Retail, Business Strategy, Digital Marketplace Profs Available to Discuss the Black Friday Outlook and Beyond
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11/19/2020
Contacts for media: Nancy Cicco, 978-934-4944, Nancy_Cicco@uml.edu and Christine Gillette, 978-758-4664 or Christine_Gillette@uml.edu
The retail industry is in for a bumpy ride as the country heads into Black Friday and the holiday shopping season while still facing the COVID-19 pandemic, according to UMass Lowell business professors available for interviews.
Retail expert Ying Huang – who studies international and emerging markets, private-label strategy and buyer-supplier relationships – says with COVID-19 cases surging across the country and consumers leery about heading inside malls and stores, retailers are going to be more dependent than ever on online shopping.
“We’ve seen sales increasing on Cyber Monday in recent years and I would expect that number to go up even further. Cyber Monday will be big, but it will be more of a cyber holiday season overall,” Huang said.
Huang also predicts fierce competition for sales.
“It’s going to be an opportunity for retailers to come back from a down year. For retailers trying to survive, it’s important to maintain their cash flow. The industry relies heavily on cash; they need cash to pay employees and buy new inventory. So, I think the price competition is going to be really intense,” Huang said.
Many retailers have already started rolling out deals online to get a jump on sales. The season is complicated by not only a public health emergency, but an economic crisis, as the national unemployment rate hovers around 7 percent. As a result, retail is not the only sector suffering, according to Scott Latham, a UMass Lowell business strategy and organizational turnaround expert.
“This holiday, the Grinch will be putting coal in everyone’s stocking. For many industry sectors, the last three months of the year represent more than half of their annual business. Retail, restaurants, hotels and travel are all driven by holiday economic activity; estimates suggest spending may be down anywhere from 10 percent to 25 percent across the board with certain sectors feeling the brunt,” said Latham, who expects gift cards will be the only sales to see double-digit growth.
Retailers that do survive – and even thrive – will do so because of their ability to innovate, according to Michael Obal, an authority on marketing strategy and the digital marketplace.
“Of course, the stores that survive will be the ones that can operate most of their business online, but I also think in response to COVID-19, we will start to see a re-imagining of physical spaces to move more of the retail experience outdoors. I can imagine a sort of Westernized version of a bazaar becoming more common in the U.S. I can also see more retailers moving to a ‘retail truck’ concept – essentially a food truck, but for retail. Again, this exists in some rare instances, but I believe retailers will embrace this model more seriously in the coming years,” Obal said.
Huang, Latham and Obal are faculty members in UMass Lowell’s Manning School of Business. To arrange an interview with any of them via phone, email, Zoom or another platform, contact Nancy Cicco at 978-934-4944 or Nancy_Cicco@uml.edu or Christine Gillette at 978-758-4664 or Christine_Gillette@uml.edu.