Exterior view of Kohl’s Department Store in Paxton Town Center near Harrisburg. A customer walks with a Nike shopping bag.
Paul Weaver | Sopa Images | Emily Elkonen | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Nike and Kohl’s May not win on Wall Street, but with a broad range of consumers They are still considered the best in their category, according to a consumer confidence survey released Thursday.
Consulting firm AlixPartners’ Consumer Confidence Index asked 9,000 fashion shoppers from Generation Z to baby boomers what drives their purchasing decisions and how retailers stack up against rivals.
Among all four generations surveyed (Gen Z, Millennials, Gen X and Baby Boomers), Nike was ranked as the number one active footwear retailer. Traditional sneaker giants beat adidas and Foot cabinettied for second, while new competitor On Running ranked last among Gen Z and Millennials.
Kohl’s is the No. 1 department store choice for Gen Z and Baby Boomers, while Millennials Nordstrom Generation X chose macy’s department store.
The survey’s findings stand in stark contrast to the recent performance of Nike and Kohl’s. Nike expects sales to fall 8% to 10% this quarter. The company’s shares have fallen 26% this year as of Wednesday’s close as investors brace for a long road to recovery under new Chief Executive Elliott Hill.
Kohl’s, meanwhile, expects sales to fall 4% to 6% this fiscal year as it grapples with larger existential issues facing department stores trying to stay relevant. As of Wednesday’s close, the company’s shares were down 32% year to date.
Sonia Lapinsky, head of global fashion at AlixPartners and author of the report, told CNBC that the findings – compared to both companies’ recent performance – indicate that Nike and Kohl’s are at a critical juncture. The results show that consumers remain staunchly supportive of the retailer, but that goodwill could quickly fade if they don’t quickly diagnose and fix the problem.
“We’ll see in the data what’s important to Nike consumers. It’s all about innovation, technical quality, product and (competitors) growing super fast… They’re known for innovation, they’re known for product development And they’re known for it being much faster than the Nike we know,” Labinski said.
She said the situation is similar at Kohl’s, which has changed its category strategy several times over the years but has won over consumers with competitive prices.
Labinski said consumers “still think their product price mix is the best. They’re still a good deal. They probably like Kohl’s for the money.” “Now, let’s make their experience in the store something they will Come back and buy something and really boost your income.”
Walk the stock tight rope
Alix’s Consumer Confidence Report reveals many other findings that retailers need to keep in mind as they enter the increasingly important holiday shopping season, including the No. 1 factors driving shoppers to competitors. The majority of consumers surveyed, or 66% of respondents, said they would shop at another retailer if the product they were looking for was not in stock.
“‘Right product, right place, right time’ is echoed in every retail boardroom, but as retailers expand their online assortments and marketplaces to attract new customers and traffic, shoppers can’t find the right fit. Frustrated by the size, it becomes more challenging or the items they want in-store,” the report said.
For example, based on a sample of 30 retailers, only 9% of a retailer’s online products were available in stores on average, according to the report.
The report states: “The reasons for consumer frustration are clear. Macys.com has 24,000 women’s tops available online, but for a customer walking into New York’s Herald Square flagship store, only 2,500 women’s tops are available. For selection. gap.com158 women’s tops and T-shirts are available for purchase online, but only 50 are available for pickup at the Herald Square store.
As retailers look to stand out and attract attention online, they are beginning to offer a wider range of digital product categories. But when consumers return to stores, they expect to see the same products on the shelves.
It’s too expensive and impractical to replicate digital inventory in stores, so retailers need to be able to predict which inventory goes where so consumers can find what they’re looking for in stores.
“That’s the perfect recipe for AI to step in,” Lapinski said. “They have to really understand where their customers are going and what they need, and do that through better analytics — underlying AI models — that can Anticipate what the customer wants. Then they have to do the same view shift of the store even by store location, store cluster, store area, where they can get a good idea of what the consumer might be looking for.
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