Archive for February, 2012

Mid-Week Retail Reads

Posting will continue to be light over the next few weeks as the deluge of retail earnings reports will keep us busy with database updates.

As always, we will have full coverage of monthly same-store sales reports due out tomorrow. The list of retailers releasing monthly results continues to shrink – Dillard’s announced they would no longer report on a monthly basis after January, following JC Penney‘s lead as they stopped after December. 18 chains will release February results tomorrow – Walgreen doesn’t report until Monday this month, Costco already said this morning comps rose a strong 8% in February and Zumiez will report after the close today.

In the mean-time, here is a super-sized list of retail & consumer reads for Wednesday afternoon:

  • As shoppers’ long love affair suburban malls wane, foreclosures on the rise (Huffington Post)
  • EBay Aims to Build Bridge Between Brick-and Mortar & E-Commerce (WSJ)
  • The Changing Face of Coupon Users: Younger, More Affluent & Tech Savvy (Coupons.org)
  • Marketing to the millennial woman (Adweek)
  • Study Finds Purchases on Mobile Devices Expanding Dramatically (CEA)
  • Retailers see smaller outlets as the next big thing (Seattle Times)
  • Survey says Walmart widens price lead over Target (MarketWatch)
  • Nearly 40% of Smartphone-Carrying Shoppers Abandon In-Store Purchases Due to Long Lines (AisleBuyer)
  • How Unilever Connects With Hispanics on Facebook (ClickZ)
  • 10 Groundbreaking Retailers That Shook the World (RISNews)
  • Airports increasingly becoming upscale shopping destinations (LA Times)
  • Can JC Penney become ‘America’s favorite store’ by trying to be everything to everybody? (Forbes)
  • Miami’s Design District luring high-end retailers away from famous Bal Harbour Shops (WSJ)
  • What’s behind the dollar store craze? (San Diego Union-Tribune)
  • We Don’t Have a Mobile Payment Problem; We Have a Mobile Shopping Problem (Wired)
  • 2012 Shopping Outlook: Consumers plan a steady budget (PriceGrabber)
  • Risky Retail Bet Pays Off as Time Warner Center ‘one of the most productive shopping centers in the U.S.’ (NY Times)
  • Whole Foods Tries Out Kinect-Powered Shopping Carts (PCWorld)

Monday Reading List

  • For malls and retailers, teens are now a savvy, cash-carrying force (The Oregonian)
  • Dish to close one-third of remaining Blockbuster stores in next 6 months (Denver Post)
  • Cotton costs ease, but apparel sellers face new pricing pressures (MarketWatch)
  • E-commerce spending to increase 62% to $327 billion by 2016 (Internet Retailer)
  • Valentine’s Shoppers Flocked to Stores; Traffic and Transactions Surged (RetailNext)
  • Most Americans Saving, Not Spending Tax Returns This Year (NRF)
  • The Secret Behind Forever 21′s Dirt Cheap Clothing (Business Insider)
  • $87 billion pet-product market starting to show cracks as consumers seek discounts (Bloomberg)
  • Founder Offers to Take Kenneth Cole Private for $280 million (CNBC)
  • Retail needs a reboot to survive (GigaOM)
  • Brand Marketers Say Digital Offers More Bang for the Buck (AdAge)
  • For consumers, embedded mobile means ‘connected life’ set to intensify (MarketWatch)

Friday Retail Reads

Here are the top stories on our radar to kick off the weekend:

  • Back in Time to 2000…Apple is mulling own store chain to expand sales (WSJ)
  • Online Landscape Evolves With Shift to Social Commerce (WWD)
  • Deckers Pushes Uggs on Guys as ‘Female’ Brands Chase Men (Bloomberg)
  • Value-Oriented Outlet Centers Finding Foothold With Consumers & Retailers (Chain Store Age)
  • How Whole Foods Became The Luxury Brand Of Millennials (FastCo)
  • Smartphones: The Ultimate Shopping Companion (NielsenWire)
  • Consumer Sentiment edged up in February to highest level in a year (Reuters)
  • P&G Gets Innovative With Tide Pods (Cincinnati.com)
  • The 2012 Mobile Future in Focus Report (comScore)
  • Retail Real Estate Market Purges Fear of Double Dip (CoStar Group)
  • Bloomingdale’s Expands Loyalty Program to All Shoppers (WSJ)
  • Luxury brands and pricing in the age of the daily deal (Fox Business)
  • Many retailers too slow in reinventing themselves for the age of online shopping (Economist)
  • Clothes Horse Wants To Solve Problem Of Finding Clothes That Fit (TechCrunch)
  • Magazine publishers going for slice of e-commerce pie (Chicago Tribune)

Potential Retail Game-Changer as Off-Price Goes Online

Already coming off a banner year which saw sales top $23 billion, off-price retail giant TJX Companies said it will be making a “substantial investment to start up e-commerce” in the near future as part of a plan to “become a company of $40 billion and beyond,”

“E-commerce is clearly in our future,” CEO Carol Meyrowitz said on the Q4 conference call. “We continue to see e-commerce as a major opportunity for TJX. We see it as a marriage between our stores and the Web. We plan to lever our $23 billion brick-and-mortar business and merchant organization that is over 700 people strong,”

So how big is the opportunity? The Commerce Department said total U.S. e-commerce sales jumped 16.1% to $194.3 billion in 2011 and comprised 6.8% of total retail (excluding restaurant, auto dealer and gas station) sales. Over the past 5 years, compound annual growth of online sales was 11.1% vs. just 2.2% for overall retail sales. Take a look at a few of the largest chains in the U.S. selling a significant amount of apparel:

Each company has built up its e-commerce operations to over 5% of total sales and are seeing much greater growth in the online channel than in stores. TJX, which operates 2,241 T.J Maxx, Marshalls and HomeGoods in the U.S, is already the fastest growing company of this group over the past 5 years. We see no reason why they can’t scale up relatively quickly and build an e-commerce business that complements the brick-and-mortar presence and eventually makes up greater than 5% of their total sales. Continue reading ‘Potential Retail Game-Changer as Off-Price Goes Online’

Mid-Week Reading List

  • Online retailers evolving to serve the confident, connected consumer (Internet Retailer)
  • Interbrand Rankings Show Amazon Gained Brand Value at Best Buy’s Expense (Bloomberg)
  • Fashion Brands Would Rather Make Their Own Magazines Than Buy Ads (NY Times)
  • Record-Breaking Retail Lease Deal Rumored on 5th Ave in NYC (Retail Traffic)
  • Can You Grow by Shrinking? How ‘Endless Aisle’ is Changing Retail (RISNews)
  • Small retailers need to “re-envision” the future to survive against big-box & online chains (USA Today)
  • Retail consumer satisfaction up, but still below pre-recession levels (Boston Globe)
  • The Brands American Men And Women Desire Most (Forbes)
  • Retailers betting on technology in race to lure shoppers & run stores more effectively (Globe & Mail)
  • How To Predict What Consumers Want Before They Even Know It (FastCo)
  • The Redboxification of the American Shopping Experience (Time)
  • Though Not Yet Profitable, Amazon’s Prime Key to Company’s Future Growth (Fortune)
  • U.S. department stores surging back to life or headed for dustbin of retail history? (SCT)
  • People Who Buy, Use Then Return Stuff Costing Retailers $16 Billion A Year (Business Insider)
  • U.S. Retail Outlook: 9 trends to watch in 2012 (Colliers)
  • Retailers find bigger returns in smaller spaces (KC Star)

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