Are retailers cutting their way to profitability or slowly bleeding to death?




If you’ve been around the retail industry for any amount of time, you’ve no doubt been a part of at least one conversation on how there are just too many stores for the market in the U.S.
Studies have pointed to the amount of square feet of retail space per capita in the U.S. compared to other developed countries around the world. No one comes close to America. Of course, large retail bankruptcies and subsequent store closings have been part of the domestic retailing scene for a long time. Last year, well before the novel coronavirus pandemic broke out, retailers closed a record number of stores, according to Coresight Research.
The expectations for this year, again before the outbreak of COVID-19, was that the industry would likely set another record. In that regard, at least, the results didn’t disappoint.
It’s not uncommon for retailers to shutter stores that are not performing up to expectations. What some question is the rationale that major chains that close dozens and even hundreds of stores use to explain the wisdom of their moves. The thinking typically goes something like this: Closing stores will reduce costs and an increased focus on digital sales will provide a more profitable way to serve markets where doors are closed. In reality, however, that isn’t what typically happens. Experience reminds us that you can’t cut your way to growth and profitability in the retail world.
A Wall Street Journal article yesterday addressed the topic and the continuing cycle of store closings by national chains.
“No retailer ever announces one round of store cuts — it’s always the precursor to a store bleed,” Simeon Siegel, a BMO senior analyst, told the Journal. “Most companies we looked at had lower revenue and profit than before they started closing stores.”
Mr. Siegel said that when stores are closed, retailers often have to increase marketing expenses to try and hold onto market share via their digital business. The result is typically not good from either a top or bottom line perspective.
- Retail Chains Shed Stores, but It Isn’t Good for Business – The Wall Street Journal
- Will store closures worsen in 2020? – RetailWire
- Will a smaller Macy’s be a better Macy’s? – RetailWire
- What will retail look like if half of department stores close? – RetailWire
- The coronavirus will accelerate retail’s ‘collapse of the middle’ – Retailwire
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS: Do you think retailers that announce large numbers of store closings are often simply putting off their ultimate demise? How can retailers determine the proper number of stores the market will profitably support in balance with their digital operations?
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34 Comments on "Are retailers cutting their way to profitability or slowly bleeding to death?"
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CEO and President, Cogent Creative Consulting
Large store closings are a sign that the retailer’s overall demand is dwindling. The pandemic has made struggling chains even more vulnerable. While some categories have prospered like grocery and discount department stores that are considered essential businesses, some categories have struggled like apparel and more specifically business apparel (e.g. Men’s Warehouse) as many corporate employees are still working from home and don’t have a need for business attire.
Founder, CEO & Author, HeadCount Corporation
Trimming store counts is a smart strategy for retailers to adjust to changing market dynamics, and so as a strategy it’s sound. The massive reduction of stores, as described in the article, is another animal all together. When we see a dramatic reduction of stores it’s often a precursor to larger financial failure or a complete reset of the business. At the point at which a retailer is shedding a significant number of stores, survival is usually the big driver – along with lease expirations. I doubt that there is a formula or a single approach to massive store reductions since each retailer’s unique circumstances will determine the path.
Principal, Retail Technology Group
It is all about about achieving the balance of closing stores that do not perform to a certain level and reducing the infrastructure required to operate the remaining open stores profitably.
Principal, Retailing In Focus LLC
In many cases, retailers can’t cut centralized costs fast enough to keep up with the lost sales from store closures. And when these stores pull out of markets entirely (think Sears), they become irrelevant in the minds of shoppers who might be considering omnichannel options. While it makes sense for stores with hundreds of locations to prune the least profitable sites, the pace of closures from some national chains looks like a harbinger of doom.
It’s no accident that stores like Walmart and Target — both with massive physical footprints — were already leading the pack on omnichannel sales. The pandemic has only solidified their market position, thanks in part to all those locations offering curbside pickup of online orders.
Managing Partner, Retail Consulting Partners
Retailers proactively closing stores as part of a larger plan to manage inventory differently will win. Many of the retailers who are closing stores to purely control expenses are probably on a long road to a bad place unless they can operate differently. There will be a demand for stores and in-person shopping for a long time. The secret to long term success will be having the right mix of store/experience center/fulfillment center in a single location.
Director of NA Sales, SmartSight | EMA
There continues to be a secular decline in brick and mortar retail sales, as consumers shift to more online based fulfillment. This move from analog dollars to digital pennies is a structural change that will not be solved by simply closing stores, but instead by taking a deep assessment of unit economics, as pallets to stores is not eaches to homes. Also, diversification to find other sources of revenue will be key. It has taken Amazon close to 25 years to start to get this right.
Principal, Cathy Hotka & Associates
Savvy retailers are in the process of doing everything they need to do to survive in this environment — opening stores, closing stores, switching formats, deploying technologies, and re-examining their competition. The retail companies I worry about are the ones that are acting like it is still 2019.
Professor, International Business, Guizhou University of Finance & Economics; Executive Director, Global Commerce Education
Sadly, there aren’t many savvy retailers today — maybe there never were.
Chief Executive Officer, The TSi Company
Business Growth Coach, Founder & CEO of Ambrose Growth
Lack of performance is often a mere symptom of a deeper root cause – lack of strategic alignment at the leadership level, poor execution of the strategy, talent issues… Closing stores without identifying and addressing the root cause of the issue doesn’t solve much unfortunately.
Managing Director, GlobalData
There is overcapacity in the U.S. market, but it is not quite as bad as some of the studies make out as the numbers for the U.K. and elsewhere are erroneously low and mall space is often mistakenly used as a proxy for total retail space. The real problem with the U.S. is that there is more bad retail space than in other countries and a lot of that is underperforming. Cuts in store numbers are needed, but so too is a focus on building or rebuilding the types of shops people want. And part of this means format flex so retailers have different types of stores for different types of locations. The one-size-fits-all cookie-cutter approach to stores is dead!
Product Marketing Manager, Tecsys
There’s no question that North America is/was over-retailed and store closures were going to be an inevitability as omnichannel gained further ground and D2C also ate up marketshare. The pandemic has simply accelerated this. What retailers need to do now is optimize each channel, be it store or digital, to ensure they can extract every dollar of profit they can from every order. That could mean using a break-even or unprofitable store as a micro-fulfillment center to help lower delivery costs, or taking a hard look at their SLA with customers to ensure they are not “over-delivering” on speed and convenience when it’s not necessary and makes orders unprofitable. A holistic approach to supply chain efficiency and customer experience is needed and not knee-jerk reactions like across-the-board store closures and free same-day shipping.
Principal, SSR Retail LLC
Closing stores doesn’t have to be a bellwether for imminent disaster – but in most cases by the time the retailer decides to make the cuts it’s too late to save the profitable locations. When store closures are made as a way to cut costs in a struggling company, marketing is typically cut as well. That’s when the real problems start.
President/CEO, The Retail Doctor
President, Global Collaborations, Inc.
With good back office technology retailers can know what their customers purchase, in what quantity, whether they do so online or in-store, and whether they pickup online orders at the store or have them delivered. With that information retailers can reconfigure their stores to include more back-of-store space for fast moving products or those products in demand locally. The rest of the store can be designed to enhance consumers’ in-store experience. This takes time, money and creativity and it all hinges on the back office data and analysis of that data. Closing stores is not the path for climbing out of a hole.
Professor, International Business, Guizhou University of Finance & Economics; Executive Director, Global Commerce Education
We have a gazillion years of experience here on RetailWire. Here is the question my BrainTrust colleagues — what retailers ultimately survived years after closing hundreds of stores?
Principal, Retailing In Focus LLC
I’m thinking, I’m thinking…
Professor, International Business, Guizhou University of Finance & Economics; Executive Director, Global Commerce Education
When a retailer loses hundreds of stores, they will ultimately describe it as “closing non-performing stores.”
Did hundreds of stores become “non-performing” all at once? Or were some “non-performing” six months ago? Twelve months ago? Two years ago? Five years ago? If so, why weren’t they closed then?
EVP Thought Leadership, Marketing, WD Partners
Global Retail & CPG Sales Strategist, IBM
This topic is a much different story in 2020, of course. Just looking at the permanent closings so far, including more than 40 percent of Black-owned businesses having closed this year (staggering!), it’s clear that no small business can stay in business with no opportunity for revenue (e.g., due to COVID-19 shut downs). However in “normal” years in the past, a network analysis of existing store performance versus anticipated growth opportunities has helped determine the best way forward. We are still over-stored in many metro areas, so expand cautiously these days.
Principal, KIZER & BENDER Speaking
We should all hope that current retail closures, along with the potential of more COVID-19 mandated store closures (and also along with a potential minimum wage hike) will not not turn us into a “C/W/T” — Costco, Walmart and Target dominant retail world.
Principal, Retailing In Focus LLC
Rich, I think it’s been a C/W/T world for a while and we’re just living in it. Department and specialty apparel stores have been struggling for years, not just during this Year of the Plague. That’s not to say that a better model can’t emerge — think Amazon for one.
President, Sageberry Consulting/Senior Forbes Contributor
As I’ve been speaking about and writing about (in fact chapter 8 of my book “Optimizing to Extinction” focuses exclusively on this topic) for many years, show me a retailer that is closing a lot of stores and you’ve likely shown me a retailer that has a brand relevance and remarkability problem, not a too many stores problem.
It’s been clear for many years that some retailers need fewer, reimagined and differently located brick and mortar operations. But let’s be blunt. Closing stores does precisely zero for customers. And bailing doesn’t fix the hole.