Nikki Baird, vice president of strategy and product at Aptos, described recent retail quarterly results as mixed with clear winners and losers. But the big news is the current state of the consumer and their changing expectations. Here, Baird discusses how these and other trends impact retail.
WWD: It seems like Christmas came early for some retailers reporting quarterly results. What is driving better-than-expected results?
Nikki Baird: From what I’ve seen, it’s still a mixed bag — some winners and some losers. It’s true some of the winners were surprising because they had noted challenging results and lowered guidance earlier in the year — Dollar General and Dick’s come to mind. Walmart noted that they are seeing a larger share of higher-income shoppers than in the past and this contributed to their results. I think there is still a lot of trading-down behavior, but one retailer’s lost shopper is another one’s gain.
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WWD: What role do alternative format stores and other activations play in the retail market? What are some examples and why are customers finding them compelling?
N.B.: All evidence points to consumers looking for a social dimension to their IRL experiences, and retailers are responding with more opportunities for social interaction and more all-the-senses activations while in stores. Consumers have more expectations for what a retail location should do for them than they did pre-pandemic, with experiential, operational, sales and service expectations all higher across the board.
At the same time, retailers are trying to find the IRL events that their target consumers are going to and trying to enhance those experiences with the right products on hand. Rodeos, marathons, festivals, etc. can all include a retail dimension.
WWD: What role does technology play in-store and with the retail brand ambassadors who work there?
N.B.: Consumers can walk into stores with significant knowledge about a product they’re interested in because they researched it exhaustively online. In-store technology first and foremost needs to help level the playing field between store associates and customers. The right technology investments can give store associates an edge by giving them access to information consumers might never see, like when the next shipment arrives at the store and if the item the consumer is looking for is on it.
WWD: What other trends are you seeing in the retail market right now? What should we be on the lookout for?
N.B.: Lately I’ve been hearing a lot more about augmented reality/mixed reality. With all the interest in gen AI and the image/video component of that, the retail industry is trying to make another run at embedding AR into consumer retail experiences. Specific to fashion, there’s also a lot of activity around RFID [radio frequency identification]. RFID is getting more entrenched and expanding beyond simple inventory counts.