Marketing Tactics

As we look at the white hot commercial real estate market, it’s clear that value-add and opportunistic investors are chasing deals in new asset classes and locations that are less than ideal. And it makes sense: they are return-driven, happy to take more risks to chase higher yields. But when the market inevitably comes down, they’ll have more to lose.

A first-of-it-kinds promotion involving Dick’s Sporting Goods and highlighting the capabilities of the UbeRUSH delivery service vows to have championship T-shirts in the hands of Carolina Panthers or Denver Broncos fans less than two hours after the Super Bowl ends.

Party City Holdco Inc. is looking to broaden its e-commerce reach.

The 900-store, vertical operator of the Party City and Halloween City party goods chains is launching a new e-commerce partnership with Staples Inc. Products manufactured and sourced by Party City will be merchandised and sold on Staples.com.

A high single digit decline in retail traffic in November and early December caused retailers to cut orders of HanesBrands products, but not enough to keep the leading apparel suppliers from posting impressive profit growth and its third consecutive year of record sales.

HanesBrand’s fourth quarter sales woes highlight the weather related difficulties experienced by retailers, the negative effect on traffic and the subsequent margin pressure that was created as retailers had to intensify promotional activity to move merchandise.

While rumors of Amazon launching a chain of physical bookstores seem to be exaggerated, there is no question that pure-play retailers are beginning to make inroads into the brick-and-mortar channel. Over the past couple of years, e-tailers as diverse as Warby Parker, Bonobos and Birchbox have not only opened stores, but committed themselves to expanding in the space.

Here are a few good reasons for virtual enterprises to consider selling items in a “real” environment.

Buy Online, Pickup at Your Store

A first-of-it-kinds promotion involving Dick’s Sporting Goods and highlighting the capabilities of the UbeRush delivery service vows to have championship T-shirts in the hands of Carolina Panthers or Denver Broncos fans less than two hours after the Super Bowl ends.

A digital consumer touch-point long thought to offer little in the way of “hard” ROI appears to be changing that trend.

According to a study of aggregated, anonymized U.S. traffic and revenue data from Kibo (the new company created from the merger of MarketLive, Shopatron and Fiverun), there was a 138% increase in total social revenue during 2015 compared to 2014.

Fabletics, the fashion athletic brand co-founded by actress Kate Hudson, is setting up shop in the nation’s largest shopping mall.

The retailer is set to open at Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota, this spring. The 2,000-sq.-ft. store will feature the brand’s signature fashion-forward activewear for women and also its new line of men’s high performance athletic gear and lifestyle basics.

Fabletics was launched online in 2013. It made the leap to brick-and-mortar in fall 2015, and currently operates six stores.