What Do Trends Tell Us?

4) They should improve customer service and develop a user-friendlier web site that will enable customers to purchase online more easily or get better access to information on the company's products. This approach

Consumers are always satisfied with good customer service. When it comes to retail store customer service and satisfaction it is important because department stores are large in size and finding help can be difficult. Colloquy, a company concerned with building customer value, released a survey and asked 3,000 consumers across five geographical areas to rate their personal experiences with retailers. Macy’s was ranked number one in the department store category, with the most loyal customers. To keep up with technology advances Macy’s has invested time and money into developing a more efficient online shopping site, Macys.com and Macysweddingchannel. This investment cost nearly $300 million in 2006-2008 is being used to scale-up these fast-growing businesses through improvements in delivery efficiency, online site functionality and customer service. To enhance the shopping experience at Macy’s 100 stores in 2007 experienced remodeling and began introducing the most advanced POS registers and systems to the sales floors nationwide. Macy’s passion is product and people. There continuing pursuit is to have unique fashionable merchandise ready for customer satisfaction. Macy’s promise is to always carry the best brands and the most-wanted items. They also believe in hiring the right employees. With the right employees, there will be a sense of motivation and helpfulness. The American Customer Satisfaction Index covers 200 companies’ products and

REI faces competition from numerous retailers who compete for customer dollars within the same market sector, with a similar range of products for sale. The list of REI’s competitors are extensive and includes major companies, like L.L.Bean, Cabela’s, The North Face, Bass Pro Shops, and Academy Sports + Outdoors, to name a few. Given the level of competition, what differentiates REI from its rivals and why is REI successful in a business sector that has seen numerous others failed? The answer is simply. Although numerous factors contribute to the success of a retailer, one element rises above all, namely the customer. A successful retailer needs to attract and retain customers and the optimal way to draw in and capture customers is through

Internet sales are growing rapidly within the industry, and amongst all retail, eventually they might start to see Amazon as a major competitor. Stores like Home Depot and Lowe's have interactive websites, with the ability purchase items not seen in stores, how to guides, project ideas, and quotes for specific jobs. Trends in the industry are moving to more green products, private label and exclusive brands, more interactive retail experience with new payment options. This would utilize modern technology to increase sales. Demand which has been driven by home remodeling and building doesn’t fluctuate too much, typically minor shifts within the economic cycles.

During the past decade, retail markets have undergone many changes in their processes, services, and formats. The last part of distribution of the market strategy, retailing serves as a bridge between the final consumer and the mass producers of products. Retailing has reached every corner of the globe, and Wal-Mart has been eying areas where the

During this paper we will analyze how the department store industry has evolved and more important how companies are managing new strategies to remain competitive. Moreover we will use the case of JCPenney as a main focus to see how successful their strategies are. To provide a good analysis, we first need to understand how the industry has evolving and what the major companies like JCPenney are doing to continue in the industry.

Omnichanneling is a way to advertise the brand or stores to customers by using multiple channels such as social media, retail stores, magazine, mobile app, etc (GWL Realty Advisors, 2015).In the past, the technology was not developed enough that people had to go to the retail store to buy something and look what products are on sale. However, nowdays, customers want more from the retailers such as loyalty program, mobile-app, more payment methods, etc. Most of the retailers did not focus on the omnichanneling in the past so they do not know how to succeed by omnichanneling. According to GWL Realty Advisors (2015), retailers can succeed through omnichanneling by analyzing following factors.

Look around you in retail, you’ll see people googling reviews and hitting their Social networks to make sense of the retail options they face. For brands, marketing to respond to this new reality is vital, but it’s messy, often hit or miss, and often takes purchasing online and away from in-store. The struggle to digitally merchandise in ways that align with today’s digitally connected consumers and their need to buy with confidence from brands they trust, like and understand is a huge challenge. It’s a challenge that’s not just about physical environments, it’s also physiological, getting brands connected emotionally and intuitively through physical devices and digital media. So like any smart dad, I turned to my in-house marketing gurus; my 23- and 11-year old daughters for

Video moments that very few customers would be able to experience in real life. Think of video as a way to offer your customers an exclusive back stage

At a global level, online retail is growing at a fast rate. In 2015 overall online sales were $341.7 billion growing $172 billion since 2010. The impact of online sales gives consumers a complete online catalog of products and services that offered by the company. In 2015, e-commerce sales accounted for 7.3% of total sales for Kohler (CITE2) Giving the customer the ability to shop online offers a unique experience. Giving customers the ability to find the products and services they need at their own convenience from home or at work.

The Internet has changed the way we do virtually everything, including the way we shop. However, shopping is not the only thing that has changed. In the last decade we have changed the way, we apply for loans, study, and even plan a vacation. Doing any of these things would have been impossible a few decades ago. At present, online banking, paying bills, ordering new services, and shopping online have become part of our daily lives. Traditional brick-and-mortar stores have been around much longer than online stores, but we cannot deny that online shopping is giving the traditional stores competition. Many consumers still choose to shop at regular brick-and-mortar stores because they like to see and

Retail sales was the largest industry in the United States prior to the 2000’s recession. It was the top employing industry from 2003 -2008 in nearly half of the U.S. states. Starting in 2009, every year has shown a decline in number of states where this is the top industry; as of 2013, retail was down to six from its peak of twenty-four. Retail is still a major industry but it will be interesting to discover how individual firms, specifically the largest ones, have handled this decline and what they may be doing to reverse the pattern. Kroger, Walmart, and Costco have the top revenues in the industry and are similarly categorized as well. Kroger is a supermarket, a larger grocery store with small section of general merchandise; Walmart is a hypermarket, contains a large range of products in both grocery and general merchandise; Costco is a warehouse club, also a large range of products but with a focus on selling large quantities at a discount with a small club fee. Since these three companies overlap in much of their products, there is competition between them which also adds to why they are respectable choices to analyze together.

The recent recession has hurt the entire retail market and regaining profits will be a constant challenge for the entire industry. In order to remain competitive, Ann Krill states,” value and versatility have become very important. She needs an incentive to shop.” (Hymowitz, 2012) Ms. Krill goes on to say,” I think in uncertain economic times, value becomes more important...” (Hymowitz, 2012)

Furthermore, they offer to the customer the experience to buy in a physical store, compared with Amazon that is one of the strongest competitor, there’s no doubt that the internet, and the mobile web in particular, have changed the way people shop, but there is strong evidence that consumers continue to value the experience of

Retailing has been an important industry in any country. History would indicate that its form has changed with time as competition was no more a local phenomenon. Retailers started moving from being “neighbourhood stores” to expand their horizons nationally as well as internationally. Technology brought revolution in the retail industry with the advent of internet. Online retailers today have become a common part of everyone’s life. Mobile commerce too has started growing with the innovation of “App Stores” brought by Google and Apple. In this face of retailing, competitors have pushed themselves to gain more market share by trying