Category: Retail Sales
As States Lift Restrictions, Retailers are Trapped on the ‘Leading Edge’
The avalanche began in an unlikely setting, for avalanches at least: Chesapeake Energy Arena, home to the National Basketball Association’s Oklahoma City Thunder, where the home team was set to play the Utah Jazz on the evening of March 11, 2020. That game was canceled minutes before tipoff upon...
Coronavirus: Impact on the Retail Industry
Coronavirus Disease 2019 or “ COVID-19 ” continues to dominate national and international discussion. News outlets in Boston , New York , London , Mumbai , Rio de Janeiro , Tokyo , and every other city and town in the world continue to post and print stories related to spread of...
An Unintended Interruption to the Global Supply Chain
The current outbreak of COVID-19 (the coronavirus) will be a test of the global supply chain’s strength in the face of unintended interruptions, and can be a lesson on building-in supply-chain contingency plans. As a result of COVID-19, many factories in China, which supply the bulk or all goods...
Retail Evolution: Continuing to Think Outside of the Box
In a prior blog, we discussed partnerships between retailers and hotel chains as a strategy for providing customers with an interactive experience and staying competitive in the market. This trend has continued and is further evolving. Retailers are bringing the store to the consumer and inventing new and creative...
What can Amazon do for you?
Economists and industry experts – and the data – agree on little when it comes to holiday sales. In December, a mere ten days after the National Retail Federation proclaimed that a record 190 million consumers shopped over the five days from Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday – up 14...
2019 Holiday Season Retail Sales Wrap-Up
The holidays are a hectic time for a lot of different reasons. One thing that remains constant through the chaos of work events, family gatherings, and inclement weather is the hustle and bustle of the retail world. This post will feature a summary of some key findings in the...
The Nightmare Before Christmas?
Gift Card Litigation Arrives for the HolidaysIt is a little-known fact that, in 1994, Blockbuster video was the first store to display pre-paid gift cards for sale. Unlike VHS rentals, the gift card industry has only grown in popularity. Gift cards from major retailers are at the top of many holiday wish lists. Considered a...
2019 ICSC Law Conference Recap
Last week, over 1,500 members of the retail law industry came together at this year’s 49 th International Council of Shopping Center (ICSC) U.S. Law Conference that was held in San Diego from October 23 through October 25, 2019. Those in attendance ranged from counsel from outside law firms...
Retail-to-Industrial Conversions: Revolution or Niche Trend?
It may have been unthinkable ten to fifteen years ago, but the shift in consumer shopping patterns from brick-and-mortar stores to online platforms has resulted in the emergence of retail-to-industrial conversions over the past few years. With lower demand for retail space in many markets, several developers and major...
“Retail Apocalypse: The End – Or A New Beginning?”
The last several years have been treacherous for the retail sector. Changing shopping patterns and shifting demographics have led some commentators to declare that the (retail) apocalypse is upon us . And while we have seen numerous mega-bankruptcies, including Sears, Toys ‘R Us, Borders, Payless Shoes and Radio Shack...
What’s Old is New Again: Department Stores Partner with Online-Only Secondhand Apparel Companies
Apparel merchandisers are predicting that resale will soon become a force in the industry and retailers are beginning to take notice. Increasingly, young shoppers are turning to online, resale and rental for their clothing needs and department stores are currently experimenting with offering secondhand apparel as a way to...
Black Friday in July: A Retail Boost in Competition with Amazon
Is “Christmas in July” a bonus for consumers or retailers? Which retailers are coming to the front of the price slashing competition and what products are hot off the shelves? According to retail experts, Amazon raked in an estimated $6 billion in sales during this year’s Amazon Prime Day...
All Eyes on G-20 as Additional Tariffs Loom
Last week, Bloomberg reported that Toys “R” Us is in the early stages of a comeback, led by former executive and Tru Kids Inc. CEO Richard Barry, with designs on opening about a half-dozen stores in time for the 2019 holiday season. You can bet they’ll be keeping a...
E-Commerce and Industrial Real Estate: “Last Mile” Delivery and What Else You Should Know
In recent years, the extensive disruption to the retail real estate landscape caused by the expansive growth of e-commerce (such as altered consumer shopping habits, increased brick-and-mortar vacancies, and big box retailer bankruptcies) has been well-cataloged and analyzed both within the commercial real estate industry and, more broadly, by...
ICSC RECON 2019: In Pursuit of Innovation
The Las Vegas Convention Center hosted ICSC RECon 2019 this week from May 19-22. This year’s conference was held under the motto “Less traditional. More Innovative”, reflective of the dynamic changes taking place in the retail real estate industry. True to this motto, the future of retail was on...
The Intersection Between Technology and Retail: The Use of Blockchain Technology in Tracking Supply Chains
In the past few years, many industries have poured resources into exploring how they can use blockchain to grow. The retail industry is no exception. During 2018, the U.S. retail sector spent double the amount of money on blockchain technology than it had in 2017 and annual revenues from blockchain...
Intrusion or Tool: Consumer Data’s Increasing Role in Retail
It’s no secret that retailers have access to more information about their target consumers than ever before. This information can help retailers not only to target their broad market but also to tailor the communications they deliver to each segment of that market. Customers, on the other hand, are...
New Payment Structures for a New Age
We’ve written about changes in the way goods are bought and sold, from brick-and-mortar to e-commerce. But what about how goods are being paid for? As the retail landscape shifts to digital terrain, retailers would be wise to think about how they accept payments to suit new ways of...
Recycling the Big Box
Retailers shuttered a record amount of brick-and-mortar store space in 2018, shattering the previous record set in 2017, and big box stores were the largest contributors to the empty space. Iconic brands, such as Sears, Macy’s, J.C. Penney, Toys "R" Us, Inc., Bon Ton and Lord & Taylor all...
Second Chances – Embattled Retailers Look to the Next Chapter for Their Brands
What’s old is new again. The intellectual property of legacy brick-and-mortar retailers is increasingly being repurposed for decidedly modern ventures. Although the fate of Toys "R" Us, Inc. has captured the most media attention, a number of prominent retailers have begun to repurpose and revitalize their brands in a...
2018 Holiday Sales
We hope everyone had a terrific holiday season and the new year is off to a great start! In our first post for the year, we wanted to share some terrific insights on 2018 holiday sales analytics from Retail Dive’s Kaarin Vembar . U.S. holiday sales grew 5.1% this...
Not Just Fun and Games: The Demise of Toys "R" Us, Inc. and the Changing Face of Retail
This year marks the first Christmas in modern memory without Toys "R" Us, Inc. The loss of the international toy seller leaves billions of dollars in toy sales up for grabs, and its slow and steady decline may serve as a catalyst for retailers to evolve and stay relevant...
The 2018 ICSC New York Deal Making Conference and The Emergence of Digital
The ICSC New York Deal Making Conference (“NYDMC”) was held at the Jacob Javits Convention Center from December 4 – 6. NYDMC is ICSC’s second largest conference, with about 10,000 in attendance this year. The conference kicked off with Professional Development Day. One highlight was the Hidden Biases of...
Counterfeits in the Digital Marketplace
Counterfeiting has moved beyond high-priced luxury goods to low-cost everyday items. Many of these fake products pose real dangers: face masks with arsenic ; phone adapters that can electrocute you ; computer chargers that fry your hardware ; batteries that blow up . These counterfeits infiltrate online marketplaces, where...
Banner Year Expected For Holiday Retail Sales
This week’s news of former retail giants Sears and Kmart filing for bankruptcy is bound to spur headlines about the death of retail in the U.S. However, multiple forecasts predict that robust 2018 holiday shopping will result in an increase in both in-store and online holiday sales as compared...
On the Origin of Retail: An Evolutionary Analysis
“Retail Apocalypse!” “Amazon Takeover!” “Goodbye, Brick-and-Mortar!” These reflect the flavor of headlines these past few years: one of a retail Armageddon, or the end as we know it of brick-and-mortar. While several prominent retailers have turned to bankruptcy and store closures, research demonstrates that this doomsday hype is somewhat overblown. Statistics indicate...
Augmented Retail – The Use of Artificial Intelligence and Augmented Reality to Enhance the Customer Shopping Experience
As competition between brick-and-mortar stores and online shopping continues, retailers with physical stores are using cutting edge technologies to offer unique shopping experiences and added service to consumers. One type of technology that is being used in brick-and-mortar stores is artificial intelligence. Amazon, arguably one of the most disruptive...
Updates to California Proposition 65 Affect Retailers and their Suppliers
On August 30, 2018, significant changes to California’s Proposition 65 (“Prop 65”) warning regulations take effect. In the retail context, Prop 65 requires businesses with 10 or more employees to warn individuals in California about products containing certain listed chemicals “known to the State of California to cause cancer...
Sales Tax Holidays: Serious Savings or Serious Stunt?
This past Friday, consumers across Massachusetts were pleasantly surprised with news of the last-minute approval by the Baker administration of a weekend sales tax holiday. Despite local retailers griping about the eleventh hour prep involved with planning, stocking, staffing and marketing such an event, consumers were rewarded with savings...
Leveraged Returns: How Big Box Retailers are Using In-Store Fulfilment Centers to Bring Consumers Back to Brick-and-Mortar
The growth of e-commerce over the last two decades has forced traditional brick-and-mortar retailers to rethink their operations in order to remain competitive in a rapidly evolving market. For some, this means developing websites and mobile apps to entice consumers with an omnichannel shopping experience. However, a few large retailers...
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