给百货商店唱挽歌？还早着呢

    梅西一直尤为擅长利用实体店面来促进电子商务的销售业绩，其方式是利用实体店来在线下单。而且这家零售商还将管理权下放，以便让区域分店在进货时有更多的话语权。梅西还开发了专门针对千禧一代的品牌，而且也让其大城市的店面成为了一线奢侈品牌的站点，例如路易•威登（Louis Vuitton）和D&G，从而帮助吸引更广泛的客户群体来店光顾。

    其他业绩稍逊一点的连锁店也证明了重要性。彭尼正逐渐走出2012年的高端化路线实验的阴影，该策略曾让销售业绩一路狂跌。彭尼是李维斯（Levi Strauss）品牌和VF Corp旗下Lee品牌牛仔系列最为重要的销售渠道之一。PVH的Izod也尤为倚重彭尼。（在彭尼深陷危机之时，VF、PVH和其他品牌给予了该公司极大的帮助，目的是为了保住这位重要的零售客户。当时，彭尼的销售业绩每季度的下降幅度达到了25%）

    分析人士称，近两年Kohl’s的所有问题都源于其店面较10年前翻了一番，而西尔斯的问题则主要归咎其自身。

    总体来说，百货商店终于开始意识到了电子商务和店面科技的改善（梅西和彭尼是首批在店面使用信标技术的百货公司）所能带来的机遇。尽管他们将继续面临挑战，尤其是商店客流量的长期下滑，但是有迹象表明，这些百货公司已经重新发现了与时俱进的方法。

    独立零售分析人士玛丽•德瑞斯科尔（Marie Driscoll）在最近为零售行业新闻通讯《The Robin Report》撰写的一篇文章中写道，“我们开始看到，百货店打出了创意牌，这一点令人欣慰。形势出现了逆转。应该会很有看头！”（财富中文网）

    译者：翔

    Macy’s has been particularly deft at using its physical stores to bolster its e-commerce by using them to help fill online orders, and the retailer has loosened its structure to give regional offices more say in what they buy for the stores. It has also developed brands specifically for millennials, and made its stores in bigger cities home to true luxury brands like Louis Vuitton and Dolce &Gabbana, helping it draw in a broader customers base.

    Other less successful chains have also proven how important they are. J.C. Penney, on the comeback trail after ditching its 2012 experiment of no sales and fancier wares, is one of the most important channels for Levi Strauss and VF Corp’s Lee brand of jeans. PVH’s Izod is also particularly reliant on Penney. (VF, PVH and others bent over backwards to help Penney out at the height of its crisis, when sales were falling 25% per quarter, lest they lose a major retail client.)

    For all its problems in the last two years, Kohl’s has twice as many stores as it did only a decade ago, and Sears’ problems are largely self-inflicted, analysts say.

    On the whole, department stores have finally woken up to the possibilities of e-commerce, and better in-store tech (Macy’s and Penney were among the first retailers to try out beacons in stores) While they continue to face challenges, not least of which is a secular drop in mall traffic, there are signs that department stores have rediscovered how to be relevant.

    “Thankfully we are beginning to see more creativity in the department store space,” independent retail analyst Marie Driscoll wrote in a recent post for retail industry newsletter The Robin Report. The pendulum is reversing. This could be fun!”