Nordstrom targets teens with curated beauty selection: The department store hopes to capitalize on their growing appetite for premium products and desire for in-store purchases.

While luxury sales are slowing as consumers flock to cheaper retailers for apparel, beauty, and other goods, luxury retailers with off-price brands, like Neiman Marcus Last Call and Nordstrom Rack, are seeing store visits climb.

Retailers faced no shortage of challenges in the first half of the year as elevated interest rates, the lingering effects of inflation, and a loosening labor market weighed on consumer spending. In this report, we’ll contextualize our coverage of retailers’ Q2 revenues across four key verticals: department stores, home, mass merchants, and off-price.

In August, brands got physical, with Olipop entering a new stadium, Nordstrom inking a deal with Rihanna, and Walmart growing with nonendemic retail media opportunities. Others took a more digital approach, making shopping more seamless on social media sites and AI-powered search. Here are the moves that made our analysts name eight brands to our unofficial most interesting list in August. 

A strong digital presence drove Nordstrom Rack's Q2 growth, while Crocs hopes to revitalize its HEYDUDE brand by focusing on a younger, female audience. Holliseter is leveraging back-to-school promotions and targeted marketing initiatives to reintroduce the brand to younger consumers.

On today's podcast episode, we discuss the unofficial list of the most interesting retailers for the month of August. Each month, our analysts Arielle Feger, Becky Schilling, and Sara Lebow (aka The Committee) put together a very unofficial list of the top eight retailers they're watching based on which are making the most interesting moves: Who's launching new initiatives? Which partnerships are moving the needle? Which standout marketing campaigns are being created? In this month's episode, Committee members Arielle Feger and Sara Lebow will defend their list against analysts Blake Droesch and Sarah Marzano, who will dispute the power rankings by attempting to move retailers up, down, on, or off the list.

Nordstrom, Kohl’s look to brand partnerships to boost sales: While Nordstrom turns to buzzy companies like Savage X Fenty to attract younger shoppers, Kohl’s takes a kitchen-sink approach.

The year is nearly halfway over. As we prepare for H2, our analysts have been hard at work debating some very specific—and potentially unlikely—predictions that could play out in the coming months. Everything from retail media standardization to drone delivery to AI partnerships is at play over the rest of 2024. Here are some of our analysts' hottest takes.

In part one of this two-part podcast episode, we discuss some more predictions for 2024 that are too specific to be 100% certain about but could still come true, including: what will actually end up happening with Paramount, what Nordstrom will do next to get back on track, and where folks will be watching the NBA over the next 10 years. Tune in to the discussion with our vice presidents of content Suzy Davidkhanian and Paul Verna and analyst Max Willens.

Saks launches retail media network amid slowing sales: The ecommerce retailer is billing its offering as a unique opportunity to connect with luxury shoppers.

Store card revenues fell throughout 2023, and the CFPB’s late fee cap won’t help. We look at how retailers like Target are coping

Off-price’s momentum continues as shoppers’ trade-down behaviors intensify: Nordstrom Rack, Burlington, and Ross are among the beneficiaries of consumers’ cost-of-living pressures.

Nordstrom, Fiserv, and Insider Intelligence discussed the shift and how payment providers and retailers should think about it

Amazon Prime Day is off to a good start: Average order size so far is up over 7.7% compared with 2022; we expect total sales to top $8 billion.

Lululemon’s sales grew 24% in Q1 as demand for premium athleisure stays strong: That same dynamic helped brands like On Running, Hoka, and Vuori record significant growth.

It’s getting hard to ignore the organized retail theft problem: Home Depot, Walmart, and Target are among the retailers ringing alarm bells about the growing crime issue.

Store visits to off-price retailers rose in April: The sector’s resilience is driving Macy’s and Nordstrom to expand their off-price banners.

DNVB companies have multiple paths for growth: Warby Parker’s sales rise 12% in Q1 thanks in part to the company’s growing physical presence, while Allbirds’ turnaround focuses on differentiating its brand.

Nordstrom is shuttering its downtown San Francisco stores: Crime concerns have driven Whole Foods, Nike, and REI to close urban locations, while others attempt to address those issues without annoying customers.

Moving across the US-Canada border can be the first step toward international expansion for retailers. Canadian brands like lululemon athletica and Aritzia are thriving in the US. Meanwhile, US-based companies Lowe’s, Nordstrom, and Bed Bath & Beyond recently announced they were leaving Canada. And let’s not forget Target’s famous Canadian failure. Here’s a look at how brands on both sides of the border have fared, and the lessons you can learn from them.