STRATEGY

A Day Becomes a Season, for Some

Earlier this month, I held an anonymous retail therapy session in our first Black Friday/Cyber Monday sentiment survey. 366 retail pros were willing to open up about their holiday discount plans. Let’s take a closer look.

By date: If your coupon codes activate first thing on Thanksgiving Day, you’re late.

• 47% of retail pros said they’re pushing promotions before BFCM weekend. Nearly 20% will start discounting before Halloween. 
• But 20.5% of respondents said they’re sitting out the markdown cycle entirely. Way to know your worth.

By discount: Among the 53% of respondents making “meaningful” changes to their markdown experiences, most are shifting to bigger online sales.

Francis Scialabba

I don’t enjoy getting Thanksgiving Day Parade pitches in September, but it’s what shoppers want. Half of U.S. adults in an Affirm poll this month already started holiday shopping. When Prime Day was still held in July, many shoppers said they used it to tackle gifting lists.

+ An operational advantage. The earlier retailers host online sales, the less likely their packages will be late, and the fewer misplaced customer complaints they’ll receive. For all the technical hiccups in Away’s inaugural sale, it was ahead of the UPS curve.

The great divide

There were two types of respondents to our rankings of BFCM’s importance: Those who know they have to participate, and those with stores in one zip code. 

• Small businesses were the most likely to consider BFCM unimportant or very unimportant.
• Small businesses were more than twice as likely than other respondents to vote for canceling BFCM discounts.

Francis Scialabba

Small businesses’ alterations to the BFCM experience lived up to their name. 22% are emphasizing more online sales this year; only 18% are offering curbside pickup. 

This could be a problem. As I reported on Friday, shoppers expect more omnichannel enabled options this year, and that requires a little thing called online checkout. 

Small businesses aren't going to BOPIS their way to beating out Amazon this holiday season. But they’ll have better odds of connecting with shoppers if they add a local touch to big box-tested and approved strategies. 

My big takeaway: Next year, I’ll start writing holiday sales content in March.

GROCERY

Grocers Don't Want to Relive March

Grocers won’t be caught with their TP depleted if and when a second Covid-19 wave arrives. 

As coronavirus cases tick upward again, the WSJ reports that several grocery chains are stockpiling products that sold out back in early spring. 

• Associated Food Stores built “pandemic pallets” of hard-to-find cleaning supplies in its warehouses.
• Giant and Food Lion owner Ahold Delhaize is stocking up to 15% more inventory in its warehouses than it did before the pandemic.
• Walmart is correcting its grocery inventory algorithms to build an essentials stockpile.

An (agri)cultural reset

Grocery retailers used to keep inventory lean, but 2020 taught them to over prepare. And more scarcity could be on the way: The anticipated second wave (and subsequent quarantines) will coincide with the holidays, when the annual turkey rush already overwhelms grocers.

• Southeastern Grocers and United Natural Foods began stocking holiday menu items over the summer, just in case.

Zoom out: Inventory planning can’t replenish everything. Clorox expects its disinfectant wipe shortage to stretch into 2021.

SPONSORED BY SAILTHRU

Skate Into Q4 Like a Holiday Pro

There’s not much we can say for certain this holiday season, except for the fact that it will be unlike any other and that Sailthru has the guide with the strategies to help retailers crush Q4.

Retailers know that holiday planning starts long before the leaves change or the snow falls. With that in mind, Sailthru compiled an all-star lineup of invaluable, actionable email marketing and CRM strategies to help retailers crush Q4.

Download Sailthru’s 2020 Holiday Marketing Playbook to learn more about:

• Adapting to changes in consumer behavior
• Triggered messages, particularly cart abandonment
• Promotional strategies and the segments to test them on

With their guide, you’ll be learning from best-in-class examples like Target, Tory Burch, Best Buy, Sephora, RevZilla, and more. 

No more holiday stress, just smooth holiday retail skating with Sailthru. 

Download their guide today. 

SUPPLY CHAIN

How the Skirts Really Get Made

When “fast fashion” and “supply chain” appear in the same story, it’s not because they’re winning employee safety awards. Case in point: The results from an independent audit of fast fashion retailer Boohoo’s supply chain.  

The findings: Boohoo paid garment workers less than minimum wage and forced them to work in unsafe conditions. It also failed to keep close tabs on its web of suppliers.

• The report found a full list of Boohoo’s suppliers doesn’t exist.
• Of the suppliers Boohoo could name, 93% had flouted the company’s policies for employee wages and subcontracting.

The fix: A six-part plan to improve corporate governance and shift to more “ethical” production practices. It includes reducing the number of factories Boohoo uses and allocating more board seats to independent directors.

But it’ll take more than dedicated board meetings to fix a broken system and regain trust among shoppers and retail partners. After allegations that Boohoo mistreated garment workers surfaced, Amazon, Zalando, and Next dropped it from their marketplaces.

Looking ahead...we’ll know Boohoo’s serious about improving conditions for workers when its prices increase.

WHAT ELSE IS BREWING

• Poshmark, the peer-to-peer resale marketplace, is going public. 
• Allbirds will open more stores and explore new product categories following its latest funding round.
• Neiman Marcus officially exited bankruptcy.
• Walgreens and Home Depot are among the 3,500 companies suing the Trump administration over tariffs on goods from China.

SPONSORED BY SQUARE

Winter season is spending season. Square Online has a plethora of ways to make sure retailers are prepared for the spend-storm that this winter will bring—like going omnichannel and keeping your online and in-store orders in sync. Online sales are expected to grow 18%, so make sure you have your retail ducks in a row with Square Online.

RSVP

Last chance: Retail Brew’s discussion on the state of apparel is happening today at noon EST. If you’ve already registered, I can’t wait to see you. If you haven’t, it’s time to end your procrastination streak.

Sucharita Kodali (principal analyst at Forrester Research), Nate Checketts (CEO of Rhone) and I will talk consumer behavior, emerging trends, and so much more. Register here, and I’ll see you at noon.

SWAPPING SKUS

Here are two thought-provoking updates on retail threads we’ve followed this year.

• After protests against racial injustice sparked a “Buy Black” movement, Black-owned beauty brands were flooded with retail partnership requests. But exposure from Bluemercury, Ulta, or Sephora comes with a hefty, hidden price tag for small businesses. (Bloomberg)
• Vistaprint. Gap. One-off Etsy sellers. They’ve all started sewing face masks this summer, and they all need a backup plan for a future when mask demand evaporates. (Marker)

ICYMI

Catch up on the Retail Brew stories you may have missed.

• Exclusive: How Lola’s Approaching Phase Two of Its Walmart Partnership
• Allbirds and Augmented Reality: A Sneakerhead Love Story
• Sephora and Ulta Are Battling Over Beauty E-Comm