The exterior of the Kohl’s store in Paxton Town Center near Harrisburg. A customer walks with a Nike shopping bag.
Paul Weaver | SOPA Images | Emily Elkonin | Bloomberg | Getty Images
nike and kohls It may not be winning on Wall Street, but it is supported by a wide range of consumers. They are still considered the best in their category, according to a consumer sentiment survey released Thursday.
Consulting firm AlixPartners’ Consumer Sentiment Index surveyed 9,000 fashion shoppers, from Gen Z to Boomers, about the factors that drive their purchasing decisions and how retailers stack up against their competitors.
Nike was ranked the No. 1 active footwear retailer among all four generational cohorts: Gen Z, Millennials, Gen X, and Boomers. Legacy sneaker giant wins adidas and foot lockertied for second place, while emerging competitor On Running came in last among Gen Z and Millennials.
Kohl’s was the No. 1 department store choice among Gen Z and Baby Boomers, but Millennials nordstrom Generation X chose Macy’s.
This finding stands in contrast to Nike and Kohl’s recent performance. Nike expects sales to decline 8% to 10% this quarter. As of Wednesday’s close, the company’s stock price has fallen 26% since the beginning of the year, as investors brace for a long road to recovery under new CEO Elliott Hill.
Meanwhile, Kohl’s expects sales to fall 4% to 6% this fiscal year as the department store grapples with larger existential issues as it tries to maintain its presence. As of Wednesday’s close, the company’s stock price was down 32% since the beginning of the year.
Sonia Lapinski, head of global fashion practice at AlixPartners and author of the report, told CNBC that the findings, along with the companies’ recent performance, show Nike and Kohl’s are at a critical juncture. spoke. The results show that consumers remain firmly loyal to their retailers, but that benefit could quickly disappear if problems are not diagnosed and fixed quickly.
“The data tells us what’s important to Nike consumers. It’s all about innovation, technical quality, product and quality.” [the competitors] They’re growing super fast… They’re known for innovation, they’re known for product development, and they’re doing it much faster than we know Nike does it,” Lapinski said. said.
She said this is a similar situation at Kohl’s. Although Kohl’s has changed its assortment strategy several times over the years, it has won over consumers with competitive prices.
Consumers “still think they have the best product price combination. They still have contracts. They probably love Kohl’s dollars,” Lapinski said. “Now let’s make their experience when they come into the store one that keeps them coming back and actually drive sales.”
Walking the inventory tightrope
Alix’s Consumer Sentiment Report reveals many other findings that retailers should keep in mind as we enter the critical holiday shopping season, including the top factors driving shoppers to competitors. The majority of consumers surveyed, 66% of respondents, said they would shop at another retailer if the item they were looking for was not in stock.
“The words ‘right product, right place, right time’ ring in every retail boardroom, but as retailers expand their online assortments and marketplaces to attract new customers and traffic, “It’s becoming increasingly difficult to avoid the frustration of shoppers who can’t find their size or buy the item they want in-store,” the report states.
For example, the report says, based on a sample set of 30 retailers, on average, only 9% of a retailer’s online assortment is available in-store.
“It’s clear why consumers are dissatisfied. Macy’s.com has 24,000 women’s tops available online, but customers who walk into New York City’s Herald Square flagship store can’t get their hands on them. There are only 2,500 women’s tops available,” the report said. “for gap comFor women, 158 tops and T-shirts are available for purchase online, but only 50 can be picked up at the Herald Square store. ”
Retailers want to stand out and get noticed online and are starting to offer broader digital assortments. But when consumers return to the store, they expect to see the same products on the shelves.
Replicating digital inventory in-store is too expensive and impractical, so retailers need to be able to predict what inventory to place where to help consumers find what they’re looking for in-store. There is.
“This is the perfect recipe for determining where AI should appear,” Lapinski said. “They need to be very smart about where their customers are going, what they’re looking for, and have better analytics and in some cases AI models that predict what customers want. And they need to do the following: A similar view of what consumers do by store location, store cluster, and store region. It gives you a good idea of what you’re likely looking for.
