I had the chance to listen to 8 major retailers present to a large audience in Las Vegas last week at ICSC. ICSC is, of course, the international gathering of commercial real estate groups. This "Retail Runway" presentation was meant to reassure the channel that while the economy is tough - there is still plenty of growth planned.
I'm not sure that message got through - or was believed - but oh well.
As I listened to executives from Pinkberry, Auto Zone, Wal-Mart, Darden Restaurants and the others I tried to listen for opportunities that maybe were being seized on now or maybe ones being missed. I heard both from Collective Brands.
Collective Brands as you know is Payless ShoeSource and Stride Rite. John Smith, Exec VP of Corporate Development from the company reminded us that they sell more shoes than Wal-Mart. What really perked my ears up was when he talked about using text messages to drive visits. If you text a certain number from your cell phone the ccompany will send you back a coupon good for discounts in their stores. Sounds like a very good idea! Since Payless leverages their brand on kids shoe sales - and who texts more than kids - this potentially is big. That said there was nothing on their website about this or how to find out - nothing at all. Maybe it is conceptual.
Now, the thing that made me go "hmmmm" was when John said that over 600,000,000 customers cross their threshold every year! A ton of people right? Then he casually mentioned that they use email marketing to reach their house file of 5,000,000 names. What? They have emails on only 1% of all the people that walk through their doors in just one year? That's criminal!
But - all too common in brick and mortar retail. Missing such a big opportunity is just wrong.
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