Loss Prevention Research Council Weekly Series - Episode 44 - More Retail Predictions for 2021 and Curbside Success
With Dr. Read Hayes, Tony D'Onofrio, and Tom Meehan
From The Robin's Report 20 top retail wild card trends for 2021: Sustainable fashion, rental retail goes mainstream, certified used retail, enthusiast - based retail channels, buy now/pay later, voice ecommerce at home, the fitness center, FOMO or fear of missing out retail, near eye/augmented reality retail, in-store fulfillment, kitchens in the clouds, rise of retail medical, walkout shopping, experience centric retail, dynamite instore pricing, born again brands online, OTT or over the top commerce, in-store signage, traceability, and crypto.
From Chain Store Age: the volatility and disruptions of 2020 impacted high performing retailers more than their peers. RSR research survey of North America, EU, and UK found that retail winners with comparable store/channel sales growth above the industry average of 4.5% were more likely to report a lot of impact from a number of disruptions during 2020. Then their average performing or logging competitors. The disparity was found in disruptions including COVID-19, changes in customer expectations, weather events, social unrest, and boycotts.
From Steve Dennis and Forbes, 9 Provocative Retail Predictions for 2021: The great acceleration moderates, physical retail: still not dead, Bifurcation 2.0 and the hollowing of the middle, the hybridization of retail takes the center stage, grocery wars escalate, work from wherever rewires retail real estate strategy, cheaper real estate creates/new brick and mortar opportunity, without a return to fun, we won't see a luxury and fashion recovery, and Penney's kicks the can down the road.
RIS News, 10 retailers ruling curbside and BOPIS. Target started deploying in 2018. Added services in 2019 including fresh foods. In November/December Services grew 193%. In Target's 3rd Quarter same day services grew 200% adding more than $1 Billion in revenue. Walmart, in the last quarter added pickup to another 230 stores reaching 3700 with services. Doubled number of associates working in online pickup to 140,000. Walgreens, over 17 million pickup orders were completed in November and total digitally sales were up 40%. Ulta Beauty, introduced pickup on April 19, 2020. In Q3 2020 BOPIS totaled about 16% of ecommerce sales. Nordstrom, began offering 2008 integrated inventory for sales both online and in physical stores. The Michael's Companies, e-commerce grew 128% in 3rd quarter significant portion fulfilled through BOPIS. Bed Bath and Beyond, about 1.2 million customers placed a BOPIS order. Next promoter score of 80% for those services. Other retailers doing it well includes Kohl's, Kroger, and Dollar General.
Key retailers lessons from this today's download: Invest early ahead of the trends with focus on increasing convenience and save consumer’s time. Retail is not dead. It's one of the fastest changing industries and it accelerate faster separation between winners and losers. Consumers are in charge, with the smartphone the new engine of commerce. Theft patterns are changing and like the industry you need to get ahead of it now. A great place to learn and evolve forward is the Loss Prevention Research Council.
145,000 COVID-19 scam websites taken down. Retail’s not dead: it’s one of the fastest-changing industries. In this week’s episode, our co-hosts discuss these topics and more, including COVID-19 strains, Clubhouse app scams, Reddit stocks, and retail trends and predictions in 2021.
