Bass Pro Shops By Kimberly Greenberger

In this article, retail expert Kimberly Greenberger explains that in today’s world, more and more consumers are going online to buy merchandise, causing traditional brick-and-mortar retailers to struggle. Retailers especially taking a hit to profitability are department stores, either freestanding or those anchored in large, regional malls. As we have learned in class, there are many marketing and retailing techniques that can be used by these stores to gain a competitive edge and drive profits upward again.

As we discussed in the Bass Pro Shops case study, many retail stores are suffering from the show-rooming effect. Basically, this means that because these retailers provide customers with a real life, hands-on experience with their merchandise,

Exclusive merchandise is sold to retailers by national brands that give the stores exclusive rights to sell their products, meaning only that retailer can sell that particular product line. Private-label merchandise is developed and marketed by a particular retailer, and is also only sold by that retailer and cannot be bought anywhere else. Using these techniques differentiates department stores and other retailers from online sites such as Amazon. It also builds customer loyalty to their store and increases store traffic, generating more sales and therefore higher profits. (Levy, Weitz, and Grewal,

Greenberger specifically notes that this group includes off-price retailers such as TJ Maxx, Marshalls, Ross Stores, and Burlington Stores. Off-price retailers, also called closeout retailers, offer an inconsistent assortment of brand name items at a significant discount, usually 20-60% lower than Manufactured Suggested Retail Price (MSRP) (Levy, Weitz, and Grewal, 2014). As we have learned, off-price retailers also include outlet malls and factory outlets such as Tanger Factory Outlet Centers, Saks Off 5th, and many others. These stores are able to use unique, opportunistic buying practices such as purchasing overruns from manufacturers, buying closeout merchandise, or buying excess inventory from retailers (Levy, Weitz, and Grewal, 2014). Greenberger explains that these unique purchasing practices allow off-price retailers to gain advantage over online websites because they solve the problem of clearing out inventory for other retailers who don’t want to put this merchandise