Today in Retail: Shoppers Increasingly Interested in Tailored Online Shopping; More MLB, NFL Teams Adding Self-Service Options

Today in retail, Dick’s Sporting Goods sees customers choose in-person shopping over eCommerce, while Nordstrom will soon shut its Trunk Club for increased focus on in-store and online style advisors. Plus, Urban Outfitters watches digital commerce segment drop as more shoppers come to brick-and-mortar locations.

How the World Does Digital: Network Effects Snowball Into Greater Digital Engagement

The digital transformation we’re now undergoing as a planet relies on the power of network effects to bring up the level of digital engagement to attain its greatest potential.

We explore this in Benchmarking The World’s Digital Transformation, a PYMNTS and Stripe collaboration, a quarterly measure of 15,100 respondents in 11 nations showing the progress made in embracing 40 key activities across the 10 broad categories of the PYMNTS ConnectedEconomy Index (CE Index) — what we call the “pillars” of the connected economy — in their daily lives from shopping to dining to how they pay.

In the inaugural study we see how picking up one digital behavior — be it subscribing to a retail box or using buy now, pay later (BNPL) for the first time — leads to more engagement.

The Data Point: 36% of Shoppers Keen on Tailored Online Shopping Experiences

With a tailored approach to personalization, sites and sellers use first-party data combined with other signals to create customer-centric, friction-free shopping experiences that convert.

In “The Tailored Shopping Experience: Meeting Consumer’s Online Expectations,” a collaboration with Elastic Path, PYMNTS surveyed nearly 2,100 U.S. consumers, we found that consumers now expect online merchants and brands to not only know their preferences but allow the shopper to personalize as they go.

With fast deliveries, free shipping and product recommendations that reflect knowledge of preferred price points and previously viewed or purchased items add to seamlessness and elevate the experience to align with evolving online shopper expectations.

China COVID Lockdowns Hamper iPhone Production

Apple has ordered its suppliers to pick up the pace of iPhone development after COVID-19 lockdown protocols in China slowed the schedule for at least one of its phones.

Lockdowns stemming from China’s zero-COVID policy led iPhone assembler Pegatron to suspend operations earlier this year at its plants in Shanghai and Kushan. Apple said that, in the worst-case scenario, the manufacturing schedule and initial production volumes of new phones will be hindered.

This isn’t the first time COVID has disrupted iPhone production. Last year, the spread of the virus in Vietnam led to delivery delays of the iPhone 13. In that case, the delay was mainly based on limited supplies of camera modules.

MLB, NFL Venues Digitize Concessions With Next-Gen Self-Service

Retail technology company Gallery Carts has announced a partnership with digital component manufacturer Falkbuilt to make it easier to build grab-and-go kiosks for live event venues. The technology is up and running at the San Diego Padres’ Petco Park and is soon to go live at Nissan Stadium (home of the Tennessee Titans) and Allegiant Stadium (home of the Las Vegas Raiders).

Throughout this year, sporting arenas have been bringing their concessions into the 21st century with new technologies. Amazon and Instacart are among those stepping up the checkout experience with next-gen self-service systems.

PYMNTS research from last year’s study “Today’s Self-Service Shopping Journey: The New Retail Expectation,” created in collaboration with Toshiba, for which PYMNTS surveyed over 2,000 U.S. consumers about their shopping behavior, found that a third of grocery customers used self-checkout options for their most recent in-store purchase. Two-thirds of these shoppers opted for self-checkout because it was faster than checking out with a cashier.

Kohl’s to Launch 100 Small Format Stores in Untapped Markets

Kohl’s said Wednesday (May 25) that it was launching a sweeping store investment program that will see the addition of 100 new small-format locations over the next four years. The announcement marks the latest effort by the embattled operator of 1,100 stores to reinvigorate sales and move beyond a bruising two-year effort to oust the current board and shake up company operations.

“The average Kohl’s store of around 80,000 square feet is too large for many small markets,” the company’s presentation said, noting that the rollout of the new 35,000-square-foot locations follows the successful pilot of 20 small-format locations.

By shrinking its footprint, the Wisconsin-based department store chain said it gains flexibility needed to enter new neighborhoods and provide a “hyper-localized experience” that reflects each community’s particular needs.

Dick’s Digital Declines as Customers Return to Stores

Dick’s Sporting Goods doesn’t expect the struggles it reported in the first quarter of 2022 to get much better during the rest of the year, saying it sees comparable store sales struggling to break even during the rest of this year after an 8.4% drop in Q1.

The retailer pointed to “evolving macroeconomic conditions” as the reason it foresees comparable store sales dropping between 2% and 8% for the full year, according to a company press release Wednesday (May 25). The company’s net sales are up 41% over the first three months of 2019 levels.

In its 2021 report, Dick’s reported a 9% drop in its eCommerce business as more shoppers returned to their local brick-and-mortar stores in the last three months of the year.

Amazon Opens 1st Brick-and-Mortar Clothing Store in LA

Amazon has launched its first brick-and-mortar clothing store, which employs machine learning to help shoppers find what to wear.

The Los Angeles store, called “Amazon Style,” also lets customers shopping on the Amazon app try out their selections at the physical store, with the app letting them know when a fitting room is available.

The news comes as Amazon has begun mixing the eCommerce and physical retail worlds with a pilot program that has its drivers retrieve packages from stores at malls and for delivery at customers’ homes. A handful of retailers have taken part in the program, which involves malls in Virginia, Nevada and Arizona.

Urban Outfitters Sees Increased Foot Traffic, Dip in eCommerce Sales

With most COVID-19 pandemic restrictions lifted across North America and Europe, shoppers returned to Urban Outfitters stores in big numbers in the first quarter of fiscal 2022. Supply chain slowdowns, though, have changed the way the company is handling inventory for now.

Urban Outfitters — which includes Anthropologie, BHLDN, Free People, FP Movement, Terrain, Urban Outfitters, Nuuly and Menus & Venues — said its total inventory for the three-month period ending April 30 is up almost 32% ($152.2 million) year-over-year, and inventory costs increased 35% in that period because of supply chain snags, raw material cost hikes, longer lead times and lower-than-expected Q1 sales.

Urban Outfitters also reported double-digit growth in its retail store sales in its Q1 earnings report, a reflection of the lessening of quarantines and temporary store closures.

Nordstrom Drops Trunk Club Subscription Biz for in-Store, Online Style Advisors

Nordstrom’s eight-year run with its Trunk Club subscription business is coming to an end as the luxury retailer says it’s taking its customer styling efforts in a different direction, with greater emphasis on in-store and online fashion advice.

In announcing plans to “sunset” the brand that it acquired for $350 million in 2014, the Seattle-based retailer said the move was a reflection of customer demand.

Nordstrom said its styling program was a powerful engagement driver that brings both convenience and deeper customer connections to the brand, and said the strategic shift was a matter of redirecting resources to the services that customers value most.