Bill Snowden

Department Stores Ranked by Sales According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the share of department store sales of advance retail sales was about 14 percent in 1993. Today, that number has dropped to less than 3 percent. While retail analysts cite several factors for this change — such as the rise of Walmart and Amazon — one thing is clear: the department store channel is unrecognizable today. Through consolidation, acquisition and bankruptcy, the nameplates of high-end, regional and discount department stores in the U.S. that have vanished include Abraham & Straus, Ames Department Stores Inc., Bradlees, The Bon Marché, Filene’s, Hecht’s, Kaufmann’s, E. J. Korvette, Lord & Taylor, Marshall Field’s, Mervyn’s and Robinsons-May, among many others. Globally, however, the department store format is doing well. In #China, for example, the channel has seen sales double in the past five years, with 30 percent of urban shoppers visiting department stores at least once a week, according to Mintel. (Although department stores in the #UK have declined, Debenhams, House of Fraser, John Lewis Partnership) In Asia, though, many department stores are different than what shoppers would find in the U.S. Smaller and more experiential formats are all the rage. WWD culled data from S&P Capital IQ to create a list of the top 50 publicly traded (or with public debt) global department stores — as categorized by the firm. The ranking is by sales for the trailing 12 months as of May 22, 2024. Market capitalization is also listed. Topping the list was Macy's with $23.7 billion in sales. Taking second place was Arcandor AG with $22 billion. Arcandor is a German holding company formed from the merger of Karstadt Warenhaus AG with Quelle AG. Kohl's came in third with $17.5 billion. Thank you to WWD and Arthur Zaczkiewicz, MSW for publishing this list. The image shows the top 25 #departmentstores; for the rest... read WWD. #retailing #brands

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Ulta Beauty's recent Q1 earnings report highlights a significant shift in the beauty retail landscape, suggesting that the industry may be entering a period of moderation following years of explosive growth. While Ulta saw a modest 3.5% increase in net sales and a 1.6% rise in comparable store sales, these figures represent a slowdown compared to previous quarters. CEO Dave Kimbell attributed this deceleration to intensified competition and changing consumer preferences. Despite new brands and strong engagement with luxury products, Ulta experienced mid-single-digit declines in makeup sales, a sign that last year's growth surge is tapering off. This shift is not unique to Ulta; the broader beauty sector is grappling with similar challenges, as indicated by rising competition from online platforms like Amazon and successful in-store collaborations such as Sephora within Kohl's. Do the trends Ulta reference point to a potential industry-wide slowdown as inflation and economic pressures mount, impacting consumer spending habits even in the resilient beauty category? The phenomenon known as the "lipstick effect"—where consumers continue to purchase small luxuries during economic downturns—appears to be losing some of its protective power. Ulta's strategic adjustments, including lowering annual sales guidance and planning new brand collaborations, aim to regain momentum. However, these measures reflect a broader recalibration within the beauty industry, signaling that even this previously robust sector is not immune to the evolving economic landscape and competitive dynamics. #BeautyTrends #UltaBeauty #CosmeticsIndustry #MakeupSales #EconomicImpact #BeautyMarket #ConsumerTrends #RetailGrowth #InflationImpact #LipstickEffect

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Here are some interesting stories from the world of retail for Thursday, May 30: 👖 Shares of Abercrombie & Fitch Co. continued their record run after the apparel retailer reported another quarterly earnings beat and raised its sales growth outlook, amid continued strength in the Abercrombie brand. 🏀 DICK'S Sporting Goods kicked off the year with net sales of more than $3 billion in Q1, an increase of 6.2%. Comparable sales in the quarter grew 5.3%, on top of 3.6% growth the year prior. 🦅 American Eagle said it’s making gains in boosting profitability as it works to improve its product assortment and tweak operations. Still, its fiscal first-quarter sales came in weaker than Wall Street expected. 🐹 Chewy smashed earnings estimates for its fiscal first quarter on Wednesday, announced its first share buyback program and signaled a recovering pet market. 🌳 Dollar Tree Stores announced it has acquired leases for 170 of 99 Cents Only Stores stores out of bankruptcy in Arizona, California, Nevada and Texas. Dollar Tree will reopen these stores with its own products under its brand. 🥾 Dr. Martens plc has announced a swathe of cost-cutting plans, after the bootmaker’s bottom line was hit by plummeting demand in the US last year. The London-listed firm hopes to save up to £25m in the coming financial year. 🏥 Walgreens said it will slash prices on 1,300 items across its drugstores — the latest big retailer to enact discounts as consumers grow increasingly picky about where they shop in an era of stubbornly high inflation. 🐶 Petco names a new chief stores officer as the COO exits. The pet retailer said it eliminated its chief merchandising and supply chain officer role and named five people to its executive leadership team. 👟Italian luxury sneaker brand Golden Goose, which was valued at €1.3bn when acquired by Perimia in 2020, said on Thursday it aims to list on Milan's Euronext next month. 💵 Cash register outages and internal system failures at Walmart have led to widespread mispricing, with customers being overcharged for certain items. The technical issues on March 19th affected 1,600 stores. 🌭 Americans are now prepared to spend nearly $6 for a hot dog. The summertime classic has climbed in price by 7.1% during the past year, according to the latest government figures. 🍔 A top McDonald's executive on Wednesday decried poorly sourced reports that the fast-food giant has hiked its prices faster than inflation. He also noted that an $18 Big Mac meal is exception not the rule. 💳 Visa and Mastercard have agreed to pay $197m to resolve a class action by millions of consumers accusing the financial payment companies of keeping cash access fees artificially high. 🍪 Subway’s footlong cookie is back. Following a four-month long disappearance, Subway announced Wednesday the “triumphant return” of the oversized chocolate chip cookie. #retail #retailnews #economy #DailyRetailNews

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Since 2019, Kohl's sales have shrunk by $2.3 billion. That’s a pretty terrible number given consumer spending on retail rose by a dramatic $1.3 trillion over the same period.     The Kohl’s losses are a combination of existing customers spending less and the complete defection of some shoppers. Over the past five years, Kohl’s has lost 1.3 million customers: people who used to visit Kohl’s, but now they don’t. Most of these folks still buy things so it’s interesting to see where they’re now shopping, or shopping more at, instead of Kohl’s. The diagram below traces the defections. The most notable thing is the gains being made by off-price retailers. TJX – with its TJMaxx, Marshalls, and HomeGoods banners – is picking up a lot of trade. Ross, Nordstrom Rack, and Burlington are also in the mix. It’s no wonder off-price is doing so well when it’s gaining so many customers from chains like Kohl’s. What’s also notable is that online specialists don’t dominate. Amazon has picked up some trade, as has Wayfair, but neither are the main beneficiaries of Kohl’s woes. This underscores that the very simplistic narrative of ‘online killed…” is often far from the truth. It is also significant that Costco makes an appearance. Costco is a silent assassin. Many retailers don’t have it on the radar for non-food; but the reality is that Costco has a formidable non-food business. Retailers like Kohl’s don’t underperform because one large enemy comes in and swoops away all the custom. Their substantial loss of trade comes from many players nibbling away at their sales and market share. #retail #retailnews #departmentstores #wholesale #shoppers

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Kohl's sales have dropped by 5.3%. 😯 The retailer reported first-quarter loss of $27 million. In the year-ago quarter, it earned $14 million. 🔎 So how did this all happen? Data from pass_by shows: - Kohl's had its peak at the end of 2019 with over 474 million visits to stores in Q4 alone. - According to our data in Q2 2024 Kohl's has had 94 million store visits so far. - Kohl's stores saw an average 4% drop in customer visits last year (June 2023 - May 2024) compared to the year before (June 2022 - May 2023). Read the full story on WWD: https://lnkd.in/gUnjscqd Kohl's will need to make some drastic changes! The retailer would be wise to look to Foot Locker's example as its share price jumped up by 30%. CEO Mary Dillon told CNBC in an interview. “The reason I feel confident — we’re launching an enhanced FLX rewards program, so we have a lot of opportunity with rewards. We’re launching a revamped mobile app, which we know is a great way to drive customer engagement and commerce and we see growth opportunities ... with all of our brand partners throughout the year, including returning to growth with Nike in the holiday quarter.” #retailinsights #retailnews #kohls #footlocker #finance #retailers #retail

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Retail design always is a meaningful part of the #retail experience, and I enjoyed sharing my insight with National Jeweler on how design is impacting store design and consumer engagement alike. What are your thoughts on how merchandising + design impact stores… jewelry focused like discussed here or any category of retail?

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“We saw an opportunity in the market to really lean into the #GenZ customer with incredible style at an extraordinary price point that only someone like Walmart can bring given our scale.” Good move by Walmart as part of their larger revamp of #apparel. But product is only one piece of the equation. For #NoBoundaries to compete head-to-head against Abercrombie & Fitch Co., AMERICAN EAGLE OUTFITTERS INC., or any of the other brands targeting Gen-Z, it will take a more holistic effort across #stores, #digital, and #marketing (content and medium) to create real #brand momentum. https://lnkd.in/eudxA2bF

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