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Foot Locker has long been a staple of the mall, with an estimated 80% of its stores being located in malls as of 2018. Now, the coronavirus is accelerating those plans, CEO Dick Johnson said during the company's first quarter earnings call. The sneaker retailer has had to rethink its physical retail strategy over the past couple of years, not only to lessen its reliance on malls, but also to give its customers new reasons to visit the store.
As stores re-open, the shoppers who are coming back are more likely to be on a mission. Many of the shoppers who are venturing out to the store are ones who are going to the store because they know what products they want to buy, but can't find it online. In order to cater to these shoppers, more retailers are rolling out tools to help them get in and out as quickly as possible.
Most American shoppers are still “fearful to shop at a grocery store." The lack of delivery slots combined with a rising unemployment rate and shopping-related health risks, is resulting in a decline in cross-shopping. Grocery stores, as a result, are trying to focus more on marketing as one-stop shops. And they're seeing results too: average basket sizes have dramatically increased.
From fitness and wellness, to snacks and lunches, employers are coming to terms with transitioning on-premise benefits to their teams virtually. To offset potential churn -- and even potentially add new clients -- some B-to-B players in charge of stocking startups’ kitchens and providing corporate gym memberships, are expanding what they offer to meet clients where they are. Here are some of the business changes brands have recently made.
The mass adoption of contactless POS technology could finally take over. A growing fear of the virus spreading with credit cards and cash handling has pushed more merchants to implement touchless payment options.
Panic shopping has somewhat subsided, and retailers aren't quite sure how to respond. We've entered a second wave of shopping patterns and they may not last forever. As a result, retailers are trying to scenario plan for something they have not way to accurately predict.
After review, Modern Retail has retracted this article
JCPenney already faced a tough road in re-opening its stores, as the company was struggling to grow sales even before the coronavirus. Now, it has another headache to contend with as it dukes it out with Sephora over its shops-in-shops.
J.Crew has had problems for years — but the coronavirus accelerated all of them. Now, the retailer is filing for bankruptcy. The question remains: how did it get here? And will it ever be able to rebound again?
For the vast majority of respondents, optimizing e-commerce channels is the most important step. As more and more people move to shopping online, retailers of all types are trying to make sure their e-commerce and delivery channels are optimized -- as wine seller Winc’s co-founder Brian Smith said during a Modern Retail Plus talk last week, this is an opportunity to “meet customers where they are” -- aka, at home, on their phones.
As more states are set to allow non-essential retail stores to re-open, one of their first orders of business will likely be figuring out how to get personal protective equipment, namely masks and gloves, for their store employees. But as the plight of essential retailers has shown, getting access to enough PPE for employees is no easy task.
Many department stores and other legacy retail brands are seeing issues they thoughts were months away come to a head now. At the core is the issue of cash-flow. With billions of dollars in debt and stores unable to sell product, these older brands may finally have to face the music.
Temporarily, respondents said they would be “leaving” or reducing the use of nearly every single retail channel, except mass retail stores. The majority of respondents were leaving pop-up shops, shop-in-shops, permanent brand stores, as well as “retail-as-a-service’ platforms.
To many, Facebook Marketplace is a destination for used goods and/or oddities. But more brands are looking to the online marketplace to sell their goods -- especially as they experience woes with Amazon. While there is more interest in the social network's commerce tools now, it's unclear this wave is longterm.
It's impossible to predict the future, but Vuori senior director of retail Catherine Pike thinks "huge advancements in brick and mortar retail" are coming now that brands are out of their comfort zone.
Advertisers, in a marketplace transformed by creativity gone remote, how much of your campaign content is still in-house versus UGC? How are you using data to make choices and effectively target your campaign content? Take this survey and get the full results plus a $5 Starbucks gift card.
To help restaurants get back on their feet, a host of US states have permitted restricted reopening, making use of outdoor space. While it may be easy for some, it's impossible for others. And while such limited reopenings are a good start, they won’t suffice to keep many eateries afloat,
Read MoreThe Amazon Advertising Strategies Virtual Forum is a series of presentations, workshops and talks taking place over three mornings that’ll help you navigate and survive our current crisis and the acceleration of e-commerce that has come with it.
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