Retail Operations Trends

Frontline employees are the heartbeats of their brands. They are also one of the biggest advantages brick and mortar has over online retail today.

The average consumer wants two things: fast order fulfillment and convenient fulfillment options. It’s a precedent set by Amazon and driven by the convenience economy - consumers expect products and services in real-time and on-demand. 

Change management - it’s one of the last things we talk about when it comes to retail technology. And there are many reasons why. 

The reality of retail today is that physical stores are as financially-vital as ever - especially so in companies with a robust online presence to complement their local outlets. It’s why brick-and-mortar remains a critical component of omnichannel retailing.

The activewear category is growing faster than traditional fashion, driven by both new and mature brands. At the top of the leader pack, though, is Outdoor Voices - one of the fastest rising brands in the industry. It’s not just about the colorful exercise essentials for OV, although they’re as popular as ever - it’s about the community it has built and its mission to Get the World Moving.

Omnichannel is not a new concept. It’s been around for many years now, but most people still don’t understand what it really means. Let’s get back to basics and recall the fundamentals of omnichannel.

At the root of its definition, omnichannel means always connected. Retailers that deliver a true omni experience have access to data and insights about customers, inventory and orders in real-time. It’s this ability to maintain an accurate 360-degree view of data then act on it that allows retailers to drive the seamless shopping experiences consumers expect.

Media headlines continue to proclaim the demise of physical retail. Sure, there have been a number of store closures already this year. But there are also brands forging full steam ahead with new brick-and-mortar locations. Just this week, Lululemon announced its five-year strategic growth plan, which includes an expanded footprint both nationally and abroad.

Tiffany & Co. is an international symbol of luxury. It has been since its founding in 1837 and is best known today for its innovative jewelry design, diamond engagement rings, and yes, that lovely Tiffany Blue Box®. In fact, the Tiffany Blue color is so well-recognized that it has its own number (#1837) on the Pantone Matching Scale. Talk about superior branding.

Go big or go home. It’s an expression used often in sports to encourage athletes to experience something to its fullest. We all know the idiom and have probably used it in conversation a time or two. Take the saying to the retail industry, and you might say most brands are going home. That’s what the media narratives are about these days anyway, with stores closing and downsizing left and right.

What makes for a good shopping experience? According to PwC, nearly 80 percent of Americans say “speed, convenience, knowledgable help and friendly service.” These are all things consumers expect today regardless of channel. After all, shoppers don't think in terms of online or offline. They view your brand as one and are focused on what they want now.

Apple is at it again. The company is throwing the tech community another curveball, this time by announcing Apple Card - its “new kind of credit card” designed specifically for the iPhone. Built into the Apple Wallet, it offers no fees, lower interest, and a new level of privacy and security. A likely attractive option for the brand’s loyalists.

From Gen X to Millennials to Gen Z, shoppers around the world spend billions upon billions of dollars every year. Millennials by themselves spend approximately $600 billion annually, or over $1.6 billion every day, in the United States alone.

Bring your own device (BYOD) - specifically smartphones - emerged as a workplace trend around 2013 when enterprise employee demographics began skewing millennial. While there were naysayers and champions for BYOD programs, many businesses went forward with a roll-out because of the benefits: flexible working, better work/life balance, and greater productivity.

The retail industry has been zeroed in on personalization for many years now. It makes sense. Personalization leads to long-term, profitable relationships - increased sales, increased engagement and increased loyalty are all benefits of creating relevant and engaging customer shopping experiences.

More than 8,000 retail industry professionals descended upon Las Vegas earlier this month for the annual Shoptalk conference. It’s an event we’re always excited to attend, as it brings together some of the best and brightest in retail, commerce and technology.

Customer lifetime value (CLV) is one of the most important retail growth metrics. So, what can you do to build long-term, profitable relationships?

American Eagle Outfitters (AEO) built its brand almost 40 years ago on three principles: customer centricity, dedication and innovation. These values are woven through its men’s and women’s collections today, with the goal of inspiring young people everywhere to find their passion and purpose - and “have fun doing it.”

When Coresight Research published its top ten predictions for retail in 2019, the leading theme was reinvention - for the retail industry overall and physical stores in particular. This is despite ongoing chatter about a retail apocalypse. What’s actually coming to fruition is how far from a physical retail demise we really are.

Omnichannel is not a new concept. We’re many years into the journey of attempting to provide an omnichannel customer experience, but it has been less than seamless for both the customer and the associate.

More than five billion people have mobile devices. This has opened up access to information unlike ever before. And it has fundamentally changed retail. Consumers who are more connected and more informed are also more demanding.

Companies put a lot of effort into maximizing order management. Getting product into the hands of the right customers is critical. However, finding a way to do that across channels can be complicated and unnecessarily expensive.

Digital Native Vertical Brands (DNVB) are a product of today's technology-first universe. These brands start as entirely online companies before expanding into brick-and-mortar. Interestingly, this trajectory contradicts what we were led to believe when e-commerce emerged, namely that brick-and-mortar would become a shopping medium of the past.

The past year has seen more retail stores close than ever before. This “retail apocalypse,” as some have called it, is challenging many brands to find other ways to be profitable. But physical stores do still have a place in the retail equation. That’s the belief of UNTUCKit, who is bucking the closure trend and investing in omnichannel to extend the value of its brick-and-mortar presence.

We’ve all seen the articles touting the doom and gloom state of the retail industry. Their titles read like obituaries: “Retail is dead”, “Major retailers closing stores”, and “The Amazon Effect and the Demise of Brick & Mortar.” Retail’s death has been predicted numerous times, yet in 2017, over 90% of all purchases happened in a physical store location. And analysts are predicting that even by 2020, 85% of all purchases will still take place in a physical store. Brick and mortar is c...

The name of the game in retail today is omnichannel. Create an incredible and unified shopping experience for your customers regardless of whether they’re online or offline. Every retail brand on the planet is either trying to optimize their current systems, or they’re actively taking strides toward purchasing / rolling out a complete - and associate friendly - omnichannel offering.

I have walked out of stores dozens of times due to long checkout lines. Would a mobile point of sale (mPOS) or mobile checkout solution have prevented me from leaving? Yes, most likely. I will try items on, find something I like, head to the checkout counter, actually grimace upon seeing the length of the line, and then haphazardly fold my item(s) on the nearest display table before walking out. An item has to be something I’ve long been searching for or something that really looks too ama...

The ongoing retail evolution has affected all facets of the industry, as well as the purchasing journey. Thanks to stiff competition from online behemoths such as Amazon, which offer competitive shipping options to their members, many brands must now adapt their item fulfillment strategies to fit consumer expectations. The presence of free shipping could make or break an online purchase—but it’s not the only type of product fulfillment that can sway a customer.

I bought something at Pinkyotto for the first time last weekend on Newbury Street in Boston. I have seen their stores in New York but never had the time to stop in. In my recent visit I discovered that many of their styles are “one size fits all.” This worked quite nicely for a few pieces I tried on, with others making me want to throw out the snacks in my purse and hit the gym immediately. In the words of Carrie Bradshaw, “I couldn’t help but wonder...” does one size really fit all?

I love my phone. And let’s be honest, we all do. If you’ve ever misplaced it, you’ve experienced the horrible panic that follows: heart races, palms sweat, mind starts wishing you’d lost your wallet instead - or at least that’s what happened to me when I left mine in an Uber last month. (Don’t worry, a friend got it back for me by making use of Find My iPhone and then contacting the Uber driver through his phone.)

Depending on your viewpoint, I’m either a boring shopper, or a very loyal one. My wardrobe doesn’t vary too much from the three or five brands I really like and trust. This type of relationship does put pressure on the retailer because a change in the product or a poor experience (inventory issues, poor customer service, etc.) could turn the shopper away and fall out of favor with the brand.       

Many have been mesmerized by chatbots. First, it was the retailers. Then, the quick-service restaurant chains. Later, banks hopped on the bandwagon. The good news? The chatbot craze is still going strong, with many more industries and retail sectors offering their customers the ability to interact with branded artificial intelligence or real-life customer service representatives—all through a bot.

Not all shoppers are created equal. That’s one major constant that all retailers can count on, making the notion of the “average consumer” feel like it stems from the olden days.

This summer I attended the WWD Menswear Summit, in which two Abercrombie & Fitch executives gave very frank and honest insight into how their brand’s popularity has waned over the last few years. The answer is somewhat simple - their customer base has grown up. Teenagers have become professionals in their 20’s & 30’s and are no longer attracted to the style of clothing, being greeted by semi-naked men and woman (apparently), and that well-known smell that would resonate from each l...

In a world where data is king, it seems there has been a tendency to collect, collect, collect; yet, retailers aren’t necessarily putting it to proper use. If we’re not using the data to our advantage, what’s the point?

Mall operators are on full charm offensive these days, sponsoring and speaking at as many industry events as possible. Clearly influenced by their PR departments, the message is always consistent – “everything is fine, brick and mortar is far from dead.” Yet, when pressed on why malls are becoming increasingly desolate and big box retailers are disappearing each month, they tend to shift the blame onto the brands themselves. One example was at L2’s wonderful Click and Mortar conference whe...

Its no secret that retail brands are struggling to find a recipe for success when it comes to omnichannel in our mobile-driven world. What is surprising is that despite the plethora of mobile apps peppered across most consumers’ mobile phones, not many of them are native shopping app.

Feedback. We all need it, whether we want to hear it or not. It can prevent us from being stuck and discouraged and can give us a feeling of belonging and purpose. It can also drive us insane if you’re to believe the world of Black Mirror. (Side note - I’d hate to know what my social rating is but if my Uber profile is anything to go by, I spend too much time looking for my keys and not enough time in the back of someone's car.)

Answer: Still too many. Despite the fact that brands have reduced the number of form fields required to complete a mobile checkout experience by 20% since 2016, the average still hovers at 16 form fields. In a mobile-centric world where consumers have access to technology that enables them to snap a photo of their credit cards and populate many of the payment fields (as seen in apps like Uber), this number should be considerably lower.

In a world where obsessive connectivity and instant gratification have become standard, you’d think that retail would be among the first to deliver on the consumer channel of choice: mobile. In reality, the industry is severely lacking. Our second annual Mobile Retail Report reveals why. Think of it as an “omnichannel report card” for the 140 iconic luxury, lifestyle and apparel brands we analyzed.

Imagine if all shopping was done by cyborgs. You all have wireless connection, you remote control them from your home, they go out to retail stores, you buy stuff through them. What would the retail environment look like? You must be thinking, "that's crazy, ridiculous. That's in the movies.” But the reality is that right now, you have cyborgs shopping in all the retail markets. Why? Because they have a smartphone in their hand. The question that retailers must face is, what does this rea...

Here’s a thought many retailers have found to be true over the last few years: Amazon-led ecommerce has shifted consumers’ expectations to a state of wanting their purchases now, if not sooner. The prevalence of two-day—and even same-day—shipping options has fueled shoppers to engage in digitally-enabled instant gratification much more than they did in previous years. The same holds true for in-store instant gratification, which relies heavily upon shoppers’ desired inventory being in stoc...

When it comes to store associates, they can be one of two things (to me, at least): helpful or annoying. There is absolutely no in between. I have nothing against the kind associates that offer to assist me during my all too frequent shopping sprees, but I would rather they steer clear until I need a fitting room or a branded mini bottle of water.

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Wish lists were a lot easier as a kid. Write down what you want, pin it to the refrigerator, and if you don’t get it, throw a temper tantrum and you’ll have it in a couple of hours. At least that's how it worked in my household. As adults, wish lists take the shape of new clothing styles and looks from your favorite retail brands, a wedding registry, Pinterest boards, and more. The biggest and most frustrating difference between childhood wish lists and t...

According to the latest issue of the Mobile Retail Report, only 1% of brands have adopted next generation web technologies – referred to as Progressive Web. This is not surprising, as the technical approach is still in its infancy. It requires massive rethinking for conceptualizing and implementation, since it is very different from that of common websites.

The last time I left a store without buying something because a store associate couldn’t order my size from another location? Two weeks ago.

The New York Times once wrote that “waiting in line is a timeless form of torture,” and unless you’re British you probably agree with this statement. The retail industry has found a way of amplifying that torture: waiting in line to simply hand over money to a store associate because you want to buy something. Ouch.

Here’s a sobering statistic to kick off 2018: Only 19% of brands offer clienteling data to store employees via mobile, thereby missing out on a massive number of opportunities to upsell products and fuel last-minute purchases. In a mobile-first world, that statistic should be hovering much closer to the triple-digit end of the spectrum—especially where major retailers are concerned.

In recent years, smartphones have usurped friends and family as the number one, must-have companion for a shopping trip. After all, without a smartphone, how can you conduct price comparisons, snap photos and look up similar products, all without leaving the aisle?

Omnichannel: We’ve all heard the word a thousand times, and some of us have seen it in action in our shopping experiences. Despite its reputation as a buzzword de jour in the mobile industry, however, it’s proven to be a surprisingly elusive strategy for a majority of brands (81%, in fact).

Over the weekend my friend sent me a funny video of her dog, Stella, frantically digging out a rubber bone that was buried in the snow. Stella was overwhelmed with excitement having found her favorite toy which had been lost for what must felt like an eternity (three days!). Much like Stella looking for her missing bone, shoppers and store associates face a similar nightmare when it comes to searching for, and finding, a particular product and related inventory.

Digital Native brands have spent the last several years disrupting the retail industry. These are brands that launched online and often weren’t expected to move from their ecommerce only strategy to one that involved brick-and-mortar stores. So what happened? Why are we seeing more and more of these companies opening physical locations, especially when some started out being dead set against it?

I’ve been doing a bit of shopping for furniture and home decor lately. Not because I need anything, but because the closet in my new house is drastically smaller than my last and I literally can’t buy another piece of clothing or I’ll have to hang it in the kitchen. Instead of going cold turkey and cutting out shopping entirely, I’ve shifted my focus to buying items for my home.

Fashion retailers have long been comfortable staying ahead of cultural trends, but when it comes to satisfying the needs of today’s mobile-obsessed consumers, they’ve generally lagged behind. You could say their approach to technology is a bit worse than fashionably late.

It was 1:00 p.m. on a Friday. I had spent my lunch hour attempting to create the ultimate outfit on Ted Baker’s website, which was sure to wow my colleagues at the holiday party later that evening. Unfortunately, due to my procrastination, the holiday party would start in 5 hours and it was too late for even same-day delivery.

Here’s a quick look at a few random things that average approximately 3.0 seconds:

I spend entirely too much of my commute time in a brand’s app or on their mobile site. Thankfully for my bank account (but unfortunately for my wardrobe), I generally have to jump off the train before my casual browsing gets serious enough for the “Add to Cart” button. But the time constraint bestowed upon me by public transit doesn’t mean I’m not interested in the items I was taking a look at - if they caught my eye once, chances are they would again. Yet not even one-third (31%) of brand...

Despite the staggering advancements in mobile commerce in recent years—ranging from visual search to mobile payment platforms—there are still two pieces of the clienteling puzzle that many brands have yet to conquer: personalization and engagement. This is according to data from the 2017 Mobile Retail Report from NewStore. Capturing and nurturing customer loyalty is paramount today, as shoppers have endless options to choose from and several ecommerce powerhouses—such as Amazon and Jet.com...

Every time I get the opportunity to present the Mobile Retail Report to brands, pencils always sharpen when we get to the “Path to Purchase & Fulfillment” section of the research. Why? It’s the area most directly tied to revenue, or in some instances lost revenue. If retailers focused their attention on this part of their business - and there’s focusing to be done as brands only scored an average of ‘C’ in our research - it could significantly improve their bottom line.While you can do...

The modern world of beauty is an interesting place. We used to have one option: the beauty counter at a department store - or maybe CVS if we were in a pinch. But those days are long gone. There are now endless possibilities for fulfilling our beauty needs.

If there’s one retail strategy that most brands have found particularly elusive and difficult to get right, succeeding in omnichannel would likely take top prize. Expanding a retail store on digital platforms – the Internet, mobile web, apps – while simultaneously trying to keep bricks-and-mortar locations thriving isn’t an easy task, but it’s one most brands have had to contend with in the wake of ecommerce’s popularity. Some retailers may not be suited to having their presence be online-...

If you were to ask my roommate, he’d tell you that I have a bit of an online shopping problem. And he should know, having carried more than his fair share of my deliveries up the stairs to our apartment in the past couple of years. The majority of those deliveries are the result of me browsing through mobile - since my iPhone is essentially one with my person, but I couldn’t tell you the last time I made one of the purchases through a mobile site rather than through an app.

When you think of outdoor gear, there’s no doubt that The North Face comes to mind; they’re one of the most popular outdoor lifestyle brands in the world. Acquired by VF Corporation (VFC) in 2001, The North Face has consistently been one of the top performing businesses in the company’s portfolio, growing its global revenue by 6% in 2017 and contributing to VFC’s overall annual revenue of $3.6B.

Location, location, location. That’s usually one of the first pieces of advice out of someone’s mouth when they’re advising another individual about where to purchase property. After all, prime location wields the kind of power that brings about massive upticks in prices.

Vineyard Vines’ longstanding motto, “Every day should feel this good,” holds dual meaning for the retailer. The brand encourages customers to buy into the resort wear feel of its apparel and accessories, whether or not a vacation appears to be on the horizon, and simultaneously encourages its sales associates to make the customer’s shopping experience feel as good as possible, especially where personalization and engagement are concerned.

There’s little doubt of the business impact Instagram has had on retail. With a focus on visuals and the possibilities of user generated content, it’s the perfect platform for showcasing products and the lifestyle of a brand. Why then did only 24% of brands evaluated as part of the Mobile Retail Report use Instagram to sell their products?

Anonymous is the best way to describe me each time I walk into a retail store. Regardless of how often I’ve shopped online at that brand or how many times I’ve visited that exact location, I still receive the generic, “Hi, welcome to [fill in the blank]. Let me know if I can help you with anything.” And even more disappointing, I’m often anonymous when shopping online. Despite browsing and buying from these brands for years, there is no reason for me to start from scratch each time I show ...

Millennial: Another word for the generational demographic postdating Generation X. According to many marketers, it’s also a word denoting a highly desirable type of mobile-savvy customer that can appear unfazed by today’s world of advertising. While a plethora of retailers are struggling to market to millennial consumers effectively, one brand in particular is capitalizing on millennial-geared ecommerce in a differential way—LOFT. The clothing retailer’s ability to leverage mobile shopping...