Operations

When COVID-19 ground everyday life to a halt, the impact on the retail industry was immediate and severe. The fashion industry, which offers anywhere from twelve to many dozens of deliveries per year, was left staggering as the pandemic forced far-flung overseas factories to shut down. Orders were cancelled, or retailers and brands refused to pay for completed goods because sales nosedived as stores were ordered to close. During the ensuing months, the havoc wrought by the coronavirus generated discussions about the practicality of near-shoring …

Why ‘Made in USA’ Could Really Become More of a RealityRead More

The Robin Report recently conducted a survey among readers to check the retail industry's pulse regarding how their business is being affected by the three major issues and challenges of the day: Covid-19, the economy, and social injustice. We were also able to gain an understanding of the short- and long-term views on the U.S. economy, how business models would be transforming, as well as some new operational functions driven by the virus that will stick going forward. The New Normal as Defined by the Consumer One of our questions was: …

Signals of a New NormalRead More

The media has been busy proclaiming the coming death of both the store and experiential retailing in a voice that has grown progressively louder over the course of the last decade. The scourge of Covid-19 is now being touted as the cataclysmic event that will signal the coming of a dramatic shift in the channel mix of retail. Some even have predicted that the penetration of digital sales could reach 40-50 percent of total sales by 2021. But what if the metrics the industry typically uses to measure channel performance are wrong? This 50 …

Measuring the New Normal: Retail’s KPI ChallengeRead More

I recently participated in a retail webinar on wellness. My main message was that retailers limit themselves if they think of wellness just in terms of products consumers use, wear close to their body, put on their skin or decorate their homes with. All retailers, nonessential and otherwise, have been massively disrupted during the nationwide coronavirus shutdowns. Upon reopening, if they ever do, retailers have an unprecedented opportunity to reevaluate and reassess every aspect of their businesses, not just how to reassure their staff and …

Retail Is Sick: It’s Time for WellnessRead More

Even before the dreadful coronavirus pandemic, most specialty apparel retailers were already playing a dangerous game. They continued to operate their online and brick-and-mortar businesses with levels of inventory inaccuracy that were clearly ill-suited for the omnichannel era. RFID and Covid-19 The solution to this problem had been evident all along. Use RFID in your stores to maintain an accurate view of your inventory. In the recent article Zara Owner Built A Post-COVID Retailer Before Virus Came Along, in Bloomberg News, their Chairman …

Only RFID Can Solve Specialty Apparel’s Inventory Visibility ProblemRead More

In the wake of the most devastating period in modern American retailing history when the coronavirus pandemic shut down more than two-thirds of the stores in the country, the way retailers pay their suppliers has changed dramatically - perhaps irrevocably. As such, any remnants of what was once called a partnership but has been deteriorating for a long time are about to vanish completely. With their stores mostly closed and only e-commerce (for some) to generate revenue, many large national retail chains changed their payment terms, going …

Dissolved: “Partnership” Between Retailers and Their SuppliersRead More

Ten miles is the average distance that 90 percent of the U.S. population would have to go to reach one of Walmart's roughly 4,700 stores. That is often cited as the real competitive advantage over Amazon for convenient shopping, pick-up and delivery. It took Walmart more than half a century to roll out their enormous national fleet, along with their equally large international footprint of another roughly 7,000 stores. In the U.S., this march to retail supremacy began in the mid-60s sparked by the vision of Sam Walton to provide everyday low …

The Dollar Stores: Exploitive or Empathetic?Read More

The great American closing was straightforward. Stores, restaurants, and the bulk of the economy switched to sleep mode; waking up will be a different matter. The shape of this phase of post-Covid retail is now unfolding. Other countries are well into the reopening and offer us models to consider. Additionally, innovators, driven by opportunity and a problem-solving culture have been rushing potential solutions to market.  And finally, for VR, an existing technology that has been awaiting wide-spread adoption, the moment may have …

The Great Reopening?Read More