design:retail - June 2014 - (Page 8)

show talk 008 The Death(!!??) of Retail DOUG HOPE FOUNDER AND SHOW DIRECTOR, GLOBALSHOP doug.hope@emeraldexpo.com @globalshopshow B ACK IN MARCH, CBS News re- ported that American shopping malls are a "dying breed" and went on to say that "hundreds" of shopping malls would soon close, owing to the explosion of e-commerce and changing shopping habits. Dire as the news sounded, this isn't the ﬁrst time that the story has been reported. Five years earlier, CBS News had reported that the weak economy was causing the death of malls. Two years before that, The Economist wrote of "birth, death and shopping"-the fall of the mall. It went so far as to say that malls were starting to die a quarter-century ago. Coverage has portrayed a long, slow and painful death, to be sure. What's wrong with the picture being painted? Is it true? Is retailing really so bad, or is this just a case of headline sensationalism? Consider this: in the time since malls started to "die" in 1990, total retail sales have risen from $1.8 trillion to $5.1 trillion in 2013, a gain of more than $3 trillion. Yes, trillion. That's a gain of some $10,000 per American consumer in that time-a monstrous number, indeed. Additionally, the U.S. store count has increased mightily since 1990. Certainly there are some malls that have closed, but the reasons are population shifts, or shiny new malls replacing old, GlobalShop 2015 March 24-26 Sponsored by A.R.E Mandalay Bay Convention Center, Las Vegas | GlobalShop.org CONTACT US: 1145 Sanctuary Pkwy., Ste. 355 Alpharetta, GA 30009-4772 JUNE 2014 DESIGNRETAILONLINE.COM tired spaces, or new formats, such as lifestyle centers, big-box power centers and standalone stores. Just to set the story straight, shopping is very much alive, despite the recurring doomsday news. To take on another point of the ﬁrst reporter's story, the "explosion" of Internet shopping has not only failed to truly impact mall closures, but retailing itself has been largely unaﬀected. The Web unquestionably is a shopping destination, but it still remains less than a 10 percent play. Even when shoppers begin their journeys online, 90 percent or more of retail transactions are ultimately made in-store, at a physical place. Readers of design:retail SHOW STAFF: → Founder and Show Director Doug Hope (770) 291-5453 doug.hope@ emeraldexpo.com → Sales Manager Roarke Dowd (770) 291-5428 roarke. dowd@emeraldexpo.com → Account Executive Dreama McDaniel (770) 291-5420 dreama.mcdaniel@ emeraldexpo.com → Account Executive Kerry Tyler (770) 291-5432 kerry.tyler@ emeraldexpo.com probably know all this, so perhaps we're preaching to the retail choir here. The reporter did get one thing 100 percent right though: shopping behaviors have changed. And those tendencies have changed with greater speed and complexity in the past few years than at any time in retail history. A random multitasking, ultra-connected, frenetic-paced, attention-deficit-prone and unpredictable consumer has presented a befuddling challenge to retail-and has sent CEOs and CMOs back to the drawing boards. This is where we come in. This is where we need to understand today's consumer-their inﬂuences, their decision-making habits and, most importantly, what becomes the "path to purchase." C-suites and their consultancies have been scrambling to deﬁne that journey, in order to reach, influence and win consumers both online and (more than 90 percent of the time) in-store. The in-store piece is your domain. That being said, ask yourself if your retail space has changed as much as the consumer has. If the answer is "no," then there's a gap, which oﬀers an opportunity to improve. → Marketing Manager Heather Kuznetz (770) 291-5512 heather.kuznetz@ emeraldexpo.com → Conference Manager Toni Ward (770) 291-5441 antoinette.ward@emeraldexpo.com → Senior Operations Manager Derrick Nelloms (770) 291-5452 derrick.nelloms@emeraldexpo.com EMERALD EXPOSITIONS: → CEO David Loechner → Executive Vice President, Business Development Darrell Denny → Vice President, Corporate Operations Denise Bashem → Senior Vice President, Operations Lori Jenks → Senior Vice President, Digital, Teresa Reilly → Vice President, Marketing Services Joanne Wheatley → Senior Vice President, Design Group Joe Randall Photo courtesy of THINKSTOCK.COM http://www.GlobalShop.org http://www.DESIGNRETAILONLINE.COM http://www.THINKSTOCK.COM

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of design:retail - June 2014

design:retail - June 2014
Contents
Editor’s Note
Show Talk
On Trend
Inspirations
We Love This!
We Love This!
Designer Picks
Innovation
Postcard
Have You Heard?
Mingle
The Visual Eye
Searching for Steve Jobs
Araldi1930
The Creative Factor
Meny
adidas
Products
Backstory

design:retail - June 2014