Last week, we reminisced on the year’s most overhyped trends. But what about the ones that were under the radar? After 12 months, it’s time they get their due.

Here are the most overlooked retail trends of 2021, according to retail experts and insiders.

Mind the store

Remember we told you e-comm was overdone? Too bad it’s been at the expense of IRL shopping.

“It’s ironic that the store hasn’t gotten as much attention as it should,” Rob Garf, VP and GM of retail at Salesforce, told Retail Brew. We’ve all lived in a digital world for some 20 months, including online shopping, he noted—“but it makes the store even more important.”

• 60% of e-comm sales are “influenced” by brick and mortar, Garf said, citing Salesforce data.

Claire Tassin, a retail and e-commerce analyst at Morning Consult, agrees: “It’s gotten kind of easy to forget that more people say they prefer to shop in stores than shop online. And most retail is still very much a brick-and-mortar business, despite everything.”

Shared experiences

To that end, how the in-store experience is changing also deserves a closer look.

“Claiming an experience-first retail model has been trendy for the past several years, but it’s rare to see companies lean in all the way,” said Victoria Wells, associate strategy director at R/GA. “Consumers don’t need to go to stores, but they want to.”

• She shouted out Dick’s Sporting Goods’ House of Sport as a great example of going all in: It features a turf field and track, a rock-climbing wall, a batting cage, and even baseball-glove steaming and racket stringing.

Garf added that shifting the store from a “checkout event” to a “check-in process, allowing the associate to engage with the shopper” is key. While Tassin echoed that “being able to prioritize space for service and getting some help with making decisions and browsing and discovery” has been part of rethinking IRL spaces (in addition to click-and-collect services).

Ad(d) it up

Who saw the retail media network space having a moment?

Nate Shenck, North America retail leader at Boston Consulting Group, told us in an email it’s been a “major year” for the space. “Many large retailers have launched businesses utilizing their vast consumer data to become advertising platforms and sellers, rather than purchasers,” he noted.

• Lowe’s, for example, unveiled its own retail media network in October, joining the ranks of Macy’s, Dollar Tree, and Best Buy.

The strategy is a win-win, experts expect: It offers retailers another avenue for $$, while brands can lure in more customers via targeted ads.

The trend should only pick up from here. “It’s going to be something that we are talking much more about, as retailers are really marrying in-store shopping data with online shopping data and having a really compelling value of the ability to leverage that data in media ecosystems that so many of our big retailers are spinning up,” Tassin said.

+1: Speaking of data, Garf told us the death of the third-party cookie was another overlooked trend this year.

“I don’t think the real change that will be required by retailers has been covered as in-depth as it probably should be—given that it will have a dramatic impact on how marketers are thinking about acquiring new customers and retaining loyal customers.” (Though, we will shout out Marketing Brew’s guide to the third-party cookie here.)—JS

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It might have been another weird year, but that didn’t mean companies shied away from going public. In fact, for retailers, the timing has been right, said Daniel McCarthy, assistant professor of marketing at Emory University. The pandemic has forced many to shake up their business models, and investors are on the hunt for the next big thing.

• There were at least 17 major retail IPOs (and direct listings) in 2021, up from 12 in 2020, which was a record year for public offerings across industries.

“Obviously, there’s been some turbulence recently. That notwithstanding, the markets have been quite generous, especially in terms of being able to hit some pretty high IPO price valuations,” McCarthy told Retail Brew.

So, which companies are sitting pretty? And which have some work to do moving into 2022?

Going strong

Warby Parker made its public debut in late September, with its stock price soaring 30% on its first day of trading. (It’s since dropped from those highs, but still has a nearly $5.2 billion market cap, as of December 17.)

But that initial jump isn’t what solely struck Michael Maloof, Earnest Research’s director of data analytics.

“Warby Parker has consistently grown share, and—more importantly—consistently grown their customer base,” Maloof told us. The company “does an excellent job” of turning new shoppers into ones that come back, he added.

• Repeat shoppers made up 42% of its customer base in 2020, up from 38% in 2019.

Set your sights: McCarthy, too, said he was impressed by Warby’s unit economics, and sees its run as a potentially positive sign for other DTC companies looking to go public.

“The stock price performance that we’ve seen in companies like Warby Parker are an indication that those strong underlying fundamentals are being valued...by public markets investors,” McCarthy said.

Which other companies jumped out? Click here to read more.—KM

Today’s top retail reads.

Winding roads: Loneliness, long hours, crude manual labor, and low pay: A veteran truck driver outlines several reasons for America’s truck-driver shortage. (The Atlantic)

Top of the line: How Demna Gvasalia (actually, he just goes by Demna now) made Balenciaga the year’s biggest trendsetter. (The New York Times)

Staying alive: To combat supply-chain bottlenecks, Nike is boosting investments in its digital biz, starting with its recent acquisition of RTFKT and a renewed consumer-focused push toward its Nike+ app. (Modern Retail)

On Wednesdays, we wear pink spotlight Retail Brew’s readers. Want to be featured in an upcoming edition? Click here to introduce yourself.

From banking, travel, and design to SaaS and e-commerce, Laura Haines has worn many hats over her career, hopping across the globe from Scotland to the US to Spain along the way. Now, she’s landed in Australia, working remotely as the chief product officer for California–based marketing and design software company Famous.

How would you describe your job to someone who doesn’t work in retail? I am leading our efforts in building and improving this comprehensive solution and making sure retailers, business owners, and marketers can easily navigate our platform and create beautiful landing pages to promote and sell their products.

One thing we can’t guess about your job from your LinkedIn profile: All the different types of people I am fortunate to collaborate with. On a daily basis, I am working with sales, marketing, engineering, design, operations, and more to ensure everything we deliver is perfect for our customers.

Which emerging retail trend are you most excited about this year, and why? As we’ve moved to a more contactless way of life, retailers have pivoted online and are increasingly embracing visual commerce and implementing emerging technologies such as AR and VR for more engaging video-based shopping. This is an exciting trend and is already setting new standards in terms of how retailers can stand out and attract customers, especially younger generations. They’ll need to get increasingly creative, technology-driven, and personalized in their strategies.

The rise of more immersive shopping experiences will continue, re-creating some of the elements of shopping in a store virtually and from the comfort of the customer’s own home.

Hands down, the best fast food restaurant chain is…Chipotle.

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

• Instant-delivery startups took over in 2021—but challenges remain for the long haul
• 5 ways brands can use QR codes on packaging to add value for customers
• TikTok hops onto a buzzy food trend: delivery-only kitchens