Remarkable Retail
A Baker's Dozen of Provocative Predictions for Retail in 2024
Podcast summary created with Snipd AI
Quick takeaways
- Bifurcation will continue to accelerate, with successful brands at the value and premium ends thriving while those in the middle struggle.
- 2024 will be challenging for many brands, with slowdown in goods purchase, inflation in services, and difficult market conditions.
- AI will be used to create personalized customer experiences, driven by targeted marketing, chatbots, and customer insights.
- DTC brands will explore wholesale partnerships, while luxury brands will invest in their own DTC strategies.
- Unicorn brands with unsustainable models will face bankruptcies, closures, and consolidation as the market reckons with their viability.
- Retail store concepts will downsize, embrace hub and spoke model, and repurpose mall spaces for new uses.
Deep dives
Bifurcation of Everything
The trend of bifurcation, where successful brands at the value and premium ends of the spectrum thrive while those in the middle struggle, will continue to accelerate across various areas of retail.
Flat is the New Up
Many brands will struggle to achieve significant growth in 2024 due to slowdown in the purchase of goods, inflation in services, and challenging market conditions. Flat performance will be considered a success for many.
Personalized Experiences Using AI
The use of AI will focus on creating more personalized customer experiences, with targeted marketing, chatbots, and customer insights driving this trend.
Direct-to-Consumer Shift
Newer brands in the DTC space will lean more towards indirect-to-consumer strategies, exploring wholesale partnerships. Established brands, especially in the luxury segment, will continue to invest in their own DTC strategies.
Culling the Unicorn Herd
Struggling unicorn brands with unsustainable business models will face bankruptcies, store closures, and consolidation as the market undergoes a reckoning.
Shrinking Store Formats
Existing store concepts will continue to downsize and tighten up their spaces. The hub and spoke model will be utilized with smaller stores complementing larger destination stores. Mall spaces will be repurposed for new purposes.
Underwhelming Performance of Apple's Vision Pro
Apple's Vision Pro product may underwhelm as a consumer product, but it could pave the way for future developments in the wearable tech space.
More of the Same for Unremarkable Brands
Unremarkable middle-of-the-road retailers like Macy's, Kohl's, and JCPenney will continue to struggle with incremental strategies and cost-cutting measures, failing to address core relevance and differentiation issues.
Growth of Health-Related Services
Retailers across various sectors will expand into health-related services for both humans and pets, catering to growing consumer interest in wellness and healthcare.
Office Space Crisis
Commercial real estate, especially office space, will face a slow-motion crisis with high vacancy rates, downward pressure on prices, and potential ripple effects on the economy.
Sustainability Schizophrenia
The consumer market will continue to show mixed messages regarding sustainability, with fast fashion brands thriving despite the demand for purpose-driven and sustainable products.
Merger or Acquisition Involving Neiman Marcus and Saks
There is a high likelihood of a merger or acquisition involving Neiman Marcus and Saks, driven by the need to address capacity issues and the challenging luxury retail landscape.
Incremental Measures for Unremarkable Retailers
Macy's, Kohl's, JCPenney, and similar retailers will continue to take incremental measures without fundamentally addressing their underlying problems, resulting in limited impact and continued struggles.
Rise of Health-Related Services
Health-related services will gain prominence in the retail industry, expanding beyond traditional offerings and catering to the growing demand for wellness and healthcare solutions.
Once again it's time for Steve's annual retail predictions--and this list doesn't just go to eleven it goes to thirteen!
Steve's provocative prognostications include "the bifurcation of just about everything," the culling of the unicorn herd, thoughts on the future of Neiman Marcus, Saks, and Nordstrom, along with a possible AI themed action movie, the outlook for sustainability, retailers stepping up their health services offerings, and a whole lot more.
But as is our custom, we kick off with our hot takes on the week in retail news, including Temu's decision to 10X its advertising, layoffs at Levi's and eBay, and Macy's telling its real suitors to go pound sand. We also dip into the end of the "new department store" era, Ikea's new "plan & pick up" concept expansion, and a possible return to supply chain chaos.
Presented by Celonis.
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About Us
Steve Dennis is a strategic advisor, board member, and keynote speaker focused on strategic growth and transformation and the impact of digital disruption. He is the author of the bestselling book Remarkable Retail: How To Win & Keep Customers in the Age of Disruption and the forthcoming Leaders Leap: Transforming Your Company at the Speed of Disruption , which will be published in March 2024 and is now available for pre-order at book retailers everywhere. Steve regularly shares his insights in his role as a Forbes senior contributor and on social media..
Don't forget to join Steve's new Linked Group for his new book.
Michael LeBlanc is the Founder & President of M.E. LeBlanc & Company Inc and a Senior Advisor to Retail Council of Canada as part of his advisory and consulting practice, a keynote speaker around the world and consumer growth consultant. He brings 25+ years of brand/retail/marketing & eCommerce leadership experience, and has been on the front lines of retail industry change for his entire career. Michael is the producer and host of a network of leading podcasts including Canada’s top retail industry podcast, The Voice of Retail, plus Global eCommerce Leaders podcast, and The Food Professor , Canada's top food industry podcasts and one of the top management podcasts in the nation according to Apple, with Dr. Sylvain Charlebois. You can learn more about Michael on LinkedIn.
Be sure and check out Michael's Last Request Barbecue, his YouTube BBQ cooking channel!
Here is a 10% off code for the CommerceNext Growth Show exclusive to Remarkable Retail listeners: REMARKABLE.
About Us
Steve Dennis is a strategic advisor and keynote speaker focused on growth and innovation, who has also been named one of the world's top retail influencers. He is the bestselling authro of two books: Leaders Leap: Transforming Your Company at the Speed of Disruption and Remarkable Retail: How To Win & Keep Customers in the Age of Disruption. Steve regularly shares his insights in his role as a Forbes senior retail contributor and on social media.
Michael LeBlanc is the president and founder of M.E. LeBlanc & Company Inc, a senior retail advisor, keynote speaker and now, media entrepreneur. He has been on the front lines of retail industry change for his entire career.
Michael has delivered keynotes, hosted fire-side discussions and participated worldwide in thought leadership panels, most recently on the main stage in Toronto at Retail Council of Canada’s Retail Marketing conference with leaders from Walmart & Google. He brings 25+ years of brand/retail/marketing & eCommerce leadership experience with Levi's, Black & Decker, Hudson's Bay, CanWest Media, Pandora Jewellery, The Shopping Channel and Retail Council of Canada to his advisory, speaking and media practice.
Michael produces and hosts a network of leading retail trade podcasts, including the award-winning No.1 independent retail industry podcast in America, Remarkable Retail with his partner, Dallas-based best-selling author Steve Dennis; Canada's top retail industry podcast The Voice of Retail and Canada's top food industry and one of the top Canadian-produced management independent podcasts in the country, The Food Professor with Dr. Sylvain Charlebois from Dalhousie University in Halifax.
Rethink Retail has recognized Michael as one of the top global retail experts for the fourth year in a row, Thinkers 360 has named him on of the Top 50 global thought leaders in retail, RTIH has named him a top 100 global though leader in retail technology and Coresight Research has named Michael a Retail AI Influencer. If you are a BBQ fan, you can tune into Michael’s cooking show, Last Request BBQ, on YouTube, Instagram, X and yes, TikTok.
Michael is available for keynote presentations helping retailers, brands and retail industry insiders explaining the current state and future of the retail industry in North America and around the world.
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