RetailSails

Mid-Week Reading List

Published February 22, 2012 Uncategorized Leave a Comment
Tags: retail trends, retail news, consumer news

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)

Retail Quick View: Customer Service & Experience

Published February 22, 2012 Uncategorized Leave a Comment
Tags: customer service, retail trends

Over the past few weeks we have seen several studies attempting to rank retailers and brands by measures such as customer service or loyalty. Obviously this is one of the key areas of focus for successful chains – Zappos (now part of Amazon) has become legendary for the insane lengths its customer service reps will go to please shoppers. Below we take a look at 5 of these rankings:

1) The NRF Foundation/American Express 2011 Customer Service
2) February 2012 American Consumer Satisfaction (ACSI) Index scores
3) Temkin Group 2012 Customer Experience Rankings
4) Brand Keys 2012 Customer Loyalty Engagement Index
5) 2010 Businessweek Customer Service Champs (2011 not yet released)

Some names clearly stand out – Amazon is at or near the top of every list – no surprise there as service and loyalty are a major reason they have been so successful. Nordstrom is another name that makes sense as they have long been famous for going out of their way to please customers and for the superior multi-channel experience.

What’s interesting is that the name at the top of the customer experience survey (Sam’s Club) is also at the absolute bottom in customer service – this is probably explained by the the nature of the membership model as Costco is in a similar situation. Others, such as Walmart, rank high in value but low in satisfaction/experience – obviously shoppers are voting with their wallets more based on other factors such as convenience and the price/value relationship.

It also shows that just pleasing customers doesn’t necessarily lead to success – Overstock ranks in the top 4 in customer service and satisfaction, but happy customers have yet to lead to much profitability.

Holiday Retail Reads

Published February 20, 2012 Uncategorized Leave a Comment
Tags: consumer news, retail news, retail trends

Here’s what we are reading on President’s Day:

Warm Weather Puts Chill on Brands’ Winters (AdAge)
Coinstar looks to reinvent vending machines, expand self-service retailing beyond Redbox (NY Times)
Five Cents of Every Retail Dollar Now Spent Online (WSJ)
How going private helped BJ’s Wholesale change its game (Boston Globe)
Mobile Audience Insights Report Finds Key Trends in Location and Mobile (JiWire)
Nordstrom’s Savvy Sales Strategies For Stellar Growth (Forbes)
Following retailers’ lead, marketers will soon realize they’d better start utilizing Pinterest (Adweek)
Pop-Up Shopping Wall Lets You Buy Beauty Products With Your Phone (PSFK)
Brands have failed on Facebook BUT F-Commerce NOT a failure (ZDNet)
The Case for a CVS-Walgreen Combination (Morningstar)
Valentine’s M-Commerce Proves Christmas Was No Mobile Fluke (MediaPost)
McDonald’s Losing That Lovin’ Feeling? Brand Perception Not Keeping Pace With Sales Growth (AdAge)
After Slow Recession Sales, Men Buying Fashion Accessories Again (NY Times)
Gen Y shoppers increasingly mixing luxury & value (USA Today)
American Apparel Loses Hipster Fans as it Cracks Down on Shoplifting (HuffPost)

Weekend Reading List

Published February 17, 2012 Uncategorized Leave a Comment
Tags: consumer news, retail news, retail trends

Here are the top retail & consumer stories on our radar this Friday afternoon:

Why Mobile Shoppers Want Brick-and-Mortar Stores (Bloomberg)
Location-based technology will redefine behavioral targeting, maybe sooner than you think (Adweek)
Urban Outfitters is bringing its fledgling bridal concept to Chicago (Chicago Tribune)
Pampers or Huggies? How Diapers.com Profiles Customers From First Click (Forbes)
New Rich Fuel Luxury Boom Even as Low-End Suffers (WSJ)
F-Commerce Fails to Live Up to the Hype as Gap to JC Penney Shut Facebook Stores (Businessweek)
Why Consumer Goods Brands Must Think More Like Retailers (brandchannel)
5 Paradoxes Shaping the Future of Mobile Commerce (Mashable)
Target Still Sees Opportunity for Growth in U.S. (Star Tribune)
Customers Love a Company That Keeps Its Promises (1to1media)
A Six-Pack of Insights: Where Consumers Buy Their Beverages (CSP)
Smartphones & tablets influence consumer purchasing decisions on mobile, online and in store (Google)
Toymakers Hope Parents Are Ready to Splurge on Their Kids This Year (CNBC)
Memo to Retailers: Social Media Should Focus on Engagement, Not About # of Fans (Knowledge@Wharton)
Mobile & Tablet Commerce – Is Anyone Really Ready? (Zmags)

Friday Retail Quick Facts: Apple Stores

Published February 17, 2012 Uncategorized Leave a Comment
Tags: apple (AAPL), retail sales, retail trends

Some incredible facts about Apple Stores globally for the calendar year ending Dec 31, 2011:

Sales increased 40.4% to $16.4 billion – 3-YR CAGR is 32.6%, 5YR-CAGR is 37.0%

The $16.4 billion in retail sales from Apple Stores (and not including online/iTunes/apps revenues) would already place them as the 18th largest (non-grocery or restaurant) retailer in America

Sales per average store increased 24.9% to $48.9 million in 2011 and is up from $31.9 million just 3 years ago

This places them 7th out of 181 chains we track even though their average store size (8,400 sq ft) is significantly smaller than the 6 retailers ahead of them: Costco (142,600 sq ft), Sam’s Club (133,500 sq ft), Walmart U.S. (162,300 sq ft), Nordstrom Full-Line Stores (177,400 sq ft), BJ’s Wholesale (109,000 sq ft) and Village Super Market (57,300 sq ft)
They still manage to out-perform Cabela’s (137,600 sq ft), Neiman Marcus (92,700), and Target (133,500) and generate more than 3 times the sales per store of JC Penney (100,100 sq ft)

Sales per average square foot increased 16.8% to $5,910 in 2011 and is up from $4,265 3 years ago

This places them 1st out of the 181 chains we track by a wide margin: nearly double that of Tiffany & Co ($3,169), more than triple the sales per sq ft of Coach ($1,927), almost 6 times that of GameStop ($1,044) and more than 7 times the metric at Best Buy ($819)