All posts by : enVista Marketing

With about a week left before Christmas and Hanukkah, retailers have the opportunity to simplify holiday shopping by offering a seamless omnichannel and stress-free purchase path. Despite the shortening timeframe before the holidays, retailers still have a chance to appeal to procrastinators with last-minute ideas. Delivery is going to be a key differentiator for retailers, whether it is free shipping on online orders or same-day fulfillment driven by bricks-and-mortar inventory.

We are living through the most dynamic transportation environment in recent memory. The parcel carriers, in particular, are in a state of flux, with large shifts in service offerings, strategic alliances, and rate logic. Change is the byword of the day. This shifting environment means both opportunity and risk, depending on shippers’ ability to develop and implement strategies in response to this change. However, change doesn’t just happen. You, as a transportation leader, are responsible for driving it. Whether it’s in your title or job description or not, you own at least some of the responsibility, and the more ownership you take, the more valuable you will be to your organizational leadership.

After several years of downward spiraling sales, the last few quarters have seen Express slowly clawing its way back toward profitability, thanks in part to new CEO Tim Baxter. Its third-quarter earnings, released Thursday, showed $488 million in sales, down from $515 million in the same quarter last year. Still, that beat estimates and second-quarter earnings.

As Five Below expands, it is straying from the traditional playbook of a discount chain. Last year, the chain — which, as the name suggests, carries items that sell for under $5 — opened a 10,800 square-foot flagship store on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. Next year, it will experiment with adding video game lounges to some of its stores, and in October invested in an e-sports startup called Nerd Street Games. That is set to complement a new section Five Below started testing in October in select stores, to carry more electronics that sell for under $10. And it is spending more on television ads and influencer marketing in the lead up to the holidays in order to raise brand awareness.