Footwear Insight

6 • Footwear Insight ~ January/February 2024 footwearinsight.com For Eddy at BJ Wholesale Club: It's about being responsibly sourced and having the right product at the right price with the right placement (both instore and online). It's not about just handing out a coupon. BJ's focuses on what customers want. And as a member-based organization, BJ's can, and does ask. For Vincent at Mars, Inc. it's all about mutuality. He said, "We both need to win. It has to work for us. It has to work for them. At Mars, we don't think in terms of quarters, we think in terms of generations." 6 Forces facing the future consumer industry that we should all be thinking about. According to Michael Heschke, Retail and Consumer Products Leader, Deloitte Con- sulting, these are key forces shaping the future: • No racial group will form a majority. • Wealth Transfer: Women will control more dollars than men. • ose aged 65+ will be a greater population than those under 18. • Baby Boomers will have 50% of the Wealth. • ere will be $84 billion in wealth transfer to the next generation. • Sustainability. A final takeaway: Retail Theater Lee Peterson, EVP ought Leadership and Marketing, WD Partners, gave a presentation where he addressed this topic: Everything in retail has changed. Have stores kept up? Or as he added, maybe a better way to put it, have stores adapted? He spoke about what consumers like about websites, for example. Same Day, Fast, Promotions, Selection, Convenience, History, BOPIS (buy online pick up in store), DORIS (digitally ordered, return in store), etc. 63% shop online. Five years ago it was in the 20% area. Why the change? Consumers today go into a store to find an item, buy it, and then exit. We've been trained by the web for 25 years to make stores look and act like websites. Store associates are busy getting stock. Where's the fun? Where is the vibe? Stores sucked the fun out of an American pastime. And where did the store's investment go? Into a better website to get the data. Why go to a store? The takeaway? You don't have to go to a store, you want to go to a store. Visiting a store should be a different experience from visiting a website. Retailers need to focus their efforts on creativity, store design, store associates, visual merchandising, etc. Creativity still matters to customers. Plus, in a store, you can actually talk to a person, not to a screen. So, get creative. Every store should be considered a "flagship." See more coverage of trending topics at the NRF show beginning on page 7. Introducing Footwear Insight Business Review Quarterly (BRQ) in 2024 On April 8, 2024, we will launch a new quarterly digital magazine Footwear Insight Business Review Quarterly (BRQ) for 2024. is new digital magazine, which will be in addition to our six bi-monthly issues of Footwear Insight, will focus on business and financials. It will include our expanded FI Index of publicly traded companies, a quarterly summary of those numbers, editorial features on what's trending, what's emerging, and inventory matters. Footwear Insight BRQ will also feature the retail technologies that can make stores more efficient and your sales associates more knowledgeable, and will report on creative solutions to help increase traffic in your stores. Reimagining what's possible in the business of selling footwear. Jeff Nott Publisher LETTER FROM THE PUBLISHER FI INDEX Page 8 BY THE NUMBERS Page 8 WHAT'S TRENDING Page 12 INVENTORY MATTERS Page 14 SHOW ME! PAGE 18 MARKET OUTLOOK Why running shoes continue to run. PAGE 12 Pickleball beyond the buzz. PAGE 16 Q1 PERSPECTIVE & ANALYSIS • MONDAY, APRIL 8, 2024 You don't have to go to a store, you want to go to a store. Visiting a store should be a different experience from visiting a website. Retailers need to focus their efforts on creativity, store design, store associates, visual merchandising, etc. Creativity still matters to customers. Plus, in a store, you can actually talk to a person, not to a screen. — LEE PETERSON, WD PARTNERS

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