The majority of retailers closing stores are within the department store and specialty retail sectors.
Declining mall traffic
Sales shifting online
Cutting losses from unprofitable stores
Retailers offering value-driven concepts such as discount and fast fashion have been aggressive in expanding their store footprints
Categories such as beauty and athleisure are outperforming the market
Recent conferences have covered many of the top priorities for retailers, including providing a rich consumer experience, finding the right store base size and innovation. Conferences we have attended recently include:
RETAIL IS NOT DEAD, STORES ARE NOT DEAD
Stores are not dead, although the store experience needs to be upgraded dramatically. People are social creatures and need to engage with other people—it is in our DNA. We also need to be able to touch and feel products that are not commodity items before buying them. Almost all presenters talked about the need for a better store experience.
Jeffery Sears, Co-Founder and former CEO of Pirch, made a very important point about the store experience—it is not solely about transacting, but rather about making the consumer’s time in the store the best part of their day, which should result in someone walking out of a store holding the brand in higher regard. At the Apple store, for example, consumers play, dream and learn, and only sometimes make a purchase. It’s not about buying, but rather about experiencing the product. Sears also quoted Stanley Marcus, the founder of Neiman Marcus, of the need for retail to return to elegance—that doesn’t mean higher prices, but rather the way the consumer feels and interacts with retailers.
Terry Lundgren, Chairman of Macy’s, commented that retailers can no longer make incremental changes in the current environment of rapid change in retail, and that retailers are going to have to take significant risks.
arget: As store-based sales still account for the majority of retailers’ sales, investing in stores to create a convenient, exciting and all-channel experience is critical to remain competitive in the current retail environment. Chairman and CEO, Brian Cornell, shared the company’s multi-billion dollar investment initiatives for its stores over the next few years, including remodeling 600 stores, opening small-format stores and improving in-store fulfilment capability. Store remodeling included redesigning in-store displays, store entrances and in-store technologies.
West Elm: In a partnership with hospitality management and development company DDK, West Elm (a brand of Williams-Sonoma) plans to debut five boutique properties in late 2018. The furniture retailer will design, furnish and market the hotels, and guests can buy the furnishings online. The focus of West Elm Hotels is to broaden the brand reach and the ability to create new customer experiences and loyalty to West Elm, according to Peter Fowler, VP of Hospitality and Workspace.
THE KEY FOR RETAILERS IS TO BETTER UNDERSTAND THEIR CUSTOMERS’ LIFESTYLE TO UNDERSTAND THEIR NEEDS
The traditional competitors that retailers once perceived they had (other retailers) are no longer their only competitors. As consumers shift their discretionary dollars to other categories such as travel and dining out, these categories are now in competition for consumers’ dollars. Retailers also need to better understand where their customers are spending to better understand their habits and how to reach them better. Several retailers talked about the dramatic change in the role of their CMOs (chief marketing officers) and marketing departments, as they now have to communicate differently and in new ways than they have in the past.
2. SOLICITING FEEDBACK FROM AND LISTENING TO CUSTOMERS IS A HELPFUL TOOL
In an effort to better understand their customers and understand how retailers can better meet their needs and expectations, a number of companies talked about soliciting feedback from their own customers.
PetSmart reached out to its thousands of employees, as well as its customers and competitors’ customers when it transitioned from a public company to a private company, and looked to see where the company stood, where it could do better, as well as the potential opportunities to gain market share.
Tractor Supply Company discussed how it talks directly to its customers through its Neighbors Club program—which it uses as a way to mine information and triangulate consumer buying patterns—and how the company can use that to its advantage. For example, Tractor Supply has a large equine business, and 90% of those customers have dogs as well. If those customers are not buying dog products, the company can work to change that. In addition, 51% of the company’s sales are cash sales, which makes it difficult to track and generate data from before the Neighbors Club program was started. The company also does a lot of listening to its customers and has learned a lot of do’s and don’ts as a result.
THE CULTURE OF HUMANITY A CRITICAL COMPONENT OF A COMPELLING OFFERING
Jeffery Sears, Co-Founder and former CEO of Pirch, focused his discussion on culture and the lack of investment for many retailers in people and the human experience. He talked about building a brand through a high level of service and experience such that consumers will want to defend your brand. Establishing great customer service by surprising and delighting consumers can be done through “training” employees and store associates, not with manuals and processes, but on the soft skills and culture of what the brand stands for and how to treat people. Employees need to be empowered to offer a high level of service as well as being incentivized accordingly, as well. It has to start with leadership at the very highest level, and it has to be genuine. If it is a script or a playbook, then it is not real, and consumers can see through that and it comes off as being inauthentic.
Uncertainty about Election temporary distraction in early November
partially hindering faster wage growth
*data collected before result of presidential election