Morning Brew - ☕ South of the border

Zadig & Voltaire opens in Mexico.
January 11, 2024

Retail Brew

Good afternoon, everyone. First, it was Tiger Woods severing ties with Nike, and now LeBron James is ending his trading card sponsorship with Upper Deck for a new deal with Fanatics Collectibles. The move is a huge get for Fanatics’s collectibles business and the sports memorabilia and trading card industry broadly. While the LeBron-Michael Jordan GOAT debate may never be settled, feel free to start the discourse on the best Morning Brew newsletter. We know you’ve got our back.

In today’s edition:

—Jeena Sharma, Alex Vuocolo, Erin Cabrey

STORES

All around the world

Spring campaign image from Zadig & Voltaire Zadig & Voltaire

Life takes you places and so, sometimes, does fashion. With the latter, it can often be the most unexpected places. For Parisian luxury brand Zadig & Voltaire, it was Mexico.

The brand, which was founded in 1997 and opened its first boutique in Mexico City in December, is known for its edgy and eclectic aesthetic, has stores across Europe and the US, and is hoping to lend a taste of its zesty style to a growing consumer base in the region.

The retailer already operates within Mexico through a wholesale business in the El Palacio department store and has seen “strong customer sales” from local residents as well as from Southern America, according to the company.

In fact, Zadig & Voltaire North America CEO Kristen Sosa is so confident about the company’s popularity among shoppers in Mexico, she tells Retail Brew, the brand plans on rolling out eight more stores in the next three to four years, with about two boutiques in the pipeline for the end of this year.

In an exclusive conversation with Retail Brew, Sosa talked about the retailer’s uniquely tailored strategies for the region and how it plans on appealing to locals in Mexico.

Keep reading here.—JS

     

FROM THE CREW

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The Crew

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Morning Brew is powered by the knowledge you need. From Marketing Brew’s trending insights to CFO Brew’s timely updates, we’ve got a B2B Brew for you. Choose yours to grow with.

CES

‘People-led’ tech

Walmart CEO Doug McMillon onstage at CES. Alex Vuocolo

In a keynote speech at the Consumer Electronics Show on Tuesday, Walmart CEO Doug McMillon made the case for why technology investments should benefit both employees and customers.

“We love what technology can do,” he said. “But we’re building it in a way that creates better careers at the same time it creates better customer experiences and a stronger business.”

The head of the country’s biggest retailer said companies face a choice between optimizing technology regardless of its impact on people, or a “more nuanced” approach that uses “technology to serve people and not the other way around.”

Keep reading here.—AV

     

GROCERY

Grocery margins

Grocery bag full of vegetables with Kroger and Albertson's logo Francis Scialabba

Albertsons’s third quarter 2023 earnings beat analyst expectations, as the FTC deadline to rule on its proposed deal with Kroger looms.

The grocer’s net sales for the quarter were $18.6 billion, up from $18.2 million a year earlier, thanks in part to pharmacy sales. Identical sales rose 2.9%, while digital sales saw a 21% boost. Albertsons’s loyalty members increased 17% to 38.5 million.

Its gross margin dipped slightly to 28% from 28.2% in the year-ago quarter, which it attributed to growth in low-margin pharmacy operations and an increase in shrink. Net income was $361.4 million, down from $375.5 million a year earlier.

The grocer’s retail media arm, Albertsons Media Collective, this week announced a partnership with commerce media company Criteo. The partnership will power Albertsons’s sponsored ad offerings, according to Grocery Dive, and allow Criteo to grow into other advertising formats such as commerce display and sponsored video.

Keep reading here.—EC

     

SWAPPING SKUS

Today’s top retail reads.

Slimming down: A handful of companies, including Amazon and Nike, plan to make major cuts to their workforces this year. Here’s why. (Business Insider)

Be on the ready: One ad exec says it’s a matter of when, not if, retail media will go mainstream. (Adweek)

All the rag-rets: The CEO of Authentic Brands said acquiring Forever 21 in 2020 was probably his biggest mistake, but a new partnership with Shein could turn that around. (Retail Dive)

JOBS

Are you looking for your next career opportunity (either a full-time role or a seat on a board of directors)? View hundreds of confidential jobs in the retail industry on ExecThread. Retail Brew subscribers can skip the application review and instantly join ExecThread for free.

NUMBERS GAME

The numbers you need to know.

The future is now, old man.

Nearly all (99%) of major retail executives believe there will be a spike in technology investments, according to new survey data from IT consulting and digital service firm SoftServe and Wakefield Research.

  • Specifically, investments are expected to increase 10% across the board, while 94% of respondents said that technology will be a major driver of new customer acquisition.

Just under half (44%) of executives said improving the customer experience is retailers’ top goal this year that’s driving new tech implementation and strategy. That’s followed by 38% who said customer retention and roughly a third (32%) who said customer acquisition.

“With the rise of e-commerce and embedded finance—and now, AI—ingrained in every fragment of the retail industry and its counterparts, executives are seeing technology measures as the only way forward to a competitive future,” Mike Ortiz, SoftServe’s segment head of retail, said in a statement.

The majority of those surveyed (71%) said store operations is the main area where tech investments will go in 2024, followed by sales and marketing (60%), customer service and support (59%), and supply chain and logistics (58%).

  • And to get more specific, the kinds of technologies executives believe will be further invested to meet their 2024 goals include mobile apps (48%), security and fraud protection (46%), machine learning (36%), and generative AI (25%).

“From online carts to last-mile deliveries, or storefront shopping to contactless payments, retailers are thinking about how they can control and provide a seamless experience. Their chosen technology investments and predictions will be key in how these scenarios evolve and transform the industry in 2024,” Ortiz said.

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