2012 100 - Networld Media Group

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36 BERGDORF GOODMAN Online merchants are forcing even the highest-end stores to offer up bargains to their well-heeled clientel who are relatively insulated from the job and housing markets. “At the luxury end, discounting has become very mainstream because of the Gilts of the world,” said Andrew Sacks of luxury research firm AgencySacks, referring to Gilt <strong>Group</strong>e, the online discounter for designer fashions. At the height of the 2011 holiday season, Bergdorf Goodman’s website listed more than 70 pages of discounts on designer fashions, some marked down as much as 40 percent. Bergdorf Goodman has also turned to digital and social-media programs in recent months, launching campaigns aimed at building the brand’s presence online, including a contest inviting its Facebook fans to design a Fendi handbag. While Bergdorf isn’t the first luxury retailer to try a user-generated design campaign, it may be the first to board the crowdsourcing bandwagon. 37 AT&T WIRELESS REI The collapse of AT&T’s $39 billion bid for T-Mobile USA leaves the second-largest U.S. mobile carrier with few options to challenge market leader Verizon Wireless. T-Mobile’s spectrum assets would have allowed AT&T to expand its LTE footprint to cover 97 percent of Americans. How AT&T will make up that difference isn’t yet known, but AT&T needs to act quickly, as Verizon has already blanketed some 190 markets and 200 million Americans with LTE. While AT&T was focused on winning regulatory approval for the takeover, rivals were negotiating their own airwave deals. As a result, several spectrum assets that would have still been available to AT&T are now off the table. Its remaining options are time-consuming, expensive and risky, says Cowen & Co. analyst Colby Synesael. AT&T can either seek to buy spectrum from another company, wait for the government to auction more frequencies or try to squeeze more capacity out of its current airwaves. 38 REI has teamed up with U.S. Bank to make credit card approval easier and faster for consumers shopping in-store via an iPhone application. By promoting a download of the REI Visa app at point of purchase, the retailer can enable customers to instantly be approved for the REI Visa card and begin using their reward points immediately. “The app also moves the customer application process out of the service lane to more of an in-store experience that connects with the brand,” says Dominic Venturo, chief innovation officer of the bank payment service division at U.S. Bank. REI was deemed the best fit to try out the mobile credit card application process because of the company’s mission. “Eliminating paper was important to REI because it is an environmentally conscious group,” Venturo said. “REI also has a very strong customer following with their existent iPhone app and wanted to try something new.” 22
39 POP-UP SHOPS Although pop-ups have moved up in the world, for some the term still has downmarket connotations. The first generation of popups often consisted of little more than shelving and a cash register in empty mall space. In recent years, retailing stalwarts breathed new life into the format. Procter & Gamble, for example, operated a 4,000-square-foot pop-up on 57th Street in Manhattan that drew 14,000 visitors in the 10 days it was open. The store had no cash registers because everything was free — including a full CoverGirl makeover or a Head & Shoulders wash and blow dry. The P&G pop-up — the company’s marketing executive Nataraj Iyer prefers the term “interactive experience” — represents a new iteration in the evolution of the pop-up. The goal was not to move merchandise but to build brand loyalty. 40 DEAL-OF-THE-DAY (WOOT, ETC.) The “daily deal” concept is as old as retailing itself. Strictly speaking, dealof-the-day sites are similar to job lot discounters. They take unused capacity and sell it at a discount. The difference is that businesses use social media to pre-sell this excess inventory in hopes of luring new customers. Pioneered by Woot in 2004, deal-of-the-day websites started out selling mostly electronics and tech gear at deep discounts. Woot’s 41 IKEA Ikea is developing its website to have a broader geographic reach and offer more services, such as allowing customers to select items they want in the store and have them delivered to their home without having to gather them from the outlet’s warehouses. The world’s largest furniture retailer, known for setting a price point for a phenomenal success — the company was acquired by Amazon.com in 2010 — combined with extremely low barriers to entry inspired a slew of similar deal-of-the-day sites with quirky product descriptions and real-time inventory updates. It wasn’t until such sites began offering deals for local shops and restaurants that the industry truly took off. BIA/Kelsey released a forecast in March 2011 indicating that consumer product and then figuring out how to make it, will cut prices by 1.5 percent this year as its increased scale allows it to produce items at less cost. Ikea, which updates its collection of about 10,000 products with more than 2,000 new items a year, will continue investing in products and enlarging stores in the coming year, adding 50 more spending on deal-of-the-day offers could grow from $873 million in 2010 to $3.9 billion in 2015. The same forecast also estimates there are 178 U.S. cities with deal-of-the-day sites reaching 102 million people. stores in North America by 2013. Ikea expects to triple its pace of store openings in China to capture faster growth in the second-largest economy, says CEO Mikael Ohlsson. The expansion in China will also allow the company to reduce its reliance on Europe, which is suffering from a slump in consumer confidence. 23
Page 1 and 2: TOP 2012 100
Page 3 and 4: WELCOME to the 2012 edition of the
Page 5 and 6: pia Snowe called the incentive “a
Page 7 and 8: Retail sales are expected to grow a
Page 9 and 10: trend toward shoppers using brickan
Page 11 and 12: Prosper Mobile Insights has found t
Page 13 and 14: 13 RETAIL CRM The future of retail
Page 15 and 16: 19 TRADER JOE’S Privately owned T
Page 17 and 18: 25 TIFFANY 26 STARBUCKS According t
Page 19 and 20: 28 DISNEY 29 DIGITAL SIGNAGE Follow
Page 21: 33 GROUPON/LIVINGSOCIAL/ETC. The ex
Page 25 and 26: 42 TARGET After spending two years
Page 27 and 28: 48 PUBLIX DICK’S SPORTING GOODS P
Page 29 and 30: 54 BEST BUY EBAY Best Buy is taking
Page 31 and 32: 57 RETAIL CROWDSOURCING Crowdsourci
Page 33 and 34: 63 IN-STORE AUDIO While advertising
Page 35 and 36: 70 T MOBILE 71 TWITTER T-Mobile’s
Page 37 and 38: 74 ETHNIC RETAIL The café inside W
Page 39 and 40: 80 FAMILY DOLLAR While other retail
Page 41 and 42: 86 87 RETAIL AT AIRPORTS With malls
Page 43 and 44: 90 ELECTRONIC SHELF LABELS Given th
Page 45 and 46: 96 AUTOZONE Auto parts chain AutoZo
Page 48: DRIVE CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT AND BUILD

2012 100 - Networld Media Group

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