The Role of the Store in Retail 5.0 Research Report

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The self-serve store has not changed since the 1950s. Tweaks have been made but the basic format of walking the aisles, squinting at the shelves to find the right item, and then waiting in line to pay has not changed in 3/4 of a century. The pandemic has drawn retailers’ attention to honing online ordering ... Read more

How 3 Big Retailers Link Sustainability to the New WELLness

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For many shoppers, wellness doesn’t end with their minds and bodies; it extends to the entire planet – the air they breathe, the water they drink and the open spaces and oceans that surround them. Our research shows that more shoppers expect companies to accept more responsibility for sustainability. Here are examples of how Dick’s ... Read more

New WSL Research: Shoppers Cutting Back, Not Doing Without

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Our just-released How America Shops® survey synthesizes what shoppers told us about how they are responding to rising prices, and it’s more positive than you might think. Read on to learn where they are trading down on brands, the stores they are willing to sacrifice and the savvy ways they are holding off across categories ... Read more

Is This Latest Pharmacy Trend an Opportunity, or a Threat?

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As pharmacists became distracted by other tasks that took them out-of-sight from behind the counter, shoppers increasingly turned to more accessible sources for advice. Our How America Shops® research explores the growing acceptance of online pharmacies, which challenge retailers to find their way back to their Rx shoppers. Shoppers Want Wellness Advice, But They Won’t ... Read more

Gen Alpha May Be the Savviest Shopper. Retailers, Beware

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Small wonder brands and retailers are already marketing to Generation Alpha and anticipating their power. These digital natives, the first born in 2010, may be only 12 years old but they are influencers in ways that generations before them were not. Their innate reliance on digital information has made them marketing-savvy – and now grade schools ... Read more

Livestreaming in the U.S.A.? Learnings from China

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From Nordstrom to Petco, a blend of merchants hosted livestream shopping events in 2021, and the U.S. livestream sales were estimated to reach $11 billion by year’s end. Yet just 16% of U.S. shoppers purchased from livestreams in 2021, our How America Shops® research shows. In China, two-thirds of consumers said they bought something via ... Read more

You Want to Follow the Shopper Into 2022? Here Are Four Paths

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As 2021 passed the baton to 2022, we at WSL reflected on all the behaviors being passed along as well, and the directions these unfolding paths to purchase will take in 2022. Then we combed through our How America Shops® research and narrowed these paths down to four practices that we deem as Retail Safari® ... Read more

Gen Z is Waiting for You. Are You Coming?

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If retailers and brands want to keep the lucrative, tech-raised shoppers of Gen Z, they need to come all the way to them. Due to technological imprinting, Gen Z’s innate expectations as shoppers far exceed those of other generations, and it presents new challenges, our How America Shops® research shows. So, here are the opportunities.  ... Read more

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

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