Wall Street traders betting against brick-and mortar retailers this holiday season are todays Grinches.
Instead of hoping for the best, theyre wagering sales will slump.
Its a practice known as short selling, where traders sell borrowed stocks on companies they predict will fare poorly in the hopes they can buy the shares back at a lower price, collecting the difference as profit.
Macys, Kohls, JCPenney and sportswear clothier Lululemon Athletica are in the crosshairs of such activity.
Spending is down by double-digits at many department stores, while that at the online behemoth Amazons is up 20%.
Streetside retailers well posited for the future are those that have updated their operations to include online business channels.
If retailers are to be successful, their products need to be accessible 24/7.
An offshoot of this trend, paradoxically, is that online stores are opening physical stores as a way to attract more sales.
This is part of a trend called clicks to bricks, where online retailers like Warby Parker, which sells eyeglasses, and casper.com, which sells mattresses, are opening brick-and-mortar stores.
Thats because retailers know the secret that once they get a customer inside the door their chances of an up-sale increase dramatically.
To keep customers coming back, retailers offer a positive shopping experience through strong customer service as well as stocking a unique section of goods that can best be appreciated first-hand.
In our mind, buying shoes is more effective when done in person as compared to guessing if a virtual pair is going to get you around the block in good stead.
ACCORDING to reports, Thanksgiving weekend sales topped the charts. While brick-and-mortar sales were down slightly according to FiServe Data, online sales were up a staggering 82% over 2018, for $7.2 billion.
Of note, 65% of all digital sales came through a smartphone.
Yes, its an ever-changing landscape.
But were betting the home team our local retailers will rise to the challenge.
Susan Lynn
