assessed a three percent charge if paying by credit card but no fee if you pay cash or use a debit card. Since Covid-19, I have experienced an additional service fee when dining out and Covid-19 surcharges for restaurants and hotels… and this trend is expanding into retail. Pass-along Fees The policy of passing along service fees to the customer may not translate well …
ABG’S Chief Spinmeister
I thought I was done with my recent assessment of Authentic Brands Group licensing model as well as their SPARC deal with Simon Properties. I have already commented on the idiocy of placing dying ABG brands into dying malls (Simon Properties) to try to prop up a dying JC Penney brand as the anchor in many of their shopping center locations. In fact, I summed up my predicted outcome: “Here is what failure looks like: Acquire a bunch of once-cool brands on the cheap, license third parties to run them, further license them out to a mall developer …
Washington Prime: From Mall Poster Child to Bankruptcy
In some ways, this week’s Chapter XI filing by shopping center REIT Washington Prime Group seemed preordained. However, it’s instructional to recall that at the time of its formation in 2014, WPG was seen as a potential rising star adopting a sound strategy: burnishing a portfolio of mid-level malls into attractive and engaging properties, all at a manageable level of investment. Washington Prime Portfolio With a fleet of roughly 100 shopping centers nationwide, Washington Prime was initially set up to absorb a roster of B and C malls being …
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The Buy Now, Pay Later Disruptors
With news that both Melbourne, Australia-based Afterpay and Minneapolis native Sezzle are planning IPOs on U.S. stock exchanges in the months ahead, joining San Francisco-based Affirm which bowed on the Nasdaq in January, it’s clear that the Buy Now, Pay Later sector has matured from that of novel fintech startup concept to one with major staying power. And the repercussions of this trend on how customers pay will have a lasting and fundamental impact on the U.S. retail landscape, and beyond. BNPL For anyone not familiar with Buy Now, Pay …
Amazon/MGM – Not What You Think
Over the past decade I’ve been blathering on about this being the distribution century, meaning that consumers and retailers, both armed with technology, would drive multitudes of different avenues of distribution. These new distribution channels are more convenient and faster for consumers; and more efficient, effective, and competitively advantageous for retailers and brands. Shared Platforms So, in trying to explain the distribution thesis more pragmatically, and with clarity, I describe how all retailers and brands could achieve targeted …
Macy’s Off-Price Gambit Is the Only Way Forward
In recent weeks, Macy's has resumed expanding its Backstage off-price chain, following a pause while the department store giant fought through the worst of the Covid-19 pandemic last year. Since the beginning of April, the company has opened 26 new Backstage stores within full-line Macy's locations. That brings the Backstage store count to an even 250. Another eight new locations are set to open on May 15, putting Macy's close to its target of opening 45 new Backstage stores within Macy's full-line stores in 2021. The retailer also plans to …
Inflation Worries? Not a Chance!
I feel safe aligning my economic view with that of Janet Yellen, U.S. Secretary of the Treasury and Jerome Powell, chair of the Federal Reserve, then with a bunch of traditional, last century economists who define inflation as it was during the most explosive growth period in U.S. history (1950 to 1980). They envision a post-pandemic economic surge, believing that the trillions of dollars fire hosed into the economy to keep it from collapsing will meet head on with consumers' post-pandemic pent-up demand, with trillions in personal savings …