The Five Retailers Facing The Biggest Headwinds In 2016

As early sales numbers began to roll in last week – the results were a shade grim for retail players longer entrenched on the commercial landscape.

So going into 2016, who are the consensus hurting puppies?

According to USAToday the ones to watch are Macy’s, Nordstrom’s, Aeropostale, Sears and hhgregg.

The difficulties are Macy’s and Nordstrom’s were well documented last week – as an unexpectedly warm early winter combined with a sluggish supply chain and changing consumer shopping habits left both historic brands suffering flagging sales during the generally active holiday season.

But while they were the highest visibility sufferers in retail, they were far from alone.

Aeropostale is a teen retailer that has fallen behind the tastes of teens. In a store-rich environment, H&M, Zara, Forever 21 and now Primark (an U.K export) Aeropostale’s habit of stamping its brand name on everything fell out of favor. And though the style has recovered, consumer interest has not — a problem for a brand carrying 800 stores nationwide. Closures are expected as the bulk of analysts agree leanness is the brand’s best chance of remaining at all competitive.

Sears best asset in recent years has been its real estate holdings – and in 2016 that might not be enough to fend off falling revenue and same store sales. The firm’s impressive collection of real estate has – since last year – been being spun into a real estate trust (a move often recommended for the also ailing Macy’s)

The Kmart brand, also owned by Sears, is beset on all sides – Walmart, Target and Amazon being the three leading contenders to killing it off.

“They haven’t invested in display or merchandising,” one analyst noted. “They haven’t upgraded their stores. They really have just watched the business slowly dry up.”

All in, shares have fallen by nearly half in the past year and most believe that even real estate can not fend off Sears bigger problems with merchandise and consumer interest nearing an extinction point.

And then there’s hhgregg – not a terribly well known brand – as it is a regional chain with 227 stores scatter across 20 states in the South, Midwest and Mid Atlantic specializing in consumer electronics. It has seen same store sales fall 11 percent – with even bigger drops in appliance and consumer electronics sales (35 percent in personal computers).

The brand faces stiff competition from Best Buy and Amazon – and despite a major brand overhaul in 2014 it hasn’t made much headway against its larger electronics competitors. There has been a bright spot in its emerging home furnishings business – which saw 16 percent growth last quarter – but it has so far not been enough to keep investors happy and shares have fallen by 64 percent in the last year.

The company said it wouldn’t comment on business performance until earnings are officially out at the end of the month.