December Sales Top Predictions

The Coronavirus pandemic continues to impact the globe, making it hard to find normalcy in day to day life. Holiday shoppers did not allow this to deter them from spending during the final month of the holiday shopping season. Today, the National Retail Federation announced that holiday sales were up a whopping 8.3% year over year in 2020.

Purchases reflected pandemic trends, including upticks for DIY and cooking purchases. This was prevalent in gift giving at our home, as our gifts were mostly focused on improving our skills in the kitchen.

Non-store sales see biggest gains

It was no surprise that non-store sales, garnered from e-commerce, mail order, and infomeri...

Have we ever been more eager to leave a year behind and welcome a new one? The Covid-19 pandemic made a major mess of many lives and livelihoods in 2020. With the arrival of vaccines, we look hopefully to the horizon and better days ahead. January represents a new beginning but also a leaving behind of old battles and past challenges, none of which we can any longer change.

Humans created the concept of a calendar to make sense of the seasons, to track the cycles of life, the movement of the stars, the march of time. One day passes into the next each midnight whether it’s New Year’s Eve or another 365 days we call a year.

Each turning of the calendar year brings a time to both refl...

Black Friday 2020 Recap & Impact on Holiday Shopping

In the ongoing and fast-paced market shifts of 2020, retailers across the U.S. prepared for a Black Friday that would look drastically different from years previous.

Today, we consider the pandemic’s impact on Black Friday and Cyber Monday this year and what that data means for holiday shopping trends through the end of this year.

Let’s start with this:

In a true sign of the times, sweatshirts and sweatpants were estimated to make up 31% of total U.S. apparel spending this holiday season, according to The NPD Group.

Online & In-Person Shopping

According to Adobe, which tracks website transactions for 80 of the top 100 U.S. online ret...

Product Display & the BOPIS Model

When it comes to retail, we know that frictionless shopping experiences and convenience win the day – and that these influences are sometimes even more important than the product itself.

The global pandemic tested the mettle of many retailers in this regard, posing the question: How do we make a seamless shopping experience for customers when the volume of daily in-store browsers is down, and we can’t offer the same shipping advantages as online giants?

For many brick-and-mortar retailers with an online presence, adopting a BOPIS model has become a valuable way to chase an “Amazon-like” experience for their customers.

What is BOPIS?

BOPIS...

Retailers and retail locations at the margin have been decimated. Online growth at the expense of traditional retail has accelerated but not overrun it. Unlike medieval times, this kind of bloodletting is actually healthy for the sector. Physical retail is NOT going away as evidenced by these better-than-you-might-guess numbers released by the U.S. Census Bureau this month. 3rd Quarter retail continued it's climb, while e-commerce garnered a smaller share of the total than in the 2nd Quarter. Brick and mortar stores are also shifting empty shuttered stores into fulfillment centers, leveraging their already occupied real estate to serve customers.

With the heavy holiday shopping season quickly...

Do you choose your snacks based on what you already like or on what jumps out at you in the store? Progressive Grocer recently shared that two thirds of American adults are snacking more at home. Snack food's accessibility and affordability puts it at the top of the list for busy adults who are managing different roles during the COVID pandemic.

With some much of the workforce still working remotely, it's no surprise that more snacking is happening at home. It's easy to pick up some extra items for the long work day when you make your regular grocery pilgrimage - and you don't even have to remember to take the snacks to the office!

Converting these increased snackers into buyers must happen in...

Every four years in the United States, Americans choose a President. This pandemic-affected year, how we vote has taken on new significance as people fret about voter registration, mail-in ballots, potential hazards of in-person voting, and the timely counting of all ballots.

Though only about two-thirds of eligible voters typically cast ballots in a Presidential election, many consider voting almost sacred. We declared our independence from British rule over our ability to have representation. Countless lives and livelihoods have been consumed by efforts to secure the right to self-determination by men and women of every race and creed. Voting is a big, scary deal, right?

In truth, we’r...

Parents watching “Moana” on repeat during quarantine are well aware of the term “wayfinding.” Stores continue to navigate being open in a COVID world, including new expectations from shoppers, driving changes in operations Some stores are utilizing one-way aisles and directional signage that creates a specific flow to traffic within the store. For Aldi’s shoppers, this is nothing new. Aldi’s has long had a specific funnel style set-up that most customers learn and adhere to. And when someone goes “against the flow” it is almost unsettling. The expectation is there that others will follow the set order that is expected for visiting certain store...

Store reopenings across the country continue to face new issues of keeping workers and customers safe. Some, such as Menard’s, are requiring staff and customers to wear masks and are not admitting anyone under the age of 16 to their stores. Super centers and other larger chains are facing issues with staffing as well, Vox has reported that as much as 10% of Walmart’s workforce has been out on leave at one time. Workers who are high risk or have high risk family members are having to choose between returning to work and keeping themselves or their family members safe.

Staffing issues will continue to impact organizations for weeks and months to come, as we head into the fall and tr...

No, that’s no character from the mind of JK Rowling or Dr Seuss. It stands for “What you see is what you get.” Pronounce it “Whizzy-wig.”

In a 1000 US malls, thousands of smaller strip centers, and countless stand-alone stores, retailers and property developers hope that shoppers will return to both SEE and GET products from physical retail locations. Overall, retail has rebounded from the depths of the lockdown period in Apr-May but life remains precarious for many retailers.

Online shopping took a leap forward during the pandemic and Buy Online Pick Up In Store (BOPIS) has gained new adherents. Companies like Kroger, Walmart and Dick’s Sporting Goods made ...