Amazon has wasted the past several years and billions of dollars fiddling around with testing physical stores of all types and failing (a couple of Amazon Style stores are still breathing). It also over-predicted growth following the pandemic and retreated by shedding thousands of jobs and cancelling the planning and construction of unnecessary DCs. And Walmart marches on. But First, a Word About Visionaries Here's a lesson that keeps on giving: Visionary and genius entrepreneurs like Jeff Bezos can “parachute in” from some imaginary …
Gen Z Nostalgia is Accelerating: Categories to Watch
Oxford Languages (the dictionary people) defines nostalgia as “a sentimental longing or wistful affection for the past, typically for a period or place with happy personal associations.” But nostalgia isn’t relegated to time periods that we’ve personally experienced. Remember the late 60s resurgence in the early aughts? I remember scouring Woodstock DVDs for footage of my teen dream, Roger Daltrey from The Who. I also ransacked my mom’s boxes of high school mementos to resurrect a pair of vintage Levi’s cords and hot pink running shorts that …
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Take Notice: Smart Systems Are Accelerating
Speculation surrounding the future of retail continues unabated. But a stroll through the Innovation Lab 2023 at the NRF Big Show revealed the bets that startups have placed on retail’s future priorities and pain points, offering tech-based systems and services to either exploit or solve them. The startups offer a glimpse into the innovation process. It operates on a continuum, where what starts as a murmur, evolves into a fad, and eventually becomes a business. Or the opposite where 90 percent of startups fail. This year’s crop demonstrated …
Stores Are Back. Now What?
Looking back on NRF 2023, many of us were relieved that it didn’t focus on the Metaverse and NFTs this year. CEOs on the keynote stage talked about getting the stores right with better locations and optimal formats. Exhibitors and retailer attendees advocated for technologies that truly optimize the box. As I walked an average of five miles a day through the show floors, there was plenty of tech aimed at brick-and-mortar innovation. So, what’s the takeaway? Everything old is new again, only more so enabled by emerging …
Clean Is Under Siege
Even before the November 2022 class action lawsuit against Sephora, filed by a customer who evidently felt bamboozled by its “Clean at Sephora” seal, I could sense the once-hot category of “clean” beauty was sputtering. Utterly ill-defined, even more so than its chief precursor -- the “natural” category – clean’s big moment in the beauty spotlight lasted all of maybe five years. Cleanwashing Coming on the heels of “greenwashing” we have now have fears of “cleanwashing,” i.e., marketing that overpromises on the good-for-you front, …
Uniqlo and Avery Dennison Innovate with RFID
The spatial footprint of companies touting computer vision and just-walk-out-the-door technology on the Expo floor at the NRF Big Show 2023 was large. AI is the talk of the show as retail’s latest technology trend. It dominates the conversation, even as it is not well understood, or worse, misunderstood. Just look at the obsession with ChatGPT and you get a taste of the industry’s love affair with the latest, buzzy fad. Talk is one thing, implementation totally something else. In a deeper examination, the hard reality of building these …
Slow Checkout Is a Competitive Advantage
Express lines. Self-checkout. Online virtual orders. Contactless checkout. But slow-moving, chit-chat checkout lines? Yes, bucking the trend of shorter, faster, and more efficient shopping – the descriptive terms that have been the hallmarks of the modern consumer retail experience over the past decade or more – is a burgeoning phenomenon that is becoming known as Slow Retail. It’s a movement that has actually been something of a runaway success in Europe. Or shall we say, a walkaway success? Perhaps leisurely strollaway success is more …
It’s a Pet’s World
We skimp a little on ourselves when times get tougher. Maybe fewer meals out, shorter vacations, and postponed purchases of big-ticket items. We’ll cut some corners too when it comes to spending on our kids. Fewer toys and video games, Disneyland next year rather than now. But our dogs and cats? No friggin’ way are we going to deprive our little furbabies of anything. The best food, more toys, winter sweaters and even if we skip a visit for a checkup with the doctor for ourselves, our pets are going to the vet right on …