Month: November 2019

Physical stores are a sprouting trend for digitally native direct-to-consumer brands

Leading retailers of all industries and sizes are continuing to seek innovative ways to bring exceptional consumer experiences to their customers in the midst of ever-evolving market competition. For direct-to-consumer (D2C) brands native to online environments, the most recent trend has been branching out into the real world and giving physical locations a shot with pop-up shops. Pop-up stores are short-term, experiential locations that are often used to test the waters around establishing long-term physical retail stores.

The Benefits of Establishing Short-Term Physical Locations

Many successful D2C brands are beginning to see the value in establishing a temporary physical presence, and it’s easy to see why. Transitioning from online to retail locations can help strengthen brands, build strong customer experiences, and improve retention and loyalty rates. Consumers love the convenience that they receive from D2C retailers online, but there’s something unique about being able to see, feel, touch, and experience a product and its brand in person.

Developing an omnichannel presence that includes physical locations is a savvy strategy; however, the world of physical retail is starkly different from that of online retail. As a result, many D2C companies are hesitant to commit without first testing the waters.

Temporary physical locations provide several benefits to D2C retailers who are considering establishing brick-and-mortar locations. For one, they provide them with the ability to see how customers will react to their products in person. They can also help influence key decisions on crafting the ideal in-store experience for future, permanent physical locations.

Understanding Audience’s Real-World Behavior

Establishing a pop-up presence takes thought and a great deal of planning, especially when it comes to selecting a location. While brands know their target consumers, they likely don’t have the data and insight into their consumers’ competitive shopping behaviors or other real-world visitation patterns. This is where the value of** location data comes into play.**

By uncovering insights about customers’ real-world behavior, such as chains and categories they frequently visit, their length of stay, time of day they visit, and where they’re coming from, D2C retailers can begin to collect valuable information about customer’s preferences and patterns to analyze and use to develop future strategies.

Furthermore, many D2C companies who have established a strong online presence can use these temporary locations to spread awareness about their brand in the real world, which makes pop-up stores powerful brand activation tools. This is especially the case when the experience is exceptional — we are living in the social media age where experiences can be documented and shared extensively by customers and influencers. But in order to build that brand awareness, D2C’s should be looking into activating location-based targeting tactics to bring awareness to consumers when they are nearby stores, greatly increasing the likelihood of them stopping in.

From Clicks to Bricks – Who’s Popping Up?

Companies of all shapes and sizes are beginning to see the value in establishing temporary pop-up shops, from the Dollar Shave Club to Warby Parker. Handbag company Dagne Dover announced the opening of a pop-up shop in NYC’s chic SOHO area in June 2018 to see how much space they would need in the event they were to open up a permanent location.

Online bra manufacturer, ThirdLove, also opened up a concept store in the same area this past summer in an effort to meet the demands of customers looking to connect with the brand face-to-face. Even meal kit service company Blue Apron opened up a location for one month in New York City, where they provided customers with cooking classes and the ability to purchase “grab-and-go” products.

Outside of opening up their own stores, several brands are bringing the brand experience to already established chains such as Target and Walmart. Building relationships outside of an online environment is not a thing of the past, and the successful brands are recognizing the value.

“Consumers are looking for a lot more from brands now than ever before—you have to engage them at multiple touchpoints.” – Andrea Hippeau, principal at venture capital firm, Lerer Hippeau*

Hippeau’s firm won’t even consider funding D2C startups that don’t have a plan to move into offline retail operations.

A Location Strategy Can Serve As a Permanent Solution

The key to success in building a physical retail presence, whether temporary or permanent, lies in a solid location strategy. With the help of location data, companies can analyze foot traffic trends to compare the density patterns of various sites and make the most optimal choice. Location data can also be used to target consumers based on population demographics and identify the most ideal locations for temporary pop-up stores or permanent locations. It can further be leveraged to assess competing locations within a potential site’s area and used to craft forecasts for redirecting business from such competitors.

Direct-to-consumer companies are increasingly turning to the physical world to further strengthen their brands and provide exceptional real-life experiences for their customers. These companies are realizing the importance of establishing an omnichannel presence for their consumers and are beginning to tackle offline retail head-on. But will they be able to master the art of click-to-brick in the long run? Only time will tell.

Written by Liz Weinsten for Business2Community and legally licensed through the Matcha publisher network. Please direct all licensing questions to legal@getmatcha.com.

Besides clothes and books, here’s four uncommon items you wouldn’t think to donate.

As you tidy up your home and office, more than likely you will find items that are no longer of good use or “spark joy” for you. You’ve probably donated piles of clothes, books, or useless knick-knacks and appliances throughout the years. Often, most of those items’ value doesn’t even add up enough to qualify for a charitable donation deduction – or perhaps we’re just too lazy to add up the value of all those shoes and shirts. If you’re like me, I just take it to Goodwill and wave goodbye to those items.

However, there are 4 uncommon items you can donate that carry a greater fair market value that may be worth your while to keep the receipt and consider using for a charitable deduction:

1. Cars, boats, and airplanes (If you’re on this level, more power to you!).

2. Taxidermy property, which the IRS defines as “any work of art that is the reproduction or preservation of an animal, in whole or in part.” (very interesting!)

3. Patents and other intellectual property, including copyrights and trademarks.

4. Shares of stocks held in your investment account. (Yes! You can donate the shares instead of cash.)

Keep in mind that the IRS requires you to obtain a receipt from the qualified organization with a description of the property donated for any contribution above $250. Keep these receipts in a safe place so you don’t find yourself scrambling to collect them once it’s time to file.

THE BOTTOM LINE

You may be too lazy to add up all the small goods you donate to charities like Goodwill because they don’t even amount enough to take a tax deduction. However, if you are donating larger ticket items such as stocks, cars, intellectual property, and taxidermy property, then it may be worth your while to keep a record of that donated property as it could be a considerable charitable tax deduction.

Written by Capital Benchmark Partners and legally licensed through the Matcha publisher network. Please direct all licensing questions to legal@getmatcha.com.

Non-human rights is a term coined by animal welfare activist and lawyer Steven Wise, who has campaigned for three decades to achieve actual legal rights for members of species other than our own. His organization, the Nonhuman Rights Project (NhRP), is working “to change the common law status of at least some nonhuman animals from mere ‘things’ which lack the capacity to possess any legal right, to ‘persons’ who possess such fundamental rights as bodily integrity and bodily liberty, and those other legal rights to which evolving standards of morality, scientific discovery, and human experience entitle them.”

Steven Wise and the Nonhuman Rights Project is using the legal system to establish a precedent for animal rights, first for chimpanzees and eventually for other animal species. Credit: Patrick Bouquet, FlickrCC

According to NhRP, nonhuman animals are still considered property in the eyes of the law. Even those animals that we know possess feelings, emotions and higher forms of intelligence—great apes, elephants, dolphins, whales—have no more legal standing than a shoe, a table or a car.

“These are complex animals who have deep emotions, understand each other’s minds, live in complicated societies, transmit culture, use sophisticated communication, solve difficult problems, and even mourn the loss of their loved ones,” reports the group. “Just like humans.”

“But they are still considered property, poached and taken from their natural habitat, separated and held against their will, subjected to cruel experimentation, exploited for entertainment, sold on the black market, used, abused and treated like objects for our amusement and financial gain,” says NhRP, adding that such experiences can scar animals for life. “Yet the law affords them no rights, allowing humans to do with them whatever we want.”

Wise and company would like to see animals who are confined for use in research or entertainment have the opportunity to live out their days in a wildlife sanctuary with a hospitable climate where they can enjoy “bodily liberty” to pursue their free will. NhRP is working to first establish a legal precedent that nonhumans can have legal rights in the U.S. judicial system. The organization filed its first cases in New York State in December 2013 representing four individual chimpanzees being used in research labs and for entertainment purposes, and hopes to expand its caseload to other nonhuman species in the near future.

In the meantime, NhRP is looking for the help of volunteer lawyers, scientists, mathematicians and predictive analysis professionals interested in lending their expertise to the fight for recognizing the legal rights of nonhumans.

“Over the coming years, we will be filing as many cases as we can afford, so contributions are very important, too,” reports the group. “We also need funds to help establish sanctuaries for the animals we’re working to free from captivity.”

Why should we care that animals have legal rights too? Steven Wise is fond of quoting Abraham Lincoln, who said: “In giving freedom to the slave, we assure freedom to the free.” If we don’t want to live in a world where humans are enslaved, why should we tolerate similar treatment of our closest animal relatives and other sentient beings great and small? Whether or not the chimps he is fighting for ever get to a sanctuary, Steven Wise will forever go down in history as the Abraham Lincoln of the non-human rights movement.

Written by Roddy Scheer and Doug Moss for EarthTalk and legally licensed through the Matcha publisher network. Please direct all licensing questions to legal@getmatcha.com.

Thirty thousand dollars. I heard that figure and my jaw dropped. That's the amount that a couple of my friends are spending on their upcoming wedding.

Every time I hear about some new detail of the plans for the wedding, there's a little voice in my head that starts commenting on the bottom line. But here's the thing — it's not my wedding. I'm not going to say a word because my friends are adults and seem to be pretty pleased with what they're getting for their money.

The High Cost of Weddings

The Wedding Report, an industry publication, reports that the average wedding costs $29,000 in the U.S, so my friends aren't so far off the norm. The number may be hard to wrap your head around if you're used to thinking about things in terms of budgeting, saving money and all the other little things that go along with thinking hard about your personal finances, but it's also not so uncommon when you think about the number of cultures in which families bring themselves to the edge of bankruptcy for weddings, dowries and other related expenses.

Personally, I don't like those numbers but the simple fact of the matter is that I know I'm in the minority. My wedding cost just under $200 and I got exactly what I wanted (down to the perfect cake). While I have a hard time understanding the big numbers some people spend on weddings, many people have just as hard a time understanding how I could spend so little.

Nothing I can say or do will make my friends see things my way — and the reverse is just as true. And since they're happy, the only result I can see from saying anything at all is putting my friendships in danger. So, I'm keeping my mouth shut.

High-Priced Weddings Aren't Going Away

But I'm still thinking about the matter.

I'm thinking about why people so clearly prefer big weddings, even with the price tag. For a lot of people, I think it's a matter of priorities: they've thought things through and the idea of a big wedding and all that goes with it (fun times with family, a great party and so on) is worth it. The experience of the perfect wedding is worth more than the alternatives of where they can spend that money.

At the end of the day, it's a matter of personal choices, as it should be. If your financial priority is your wedding, that's fine. You should be able to throw the rockingest party you can. The problems creep in when we think about the fact that not everyone manages their finances perfectly. Not everyone saves up money to pay for their wedding ahead of time or budget for what they can afford to spend. Some people choose to go pretty deep into debt in order to have the wedding of their dreams and wind up paying even more in interest, not to mention causing damage to their credit.

The idea of massive debt for one day of fun — charging an amount equivalent to at least a down payment on a house, if not most of the total cost — is what bothers me. I'm lucky enough that my friends aren't in that boat, but even if they were, it seems like it's not considered polite to even bring up wedding costs and talk about debts. It's not a friend's place to say anything. I can't help but wonder if costs would be a little lower if friends talked about how they were able to save money on their celebrations or talk candidly about staying out of debt.

The current state of the economy seems to be bringing a few more of those discussions out into the open. But we've still got a ways to go. I'm certainly not interested in risking my friendships just to talk about money. I don't think I'm the only one, either.

So, I wish my friends all the happiness in the world — a beautiful wedding and a wonderful marriage. I will be there for the happy day and I will gladly celebrate with them.

Written by Thursday Bram for MoneyNing and legally licensed through the Matcha publisher network. Please direct all licensing questions to legal@getmatcha.com.