Corporate Governance

A number of retailers saw changes at the top this past year. Here are the ones I found the most interesting:

Abercrombie & Fitch: The abrupt departure of longtime chief Michael Jeffries presents the former teen powerhouse with an opportunity to bring in a badly needed breath of fresh air.

In his day, no one could touch Jeffries, whose transformation of Abercrombie into a cool, exclusive club is a textbook example of brilliant, holistic retail branding. But Jeffries failed to keep up with the changing times. He seemed blind to the recession.

Female executives make their mark on the world of retail IT

It’s no secret that neither the retail industry nor the technology industry has exactly achieved parity when it comes to granting women access to top-level decision-making positions. According to a report from IIC Partners, 64% of retailers said their senior executive team was less than 25% female — despite the fact that women drive a whopping 85% of all consumer purchases.

Women are famously underrepresented in technology.

Retailers expected online sales to hit record levels in 2014 and did they ever.

New all-time highs for e-commerce sales are now expected for the November through December time frame following a strong surge in sales during the final week before Christmas, according to the digital measurement firm comScore.

Seattle – It was a very mobile holiday season for Amazon.com. Nearly 60% of Amazon.com customers shopped using a mobile device this holiday.     Mobile shopping accelerated as customers got later into the shopping season. Cyber Monday continues to be Amazon.com’s peak mobile shopping day. On Cyber Monday, Amazon customers worldwide ordered more than 18 toys per second from a mobile device.  

New York - The day after Christmas (Dec. 26) posted the highest traffic for online shopping, with 125 points, since the 2014 holiday shopping season began. According to Verizon Retail Index data, year-over-year, traffic attributed to online shopping was on par (125) with the same day in 2013.  

  Dallas - Corner Bakery Cafe has signed a five-restaurant deal in Virginia with franchise partner Shahid Ali and operating partner Ibo Pinar. The stores will open throughout Richmond and Fredericksburg.   Corner Bakery Cafe plans on doubling its national footprint of more than 180 stores in the next two years. To accomplish this goal, the retailer is adding new multi-unit franchise partners and currently has franchise agreements representing commitments for an additional 340 units.

The 2014 holiday season has shown how shoppers’ growing preference for e-commerce can be challenging for retailers. By offering customers free shipping and ever-faster delivery, and by handling the higher rates of return that often come with e-commerce, retailers potentially face either reduced profit margins or loss in market share if they don’t keep up with customer preferences.

As they plan for 2015, many retailers will consider how they can provide a seamless customer experience that fundamentally helps them to maintain or improve profit margins.

Walgreens is poised to start 2015 off with a bang, as the company has nearly finalized its mega-deal with Alliance Boots.

Walgreens shareholders voted to approve all proposals related to the company’s acquisition of the remaining 55% of Alliance Boots that it does not currently own and the reorganization of the company into a holding company structure.