Jake Stewart’s Post

Here are some interesting stories from the world of retail for Thursday, April 11: 🏬 Macy's settles proxy fight with activist Arkhouse, adds two of the firm’s nominees as directors. Arkhouse is also in the middle of negotiating with the department store about a possible sale that would take Macy’s private. 🔌 Best Buy laid off Geek Squad field agents, home-theater repair technicians and phone support specialists last week, according to current and former employees. The layoffs come amid a restructuring that includes new uses for AI. 📈 Stubborn US inflation dents hopes for imminent Fed interest rate cut. The consumer-price index, driven by fuel and housing costs, rose 0.4% from February, higher than the 0.3% expected. 👚 Lands' End’ End is on track to swing to an annual profit for the first time in three years, following a pandemic slump, by nudging customers who love a good discount to pay full price. 👔 Ted Baker’s American licensing partner is reportedly the lead contender to take control of the business’s embattled British arm.  OSL is eyeing up a deal which could see the business take over dozens of shops. 👗 After several years of financial struggles, clothing-rental platform Rent The Runway on Wednesday said it expected breakeven free cash flow this year, following cost cuts and signs of a revival in shoppers’ enthusiasm. 💳 Department stores and other retailers will feel the impact of a new federal rule, which caps credit card late fees at $8. Analysts say department stores will get squeezed more by the rule, since their revenue is already under pressure. 🧴 Jessica Alba to step down as chief creative officer of The Honest Company The founder, who remains a board member, moves on as the brand’s leadership says recent turnaround efforts are working. 💰 Costco Wholesale saw a 9.4% sales boost in the five weeks through April 7, driven by a surge in e-commerce activity. March sales amounted to $23.5 billion, up from $21.5 billion a year before. 😔 Gen Z is full of financial angst despite inheriting a golden job market. Gen Z is coming into the workforce and they’re complaining about how much easier older generations had it. 🥗 Maison Solutions buys Arizona grocer for $22 million. The acquisition of Lee Lee Oriental Supermart will add $70 million in annual revenue to Maison, effectively doubling its sales. ✉️ The US Postal Service is proposing another increase in stamp prices. The agency has laid out a slew of price hikes it aims to implement in July, saying they would amount to roughly 7.8% increases across mailing services. 📱 Sam's Club is launching a new partnership with T-Mobile, which will become the club’s exclusive wireless provider. T-Mobile is expanding its retail presence by launching in nearly all Sam’s Club locations. #retail #retailnews #economy #DailyRetailNews

Department stores are dead 💀 many pundits here on LinkedIn say day in and day out. Words like "dinosaur," "redundant," etc trip casually off their posts. They pile on in comments. Not towards the big box mass merchant department stores like Target or Walmart but the Macy's, Nordstrom, and Dillard's Inc. of the world. I was in Santa Fe this past weekend with members of the National Speakers Association. After dinner, Cara Brookins shared her love for a luxury purse she had purchased. Hammitt in Manhattan Beach made it. Tony Drockton, my friend and SalesRX client, is the CEO, so we made a video and sent it to him (below.) 👉 Cara Brookins discovered his luxury brand 2000 miles away from his California boutiques at Dillard's Inc. in Little Rock, AK. She never would have found it otherwise. That is what department stores do and the important place they hold. And when the discovery experience is met in a department store – it is memorable. She never would have gone online to buy that item. Full stop. Re-read that. Oh and Hammitt doesn't market by discount but quality. Can we please stop with the charts and graphs and piling on? Department stores are an important link in the retail chain. Let's give credit where credit is due and recognize the vital role department stores continue to play in connecting consumers with unique brands and fostering moments of serendipitous discovery that leave lasting impressions. #retail #customerservice #luxurygoods

☀️ SUMMER SUN might bring a lull to the jewelry industry, but it doesn’t have to mean your sales take a vacation too. 🌴💍 While engagement season may peak in the colder months, there are plenty of ways to keep your store closing sales all summer long. 💡 In my latest article for INSTORE Magazine, I share creative and actionable strategies to transform the summer months from a dry spell into a season of growth and opportunity. 🌸🚀 Here are a few insights you'll find: 1️⃣ Cultivate customer reviews. 2️⃣ Catch the "I DO" wave before it breaks. 3️⃣Focus on clearance. Don't let the "slow season" slow you down! 🏃♂️💨 Dive into the full article and discover how to boost your sales this summer 📈 https://ow.ly/fBC350SoCGH #MeganTellsAll #JewelryRetail #SummerSales

With the 8.1% sales decline accelerating over the last quarter and with losses growing on the bottom line, JCPenney has started its new fiscal year on a sour note. Unfortunately, the market has been soft which has not helped revenue, but as it is only part way through its reinvention program JC Penney also isn’t firmly on the front foot. Lower credit income is also unhelpful, with revenues here down by 20.5 over last year.   The changes JCP has been making to some stores and to assortments seem to be delivering, with refurbished shops performing better and some categories like womenswear producing stronger numbers. Sadly, these things are not yet sufficiently developed or widespread enough to offset staleness in the balance of the business. Basically, there is still a lot of work to do to put JCP on a more stable footing.   Fortunately for JCPenney, it is well financed and has a strong financial partner in its owners. As such, management won’t lose too much sleep over being in the red. However, the company needs to produce some better results across the remainder of this fiscal to prove its strategy is working. It was great to chat with Daphne Howland of Retail Dive about the latest Q1 numbers - link to article in the comments. #retail #retailnews #departmentstores #trading #apparel

Store Closures. With the recent announcement from Big Lots that they'd be closing over 300 locations, we dove into the potential impact and there were some very interesting takeaways. 1️⃣ Not all Rightsizing Efforts are Equal - Yes, closing stores is not the ideal thing, but when done properly it can reduce costs without a massive impact on reach. Closing locations that aren't reaching the ideal audience or are likely cannibalizing other locations create ideal targets to limit the impact on performance. 2️⃣ Visit Surges are Coming. The liquidation sales drive huge visit numbers and these peaks give an indication of the potential many of these locations had. Plus an opportunity to see who the audience most up for the grabs might be.... 3️⃣ The Audiences are Going Somewhere. Cross visitation gives a good indication of the likely beneficiaries, but the ability to effectively reach these audiences now can play a huge role in bringing those visits over for nearby competitors. 4️⃣ Ceiling on Value. We've talked about this quite a bit.... but there is a ceiling on the number of locations the value players can have. Watch out for the rise of the middle. What are your thoughts on Big Lots and rightsizing efforts in general? Let us know!

Just in time for #Halloween🕸️ 5 Retail Horror Stories of 2024: From Youthforia ’s shade range controversy to Foxtrot’s sudden closures, this year’s retail landscape has seen its share of missteps. Explore Retail Dive's cautionary tales that reveal both risks and resilience within the industry. #RetailTrends #Bankruptcy #ConsumerInsights #RetailNews #BrandStrategy

I served on a public company board for a shoe company. They had several brands and one of them was a discount retailer with dozens of stores. It seemed like every reporting period had disappointing results that were attributed to “too cold for sandals” or “not cold enough for boots,” etc. Management told us that we were still o.k. because total revenues were up. It took us several rounds of questioning before we were able to zero in on why we felt uneasy.  You see what the data showed was that store traffic continued to decline but it was made-up by an increase in customer units purchased. Fast forward – the decline in traffic continued while the units sold per customer could no longer make up for it. We ended up selling the company and the stores no longer exist. It is this experience that escalates my curiosity whenever parks report attendance. My goal in this case is not to explain the historical performance, but to forecast the future. Given that I am sort of a data geek, I could ask for dozens of metrics, but I’ve limited myself to three questions focused on demand: 1.  Unique Individuals vs Attendance. I want to know how many unique guests came through the gate. For example, a season pass holder who came five times last year is just one unique individual. A ten percent decline in Uniques combined with a ten percent increase in visits per guest may mathematically yield the same total attendance in the short-term, but to me it says that you were likely losing market share. 2.  Return Intent. Back in the day we targeted a specific ride number of rides for each guest and we had follow-up surveys that demonstrated return intent deteriorated below eight rides. I’m sure the parks still have standards. I would expect that now this may be less about the number of rides and more about accessing your preferred rides. I also like this metric as a proxy for price:value. 3.  Competitive Set.  Clearly product like Harry Potter has changed the Orlando dynamic, but in this case I’m more focused on the significant increase in the cost of a theme park vacation. We have entered an era where the total cost of a park vacation opens up a wide variety of alternative vacation options.  If nothing else, this could reduce lifetime visits. I expect that if you dug into each of these you would be inclined to forecast negative pressure on future demand. And, I fully expect the management teams see the same thing. Here is the important point: There have always been villainous pressures on growing the business and over the decades the quality of the creative offerings and the superior guest service have always conquered them, And, in my opinion, they will going forward. There is actually a Magic 8 Ball online these days (no surprise). I asked it if theme park attendance would continue to grow and it responded, “you may rely upon it.”  Always good to get a second opinion.  

Back to Macy's horrible furniture experience......So, my post from earlier this week had received 2,700+ impressions and 26 people have commented on it. A bit more than the average of 9-15 people telling there friends about their bad experience. Macy's said, when I called on Tuesday, that the courier would call to set up delivery this week. I said, "No they won't, they have never called us to set up delivery. You have promised us this many times already." Rule #1 - Don't break a promise to your customer. If you do, fix it. Did the courier call to set up delivery? NO, they did not. What does this mean? It means that we will be placing call #8 next week and will be asking for the courier phone #, again. Rule #2 - Don't make your customer have to make effort based on broken processes on your end. This effort we are having to make is incredibly exhausting and a time suck. I need to be focusing on growing my business, not following up with a company because they are not doing their job. Rule #3 - If you make it hard to do business with, your customers will leave you.

The Retail Tango Between Bargains and Bankruptcies. Here are some key points mentioned in TheStreet article. Strap in! ▪️Family Dollar & Dollar Tree Stores Closing nearly 1,000 stores, despite adding 3.4 million new upscale shoppers. Who knew dollar stores could become the new boutiques for the well-to-do? 🤑🌳 ▪️The TJX Companies, Inc. (TJ Maxx, Marshalls, HomeGoods): Thriving in an era where online shopping is king, proving that the treasure hunt experience is still alive and kicking. It's like a safari, but instead of animals, you're hunting for discounts. 🦒🛍️🔍 ▪️Walgreens: Planning to close 150 stores by August 2024. Our go-to for last-minute Halloween candy, emergency Band-Aids and generic pain killers, isn't immune to the retail shakeup. 🍬🩹 ▪️Macy's: Announcing over 150 store closures. The magic of Macy's isn't so magical these days. 🎩✨ #retailrealestate #retailtrends #investmentsales #commercialrealestate

In 2011, JCPenney made a big change that cost them a lot. They completely changed their pricing and store layout. This resulted in: → $985 million loss and many loyal customers. JCPenney's mistakes are: 1) They didn't consider what their regular customers liked 2) They made big changes without testing them first 3) They didn't explain the new changes well to customers In short, “They ignored what their customers want and how they behave.” But a good market research shows your customer’s desires and pain points. Good research based on how customers actually behave: → helps you to make smart business decisions. At eMazing-retailing, we help clients avoid these problems. We recently helped an online store increase their sales by making small, tested changes based on real customer behavior. Are you changing your business based on solid customer research? → Or could you make a mistake like JCPenney did? *** P.S.: Boost your eCommerce store’s revenue and growth with Emazing Retailing's insights and A/B testing. Book a free 1:1 call with me(link the comments) to get started. Pic credits: USA Today