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Industry Insights
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Industry Insights brings the latest trends, acquisitions and previews of upcoming conferences and events to retailers’ desktops. This section enables store managers to learn new strategies related to sales and tips on optimizing inventory, merchandising, allocation and more. Subscribe to the feed and stay in touch with the latest retail happenings.
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Written by Fatima D. Lora
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Monday, 20 February 2012 09:51 |
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As the U.S. unemployment rate continues to decline, consumers are less concerned with the job market compared to 30 days ago, and less inclined to curtail spending, according to a Monthly Consumer Survey from BIGinsight. The report showed that, compared to February 2011, consumers have a more positive outlook on their savings habits without decreasing the number of store visits.
Walmart Wins Consumers’ Hearts
With the decline in unemployment rates comes an increasing interest in shopping, and consumers were not afraid to spend at their preferred retailers in early February 2012. The BIGinsight report indicated retailers such as JCPenney, Kohl’s, Macy’s, Target and Walmart were the top stores consumers visited for women’s, men’s and children’s clothing. Of the retailers listed, Walmart received consumer approval in grocery, health and beauty, footwear, as well as men and children’s apparel.
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Written by Alicia Fiorletta
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Wednesday, 15 February 2012 09:04 |
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Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week is a must-attend event for fashion designers, buyers and tastemakers to get a first-hand look at the season’s hottest trends. At the same time, Fashion Week provides retailers with a primary opportunity to get a glimpse into shoppers’ preferred clothing and accessory styles, as well overall sentiment on spending.
In an effort to help merchants better understand these key areas, American Express Business Insights released in-depth data into the demographics and purchase behaviors of luxury consumers. Results revealed that in light of an insecure job market and turbulent economy, Generation Y consumers ramped up their spending on luxury goods, increasing purchases on premium luxury fashion by 33% in 2011 over 2010. This is a positive bounce-back after the stagnant results from the recession, according to Edmond Jay, SVP of American Express Business Insights. The results also point to a new market for luxury retailers to communicate with.
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Written by Lorna Pappas, Contributing Writer
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Tuesday, 14 February 2012 08:44 |
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Part II of a two-part series discussing Social Commerce: what it is, why it’s important and how retailers are using it. Part I appeared in the January 31 Newsletter.
 In Part I of this Social Commerce feature, Walmart told Retail TouchPoints: “The first generation e-Commerce sites brought the store to the web. We think the next generation will be about building a multichannel experience that integrates the store, the web and mobile seamlessly, with social identity being the glue,” Ravi Raj, VP of @WalmartLabs, stated.
Charlie Cole, VP of Online Marketing for Lucky Brand, also shared his viewpoints on social commerce with RTP: “Social commerce is important to us because it allows for a revenue event directly at the point of social interaction. The approach is integral to our other channel strategies: Across social sites we want to make sure we are tracking not only direct revenue attribution but also understanding the ‘view through’ component of the interaction. Ideally, we want people to interact with products on their own terms and by doing so we heighten the brand relationship.”
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Written by Alicia Fiorletta
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Wednesday, 08 February 2012 11:00 |
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As retailers pursue cutting-edge tools and technologies to improve customer engagement and boost purchases, analysts are focused on how social media and mobile payment help meet those goals. Best-in-class retailers have implemented successful mPOS and rolled out Facebook storefronts, but these areas will be top struggles for many merchants, according to predictions from Gartner. In fact, Gartner predicts that through 2015, 80% of multichannel implementations will fail.
In the report titled “Predicts 2012: Retailers Turn to Personalized Offers Through Mobile and Social but Will Struggle With Multichannel Execution,” analysts in Gartner’s Retail Industry Advisory Services share detailed insight on top retail trends. John Davison, Managing VP and Research Director, Retail, and Mim Burt, Research Director, indicate that multichannel efforts will fail due to gaping silos and channel-centric strategies. As shoppers continue to implement cross-channel browsing and buying behaviors, decreased loyalty will be an amplified risk.
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Written by Retail TouchPoints
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Tuesday, 07 February 2012 12:37 |
 The Javits Center in New York City was buzzing with activity during this year’s National Retail Federation (NRF) BIG Show. A record 25,500 visitors attended in-depth sessions and spent time on the EXPO floor, a 12% increase from 2011, according to an NRF announcement. More than 5,000 executives from international retail companies also attended the conference, a 25% boost over last year.
Retail TouchPoints was in the trenches of NRF 2012, conducting video interviews with more than 35 retail executives, including retailers and solution providers. Key topics of discussion were top trends for 2012, the new era of customer engagement, the importance of implementing mobile and social media, and more. In an event follow-up article, the RTP editors shared their impressions and in-depth insight on the show, as well as retail hot topics. Click here to access recent coverage of the event’s top themes and sessions.
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