MIT Sloan Management Review Article on What Successful Brick-and-Mortar Retailers Get Right

From virtual snowstorms to golden locker boxes, today’s thriving stores feature experiences shoppers can’t get online. Consider five successful tactics.

Many retailers with physical stores have felt as if they have been fighting for their lives during the past decade. A constant stream of media and industry analysis has poured cold water on the retail channel, documenting how stores have closed at a faster rate than at the peak of the Great Recession in 2008. This so-called retail apocalypse’s casualties have included behemoths like Mothercare, Best Buy (which in March announced plans to close 10 to 15 stores by year’s end), and Toys R Us (which filed for bankruptcy in 2017, closed all U.S. stores in 2018, and is now trying to mount a comeback featuring experience-based stores in locations like Mall of America). Despite the doomsayers, some retailers have piloted adaptive change, even as their peers have struggled to evolve. This supports the assertion that brick-and-mortar retail is simply in a state of correction — a period of change and rebound.

About the Author

Rob Angell is an associate professor in marketing research at the University of Southampton Business School.

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