Hard Lessons (Thanks, Amazon) Breathe New Life Into 赋予……生机 Retail Stores

Tiffany& Company has announced a three-year renovation of its flagship store on Fifth Avenue, including an expansion of its retail space.

Malls are being hollowed out. Shops are closing by the thousands. Retailers are going bankrupt.

But it may be too early to declare the death of retail. Americans have started shopping more — in stores.

From the garden section at Walmart to the diamond counters at Tiffany & Company,old-school retailers are experiencing some of their best sales growth in years.

The strong revenues start with a roaring economy and an optimistic consumer. Withmore cash in their wallets from the tax cuts, Americans have been spending more.

The boom also reflects a broad reordering of the $3.5 trillion industry, with fewer retailers capturing more of the gains 获得更多的收益. Stores that have learned how to match the ease and instant gratification of e-commerce shopping are flourishing,？？？？求这句怎么翻译？？？while those that have failed to evolve are in bankruptcy or on the brink.

 “The retailers that get it recognize that Amazon has forever changed consumer behavior,” said Barbara Kahn, a marketing professor and former director of the retailing center at the Wharton School. “I shouldn’t have to work to shop.”

Many successful stores are now a cross between a fast-food drive-through and a hotel concierge 宾馆门房.

Target’s shoppers 目标明确的消费者 can order sunscreen or a Tokidoki Unicorno T-shirt on their phone,pull up to the parking lot and have the items brought to their car.

Nordstrom诺德斯特龙百货公司 lets customers in some stores make returns by dropping their items into a box and walking out — no human interaction required.

Walmartis employing 25,000 “personal shoppers” to select and package groceries for curbside pickup 路边即时购物.

In recent weeks, all three retailers reported stronger-than-expected sales growth for the quarter. Traffic to Target’s stores and online sites grew at its fastest pace since the company began keeping a record a decade ago.

Doomsayers 灾难预言者 have predicted that online shopping, led by Amazon, would one day conquer all of retail, rendering brick and mortar obsolete使……过时. As store closings set a record last year, no class of retailer was spared — with the carnage hitting Madison Avenue boutiques, shopping malls and big-box stores. In NewYork and elsewhere, many shops, big and small, continue to struggle.

Searsis among the big retailers that are still struggling, but chains like Target,Walmart and Nordstrom are capitalizing on Amazon-inspiredinnovations.CreditColey Brown for The New York Times

Butthe pace of closings has slowed, as the most unprofitable stores have beenculled and the weakest companies have collapsed. At this time in 2017, nearly5,700 stores had shut across the United States, according to Coresight Research,a retail analysis and advisory firm. So far this year, about 4,480 have closed.

Somebig retailers, like J. C. Penney and Sears, are still sputtering, despiteclosing lagging stores and sprucing up ones that remain open. But the strongerplayers are capitalizing on the industry’s failures. Target said it was pickingup new toy customers in the wake of the Toys “R” Us liquidation this spring.

Therebound is feeding the broader economy. Hiring is up, with an average ofroughly 50,000 retail jobs being added each month since February, according tothe National Retail Federation.

Lastyear, a wave of retail layoffsfueled fears about the long-term health of ahuge part of the job market. One in about every 10 American workers is inretail.

 “There has been a shakeout, and 2017 was seenas the bottom,” said Melina Cordero, head of retail research for the Americasat the real estate firm CBRE.

Farfrom retrenching, many retailers are expanding their physical presence orspending billions to overhaul existing stores.

DollarGeneral plans to open 900 stores this year, as it deepens its reach into ruralAmerica with inexpensive food and clothing. The company is building a hugefollowing in areas where there are fewer places to shop, particularly in theSouth and in parts of the Midwest.

Atthe other end of the spectrum, Tiffany said it was embarking on a three-yearrenovation of its flagship store on Fifth Avenue — the setting forthe classic film“Breakfast at Tiffany’s” and a magnet for tourists.

Thenewly renovated flagship will probably include expanded retail space as well ashospitality offerings, driven by the success of its in-store “Blue Box” Cafe,which on some days can have a wait list of more than 1,000 people and featuresa $32 “Breakfast at Tiffany.” Tiffany’s success is built almost entirely on itsstores, which account for more than 90 percent of its revenues.

 “We have big expectations for this project,”Tiffany’s chief executive, Alessandro Bogliolo, told analysts in a conferencecall last week. The renovation is expected to reduce the company’s near-termprofits, signaling the importance.

Oneof the most ambitious and costly makeover attempts is taking place at Target.The retailer stormed across the American suburbs more than a decade ago,building hundreds of big-box stores known for affordable, hip clothing andfurnishings.

“Ourstores are at the center of our strategy, and they are at the center of oursuccess right now,” said Target’s chief executive, Brian Cornell.CreditJeenahMoon for The New York Times

Butmany shoppers had grown tired of Target’s cavernous stores, and its cool edgehad slipped. Target has lately targeted a new market of young urbanites — withplans to open about 30 smaller stores in cities and near college campuses thisyear.

Manyof the new stores are supposed to be all things to all shoppers — what theindustry calls an “omni-channel” experience.

Customerscan order online and pick up at the store. They can order online and have theirpurchases delivered home, in some cases, on the same day. Or they can visit thestore; employees’ starting salaries were raised in an effort to bolsterretention and morale.

 “Our stores are at the center of our strategy,and they are at the center of our success right now,” Target’s chief executive,Brian Cornell, said in a conference call last month after the retailer reportedits largest quarterly sales growth in 13 years.

TiffanyTully, 33, said recent changes to her local Target in Minneapolis had madeshopping there more pleasant. The clothing displays, she said, feel morecarefully curated and “appealing to the eye.” And she likes the convenience ofreturning Target items she buys online to the store rather than having to shipthem, as with Amazon.

 “Technically I am a millennial, but I likegoing to stores,” said Ms. Tully, a stay-at-home mother.

Retailershave been tweaking their store and online strategies for years. But it’s onlyrecently that Amazon’s blistering success has prodded the incumbents to try toreinvent themselves.

Ms.Kahn of the Wharton School said retailers could have made these improvementsdecades ago if they had focused on what shoppers wanted.

“Mostpeople want to spend less time shopping, not more,” said Ms. Kahn, whose book“The Shopping Revolution” describes the disruption in the retail industry.

Shesaid Amazon’s founder, Jeff Bezos, had understood this when he pioneered theidea of one-click shopping. But many retailers have built their businessesaround the opposite idea, like expansive stores that take hours to wade throughand commissions that encourage employees to push certain products.

Theinvestments in the new stores and digital offerings are being made at anopportune time, when the strong economy is giving retailers the necessary cash.But any economic weakness could derail their progress before it takes rootbeyond a few good quarters. Amazon remains the omnipresent cloud, puttingpressure on profits and forcing retailers to keep evolving.

“Theseare big shifts,” said Craig Johnson, president of Customer Growth Partners, aresearch and consulting firm. “It is like turning around the Queen Mary. Youcan turn the rudder, but it takes time to gain a purchase.”

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