Unprecedented. In my over three decades of covering and working in the retail industry, we have never seen anything like the impact of Coronavirus on the global retail scene. 9/11 temporarily ground business in the United States to a halt as fear and uncertainty gripped…
There have been two major developments with Amazon Go in the past few weeks. First, they opened a “jumbo” sized store (at least for a Go) in Seattle. And, they just announced that they would make the technology available to other retailers and just named…
Less than three years ago, I was part of a consulting team that participated in a strategic planning retreat for Art Van Furniture’s senior management. At the time (mid 2017), the company was riding high: it was immensely profitable, growing fast, entering new markets and…
Impacts on supply chain due to the Covid-19 coronavirus are happening quickly. Depending on your business, it is safe to assume that there will be 10-30% (or more) of incoming merchandise impacted by supply disruptions or delays. In addition, due to the diverse impact of…
Since 2005, we have published the Global Retail Trends & Innovations Report in collaboration with Ebeltoft Group, a consortium of international retail consultancies of which we are a founding member. In this year’s report, Retail Innovations 2020, we explore stores and concepts on the cutting…
News reports today indicate that Brandless, the SoftBank Vision Fund backed start-up, will shut down permanently. This news follows a tumultuous few years for the once promising start-up that offered high quality, “brandless” goods for a single fixed price point of $3. Brandless was an…
The grocery retail world has been rocked these past few weeks with the perils of overexpansion and the subsequent closures of some prominent chains that, just a few years prior, were seen as rising stars and potential national chains. Earth Fare just announced that they…
Greg Foran, the former CEO of Walmart U.S. said that “Retail Will Change More in the Next Five Years Than It Has in the Past 50 Years”. If he is even remotely correct, expect to see a rapidly shifting retail landscape as we enter a…
As Under Armour founder and chairmen Kevin Plank unveiled a new brand message – “The Only Way is Through” – SEC filings revealed that in the last quarter a hedge fund made a significant bet on Under Armour’s future performance. Lone Pine Capital LLC purchased a…
As the Holiday season of 2019 winds to an end, I am going to use this time to look back and to look ahead. The 2010’s were a transformative decade for retail. While Retailmageddon didn’t exactly come to pass, we saw a significant slowdown in…
