{"id":6496,"date":"2018-07-24T14:38:47","date_gmt":"2018-07-24T14:38:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/?p=6496"},"modified":"2018-07-24T14:38:47","modified_gmt":"2018-07-24T14:38:47","slug":"closing-time-20-major-retailers-that-likely-wont-exist-in-10-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/2018\/07\/closing-time-20-major-retailers-that-likely-wont-exist-in-10-years\/","title":{"rendered":"Closing Time: 20 Major Retailers That Likely Won\u2019t Exist In 10 Years"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"Closing<\/div>\n

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Visit your favorite shopping mall \u2013 if you still have a favorite \u2013 and you can already see the seismic shift in retail taking place across the country. When was the last time you visited a Sports Authority, or RadioShack? What about bargain retailers like Payless Shoes, or kid-friendly stops like Gymboree?<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Those brands are either completely out of business or hanging by a thread, and they\u2019re not alone. I call them \u201cthe walking dead.\u201d So many big-name, traditional retailers are struggling, because they either can\u2019t or won\u2019t adapt to the modern retail market. In fact, I see at least 20 more major retailers closing up shop in the next ten years if they don\u2019t make major changes to the way they do business, and here\u2019s my list:<\/p>\n

1. JCPenny<\/strong><\/p>\n

2. Sears<\/strong><\/p>\n

3. Kmart<\/strong><\/p>\n

4. Macy\u2019s<\/strong><\/p>\n

5. Lowe\u2019s<\/strong><\/p>\n

6. Dick\u2019s<\/strong><\/p>\n

7. Kohl\u2019s<\/strong><\/p>\n

8. Bloomingdale\u2019s<\/strong><\/p>\n

9. Saks<\/strong><\/p>\n

10. Best Buy<\/strong><\/p>\n

11. Barnes and Noble<\/strong><\/p>\n

12. RadioShack<\/strong><\/p>\n

13. JCrew<\/strong><\/p>\n

14. Banana Republic<\/strong><\/p>\n

15. Claire\u2019s<\/strong><\/p>\n

16. Rite-Aid<\/strong><\/p>\n

17. Staples<\/strong><\/p>\n

18. Toys \u2018R Us<\/strong><\/p>\n

19. Lord & Taylor<\/strong><\/p>\n

20.\u00a0Abercrombie & Fitch<\/strong><\/p>\n

The first thing that should jump out about the list is that it features a little bit of everything. This isn\u2019t about one specific sector of retail taking a hit \u2013 it\u2019s about the entire idea of traditional retail being turned on its head. However, it\u2019s not as if the eCommerce revolution is a recent development. These are all brands that have had the opportunity to adapt but have failed to do so for different reasons.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s take the big-box stores like JCPenny, Sears, Kmart, and even Macy\u2019s first. What can you buy in any of those locations that you can\u2019t find conveniently online, and likely for a better price? But there\u2019s an even bigger challenge. Even if those brands were to have an epiphany and decide to handle eCommerce integration the right way starting tomorrow,\u00a0the Amazon effect is real<\/a>. They\u2019d have to compete with Amazon and countless other established online retailers that have been succeeding at the eCommerce thing for a long time. So, the big-box brands have to find a way to offer a better customer experience online, AND more importantly in their stores, but instead they mostly offer token eCommerce options, and vast cutbacks in service and options at the physical stores.<\/p>\n

The Bigger They Are\u2026<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Many of the retailers on the list, including RadioShack, Rite-Aid, Best Buy, Lowe\u2019s, Staples, and Dick\u2019s\u00a0are publicly traded companies<\/a>. Short-term financing is often tied heavily to stock price, and there\u2019s so much focus on how to band-aid issues to improve earnings for the next quarter that they completely lose sight of the bigger picture. It\u2019s not\u00a0easy\u00a0<\/em>to adapt to a changing retail marketplace, and the brands that do adapt have a long-term plan for eCommerce integration, coordinating omni-channel touch-points, and an understanding that the doorstep IS the new store shelf\u2026 with the patience to see it through.<\/p>\n

Quite a few of the brands on the list have already started\u00a0closing stores in large numbers<\/a>, including Toys \u2018R Us, Sears, JCPenny, Claire\u2019s and Kmart. And the stores that don\u2019t close are full of discounts, because selling your stuff for cheap is a classic knee-jerk reaction to losing business. Discounting is the ultimate band-aid, and plenty of brands have discounted themselves straight into oblivion. It\u2019s a short-term plan to address a fundamental, long-term problem, and it simply doesn\u2019t work.<\/p>\n

For many of the brands on the list, these struggles have been a long time coming.\u00a0Toys \u2018R Us<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0RadioShack<\/a>\u00a0each barely survived recent bankruptcy filings, and there are\u00a0more to come for other big-name retailers<\/a>. It has taken years for eCommerce to flower, but most traditional brands simply assumed that it was all about price, instead of studying all of the other things that make online retailers like Amazon successful. In short, they ignored one of the biggest cardinal rules of business\u2014differentiate or die\u2026 especially if your lack of differentiation adds no value.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s Still Time<\/strong><\/h3>\n

A few of these brands may survive in some form, especially if they\u2019re bought out by larger brands with a better grip on the realities of eCommerce, voice assisted shopping, and the fact that SIMPLICITY is the new EDLP! Make it easy for her\u2026 and she will buy it from you again and again and again. Frictionless fulfillment is the Retail of the future. Perhaps some will even adapt, put the customer experience first, and realize\u00a0why\u00a0<\/em>they\u2019ve really lost so much business in the first place. But for many others, the next decade will spell the end of a long run. It may not be easy to adapt, but plenty of brands have done it. The brands that don\u2019t will continue to become footnotes to retail history.<\/p>\n

I didn\u2019t come up with this list to smugly point my finger and say, \u201cI told you so.\u201d It\u2019s a bit sad to be witness to the end of an era. But it\u2019s even sadder to know that with a little foresight, and less hubris, some of the failures we\u2019ve already seen could have been prevented. I love it when companies develop a culture of innovation and excellence that revolves around paying close attention to the people most responsible for their success\u2014their customers. I think there\u2019s still time for some of our iconic brands to read the writing on the wall and make the kinds of changes that can make all the difference\u2026 but there must be a change in mindset and outlook..<\/p>\n

#RetailRelevancy<\/a>\u2026\u00a0#NoLetUp!<\/a><\/p>\n

Previously posted at\u00a0TedRubin.co<\/a>m<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Visit your favorite shopping mall \u2013 if you still have a favorite \u2013 and you can already see the seismic shift in retail taking place across the country. When was the last time you visited a Sports Authority, or RadioShack? What about bargain retailers like Payless Shoes, or kid-friendly stops like Gymboree?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6496","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tedrubin"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6496","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6496"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6496\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6497,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6496\/revisions\/6497"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6496"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6496"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6496"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}