Footwear Manufacturers In 2020 Need To Focus On Those Areas To Achieve Further Growth.

Few people would say that 2019 was a great year for the entire retail industry. In 2019, we saw Forever 21 and Barnes (Barneys) enter the bankruptcy process in the United States. According to Coresight Research, in 2019, only 9300 stores in the United States closed.

Of course, not all companies are gloomy, but some companies did very well in 2019, such as emerging brands such as AllBirds and Boohoo Group, or global giants such as Zara and Amazon.

In order to avoid a repeat of the 2019 retail disaster, what can other companies learn to drive growth in 2020 and beyond?

Inventory management

The starting point of retail success is the right product, which provides the right customers with the goods they need at the right time. Unfortunately, for many retail companies, inventory management in 2019 is not the foundation of success, but the foundation of failure.

Although companies like Zara have established a data driven supply chain, they are able to understand consumer needs and trends and react quickly. But many companies have increased their SKU (Stock Keeping Unit, inventory unit) volume, trying to chase sales, but this is actually creating an almost impossible task for themselves, because they hardly know what consumers want, and the result is a continuous discount on goods.

We track the sales price of more than 150 brands / retailers for Mallzee Insights. In 2019, over 50% of the products were discounted at some point in their life cycle, indicating that many companies are continuing to "display" their bad inventory management skills and invest in products that are not salable.

Sustainability

2019 is the year when the climate crisis is not only a retail industry, but also the forefront and center of global consciousness. Extinction Rebellion and other organizations have led the major cities to stagnate. Greta Tenberg, the advocate of climate change activities (Great Thurnberg), has been named the year's figure.

As people pay attention to the climate crisis, and how one of the most polluted sectors in the world becomes more sustainable, fashion retailing has rapidly become the focus of attention.

Patagonia (Patagonia) is the leader in this field, which sells recycled products and buys investments in the environment. Primark, a fast fashion retailer in Britain, strongly emphasizes its environmental qualification in Bermingham's flagship store and vigorously promotes its sustainable procurement methods.

In 2020, because consumers are increasingly concerned about the brand's sustainable reputation, focusing on a more sustainable approach is not only more commercial to retailers, but also necessary for the whole world.

Brand story

The success of enterprises like Allbirds, Everlane and Away depends to a certain extent on their excellent products. But if they do not design a brand story that is really relevant to consumers and tell it in a way which is hard to ignore, will they really succeed?

This ability to tell stories is much easier for new brands, but if you want to maintain market position, this is also something that big companies can't ignore. In 2020 and beyond, the story of the brand is as important as the product itself.

Optimizing marketing performance

In the final analysis, modern marketing is a deep understanding of target consumers so as to establish connections between them and your brand. If you don't know who the consumer is, how can you really establish meaningful connections with them? Digital tools can make things easier and easier. Retailers tend to claim that they know their customers, but they do not really understand them. This may lead to the waste of marketing expenses due to marking products to the wrong consumers.

Store control

For many years, the development strategy of retail enterprises has been to open more and more stores. However, with the rapid decline of offline shopping volume, this has brought huge problems to many retailers. Their location of signing contracts is bad, the rent is high, but the fundamental purpose is to seek growth. In 2020, companies need to look deeper at their store plans, and online sales are growing. But how can offline / online cooperation provide the most profitable results for their businesses? Answering this question is not easy. Companies may need to rethink how to look at offline stores and what they provide for brands.

There is no doubt that 2019 is the darkest year of retail industry in recent years. To make the industry rebound in 2020, traditional retailers need to think more smartly, solve these 5 problems and learn from excellent business models. This is a good starting point.