Brecksville's Davide Cotugno Executive Tailors has emerged, over the past couple of decades, as a destination shop for busy professionals seeking custom dress clothes and distinctive business attire.
When the pandemic forced an unprecedented shift in the number of people working from home, however, owner Davide Cotugno said the company immediately began mounting its defense — a focus on casual clothing.
Carefully curated soft-shell jackets, five-pocket jeans and cotton-blend chinos and sweaters are featured at the 1,700-square-foot showroom for the first time, alongside the store's trademark men's suits and accessories. Cotugno said his team also heightened its attention to women's casual attire, adding to a modest but growing ready-to-wear product line.
"We almost look at it as starting a new company," he said. "We are starting from scratch."
COVID has been a one-two-punch for Cotugno's shop, as it has for most independent retailers. First, there was the physical lockdown, when nonessential businesses were closed for two months in an effort to quell the outbreak. Perhaps more damaging has been the pandemic's lingering toll as many people have remained leery of shopping in stores.
This year, Cotugno estimates a 34% drop in revenue from 2019, which was a record-breaking sales year at the shop.
"That being said, our team is working three times harder for that business, and we have a very loyal clientele who are rallying for us," he said.
While the retail sector has made a pretty impressive comeback since the spring shutdown, the recovery is lopsided, according to Mark Matthews, vice president of research, development and industry analysis for the National Retail Federation. Through September this year, NRF finds, retail sales are up 5.8% over the first nine months of last year.
"This compares with an average growth per year of 3.8% for the last five years. So despite the pullback during the pandemic, retail is growing at faster pace than usual," Matthews said, adding that food and beverage (up 12%) and nonstore e-commerce sales (up 20%) are fueling much of that growth.
"Outperformance in these sectors has offset weaker growth in nonessential retail categories that were shut down during the early parts of the pandemic and while recovering, are still running behind last year's levels."
Amanda Weinstein, assistant professor of economics at the University of Akron, said small mom-and-pop businesses have suffered the worst, partly because many of them did not have the systems in place to quickly transition to online sales. This is perhaps most exaggerated in the restaurant category, she explained, where brands already heavily invested in digital ordering and delivery/takeout models — like Domino's Pizza — are seeing big gains even as restaurant sales overall remain in a slump.
"Big box and large restaurant retailers in many ways were ready for this because of their online accessibility," she said, "but it's been really hard for small businesses to adjust."
And the recession is exacerbating an uneven pandemic recovery, according to Weinstein, as consumers economize by buying in bulk at stores like Walmart and Costco, which can undercut smaller retailers.
"We hear a lot about how much the internet has been taking away market share from these mom and pops, but I think the big box shops have taken more business away from them than internet retailers at this point," she said.
Weinstein thinks that what she calls "service innovations" — as opposed to outright product or service pivots — have been the leading COVID response from small businesses owners. Most brick-and-mortar vendors allow customers to order items over the phone or online and pick them up in the store or curbside. Some will even deliver.
The Learned Owl Book Shop, a 50-year-old bookseller in Hudson, began offering free delivery to Hudson, Stow and Twinsburg during the shutdown. Owner Kate Schlademan said she had delivered books pre-COVID to a limited number of nursing homes and elderly customers. As people sheltered in place, however, she expanded the service to all area customers.
"At one point, I was spending about three hours a day making up to 30 deliveries," she said. "That has slowed down now to probably 15 to 20 deliveries a week. A lot are choosing in-store pickup, and we are also doing curbside pickup."
Schlademan said Summit County Public Health allowed The Learned Owl to stay open "with a very limited staff" during the shutdown because it provided books to schools. She credits that and free delivery with counterbalancing what could have been catastrophic losses.
To date, the store is about $90,000 short of where it was last year going into the holidays, and Schlademan anticipates 2020 revenue will be down 20% from 2019.
"I guess it could have been a whole lot worse," she said.
Of course, Cotugno is not alone in making more strategic changes as a result of the pandemic. Facing a shortage of donated cabinets, appliances, sinks and toilets — big sellers at ReStore outlets — the Greater Cleveland Habitat for Humanity began filling its two resale shops with new furniture earlier this year.
"People may have been cleaning out their closets and organizing during quarantine, but they were not redoing their kitchens or bathrooms," said president and CEO John Habat. "Those are great sources of donations for us, and they weren't coming in."
The nonprofit depends on ReStore margins to fund its homebuilding projects. To keep that money coming in despite a dearth of donated materials, "we improvised," Habat said, buying brand-name furniture from a bankruptcy liquidation sale.
"We have since started selling even more products that we purchased brand new for resale like rugs, pots and pans, and pillows and bedding. We ventured into these types of products just to keep our numbers up and keep our employees paid," he said.
The strategy is working: "Since reopening in May, every month's sales have averaged about 10% to 12% higher than the previous year's month," Habat said.
For startup Mine Stencils, the pivot has been in the way founder Kerri Butcher plans to roll out her eye shadow stencil collection.
"Initially we were more focused on getting into retailers and for women to try to sample the product," she said. "But it quickly became apparent that was not going to happen."
Butcher, a Cleveland-based finance executive by day, switched gears to a digital sales strategy. She pursued an Amazon Vendor Agreement, which will allow the e-commerce giant to sell Mine Stencils directly once she gets the products uploaded into its system.
Butcher also created a series of video tutorials on how to use the stencils, aiming to release those via social media outlets and capitalize on the recent spike in eye shadow sales as makeup users focus more "above the mask."
It's been a far bumpier road for Play: CLE, an indoor adventure park in Avon. Greg Carlin, who opened Play: CLE in late 2017, said the site reopened for about two months following the mandated spring shutdown but then closed to the public voluntarily to focus on private events and parties.
"For last couple of years, we have handled well over 500 events a year," he said, "but it would be really tough to do so indefinitely."
It reopened for general admission a second time in October, after, Carlin said, the company felt more comfortable about how it could safely manage guests.
Self-imposed capacity limits are the latest pivot for Play: CLE and its sister park in Columbus. The buildings have occupancy allowances of over 700 people, and their obstacles and activities are inherently social distanced, according to Carlin.
Still, no more than 100 users, spectators and staff are allowed at either location at any one time, a ceiling that rarely — "if ever" — is reached, he said.
The challenge remains, Carlin added, convincing people they can be as comfortable coming into a place like Play: CLE as they are Target or the grocery store.
"I think we just have to be realistic and patient," he said, "and recognize a lot of businesses are facing that same problem."
"strategy" - Google News
November 28, 2020 at 04:00PM
https://ift.tt/2V9IAns
Retailers are working harder, smarter to pivot from traditional strategies as pandemic lingers - Crain's Cleveland Business
"strategy" - Google News
https://ift.tt/2Ys7QbK
https://ift.tt/2zRd1Yo
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "Retailers are working harder, smarter to pivot from traditional strategies as pandemic lingers - Crain's Cleveland Business"
Post a Comment