What’s On Trend For Retail In 2022? Here Are 5 Predictions

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By Bryan Pearson on December 3, 2021  ||  Forbes If the past two years have taught the retail industry anything, it’s to meet the unexpected, eye-to-eye, with more of the unexpected.  Unexpected as in surprising channels, unpredictable brand partnerships and even a dose of the expected. Because consumer desires have not changed; they still want shopping to ... Read more

The Human Store: How Hy-Vee, Nordstrom, Victoria’s Secret and Camp Do it

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Among the reinvented retail formats we have seen that meet post-pandemic shopper expectations, few resonate as deeply as the efforts by some retailers and brands to create authentic, human experiences. What does this mean? From our recent Future Shop® podcast, WSL leaders explain what makes a “human store,” with boots-on-the-ground, Retail Safari® examples.  Your Store ... Read more

Beauty’s Retail Reckoning: Specialty and Mass Retail Poised for Further Gains

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By Allison Collins on October 29, 2021  ||  WWD The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic have specialty retailers including Sephora and Ulta Beauty poised to gain even more market share in the U.S., experts said. How many brick-and-mortar retail stores does the beauty industry actually need? That’s the question those in the industry are asking themselves in ... Read more

Powerful Partnerships: What Makes Retail Alliances Work

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More big retailers are exploring alliances, with the anticipation that doubling up will double the cachet, more than double the size of the shopper basket – and create a second reason to come into the store. WSL sent its Retail Safari® scouts out to see what works and does not toward this bigger-basket goal, and ... Read more

Shopper Expectations Have Accelerated. Ready to Meet Them?

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People have emerged from their COVID cocoons, and this presents retailers with an unparalleled opportunity to reacquaint themselves. Here is how retailers can alter their foundations to support the accelerated expectations of more tech-enabled shoppers, who think online first and trip to the store second. Have You Met the 2021 Shopper? She’s the Same, But ... Read more

Brands Lose Loyalty Online

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Online grocery sales soared by 54% in 2020, creating logistical challenges, but also unintended consequences for brands. As we learn here, buying CPG online raises a loyalty concern for brands. Shoppers surveyed for WSL’s How America Shops® research said they are far more likely to switch brands online than in-store. We delve into the research the ... Read more

Recession, Poof! WSL Research Shows 70% are Fiscally Upbeat

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WSL’s How America Shops® research shows more than 70% of shoppers are secure or optimistic about their finances. And as the weather warms, vaccinated shoppers are more eager to return to brick stores. Here’s what retailers can do to meet the shopper’s pent-up passion to go out and spend. Talk About a Shot in the ... Read more

Kroger Health President Talks ‘Food as Medicine’ Strategy

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Wendy Liebmann, WSL CEO, Interviews Kroger Health President, Colleen Lindholz, on Kroger’s Health Strategy. When the supermarket giant Kroger decided to embark on its “Food as Medicine” strategy, it did not overthink it. In fact, its companywide approach is disarmingly simple, explains Kroger Health President Colleen Lindholz: It answers three basic questions with affordable solutions, ... Read more

Beauty Breaks Barriers in Health, Safety and Innovation

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Shoppers have been inspiring remarkable retail innovations across categories, but in few areas are the results as noteworthy as in beauty’s healthy, safety and digitally progressive experiences. WSL’s Virtual Retail Safari® Open Call Event, scheduled for March 11, captures the most visionary and shopper-inspired examples. Healthy Beauty is an Exercise in Getting it Right For years, ... Read more

Extraordinary Sustainability: 5 Retail Safari® Examples

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WSL’s research shows that shoppers have long felt sustainability is a cause worth spending more for. Now retailers are taking that value-driven purpose from ordinary to extraordinary, and driving even more shoppers toward sustainability. Here, we share five examples from our Retail Safari® tours. Shoppers Sought Sustainable Retail, Now It’s Seeking Them Sustainability is becoming ... Read more

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