Strategy

We sat down with chief executives and senior managers from 20 retail real estate companies at the ICSC New York National Deal Making show in December, and each and every one had something to say about e-commerce competition. Something, but not the same thing. They fell into two groups.

There were those who said that online retail’s magnitude was greatly overblown. They held that the media over-covered online sellers and placed them on a lofty perch not backed by the facts. They had a point.

PREIT CEO Joseph Coradino is pursuing a take-charge course in dealing with department store attrition, announcing that his company is actively pursuing replacements for three Sears anchors he expects to close in 2017.   

CBL announced that it has a replacement anchor lined up for the Macy’s store closing at its Layton Hills Mall in Utah, one of 63 Macy’s locations slated to be shuttered this spring. One other Utah Macy’s is scheduled to close at Cottonwood Mall in Salt Lake City.   

The partnership between the U.S. Postal Service and Staples has come to an end.   The program started as a pilot in late 2013 and was eventually expanded to about 500 Staples locations. It effectively placed mini post-offices in the chain’s stores, with Staples’s non-union employees providing some of the same services that the Postal Service’s union employees performed.      

New Yorkers will have a new way to browse Amazon’s best-selling book titles — in a physical store.   Later this year, the retail giant will open a book store in Manhattan’s Shops at Columbus Circle, in the Time Warner Center, according to ReCode.  

Turning big data, social media challenges into growth opportunities

As 2017 gets underway, digital disruption continues to drive — and transform — the industry.

Besides creating a more consumer-centric, web-enabled shopping experience, digital innovations — from the Internet of Things to mobility to social media — are altering retail operations. They are also generating new challenges that retailers are unaccustomed to, or worse, still unprepared for.

Trending Stores:

Sears Holdings Corp. is seeking to stop its bleeding and raise more cash by closing another 104 stores and selling its iconic Craftsman tools brand.   The struggling retailer said it has reached an agreement to sell Craftsman to Stanley Black & Decker for a net present value of about $900 million, including future royalty payments. Sears, which will continue to sell Craftsman products, had put the brand, along with its Kenmore and DieHard brands, up for sale several months ago.