Playing “D”

Y ou’ve probably heard the expression “Offense wins games, defense wins championships.” It’s one of those sports axioms that coaches use for motivation, the media regularly use for a simplistic sound bite and moms of defensemen draw on when people who doesn’t understand lacrosse conjecture about their sons’ contributions … but I digress.

It also holds plenty of truth when you see what lies ahead for retailing in 2012. Show me a retailer who doesn’t have a solid defensive strategy and I’ll show you one who’s not long for the mall. Industry watchers may be anticipating the changes they’re likely to see as a result of former Apple guru Ron Johnson taking the helm at J.C. Penney, but you can bet they’re not “anticipating” at Macy’s. Behind closed doors, they’re developing a strategy to shake up their own game.

Macy’s/Bloomingdale’s competitors are likely doing the same following the announcement that, by the close of the year, all Macy’s and Bloomies locations will be equipped with RFID technology. This will allow Macy’s to perform more frequent inventory counts, which should result in fewer out-of-stocks and increased sales revenue.

And is there a merchant that didn’t take notice of Amazon’s 5 percent discount for shoppers who used its price-check smartphone application to scan the barcode of a product in-store and then order it for less online? Is Best Buy willing to make a similar investment? Are executives at Walmart contemplating a similar move? You can bet no one is going to take this lying down.

NRF is no stranger to defense; government relations specialists are getting ready for another round on swipe fees. The Federal Reserve-imposed cap on debit card swipe fees that took effect in October is expected to yield roughly $7 billion a year in savings. Unfortunately, according to NRF senior vice president and general counsel Mallory Duncan, “that savings is only about half what it would have been before the banking and card industries persuaded the Fed to set the cap nearly twice as high as what was first proposed back in 2010. Had the Fed not yielded to a massive, multimillion-dollar lobbying campaign, retailers and their customers would have seen an estimated $14 billion a year in savings.” Expect the NRF team to play aggressive “d” this year, as well.

Here at STORES, we decided to begin the New Year with an offensive maneuver. Long-time readers will notice that we’ve made a few changes. With an eye toward refreshing the pages of the magazine, we’ve added some white space, used color a bit more judiciously and endeavored to call more attention to images. We’re also continuing to fine-tune our content in an effort to deliver more thoughtful pieces. The process will be evolutionary, with more tweaks likely in the months to come. Let us know what you think; we value your input.