Online Isn’t Enough, Disruptive Brands are Opening Stores

Big news! Not everyone is a regular online shopper. In fact, no more than half of people shop online in an average of three months. As a result, many online-first brands have found it necessary to open stores. Here are seven familiar sites that have joined Main Street. It looks like someone has thrown a ... Read more

Why the Retail Industry Needs the Rental Generation

There are times when retailers should worry about what’s behind them, and the rental retail economy is ushering in one of those times. The once-fringe movement toward acquiring less “stuff” and instead paying for temporary use of pre-used necessities is rapidly becoming mainstream. And it’s changing retail sales in jewelry, handbags, fashion, electronics, home, auto, ... Read more

5 Service Lessons from Ikea’s Manhattan Planning Studio

Ikea’s “planning studio,” to open in April, is bringing the suburbs to the city, which apparently is just where new urban dwellers want it. Here are five ways Ikea is going to redesign the shopping trip. Today’s city-dwellers don’t merely want suburban comforts and amenities, they want to live a suburban, urban life – and ... Read more

Caring Scores. Do Shoppers Believe You Care About Their Health?

Retailers are talking big about wellness, showcasing chemical-free beauty products, all-natural lines and affordable organics, but few shoppers are buying that retailers genuinely care about their health. It’s not enough to say your brand philosophy sits cozily on the corner of “Happy and Healthy,” or that you’ve been providing health care for 100 years, or that ... Read more

5 Ways Gen Z are Defining Wellness, and Why Retail Should Care

By Emily Dougherty, October 21, 2022 ||  BeautyInc. -  A Publication of WWD Women over the age of 50 have been routinely ignored by marketers for decades. Now, though, healthier and wealthier than any generation of women before them, Gen X is coming resolutely into focus. As American women age, they start feeling invisible and undervalued. This ... Read more

The WSL List: Retailers That Stand Out, For Better & Worse

It’s that time of year when we look back over the past 12 months and assess the retail winners, losers and those in between. This year’s WSL List includes not only big brand names, but it also identifies five themes that inform what we call Shopping Life®. Here’s a sneak peek. Welcome to 2019, when ... Read more

The Store Shelf is a Huge Underused Media Center

Retailers are over investing in stores of the future and digital technologies while the shelf, where 91% of consumer packaged goods sales happen, remains an emotional wasteland. Shoppers have emotional connections to the categories they buy, triggered by the benefits they expect from using a product, so why do retailers keep delivering transactional experiences? Engage ... Read more

Robomart May Resurrect the Strip Mall: Future Shopping Life

If self-driving stores and same-day delivery are the future of Shopping Life®, encouraging shoppers to stay at home, then what will become of traditional (and outmoded) centers? We have a few ideas… but what are yours? We thought Shopping Life® had changed in the last five years, but the next five (or two) will make ... Read more

Gen Z Finds Its Own Unique Path to Purchase

Sometimes it’s a new path, sometimes it’s an old one. Here’s a very personal, Gen Z, view of shopping that underscores how fresh and new even long-term retail practices are to young consumers. Retailers that do not see their shopping experience through young eyes risk losing relevance, and growth opportunities. Meet Kaci, WSL’s summer intern ... Read more

The Store Still Matters to Consumers Along with Digital

In our latest shopper study, “Benchmarking The Future”, what is evident is this: over the last decade, we’ve digitized, we’ve “omnied”, we’ve “niched” and we’ve socialized.  It has been important to do that.  Many shoppers do want digital tools and omni-channel access, and new ways of connecting to each other, as well as new and ... Read more

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