Strategy

It’s not surprising that without enough strategic foresight, Nordstrom would default to its “lowest hanging fruit,” and apparently its easiest path to growth -- the Rack. And I could speculate the same about Kohl’s under its CEO, Tom Kingsbury, formerly the successful CEO of Burlington’s off-price chain of stores. Is Kingsbury defaulting to the model he previously led and best understands? Stay tuned for more about Kohl’s potential slippage. The Race to the Bottom Surges On There are, and will continue to be, more downsizing and/or …

Is Nordstrom Slipping into the Vortex of Deflating Value?Read More

The U.S. luxury market is rapidly falling into a recession (if it isn’t already there), according to Chandler Mount, founder of the Affluent Consumer Research Company. His firm’s latest survey of affluent luxury consumers (average income, about $400k) finds their financial confidence has dropped from an index of 64.2 points in June, the highest it’s been all year, to 55.6 points in October, its lowest. And the index measuring future luxury spending has declined from 58.3 points in June to 49.7 points. Downward Spiral Across the 22 luxury …

Arhaus: Reversing the Luxury Home Recession TrendRead More

I am of course not exactly objective about this topic, but when a major new research report confirms it, that’s a big deal. Baby boomers, it turns out, aren’t quite done making their mark on good old conspicuous consumption. Turns out we – yes, I’m one of them – may in fact be the best demographic out there when it comes to consumer spending.  And those businesses – retailers and vendors alike – that ignore this do so at their own peril. This is not to say millennials and Gen Zers don’t have money to spend in their acquisitional life stage. …

The Boomers Aren’t Quite Done…Well, BoomingRead More

Here’s a glimpse of a strategic disaster. I gave Amazon CEO, Andy Jassy, kudos as he took the top job as, in my opinion, Amazon was slipping into maturity. I said the meteoric ecommerce frontrunner needed a level-headed business professional to turn the growth strategy from the “get big fast” culture created by its brilliant founder to a more sustainable and profitable forward arc before it might tip into the abyss. One of the big failings of entrepreneurs like Bezos is that they don’t know when to let go of their breakthrough innovations. …

Amazon Dumps Yet Another Failed Brick-and-Mortar ExperimentRead More

Things are starting to click again at Meta. Throughout 2022, the company’s outlook was clouded by metaverse malaise as the NFT hype was evaporating and skeptics penned obituaries for Meta’s metaverse. Doubters questioned Mark Zuckerberg’s priorities and control; share prices plunged. While some still doubt operating in an unsettled digital ad market rocked by inflation, global tensions, consumer privacy restrictions, and uncertainty, Meta’s outsized investments in the platform’s Reality Labs appear prescient, and the Twitter(X) alternative …

Meta’s Strategic Transformation Yields Impressive ResultsRead More

Only six new retail CEOs in a 2022/23 Korn Ferry study were women, clocking in at 15 percent. And even more troubling, half the companies with a previous female CEO replaced her with a man for a net loss of six female retail CEOs in the year. The study started with 31 percent of the 39 outgoing CEOs as women; it ended with 15 percent.  By Pam Danziger From the sales floor to the C-suite, the retail industry is facing an unprecedented employment crisis, and none as pressing as the spate of CEO vacancies. While board members step in during …

Female Retail CEOs: MIARead More

Let’s speculate about Geoffrey, the lovable giraffe-like “mascot” of the once category-killer Toys”R”Us stores. To review, the brand went public in 1978, and during the peak of its power in the 1980s, had 1450 locations globally, selling 18,000 different toys, including all of the major toy brands. Indeed, they owned a 25 percent share of the overall toy industry. Geoffrey also became somewhat of a TV star as TRU’s marketing strategy rolled him out across the country. The store’s TV spots also became even more iconic with a catchy jingle …

Is Toys”R”Us a Rising Phoenix Metaphor?Read More

It isn’t particularly scientific, but with just a cursory search of my inbox, I can legit report on trends within the beauty industry. And what my stuffed-to-capacity Gmail is telling me right now is that the once red-hot CBD beauty category is on serious life support. I wouldn’t say dead; I’m still receiving the occasional press release about new launches. But compared to the deluge four years ago, when I wrote about the then-nascent category for this very publication, it’s slowed to a mere trickle.… as in .5 inches of rain in a single …

Why Red-Hot Cannabis Beauty FailedRead More