Brick-and-mortar retail chains, known for sprawling stores that stock a bit of everything, are trying to lift sagging sales using a different strategy: cozier spaces that sell very little of anything, the New York Times reported. Showrooms — a retail model popular with bridal designers, car dealers and, recently, online apparel start-ups — are now inspiring mass-market heavyweights like Nordstrom and Urban Outfitters. In intimate salons, some the size of a cafe, shoppers can examine a limited selection of merchandise and place orders for products to be delivered or collected later. The customer service is often luxurious, but so is the time commitment for shoppers. The sector is desperate to evolve after a brutal year of bankruptcies (Toys “R” Us, Payless Shoe Source, The Limited and more) and store closings (J. C. Penney, for example, plans to shutter up to 14 percent of its stores this year). “People don’t have to go to stores anymore; they have to want to go,” said Lee Peterson, an executive vice president at WD Partners, a strategy, design and architecture firm. “And that goes a long way when thinking about what retail has to become.” Read more.
Find out how overleveraged and poorly merchandised stores will continue to disappear in retail's accelerating evolution in this November ABI Journal article.
Retail apocalypse? Experts will examine key issues in the current downturn, and how retailers might survive, during the "Dead Malls Walking" session at ABI's Winter Leadership Conference in Palm Springs, Calif., taking place Nov. 30-Dec. 2. Click here to register.
