Running an active outdoor business right now feels like a game of Whack-a-Mole. There’s too much retail- right size yours. Whack! Create product that can be meaningfully differentiated from competitors. Whack! Careful on that distribution. Whack! Manage your inventory and expenses cautiously. Whack! Figure out e-commerce without cannibalizing brick and mortar. Whack! Lower growth economy. […]
In early 2015, I wrote “The Evolution of Marketing & the Future Retail Model.” It’s held up pretty well. In describing that retail model, I hypothesized about how pop-ups might be used. “Retail presence might be in pop up tents, in vans or trucks, on blankets at beaches, in a lift at a ski resort, […]
Marcato Capital Management has taken what is now a 6% position in Deckers’ common stock. That Marcato was buying Deckers’ shares first became public knowledge towards the end of May. Partly in response to this and, apparently, to growing unhappiness on the part of other large shareholders, Deckers has undertaken a strategic review process to […]
Specialty beauty retailer Sephora (2,300 stores worldwide) seems to be a bit ahead of the curve when it comes to brick and mortar retail. As this article describes, they are using technology to give control to the consumer and create a “fun” experience for them. They are reducing the role of the sales person and […]
At this point, it’s common knowledge that diminishing mall traffic is leading retailers to close stores and/or renegotiate leases with landlords. There are also some store openings going on as retailers, hopefully, find locations and configurations better suited to the fast changing brick and mortar and e-commerce world. But relationships between retailers and landlords are […]
The conference calls get shorter and shorter as Wall Street and its analysts decide the retail sector just isn’t worth their attention. I don’t and won’t invest in anything I write about but damn, this feels like one piece of putting in a bottom in the retail sector. Maybe it will take the recession to […]
When I report on a public company’s results, it’s always important to review the numbers. But the more I do that the more I realize my focus needs to be on how companies are trying to transition to the new retail environment in circumstances of high uncertainty. That is, they must transition to something they […]
These quarterly reports from retailers are getting kind of repetitive. It’s not just Tilly’s; they are all controlling inventory, slowing store openings (or closing stores), negotiating with landlords, trying to reduce operating expenses, doing omnichannel things and being generally grateful for anything that improves traffic and generates some incremental sales. Tilly’s conference call printed out […]
To my mind, Amazon’s biggest strategic advantage is that they started without brick and mortar retail. The business was built for ecommerce and then, using the systems and data they’ve developed, they could look at brick and mortar making sure to have the right number of stores in the right places configured in the right […]
Finally, some positive movement in the trade show space. I’ve hung back on writing about this for a few days but SIA President Nick Sargent sent out an email to all SIA members announcing and describing the deal, which is subject to approval by SIA’s premium members. The email from Nick was labeled “CONFIDENTIAL: DO NOT […]
