Powerful Partnerships: What Makes Retail Alliances Work

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More big retailers are exploring alliances, with the anticipation that doubling up will double the cachet, more than double the size of the shopper basket – and create a second reason to come into the store. WSL sent its Retail Safari® scouts out to see what works and does not toward this bigger-basket goal, and ... Read more

Are You Honest Enough for Shoppers? 5 Steps to Get There

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We asked shoppers to speak their truths about what they buy, how and why, and learned this: They expect the companies they purchase from to take responsibility for social change and to authentically PROVE it. In short, companies must “show” they are more sustainable, fair and community-focused – across all the media their customers use. Here ... Read more

WSL Dives Into Gen Z: The Categories & Retailers They Shop

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Retailers and brands know a lot about how Gen Z shops, generally, but what about the ways they prioritize certain categories over others? From WSL report, “Gen Z: The Next Shopper Revolution,” here are a few category insights that surprised us.  What Does Gen Z Want More, Enhanced Water or Yogurt? We’ve all been studying ... Read more

Extraordinary Sustainability: 5 Retail Safari® Examples

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WSL’s research shows that shoppers have long felt sustainability is a cause worth spending more for. Now retailers are taking that value-driven purpose from ordinary to extraordinary, and driving even more shoppers toward sustainability. Here, we share five examples from our Retail Safari® tours. Shoppers Sought Sustainable Retail, Now It’s Seeking Them Sustainability is becoming ... Read more

20 New Shopper Trends Retailers Should Know for 2021

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As we look forward to a 2021 full of hope, we decided to look back on what shoppers have taught us this year, which is what retailers and brands will need to deliver next. Here are 20 of the most significant findings from WSL’s 2020 archives. Determination. In the WSL Dictionary of Retail and Shopper ... Read more

Gen Z is Redefining Wellness: 4 Must-Know Findings

Gen Z is Redefining Wellness: 4 Must-Know Findings blog banner featuring gen z teen putting home remedy in a glass bottle
The youngest shoppers, Gen Z approach the wellness movement differently than Millennials because they never had to learn it. Rather, they were born into a world aware of the products and habits that are bad for them, and the choices that are healthier. Now, in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, how brands and retailers ... Read more

3 Ways to Know if Your Beauty Brands are Man Enough

3 Ways to Know if Your Beauty Brands are Man Enough blog banner featuring man putting spreadable face mask product on in bathroom mirror
Men are venturing into the beauty category at a pace that could turn an unprepared brand’s hair gray. Yet while interested in the category, many men don’t know how to enter it. Our How America Shops® survey revealed three steps for getting them there – but don’t wait or you’ll be a runner-up. Real men ... Read more

Holiday Shopper Talk: Stockings to be Half Full

Holiday Shopper Talk: Stockings to be Half Full blog banner featuring hands holding out a small brown paper wrapped gift
As if the nation needed one more opinion on which to be divided: Half of shoppers are now giving the thumbs down to buying more gifts this holiday season. What is especially scary is those most likely to cut back are the youngest shoppers. Here’s what our 2019 Holiday How America Shops® research reveals. Will ... Read more

A Peek Into the Health Store of the Future

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The future of health care is being seized by retail, from innovative independents offering to relieve joint pain to Walmart installing examination rooms. All of which means the health store of the future is still a free-for-all. We have four observations to help retailers ensure they remain in the health industry’s heartbeat. Health Stores Are ... Read more

Beauty & Wellness With Purpose: Shoppers Expect It, How Do You Bring It?

Beauty & Wellness With Purpose blog banner featuring hand with floating beauty product icon above it and sustainability icons in background
More shoppers are demanding beauty and wellness products that are clean, environmentally safe and serve a global purpose. Yet getting such products on the shelf can be a Herculean task for the many startups creating them. In Chicago this October, we’re offering an opportunity to change that. A growing number of women are willing to ... Read more

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