There are takeaways and tips aplenty from NRF's Big Show this week. Here, retail leaders share their thoughts and priorities for the year to come.
ood many stories have been written with insights and takeaways from the National Retail Federation's Big Show this week in New York. Perhaps the best, however, came directly from the retail leaders themselves. Whether on a panel, the main stage or told directly to Retail Dive, here are what a dozen top executives are focused on in 2018.
"The movement that online businesses like Rent the Runway or Warby Parker or Bonobos have taken to offline stores has been I think conflated to mean that it's a huge strategy for us, whereas the majority of our sales — over 90% of our sales — are happening on mobile, online and will continue to happen on mobile and online and we continue to see retail stores as being supplemental to the customer experience."
Rent the Runway, an e-commerce darling that now has just five stores in major urban centers, doesn't have big plans for more stores this year. Stores, which aren't measured by sales per square foot, are seen as an extension of customer service and the company plans to build out a physical presence (whether that means more stores or not) that is experiential yet as efficient as a Starbucks, Hyman told Retail Dive.
"Delivering the expected has never been more important that it is today. At the same time, understanding how to bring the unexpected, something the fan didn't expect but when they experience through Levi's, they remember it, they tell the story again, again and again."
"Overall in the first five years of the innovation lab, [the challenge has] been to translate the digital capabilities into experiences in the store that solve real problems for our customers."
"There's a period of time where the business part doesn't matter because you've got to get things back to normal for that community, and that includes your associates. [I]t's the only way to do business if you're going to be in it for the long haul."
"When we were looking at flagships, we looked at what else is out there — not just in apparel, but in beauty and other areas, and how we could bring that to Finish Line."
The outdoors e-commerce retailer is laser-focused on treating customers "like a best friend," and Haney said during a panel that the brand takes recommendations about product details from their customers and even looks to them for inspiration. The secret to Haney's social media success also lies in the details, though — the brand makes an effort to respond promptly to customers on social media and also pays close attention to who and what they follow, making sure they stay true to the brand's core values.
"We can always make the money back but you can't save peoples' lives but once."
In a world where social responsibility is becoming more important to consumers, Jim McIngvale believes retailers shouldn't think twice about helping out the community. He used his own stores to shelter hundreds during Hurricane Harvey and had over 6,000 people attend a Thanksgiving dinner hosted in a Gallery Furniture parking lot — and he didn't think twice about the cost to the business. Whether or not the move made him lose money in the short term, McIngvale said customers have flocked to his business ever since, and most say it was because of his actions.
"Nothing's off the table."
When thinking about brick-and-mortar stores, Macri told Retail Dive anything was possible. The online furniture retailer saw a massive sales boost over Black Friday and has been incredibly competitive in the home category. And despite Amazon's bold entrance into the space, Macri isn't concerned: He said that while the home furniture sector is growing at 15% online, Wayfair itself is growing 40%, which means "they prefer us to our competitors."
Walmart is focused on a few fronts, but as much as the industry is in flux, and disruption is the order of the day, McMillon's "job No.1" is to keep the culture going and remind people of Walmart's core values. He may be the last CEO of Walmart to have worked and personally known founder Sam Walton, pointed out NRF CEO Matt Shay. Walton passed away in 1992, but "he's still kind of present," said McMillon. "He gave us a very clear purpose."
"It's the job of the senior leadership team to figure out where we need to go and the new places need to be to disrupt ourselves and our business. To [recognize] how to lean into those earlier, rather than later."
Store No.8 is Walmart's technology incubator, a place for the company to experiment and focus on more future-forward initiatives. The goal is to operate separately from the bigger entity which has to be more focused on the here and now — to be small and nimble, to move quickly and to ensure projects get funded. Store No.8, said Flees during a main stage appearance, pairs the leverage of Walmart with the simplicity of a startup.
"We wanted to build it 100% ourselves, we wanted to own our data from day one. Data science is a critical part of our DNA."
At just six months in, Retail Dive's Disruptor of the Year came to NRF's Big Show looking for solutions to support its strong early growth. Early challenges are of the kind most companies are happy to have: finding the right talent to scale the business to keep up. "We can't do it fast enough," Sharkey told Retail Dive in an interview.
"We are dealing with tough, complex issues with decades if not centuries of biases. It's an exciting journey, but it's a human journey. So, by definition, it's messy. I know that on our journey we are going to stumble and make mistakes. It's so important from a human and societal standpoint, and we have no choice but to stick with this journey."
https://www.retaildive.com/news/12-retail-execs-share-their-goals-for-2018/515040/