Developers and Planners are Rethinking the Mall Concept

University Village in Seattle offers a vast
assortment of open-air shopping and dining...
and umbrellas when it rains.
Via dailycandy.com

City Creek Center in Salt Lake City is the only enclosed mall to be built in the United States since 2006, according to the International Council of Shopping Centers. 

The campus design is a trend that's not letting up. The campus design includes shopping, dining, residential, and office spaces all within the same compound — creating an all-encompassing shopping experience where people may either work, live, shop, and eat, or all of the above. Since 2011, approximately 66 percent of all retail space being built has been a part of a mixed-use project, or campus design. 

What this demonstrates is the kind of comprehensive shopping experience consumers are preferring. The days of wandering into the mall and emerging 20 hours later, not knowing if it will be light or dark out, are gone. People want to breathe the air, wander, stop in and eat, and feel like they're a part of a community. And that's exactly what these campus designs create — a sense of community. 

They also offer a level of versatility and freedom. Walking around outside doesn't necessarily mimic the chore-like feeling of having to run into the mall for errands. An open-air shopping center feels lighter, more relaxed. 

While the buildings for these projects tend to be cookie-cutter, the space that opens welcomes a variety of entrepreneurs that are both unique and flavorful, and it makes shopping, whether downtown or outside the city, more accessible. And accessibility, almost more than anything, is the way into the new consumer's heart.  

For more information on this new kind of retail space, please click here.   

Retail: Motivating the Sale

Shoppers want value. And, they want it at a good price. That's nothing new, but the ways in which retailers are able to offer that to their customers is changing. 

For those of you that shop online, you may know about certain websites that feature brand-name products for a fraction of the price... but only for a limited time. Websites such as Gilt Groupe, HauteLook, ASOS, and ShopBop, are a few of those that are encouraging faster shopping decisions and motivating sales. 

Why is this so wildly successful? Well...

1. Every second counts! Must buy before sales ends

1. Timeframe forces shoppers to make quicker buying decisions.

2. Limited number of items available encourages shoppers to scope out the sales as soon as they start. Gotta get the goods before everyone else! Plus, they need to make their decisions quickly, what if someone else 3000 miles away is looking at the same product and it happens to be the last one? 

2. Only 2 left?! Gotta have it!

3. Shoppers see the original price of each item and what they're saving (which is sometimes as high as an 80% markdown). Classic strategy to build sales and customer loyalty. 

4. Items that are "sold out" are still visible to shoppers. They see what the most popular items were and what they missed, and are motivated to check in more often. 

5. Most websites send out daily emails to subscribers about newest promotions. Shopping is just a click away instead of having to seek out sales on their own. I mean, the email is already in their inbox... why not just take a few minutes to see if there's anything they like? 

6. When shopping, results can be filtered so customers don't have to sift through to find their sizes that are available. It's quick and easy. 

6. Quickly filter to make shopping even easier.

7. Return policies aren't unreliable, enabling shoppers to spend that money confidently knowing that if it doesn't work out, they can return it or exchange it for something else. That's another doozy for building customer loyalty. 

Online retailers are capitalizing on classic sales strategies that have been used in the stores for years. And still today, motivating the sale and using promotional messaging in the store is arguably more effective than its online alternative. It's savings and instant gratification. 

Retailers that frequently promote their products through sales and special offers get customers shopping in their aisles more often. A great example of a brick and mortar is Nordstrom Rack. Nordstrom Rack offers last season's designer clothes at a cheaper price. The catch is that they're moving a lot of merchandise frequently so shoppers have to keep checking back to get the best deals. And if you've ever been in a Nordstrom Rack (especially on a Saturday) you know what we're talking about. It's madness. Shopping madness. 

Motivating the sale is easy. Retailers just have to make their shoppers feel that they're getting the best deal available to them. A competitive catch is great, too. If a shopper feels like they've found the best deal and they've beaten others to the punch, there's nothing more satisfying. 

*All images from Gilt.com and HauteLook.com

Nordstrom: Switching It Up for 2013

Nordstrom: Savvy Spring Trends from GOODLOOKIN.TV on Vimeo.

Nordstrom makes changes to accommodate the 2013 shopper. 

“It’s no longer about me (retailer) telling you (customer) what I think you want. It’s now about reacting to what you tell me you want, and at a price you think is worthwhile,” said Marshal Cohen, chief industry analyst at market-research firm The NPD Group. “Nordstrom is saying, ‘We need to compete in the 21st Century.’”

And, they are now. Where there used to be a department gap between the teenage Brass Plum and the adult's Individualist, TBD, and Savvy, now exists a new Savvy. A revamped Savvy that offers stylish, fast-turnover clothes for 20- and 30-something women at an affordable price. 

The Savvy department used to offer high-fashion, high-priced clothes that averaged around $150 and was targeting 20- and 30-somethings. The only problem? Not all women that age can afford those prices, and those that can, don't necessarily want to pay that anyway. Particularly with how quickly fashion changes. And that dilemma forced those shoppers to go elsewhere. Nordstrom was losing that critical demographic to stores like H&M and Zara and Forever 21. They needed a solution. 

That's why last month they unveiled a newly restyled Savvy. Now averaging at $50 throughout the department, the clothes are for the woman that's "ready for the weekend". The new Savvy has introduced new brands to the Nordstrom family, such as MinkPink and BlankNYC, along with newly created Nordstrom brands like Leith and TILDON. They are also offering a more comprehensive look: selling jewelry and scarves so shoppers don't have to go elsewhere to find matching accessories. It's taken the Brass Plum model, refined it, and applied it to an older demographic. Brands that were originally sold in Savvy, such as Marc by Marc Jacobs and Haute Hippie, have now been dispersed throughout other departments for continued availability so as not to muddle the message of the new look.

The importance of this shift for Nordstrom? They're recognizing that their shoppers have changed, or at least their shoppers' shopping habits have changed. What's great about this shift? The new brands and clothes still fit in well with the Nordstrom style. They stayed true to themselves and their customers.  It's a good move for them, and they've received quite a bit of positive feedback since opening last month. Nordstrom shoppers have a tendency to be quite loyal and this is another way to expand that loyalty to include more 2013 shoppers of all ages. 

(On a side note: I happen to be a loyal Nordstrom shopper and a 20-to-30-something. I went and checked out the new Savvy department last week... I left with six new pieces of clothing. I think they'll continue to do well for themselves...)

For more information on Nordstrom and Savvy, please click here. 

Target and FEED Projects: A Feel-Good and Do-Good Kind of Collaboration

Target, well known for their collaborations with high-end designers and fashion houses, is engaging in a new kind of partnership. Target just announced its partnership with FEED Projects, a company that sells simplistic burlap bags whose proceeds help feed children through the United Nations World Food Program. The new line will be introduced this June. 

Target has already set a goal to donate 10 million meals to hungry Americans through this collection. 

FEED Projects, started by former model Lauren Bush Lauren, works to deliver goods to shoppers that makes them feel good about shopping and is for a good cause. FEED Projects has collaborated with other retailers in the past, including Gap, Bergdorf Goodman, and Pottery Barn, but the Target announcement is the largest to date. 

Together, they will create a collection that includes 50 pieces across multiple categories -- bags, jewelry, kitchenware, pillows, iPhone cases, etc. Many of which will include the stenciled FEED logo and a number demarcating how many meals that product donates. 

"Target (has) such a massive reach that we (FEED Projects) just don't have," Lauren says. "So it's wonderful when we can partner with Target to really just blow it out and have such a big impact in a short amount of time."

Through this collaboration, Target is also hoping to attract the attention of a certain consumer: the Millenial. The collection is designed to target college-aged shoppers and caters to the kinds of products Millenials are purchasing. Namely, products that serve a good cause. According to Cone Communications, a public relations company that helps businesses carry out cause-marketing and corporate social responsibility efforts, "81% of consumers want companies to give them a chance to buy a product that benefits a certain cause." Cone's research also stated, "85% of 18-to-24-year-olds said they were likely to pick one brand over another of the same quality if one supported a good cause."

Sounds like the Target and FEED Projects partnership is a recipe for success. The socially conscious collection is set to launch on June 30th.

To read more, please click here. 

To visit the FEED Projects website, click here. 

Lexmark Acquires AccessVia

Jonathon Moulton and Dean A. Sleeper
(way) back in the day. Circa 1995; The White Party

http://newsroom.lexmark.com/2013-03-05-Lexmark-acquires-Twistage-and-AccessVia

Whoa!

While I’m really drawn to the idea of leaving it at just that, you know I can't…

I will openly admit I had no idea what I was doing when AccessVia began. I mean, I knew a few things, but there was no grand strategy of where we would go or who we would become. I suppose that’s made obvious given the fact we began in 1985 as a creative services agency, and the vast majority of you know us as a software company.

When our fun little “non-ad agency” began leveraging desktop publishing technologies in the mid- 80’s, it was really just to reduce phototypesetting costs. But, it seemed a rather conspicuous automation opportunity. So we started to help big companies take data inside their big computers and make it pop out of little laser printers connected to little computers. We took the existing 6-week processes and made them happen in hours. Seemed pretty cool and customers were delighted.

One very late night, while Jonathon Moulton and I were finishing up one of those projects, we ran out of beer. I drew the short straw and ended up at the nearest QFC to grab a six-pack (probably Rainier). That’s when I noticed the shelf labels and saw a monstrous database publishing issue. Within a week, we had a prototype. I went to QFC headquarters in Bellevue, WA to see if they'd like to change the way they did signs and labels. Turns out they did. Over the next two decades… so did over 60,000 other stores.

As we began to be kind of a big deal, it became obvious that every company that wanted our software also wanted a printer. While it was charming to run around in Eric Bedell’s beater with a PostScript laser printer (that was likely more valuable than his car), it was obvious there were some innovations that needed to happen. We found an amazing partner in Lexmark that really allowed us to change the game.

Over the course of the last 20 years, we’ve done business with Lexmark virtually every day. We have long admired the company and respected their business, their technology... but most of all their people. These folks have heart, which is oh-so-rare at their scale. We are tickled beyond belief to know we are a part of their dream!

No two companies have helped more retailers change the way they execute item and price messaging than Lexmark and AccessVia. Now, add to that our new friends at Perceptive Software. This powerhouse of innovation in the areas of Content Management and Business Process Automation is central to Lexmark's strategy. The possibilities for all of our customers from this connection have us all “a-flutter” and our initial gatherings with them indicate a long and rich future as well.

I am so deeply proud of my team and so profoundly honored by Lexmark’s desire to combine our forces. Together we have already driven innovation in our space for many years. But up until – well, last week – AccessVia has always been a David amongst Goliaths: a force by virtue of bright, motivated people, and innovative thinking. The possibilities now are on a much grander scale. And if you think we are going to ride off into the sunset, you have severely underestimated us. We are not done by any measure. We actually see this as a beginning. 

Another magical thing is happening in this combination. Lexmark is steadily re-inventing itself as a solutions company vs. just a printer company. While most customers still use our software to ”print“, we always knew that it was a publishing platform, not a printing platform. Together, we will be a powerful force in evolving what had been exclusively a print application, into a robust and dynamic, multi-channel publishing platform. The places and circumstances where a retailer needs to communicate item and price information is already proliferating, but will continue to evolve and result in a massive transformation in the coming years. You have my word, we will be surfing the very largest wave of that change. And a little tip... there's a whole lot more that retailers need to change to address the new consumer. There’s a whole lot more retailers can do to “Lift Sales & Cut Costs”. And where there's a need, you can rest assured that there's a long-term strategic R&D plan here to help. Some very exciting things are on the table and we cannot wait to bring more innovation to retail.

If you thought AccessVia did some cool things as a tiny, little kitty...just wait to see what this big Kat can do with global scale and reach.

Stay tuned!

The Blessed and Immensely Grateful Very Potentate,

Dean A. Sleeper

Dean A. Sleeper, The Very Potentate of the Eternal Order of AccessVia and Vice President of Global Retail Software Solutions for Lexmark

Dean has over 25 years of experience in the retail industry and keen eye that recognizes what works in retail and what doesn’t. His honed perspective is a crucial asset in this industry. His input, as both poignantly accurate and insightful, delivers truths about what is happening in the retail world, with a hint of sardonicism when necessary. He embodies the AccessVia slogan: Lift Sales. Cut Costs.

For more information, please visit AccessVia and Lexmark 

Macy's Herald Square: Menus, Meals, and Meatballs

Iconic flagship location. Photo from 1906.
Via Ephemeral New York

Macy's is redefining the shopping experience at their Herald Square location. The flagship store will now carry everything from women's shoes to home goods to an upscale dining experience on the sixth floor. 

Stella 34 Trattoria, a new 260-seat restaurant, is set to open next week and is all part of Macy's $400 million dollar makeover of their flagship store. In an area where good dining is scarce, Macy's is attempting to create a destination restaurant for shoppers and foodies alike. There will be a separate elevator entrance for Stella 34 and it will be open long past business hours -- demonstrating that this isn't just a ploy to get more shoppers in their departments... it's about good food, too. 

The restaurant occupies a 10,000-square foot space that used to house merchandise. Its windows had been blackened out to protect stored products, but now, with that black paint scraped away the space has been transformed into an all-white trattoria with a view of the Empire State Building. Who knew?

Stella 34's menu will include all of the traditional favorites: meatballs, margherita pizza, linguine and Caesar salad -- all of which have been developed by Jonathan Benno, the executive chef at Lincoln Ristorante in Lincoln Center. The space will also include a prosecco bar, a lounge, a takeout area, and a gelato counter. 

While this isn't the first time the Macy's flagship has integrated food into the shopping mix, Stella 34 represents a new kind of approach to pairing dining and shopping. Namely, because it's not aiming to explicitly pair the two. Instead, they're opening a nice, new restaurant that happens to be in the same building as their department store. I'm sure the move is more strategic than that, but it speaks to the new kind of experience Macy's has been working to facilitate over the last few years. 

And it's been paying off... literally. Macy's just announced a 7% increase in their fiscal fourth-quarter -- most of which has been accredited to their recent reorganization and omnichannel facilitation of the shopping experience. Stella 34 Trattoria is another move in the right direction. And, it sounds like it's going to have pretty good eats, too. 

For more information on Stella 34 and Macy's at Herald Square, please click here. 

Google Gets Real

There's talk of a Google brick-and-mortar store. Online reports on 9to5Google were released Friday, citing an unnamed, "extremely reliable" source. 

"Google feels right now that many potential customers need to get hands-on experience with its products before they are willing to purchase," the report stated. 

Couldn't agree more, which is why the myth that e-commerce is the end of brick-and-mortar can't stand on its own two feet. 

A Google store would enable customers to go and get a feel (literally) for what they're about to buy instead of just reading about it online. While many stores already carry Google products, it's not the retailer's job to promote specific lines so much as it is to just sell more products. A Google store would increase concentration on their physical products and, ultimately, increase sales. 

Google stores are reported to open before the 2013 Holiday Season. While nothing is confirmed, it sounds like this "extremely reliable" source knows what it's talking about and is confident in this move for Google. 

To read more on the potential Google stores, please click here.