Apparel Online Bangladesh Magazine May'17 | Page 38

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Retailers to see drop in sales, predict reports

RBC Capital Markets has predicted slow growth rate for US retailers this year. According to the report, Ascena Retail Group which owns Lane Bryant, Ann Taylor, Dress Barn, and Catherines are likely to face 49 per cent decrease in growth rate.
An 11 per cent decrease in revenue growth for next year has also been predicted for Under Armour, the American sports clothing and accessories company. This is expected in view of consumer’ s decreasing interest in athleisure. According to RBC analysts, yoga-inspired apparel athletic company Lululemon Athletica’ s growth rate can also drop by 5 per cent. A 6 per cent decline in sales growth for this fiscal year for Coach is also expected.
The increasing popularity of online shopping has also hit the retailers hard as consumers are opting to shop on e-commerce sites over brick-and-mortar stores, resulting in reduced traffic in stores. Fitch Ratings has also stated that the augmented number of discounted retailers has given a blow to more traditional and single-brand brickand-mortar retailers.

Sears Canada undergoes complete retail reinvention

Canadian retailer, Sears is going through a period of absolute renovation, spanning through modern customer experiences systems, a redesigned e-commerce platform, new concept stores, and a new manifesto of customer service values that aim to capture as well as sustain brand loyalty.
Brandon G. Stranzl, Executive Chairman of Sears
Canada elaborated on the initiatives stating,“ 2017 is the year for change and reinvention at Sears Canada. We started on our reinvention path last year when we focused on a dramatic refinement to our product selection, to achieve a simple value proposition for consumers – high quality at a low price, and our Sears label essentials and The Cut @ Sears
achieves this in a big way. We have also overhauled our customer experience online and in-store as we commit to providing Canadians the best shopping experience possible.”
Sears has opened a pop-up shop in Toronto’ s modish neighbourhood of Queen West where they will highlight the company’ s hottest merchandise, together with the
all-new private-label products as well as the off-price offering, making them the first nationwide retailer in Canada, to display both key retail approaches all in a single store. The pop-up shop opened on April 8 with the marketing tag of # WeveCHANGED.“ We’ re using # WeveCHANGED as our moniker to attract new consumers and engage Canadians in our new customerobsessed approach without preconceptions. We’ re re-introducing ourselves with new products, enhanced customer experiences, and a re-imagined philosophy of quality, on-trend merchandise at great prices,” explained Stranzl.
Sears Canada is looking to coagulate their position as Canada’ s go-to retailer for everyone’ s every need with the launch of a mono-brand private label. The new line will be high on quality providing essentials at affordable prices for men’ s, women’ s and kid’ s clothing, home décor as well as houseware items.
38 Apparel Online Bangladesh | MAY 2017 | www. apparelresources. com