Coresight Research: One in Five Department Stores to Close by 2023
Coresight Research predicts that 1,100 to 1,200 department stores will close between 2017 and 2023, reducing the total number of stores in the sector by one-fifth. However, with the exception of bankruptcies by chains such as Bon-Ton, these closures will have a bigger effect on lower-traffic, lower-sales regional malls than on higher-traffic premium malls. The study also predicts growth in sales of discretionary services coming at the expense of discretionary goods, flat brick & mortar sales of apparel amid expanded online selling and healthy growth in retail alternatives such as rental, resale and subscription services.
Five Trends in Five Years Will Reshape U.S. Mall Mix by 2023, says New Coresight Research Report
Revionics: Irrelevant Promotions, Annoying Shoppers
Fifty-two percent of the weekly or monthly retail promotions go to customers who would happily have paid full price, according to a Revionics-commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting. Thirty-seven percent of survey respondents who received offers on items they would have paid full price for said the offer had neutral or negative impact, with more than half of those saying they would be less likely to shop that store or brand in the future or that they reacted with annoyance.
New Research Study Reveals Shoppers’ Expectations for Tailored Promotions from Retailers
NRF: Graduation Spending to Reach $5.2 Billion with Cash and Greeting Cards as Most Popular Gifts
Total graduation spending is expected to reach $5.2 billion, the third-highest number in the survey’s 12-year history following the record $5.6 billion set last year and $5.4 billion in 2016, according to the National Retail Federation’s annual graduation spending survey. Cash will once again be the most popular gift, given by 55 percent of those surveyed. Greeting cards—many of them with cash inside—follow at 43 percent, gift cards at 32 percent, apparel at 14 percent and electronics, 10 percent.
Graduation Spending to Reach $5.2 Billion with Cash and Greeting Cards as Most Popular Gifts
ABI Research: Augmented Reality to Benefit Online and Retail Operations First
Augmented Reality (AR) adoption in the retail sector will be driven by the retail workforce and online shoppers, according to ABI Research. AR experiences should prove extremely useful for online customers unable to interact with the physical products they intend to purchase, but may initially disrupt the customer journey in-store. ABI Research also forecasts that, by 2020, 3 percent of e-commerce revenue will be generated because of augmented reality experiences.
A Mixed Reception for Augmented Reality in Brick & Mortar Retail: Efficiencies Over Engagement
Displaydata/Planet Retail RNG: Consumer More Open to Pricing Changes than Thought
According to a report from Displaydata and Planet Retail RNG, nearly two thirds (65 percent) of shoppers would welcome price changes throughout the day if a product is approaching its sell-by date. However, a quarter of retailers are not convinced of customer acceptance if they were to change prices more frequently. With price and promotion labelling still managed manually, 65 percent of retailers are unable to make the amount of changes they want to.
Analogue to Automated: Retail in the Connected Age
BRP: Order Tracking Expected Across Touchpoints
Nearly three-quarters (73 percent) of customers want order tracking across all touch points. However, only 7 percent of retailers currently provide a complete, unified commerce experience by allowing a customer to ‘start the sale anywhere, finish the sale anywhere,’ with another 50 percent planning to implement it in three years. The key survey findings of the “2018 Customer Experience/Unified Commerce Survey” report are organized around the E5 of Customer Experience: Educate, Engage, Execute, Enhance and Enablers.
Photo courtesy BRP
