Lowe’s Co. Inc. experienced a surge in sales after increasing its forecast for the entire year –beating the expectations of Wall Street. It is a sign that the professional business at Lowe’s is helping counter a significant slowdown in the overall demand from the DIY (Do-it-yourself) consumers –responsible for fueling the early-pandemic boom last year.

Lowe’s is a major home improvement retailer and expects total revenue of around $92 billion in the upcoming year, the company revealed in a statement. The expectation is ahead of the preceding ‘sturdy market conditions’ that had assumed the total sales to be around $86 billion.

The ‘boosting’ outlook highlights more robust trends during August and predicts better-than-expected discipline and control on the overall costs, as revealed in a note by Jonathan Matuszewski –Jefferies’s retail analyst. The shares had ended up jumping by as much as 7.9 percent to reach $196.68 in New York.

Investors all around have prepared themselves for a potential slowdown. After the pandemic, last year there were intense demands for everything – from groceries to the development of building supplies, home goods, and much more –especially from consumers handling DIY projects.

Home Depot Inc. – the chief rival of Lowe’s – ended up disappointing its consumers the previous year with weaker results than the overall expectations. Lowe’s follows the concept of same-store sales, which are a significant factor in the retail industry. The concept fell by around 1.6 percent in the period that ended on 30th July, but it was better than the overall predictions concerning the decline –around 1.9 percent. The value of adjusted earnings of $4.25 per share also topped overall expectations.

Marvin Ellison –Chief Executive Officer at Lowe’s, said that they understand times are uncertain but the company aims to be optimistic towards short-term and long-term growth, and that he believes the pandemic has permanently shifted how we feel about our homes. 

Conditions Pro-investment

Lowe’s revealed that it had observed strong sales trends until August but analysts have revealed that the overall business of Lowe’s is much more vulnerable compared to Hope Depot because of the slow down in the DIY trend, because a significant part of their business is derived from that segment. The retailer does aim to invest in it’s pro-type business, including improving staffing services for its contractors, introducing a loyalty program, and so on. Still, the organization lags behind Home Depot. As per Ellison, the company managed to obtain around 21 percent growth in the pro segment.

Similar to Home Depot, the pro-business sales of Lowe’s managed to outpace the DIY unit during the quarter because the transition started taking place in the first quarter. However, it got exaggerated during the period, as revealed by Ellison, who further stated that the company had been currently focused on pro customers. The focus has started paying off its dividends. As a result, there might be a significant shift in the entire year’s balance.

During November, it was reported that Lowe’s was observing its sales being steady –featuring around $22.9 billion in total sales for the period of Q3 – rising from a value of $22.3 billion in 2020. As a result, the sales were up by around 2.2 percent during the given period and the total sales in the United States alone rose by around 2.6 percent.

Lowe’s Sales Steady with Consumers Investing in Home

In an announcement, Marvin Ellison, CEO, President, and Chairman at Lowe’s, revealed that business momentum continued in the quarter. The sales in the United States alone managed to reach 34 percent on a 2-year basis. This is because the Total Home strategy by the company continues resonating with DIY and Pro consumers alike. Additionally, during the quarter, the company observed around 16 percent growth in the Pro program and a 25 percent increase in its overall online sales.

Lowe’s boasts around 1,973 hardware and home improvement stores across the United States and Canada. Therefore, it represents around 208 million square feet of retail selling space as reported on 29th October while overseeing 230 dealer-owned stores.

Future Plans for Lowe’s

Lowe’s will launch the beta version of the feature of Measure Your Space on its app before the closing of the first quarter of 2022. The app allows its users to scan an entire room, measure, and predict the home improvement specifications as a part of the vision of the company –referred to as Spatial Commerce.

Measure Your Space will be made available across the iOS app of Lowe’s for users of iPhone 12 Pro, Pro Max, 13 Pro, Pro Max, and iPad Pro. In addition, it will be available with a focus on flooring. It is going to be a significant home improvement project as around 5 million homeowners execute their own flooring, paneling, and carpeting.

In October, the company also launched its One Roof Media Network feature. It served as a retail media service for including different Omni-channel advertising services for boosting home-based lifestyle brands and data-driven insights into home-based trends and customer behavior with a personalized advertising program.

Bamboo Rose –a multi-enterprise supply chain and product-based platform, has announced that it will be featured within the Customer Innovation Network in Milan by Accenture –one of the leading professional service firms in the world. In addition to this, the business also unveiled its plans of partnering with Blue Yonder –a popular digital supply chain and Omni-channel commerce platform.

The partnership is aimed at helping retailers in combining innovation, ensuring demand planning, supply chain operations, and maximizing product development. The partnership also focuses on streamlining supply chain operations for obtaining more profits while guiding the consumer-centric product assortment strategy.

Role of the Partnership

The partnership between Bamboo Rose and Blue Yonder will be leveraging the PLM or Product Lifecycle Management Sourcing capability of Bamboo Rose and PO (Purchase Order) management solutions along with the supply chain planning & management capabilities of Blue Yonder. As a result, it will reduce the overall costs, deepen supplier relations, synergize operations, and accelerate time to market.

Client organizations harnessing the partnership will equip the respective design and merchandising teams with actionable insights. It will be based on the combination of conservative development of real-time sales data and historical data for supporting consumer-centric, agile product strategy. The partnership will also enable retail clients to develop deeper transparency with the respective vendor community by revealing planning data to the suppliers beforehand. Finally, it will help drive optimized start dates on good production runs.

Alignment of Product Development with the Partnership

 The alignment of product development, assortment planning, and sourcing across different business processes and systems will help expedite feedback on in-depth merchant interest between the retailers and subsequent partners. It will also assist in reducing the overall costs linked with the development and streamlining process of product innovation.

Sonia Hernandez -Vice President, Retail Planning, Blue Yonder, explains that as the company welcomes Bamboo Rose in partnership, it looks forward to collaboratively offering support to the retail customer base. This is because the partnership will be committed to bringing profitable products to market, aligning with the ongoing consumer trends. The partnership will also enable synergies across different stages of product development, planning, supply chain processes, and manufacturing.

Andrea Imsdahl –Global Alliances Executive, Bamboo Rose, explains further that it is increasingly important than ever before that retailers continue leveraging accurate insights and meaningful data to inform product development and sourcing decisions. This is due to the ever-changing consumer demands, fluctuations in shipping costs, and the overall factor capacity. Andrea further stated that the partnership with Blue Yonder would enable retailers to achieve an all-new level of supply chain and product development agility when there is a need for it. In addition, this accelerates the mission to aid retailers in ensuring product differentiation based on the costs, time, and market trends.

Bamboo Rose’s Showcasing in Customer Innovation Network by Accenture

 As a part of the collaboration, Bamboo Rose put forth a demonstration for supporting consultants at Accenture to show CPG (Consumer Packaged Goods) and retail food clients how they can innovate sourcing and product development processes and supply chain mechanisms. It would ultimately help in differentiating across competitive consumer markets.

In 2017, Accenture unleashed its Consumer Innovation Center in Milan, Italy. It is regarded as one of the largest innovation hubs by the company for professional fashion, retail, and consumer goods communities. The Innovation Center at Milan, in addition to other sibling facilities in Singapore and Chicago, makes up the broader innovation network of the company. It is an incubator initiative committed to creating state-of-the-art, groundbreaking solutions for clients that look forward to breaking through the disruption of modern corporate environments.

Accenture chose Bamboo Rose and its multi-enterprise platform as the superior technology for implementing best practices around the concept of supplier collaboration, private brand innovation, compliances, traceability, and consumer meetings as the need arises in the post-pandemic era. The collaboration demonstrates how brands, suppliers, and retailers will be capable of streamlining and accelerating product design & delivery through a robust partnership with the entire business community.

Maria Mazzone –Lead at Accenture Customer Innovation Network, Milan, stated that the Customer Innovation Network in Milan is focused on delivering optimum client value through collaboration and in-depth learning. As such, collaborating with Bamboo Rose will help the company provide clients with the possibility of learning further comprehensive business value as driven by the approach of supply chain and enterprise product development.

Sue Welch –CEO, of Bamboo Rose, states that the company has long admired the overall expertise and transition that Accenture is capable of delivering for its clients. The company is also impressed with how the firm is combining hands-on learning and industry expertise in different innovation hubs. Bamboo Rose remains delighted to showcase the Milan Innovation Hub by Accenture. It also takes pride in the fact that the Bamboo Rose Multi-enterprise Platform will be utilized as the enabler of sourcing, product development, and supply chain innovation for clients of Accenture in the CPG and food retail markets.

About Bamboo Rose

Bamboo Rose is a leading multi-enterprise supply chain and product platform. The company is dedicated to connecting the entire retail community and is also committed to bringing innovative products into the market more efficiently and faster, along with improved margins. The platform features an array of patented supply chain solutions –including Product Lifecycle Management, Bamboo Rose Marketplace, Global Trade Management, Purchase Order Management, Sourcing, Financing, and much more. Each of the solutions is supported by highly intelligent engines for ensuring optimization, scheduling, and costing across the entire platform.

As of August 2021, 4.27 million U.S. employees resigned from their jobs. This trend began in April 2021 when 3.99 million Americans quit their jobs and continued till August. What’s with the sudden fad?

Times of unrest often have a distorting effect on society. Amongst many other effects, the pandemic led to many employees leaving their jobs. For instance, a LinkedIn survey showed that 74% of people sought other employment because the pandemic kept them stuck at home.

On the other hand, it was a period of renewed focus for some as they realized their current jobs didn’t offer fulfillment. Hence, they took another career path. Let’s see what the Great Resignation is all about.

What is the Great Resignation?

The pandemic changed the world – quarantines, shut down, restrictions on movement as well as access to goods and services. Many businesses, across sectors, especially the retail sector, were forced to lay off some employees because they probably weren’t meeting up financially.

Also, across many sectors, remote work was initiated and popularized. But more significantly, it was a time of introspection for many – they had to look into their career path and what gives them fulfillment. As such, a lot of employees realized that they had not been doing their “dream job” all this while. They seemed to realize how unsatisfied they were with many things about their jobs ranging from the industry to their work environment to their work-life balance.

It was around this time that Anthony Klotz, an elite scholar of Management (associate professor at Texas A&M University) predicted and coined the term the Great Resignation. According to him, many employees were likely to quit jobs and careers that they were no longer happy with.

In a Bloomberg article he states, “The Great Resignation is coming. When there’s uncertainty, people tend to stay put, so there are pent-up resignations that didn’t happen over the past year.” And, Klotz’s prediction eventually appeared to be true.

The Great Resignation is beyond a mere idealistic phenomenon, but different statistics back it up, for example:

• According to the U.S Department of Labor, 2.9% of the workforce in the state quit their jobs in August 2021.

• According to a March 2021 Microsoft report, 41%  of the total global workforce is considering resigning their jobs.

• According to the Gallup State of the Global Workplace report of 2021, 20% of employees worldwide don’t have any other engagement aside from their work. This means that with the pandemic keeping these employees at home, they are most likely to take up another job.

Factors Driving the Great Resignation

From surveys and researchers, a lot of factors have contributed to the Great Resignation across different industries and in diverse regions. The effect, however, was more profound on some industries like healthcare and retail. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the majority of resignations were recorded in the following industries: hospitality, leisure, and food services.

For health workers, they found themselves under extreme pressure (even their lives were at risk) and a lot of them couldn’t cope. Consequently, 579,000 health workers resigned from their jobs in August 2021. For Galinsky, a social psychologist at Columbia Business School, the health care employees needed no further explanation to leave their jobs.

He said “I think a lot of people are just like, ‘I can’t take it anymore, it’s too stressful to be in this healthcare system.”

In the retail industry, many had to work for lesser hours and this perhaps meant less pay, some were even laid off completely. This was truly a revelatory period for many of the employees in this sector as they realized that their job offered little or no security.

Another major sector where people left was the professional services and business services and many factors triggered the Great Resignation in that sector. The Bureau of Labor Statistics indicated that 706,000 employees resigned just in August 2021. Some professionals and business people may have needed a balance in their work-life, some, better employment and for others, probably lacked fulfillment. 

According to research led by Ian Cook, VP of people analytics at Visier, the Great Resignation was more among the younger generation, age range between 30 – 45 years. Resignation, according to Cook, increased by 20% among mid-career employees between 2020 and 2021. Cook and his team suggest that this was a result of the notable shift to remote work during the Covid-19 period.

Perhaps the younger generation needed to embrace the new work trend they discovered as a result of the pandemic, which was characterized by digital employment. The older employees could continue with the traditional way; the 9-5 office work. 

Many people praise remote work for offering convenience, and the ability to work at one’s pace and time. In addition, the stress of trying to catch up with traffic at peak commute hours can be circumvented.

According to Cook’s analysis, another reason could be that these employees from the beginning of the pandemic, could have been uncertain about the future. As such, the pandemic only confirmed their fears and forced them to resign.

Possibly, this was also a mere coincidence, people just reevaluating their work and life goals. It may be nothing close to these assumptions, rather a mere co-occurrence. 

Cook’s analysis also found that Resignations are highest in tech and healthcare. In those industries, an increase in demand may have put the employees under a lot of stress, as a result, those who couldn’t cope left. 

Galinsky thinks this increase in demand, especially in the tech industry, was fueled by the shift to remote work. As people began to realize they could do so much from the comfort of their homes using their gadgets, the demand for tech products increased.

Conclusion 

The Great Resignation is a factual phenomenon as statistics have shown. It may be an indication, however, that the employers of labor have some more work to do to keep their employees in times of societal upheavals. Basically, jobs should provide a degree of security for employees, and employers should work on strengthening work conditions to make them favorable.

They could make opportunities available for workers for the advancement of their careers, give better rewards, support work on fixed terms, and stress reduction. Employers will most likely work under conditions that offer more advantages than disadvantages.

Popsugar Inc., a reputable American technology and media company, has started investing in traditional retail stores. Recently, it has released a new series of home fitness products by partnering with Target.

Target.com will make Popsugar’s products available to customers, mainly selling yoga mats and starter gym equipment for fitness enthusiasts. Class FitSugar is one of the popular workout video series created by Popsugar, but it is not the first time Popsugar is undertaking a retail venture. It has a collection of business casual outfits at Kohls, and at Old Navy the company has presented gender-neutral clothing for teens.

Popsugar’s videos are getting lots of views

The major aim of Popsugar is to make its presence stronger in the retail industry. Popsugar’s workout videos on YouTube have received 25 million views, and the popularity of fitness videos has probably increased due to the long-term pandemic. 

Since 2020, Popsugar has started gaining lots of subscribers. The publisher regularly streams live workout videos on Instagram with fitness professionals like Jake DuPree and Rebecca Louise taking part in the live streaming sessions. The growth of the audience is noticeable across different platforms, including its website. Popsugar Fitness has also created a streaming channel on the platform – VIZIO SmartCast – where consumers may easily access free fitness workout videos from Popsugar.

According to Lisa Sugar (the co-founder), the retail partnership will enable the brand to reach more audiences and the content will be well connected to commerce. Platform Analytics, a reliable research firm, confirms that Popsugar has become one of the prominent fitness publishers across multiple social media platforms.

Class FitSugar has enjoyed a 1-year anniversary and has other video franchise endeavors, such as Pop Quizzes, and “How 2 Deal”, a video series about mental health. Celebrity Real Talk videos also have interesting content. Lisa has claimed that the company has tried to learn the interest of the audience in different workouts. The videos teach the audience how to move the body and become healthy. 

From Sugar, we have learned that Popsugar has thought of launching the product series before the potential customers have considered something about their New Year’s fitness resolutions. In most cases, there is a rise in the sale of wellness and health products during the months of January and February. The latest collection released by the company includes 17 pieces like jump ropes, kettlebells, dumbbells, and step decks. These kits help in maintaining body shapes and sizes with the goal of helping its customers to start their fitness journey in the coming year.

Popsugar and other brands

Popsugar’s team has focused on the initiatives of several other media publishers and brands entering the world of retail space. With its own effort and joint partnerships, Popsugar is trying to move forward. For instance, Complex has started shifting its focus to commerce by launching the Complex Shop in 2019, selling streetwear sneakers. Pooshe, another notable platform, has increased the number of product categories in its own store by entering the world of beverages, food, workout kits, and kitchen composters.

According to Michael Felice, one of the associates of the Communications, Media and Technology, media companies would have benefits from entering traditional commerce. A few years ago, a media company used to rely on high subscriptions and local advertising revenues, but there has been a decrease in the trend of printing journal subscriptions. Because of this, the newly digitized media agencies have become more creative to compensate. Felice has stated that it is highly important to make the customer base bigger and connect with multiple audiences.

Popsugar is not the only brand merging commerce with content. Netflix has recently released a clothing line associated with Emily in Paris and other luxury brands will launch a collection of pieces chosen by celebrities like Lily Collins. 

The eCommerce store from Netflix made its debut in June, and its products promote TV shows like The Witcher and Stranger Things.

In the beginning of the year, 2021, Popsugar has focused on the release of beauty-related products. It knows that physical fitness and beauty are major goals of consumers and that many consumers revamp their routines every year. Popsugar has tried to play a role in the field of beauty innovations by launching skin-care products and makeup items. So in 2022 Popsugar’s fans can look forward to a new series of better beauty care products.

Digital security has now become a major concern, as several consumers choose online platforms for shopping, banking, paying bills, and any other transaction. According to a recent survey report from Experian’s annual Global Identity & Fraud, the pandemic has persuaded consumers to move to the digital world. The report also revealed that consumers mostly prefer behavior-based and physical methods of security. Interestingly, it has also been disclosed that passwords are one of the top security methods to authenticate a customer’s identity. This trend has been new in the last 4 years.

The long-term pandemic has resulted in a sudden surge in digital activities, which is quite higher than anticipated. Researchers claim that the trend will not go away. But, the fraud rates are rising steadily, and thus, consumers are focusing more on security.

Businesses have felt the need to distinguish fraudsters from customers. Until they are suceessful they can risk their financial data and lose customer trust. Two out of three organizations have shown concern about fraud. Thus, they have thought of modernizing the authentication process.

The Experian^® survey has covered over 9,000 consumers and 2,700+ companies during the COVID-19 waves. It has focused on consumers across 10 countries, including Latin America, North America, Asia, and Europe. Important findings from the annual fraud report have revealed that 34% of consumers are concerned about digital privacy during the post-pandemic period. Moreover, 44% of consumers like to have better protection of their bank account details and credit cards. 23% of them like to protect their personal data like address and date of birth. Again, 49% of consumers (below 40) have shown concerns about fraud cases. Interestingly, 48% of consumers have claimed that biometric security is safer for them.

Data security and trust of consumers

The way various customers interact with financial institutions and other companies can make and break the trust. In some cases, consumers use passwordless login to disclose personal data for a successful and efficient transaction. According to PYMNTS, The Passwordless Future, and Entersekt, the stronger security measures of financial institutions ensure better consumers’ perceptions. Entersekt has analyzed responses from 2,500+ U.S. consumers.

65% of consumers claimed high importance on data security had caused a considerable effect on their trust. Moreover, 60% of them had talked about the way of securing the transactions. Furthermore, 56% of consumers said that it is vital to have comprehensive data security along with privacy statements. 

According to the latest report from PYMNTS, consumers highly prefer consistency in experiences across every platform. It is not less important than data security that affects their trust in financial institutions.

Today, password and username are the most commonly chosen authentication methods for consumers. More than 64% of consumers have said that they use this combination to avail online financial services at least once every month. But, more than 30% of consumers use their email addresses and personal identification numbers for accessing online financial services. However, some consumers also use their finger scan and mobile numbers for this purpose.

It is true that passwords are the easiest authentication and login method. Still, more than 40% of modern consumers like the login method that does not need any password. They also desire a method, which eliminates the need for using passwords. They are more comfortable with the alternative login methods.

Surveys on the password usage trends

Digital Guardian has surveyed 1000 consumers to know about password usage habits. It has also tried to know how often users apply the best practices to maintain their password hygiene. Moreover, Digital Guardian’s team has also tried to identify methods chosen by users to remember and manage different passwords.

According to Digital Guardian’s, 5 years ago, more than 80% of consumers felt secure with their password usage and management habits. 76% of consumers with the age group of 18 to 24 years like to reuse their passwords. 62% of seniors (age- more than 65 years) have the habit of reusing the passwords.

Digital Guardian has also delved deep into the number of password-protected accounts the consumers have. 30% of consumers say that it is less than 10, while 28% of consumers claim that the number is 11 to 25. The survey has disclosed the fact that several users like to update passwords regularly.

Users’ approach to remembering their passwords

Kaspersky surveyed how users like to remember their passwords. The survey revealed that 22% of consumers had the habit of writing passwords in a notepad. 11% of them used to choose sticky notes to write passwords. Some consumers also store passwords in web browsers. 10% of respondents of the survey used to choose computer files for storing passwords. Moreover, 4% of respondents would like to rely on online platforms to store passwords.

There are some other findings of Krebs on Security. According to Krebs, the safest way to secure passwords is to make a list of sites where consumers need to use passwords. Then, they can write their login names and choose unique and relevant clues. In most cases, when they cannot call up the passwords, the website sends an email to create a new password. Krebs has also claimed that apps designed for managing passwords are also useful. There are some local apps, which have no cloud storage. Users can store their passwords in those apps.