China has a lot of vacant retail space, including many underused shopping malls. An urban policy scholar describes how the Chinese are rethinking what the mall is for.
The four Cs – convenience, choice, competitive prices and COVID-19 – will decide the retail battle and how it affects the structure and function of our cities.
More and more consumers are engaging in showrooming, the practice of visiting brick-and-mortar retail stores to research a product before buying it elsewhere at a lower price.
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Retail stores change the prices of their products based on the shopping habits of consumers. But consumers come in a variety of types, and not all of them influence prices equally.
Nordstrom Inc. is closing all of its Canadian stores and cutting 2,500 jobs as it winds down operations in the country.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette
The perspective that U.S. retailers are somehow more prone to failure than Canadian retail chains is unconvincing, but the Canadian retail landscape is challenging for newcomers.
People in masks shop for essential items at Costco in Mississauga, Ont., on April 18, 2021. Costco insists its in-store customers wear masks even if they claim exemptions.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette
Retailers are grappling with anti-maskers during the pandemic. That’s because of the complicated relationship between businesses and customers when it comes to accommodating health conditions.
A department store employee wheels clothes across Melbourne’s Bourke Street Mall on August 5 2020, as retailers prepared to close their doors to customers.
Asanka Brendon Ratnayake/AP
Jason Pallant, Swinburne University of Technology and Gary Mortimer, Queensland University of Technology
Target’s fall from grace involves poor market positioning, confusing strategies, and a declining middle class consumer market.
Shelves that held hand sanitizer and hand soap are mostly empty at a Target in Jersey City, N.J. on March 2, 2020. As fears of the pandemic grow, consumers are stockpiling goods in case they’re quarantined.
(AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
Amid the coronavirus pandemic, people are stockpiling essential supplies. But policy-makers may be able to influence both the supply and demand through public announcements and advisories.
The retail sector relies on a little festive excess.
The popularity of category killers explains in large part the stagnant sales and talk of store closures throughout the department store segment.
Dave Hunt/AAP
When people see their bodies in 3D, they feel worse about themselves and more negative in general. That might not put shoppers in a buying mood even for clothes that fit better.
It may seem convenient to think of technology companies as similar, but they’re really not.
The Conversation
When thinking about regulating them, it’s useful to know Facebook, Amazon, Google, Apple and Microsoft have some similarities. But generally they’re not competing with each other – or anyone else.
Coles was once the market leader thanks to its ‘down down’ low pricing marketing.
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Coles plans to compete with competitors by moving away from low prices to a focus on other attributes, such as sustainability, local produce and community.
In a move that suggests physical retail stores aren’t dead, Amazon has opened three bookstores and over 60 pop-up stores in the US, and has plans for up to 2,000 grocery stores.
Shannon Stapleton/Reuters
Urban retail space is being transformed yet again. Predictions of the demise of physical retailing in the face of online competition overlook its resilience over two centuries of disruptive innovations.
Using a store’s mobile app can affect in-store purchases.
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