The Future of Retail - Malls and Boxed

Two stories that speak to the potential future for retail are worth checking out today.

First is a great read on the eCommerce startup 'Boxed' that ships mostly national brand CPG products in bulk.  I think they'v recaptured a bit of the spirit of Mr. Cullen's original supermarkets and have a real threat to traditional brick & mortar retailers.

http://www.mobilecommercedaily.com/boxed-wholesale-ceo-mobile-made-success-for-us-possible

Here is a snippet from that piece:

The CEO of Boxed Wholesale, speaking at the Global Mobile Internet Conference New York 2015, explained that his company would not have succeeded if not for mobile, where shopping behavior is not as rigid as on desktop.

During the “Using Mobile to Deepen Customer Engagement” session, the CEO detailed how developing an application first, allowed its brand to take off because there is room in the mobile space for a retail service such as this.

Next is PYMT.com on some new analysis regarding foot traffic and spending habits at malls as provided by the folks at RetailNext:

http://www.pymnts.com/in-depth/2015/why-a-decline-in-foot-traffic-has-retailers-looking-up/#.VXrbj_lVhBc

Here is a snippet from that piece:

Keeping in line with the unfortunate trend of 2015 so far, RetailNext’s latest survey on physical retail has a whole lot more red ink on it than the nation’s merchants wanted to see. On average, traffic to physical stores was down about 9.8 percent on average, while sales have fallen off by 7.6 percent.

However, RetailNext’s VP of retail consulting, Shelley Kohan, said that there’s more to measuring the health and well-being of physical retail than foot traffic and sales numbers.

Happy Reading,

J.W. Gant

PS  One more story is a great testament to 'bricks & mobile':
http://www.businessinsider.com/retailers-are-making-a-huge-mistake-2015-6

Here is a snippet from that piece:

American shoppers have become addicted to checking consumer reviews on everything they buy.

But stores have failed to find a way to make reviews readily available in stores, and that's killing business for many traditional retailers such as Macy's, JC Penney, and Best Buy.

Regards