Over the past decade, omnichannel has become one of the most common buzzwords in retail. Retailers of every size and shape have implemented strategies to make their brick-and-mortar and e-commerce operations work together. Common omnichannel fulfillment capabilities include buy online, pickup in store (BOPIS); buy online, ship to store (similar to BOPIS, but the items are shipped to a store for pickup rather than being in the store's inventory at the time of purchase); and buy online, ship from store. The Covid-19 pandemic has driven …
Virtual Stores: Are They Here to Stay?
Full disclosure: I did not set foot in a store this season. In normal times, my in-store holiday shopping mood toggles between energized and irritated. Wandering through a crowded, slightly overheated store, dragging a coat with a bulky scarf-stuffed sleeve looking for inspiration is a trial, but there have been moments when retail kismet struck. During holiday 2019, I experienced such karma at Nordstrom’s New York flagship, achieving a satisfied shopper’s dopamine hit, and walking out with several gifts. A Nothing-Like-Normal Holiday 2020 In …
Home Retailers Go Large Even as Fashion Flagships Recede
The flagship store has been a staple of retailing since…well, practically since retailing started. No self-respecting operation wouldn't dare to have a showpiece store, often downtown, but more recently in the dominant regional mall in its marketplace. The concept pretty much transcended merchandise classifications, price points and geography. But no more. A fascinating dichotomy has emerged in the business: fashion apparel retailers are giving up their flagships while on the other side of the retail table, home furnishings stores are …
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2021 Forecast: Next Gens in a Brand-New World
Gen Z is in dire straits. They’re facing the second major economic recession of their lifetimes. They’re spending a year of their formative teens trapped at home. They’re staring down the barrel at climate change, so their future isn’t looking much brighter than their present. But these kids are nothing if not adaptable. Only Change Endures Next-gens born after 1997 grew up in a time of uncertainty. It took a toll on their mental health, but it also made them savvy, strategic consumers. Glossy marketing didn’t resonate with next gens even …
The New Chief Marketing Officer
The average age of a CMO is 52 for the consumer industry segment -- and the CMO position has the shortest tenure of all C-suite executives at 3.5 years. One could argue that struggling to master the dramatic shift in the digital marketplace and evolving consumer trends has made today's CMO position a revolving door. Over the next few years, I predict the average age of a CMO will drop at least 10 years based on the need for highly proficient digital skills, keen understanding of analytics, drastic change in key marketing performance metrics and …
The Great Retail Simplification
Remember when everyone was talking about the great retail “bifurcation?” The gap between discount and luxury retail was the trending topic up until a year ago, when Covid-19 threw all of the old rules out the window. Then consumers started buying fewer items. While merchandise began to pile up for some retailers, others missed their regular shipments due to lulls in production. The conversation has changed to how to operate retail with a simplified strategy. Now, instead of worrying about how to attract a wider range of consumers, retailers …
Black Friday is Dead
Long in a state of decline, 2020 provided the final nail in the coffin to kill off Black Friday as we have known it. While consumer shopping trends have changed in recent years, 2020 provided a catalyst for accelerated change in two key areas: technology and behavior. Some may say that the Covid-19 pandemic delivered that fatal blow, but it's changes in retail technology and consumer shopping behavior - both of which are inextricably intertwined - that sealed Black Friday's fate. The shopping holiday will never be the same, and both retailers …
The Mattress Business Gets Woke
Ever since they put that pea under the princess's mattress a long, long time ago the bedding business has been pretty sleepy… and yes, the pun was too obvious to pass up. For decades it was dominated by three big national brands, sold in department stores, furniture dealers and a vast number of local and regional specialty shops and the products were deceptively similar underneath their plain white wrappers. But over the past decade -- and especially just the last few years -- all of that has changed and there is a remarkable transformation …