Brick & Data

Who won Black Friday and Cyber Monday? The shifting state of fashion in 2018. Weirdest news of the week in retail (involves Unicorns). ---- Who won Black Friday and Cyber Monday? Winners: Best Buy According to data from QSR International, Best Buy was tagged the most in tweets categorized as "very positive," and it overall had the most successful advertising campaign of 15 brands studied. That's likely because the retailer took a different strategy this year — veering away from pushing a sense of urgency in its advertising language with phrases like "sale ends soon," "limited time" or "one day only." Instead, the retailer opted for more helpful messaging about free shipping and financing options. Amazon (duh) Mobile - According to Adobe's estimates, mobile drove 54% of visits and 37% of digital revenue. Conversions have been a tough battle for retailers in the past, but they showed progress, with rates up 16.5% for smartphones and 13% for tablets from the year-ago period. Small retailers - According to Adobe Data, Small retailers (under $10 million in annual revenue) saw 30 percent higher conversion rates on smartphones than large retailers. Losers (so harsh, we know): In-store traffic - In-store traffic dropped a combined 1.6% on those days over last year, and Black Friday visits alone decreased less than 1% when compared to Black Friday 2016, according to data collected by retail analytics company Shoppertrak. Websites! JCrew, Macy’s, Lowes (and more) - website crashes, downtime, transaction processing outages http://news.adobe.com/press-release/experience-cloud/adobe-data-shows-cyber-monday-largest-online-sales-day-history-659 https://www.retaildive.com/news/meet-the-winners-and-losers-of-black-friday-2017/511661/ https://www.retaildive.com/news/macys-lowes-hit-by-black-friday-technical-glitches/511606/ The Shifting State of Fashion for 2018 Business of Fashion and McKinsey issued a report that everyone in the retail industry should read. While it's tailored to fashion, the core tenets apply to all. Quick fact from the report: The McKinsey Global Fashion Index forecasts industry sales growth to nearly triple between 2016 and 2018, from 1.5 percent to between 3.5 to 4.5 percent. More and download: https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/retail/our-insights/renewed-optimism-for-the-fashion-industry?cid=other-eml-alt-mip-mck-oth-1711 Weirdest News of the Week Welcome to our new segment! We are bringing you the weirdest, most WHAAAT inducing, shocked-emoji-face news of the week - in retail… This week it’s an old reliable that has resurfaced in an epic way. It’s Paris Hilton who is launching an "all-natural" skincare line starting with a rose water mist branded Unicorn Mist. But don’t be distracted by her history or Instagram account - she’s a savvy businesswoman who has launched 23 successful scents and is known as one of the world's top DJs, sometimes commanding $1 million a gig. According to a press release, the full skincare line will be available in early 2018, so Millennials, Paris Hilton is counting on you. https://www.forbes.com/sites/jannamandell/2017/11/30/paris-hilton-launches-skincare-line-with-unicorn-mist-cue-shocked-face/#598ba7d8592c

Have you heard of "hearables"? Well, now you have. We are joined by the co-founders of "hearable" startup, Peripherii. Their first product is a "smart earring" with built in virtual personal assistants like Siri and Google Assistant to add amazing functionality to jewelery. Not only can these earrings take and make calls and whisper alerts, it can respond to voice commands, call an Uber, or dim the lights in your room. Co-founders Priti Moudgill and Sonal Budhiraja tell us how it all started and where it's going. About Peripherii Peripherii is a NY-based hearable company whose first product is a smart earring that brings smart assistants like Siri/Google to the wearer’s ear, but subtly in the form of a piece of jewelry. Not only can our earring take and make calls and whisper alerts, it can respond to voice commands and call Uber, dictate a text, set a timer, etc. Calling our earring just a headset is fine too, because that simple fact of hiding an earphone in an earring causes an orbital jump in its utility and accessibility. For women, an earring is a natural accessory. Wearing a smart earring will not require much of a behavior change, and yet it will give them full access to the audio functionality of their phones. It is hard to overstate the convenience factor of this small change: that the voice-activated functions of the phone will always be available, without having to have the phone in hand, and without having to rummage for earbuds. And then there is the secret agent aspect: a piece of jewelry that is a lot more than meets the eye! It’s also the answer to every woman’s evening-out quandary: how to stay within ear-shot, in a manner of speaking, of their loved ones, without having to wear earbuds with a party dress or having to hold the phone in their hand all evening. Our broader vision is a world where electronics are minimally invasive, almost invisible, and we interact with them in an instinctual manner so we can focus on what matters without fumbling or fussing with gadgets.  Advances in AI are leading up to emotionally savvy smart assistants. In such a future, it will not always be the user who initiates the interaction. Our smart earring, anticipating your tiredness at the end of day, might whisper in your ear if you would like the lights dimmed or white noise played or a pizza ordered. Our smart earring is a first step in that direction. For more, including how to get involved in their IndiGogo, visit www.peripherii.com. About Sonal Budhiraja Sonal has a M.S. in Electrical Engineering from LSU and B.Tech from NITK, India. For her second Master’s thesis in Biomedical Engineering from Rutgers, Sonal tinkered with programming a glove for use in a virtual surgery. Sonal has also worked as a developer and writer at various software companies such as SAP and IBM. About Priti Moudgill Priti’s engineering background includes degrees from IIT (Kanpur, India) & Cornell University (Ithaca, NY), and research/engineering positions at IBM. She has a strong product instinct with consumer inventions licensed to Conair and Rubbermaid. She has also worked in the fashion industry designing and manufacturing accessories for clients such as Bergdorfs, Holt Renfrew, Tsum, Gilt, etc.

We are joined by Aman Advani - the CEO and Co-founder of Ministry of Supply. This episode truly represents the intersection of technology and fashion - literally weaving technology into the fabric we wear. Does the name 'Ministry of Supply" sound slightly familiar? If you are a James Bond fan, it should.

Augmented Reality is about to explode in retail. Downsizing the store in ways we never expected. Automation is coming and it can't be stopped. ---- Augmented Reality is about to explode in retail AR is the key to connecting the physical world with digital. And, AR has already been in our daily lives in the form of Snapchat and Pokemon Go. So, we have already been trained. The introduction of Apple’s ARkit, a developer platform for augmented reality, and the subsequent launch of iOS 11, which hosts it, has paved the way on iPhones and iPads. Google’s ARcore meanwhile, brings the same to Android. This is very much like a modernized catalog. The forecast is for 900 million AR-enabled smartphones by the end of 2018, according to consulting firm Digi-Capital. https://www.forbes.com/sites/rachelarthur/2017/10/31/augmented-reality-is-set-to-transform-fashion-and-retail/#460752363151 Downsizing the Store Hudson’s Bay, said Tuesday that it was selling off the flagship Lord & Taylor (676K Sq Ft) store to WeWork, a seven-year-old start-up whose office-sharing model is helping to reinvent the concept of work space. Lord & Taylor will rent out about a quarter of the building Macy’s has struck a preliminary deal to sell the top half (700K Sq Ft/Fl 8-14) of its State Street flagship building to a Canadian real estate investor that plans to convert the space into offices Target recently opened 11 small-format stores across the US as part of its ongoing readjustment to its brick-and-mortar strategy. The format aims to create a streamlined shopping experience with square footages that range from 12,000 to 80,000, significantly smaller than the 145,000-square-foot average for a standard Target store. The new stores seem meant to serve densely populated urban and suburban areas, where consumers are likely far from a full-sized Target.   http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ori/ct-biz-macys-flagship-sale-ryan-ori-20171017-story.html http://www.businessinsider.com/target-opens-new-small-format-stores-2017-10 Automation is coming Walmart is using automation to handle tasks that are repeatable, predictable and manual, like scanning shelves for out-of-stock items, incorrect prices and wrong or missing labels. This new shelf-scanning technology frees up time for our associates to focus on what they tell us are the most important and exciting parts of working at Walmart – serving customers and selling merchandise. Walmart is expanding the use of shelf-scanning inventory management robots to more than 50 U.S. stores after testing in Arkansas, Pennsylvania and California, according to a Walmart blog post. The robots, which have a vertical scanner tall enough to scan all the shelves in a given store aisle, move down each aisle scanning for out-of-stock items, incorrect prices and wrong or missing labels on products. The aim is to have robots perform manual, repeatable tasks that otherwise would be performed by human store associates. Having the robots do it instead is expected to free up store associates to spend more time directly helping customers. https://www.retaildive.com/news/walmart-expands-use-of-in-store-inventory-robots/508402/

Coach is now Tapestry and people are losing their minds. Under Armour isn’t cool anymore (Todd loves UA, is marginally cool, and doesn't agree with this). Amazon is flexing its supply chain muscles once again.

Part 2/2 of our Shop.org special welcomes guest Casey Sullivan from Barneys New York. Casey oversees startup and growth initiatives at Barneys. We talked about: Digital initiatives at Barneys How to please all customer segments at once, shopping simultaneously?  How does Barneys balance the physical and digital experiences for each segment yet maintain a cohesive, consistent experience? and more...

In this Part 1 of our two part Shop.org special we welcome the ladies from Retail Minded - Nicole Reyhle and Jasmine Glasheen. Things we talk about: Why independent retailers are important to the survival of retail. Do they experience the same challenges the bigger retailers do? Are members of the Amazon Marketplace concerned about the tighter grip Amazon is placing on them in terms of competition and requirements? Can department stores survive this re-invention of retail? Are their brands strong enough?

Malls are back - and far from dead. This holiday, people will care more about experience and convenience - we discuss why. Is Amazon's 2nd full-fledged HQ coming to your city?

Mariam Naficy - Minted CEO, spends some time with us. She shared with us some what it took to start Minted, why Minted's business model is unique, how technology is being used, and if there are plans to open stores. https://www.minted.com/

Episode 30 gets a healthy dose of Amazon (shocker) and their latest Whole Foods news along with the future of Amazon Prime. Since it's earnings season, which is our favorite time of quarter, we pick on Dick's Sporting Goods and Foot Locker. \<3