STORES

Bob’s Discount Furniture

At Bob’s Discount Furniture, a combination of premium products and new pricing strategies are driving sales. In Q3, the furniture outlet posted a 10.3% jump in net sales and a 3.8% increase in comparable sales. Behind the increase in comp sales was higher average order values stemming from investments in higher-priced items, CFO Carl Lukach told Retail Brew.

The furniture outlet, which went public earlier this year, divides its assortment into three value categories: good, better, and best. The latter two make up the premium tier, which constitutes about 60% of the business. As more customers traded into these categories, Lukach explained, average order values increased.

But bringing in new premium goods required Bob’s to carefully adjust its entire pricing “architecture,” which Lukach describes as the combination of prices across all value categories.

Keep reading here.—AV

      

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CONSUMER BEHAVIOR & TRENDS

Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Amazon has some company on the holiday shopping list, at least if you look at the latest research by Omnisend.

Sixty-seven percent of Americans surveyed said they plan to buy holiday gifts at Walmart, compared with 62% who said the same of Amazon. Last year, Walmart trailed Amazon by 14 percentage points.

Greg Zakowicz, e-commerce and retail advisor for Omnisend, told Retail Brew that convenience could be part of this shift while pointing to the possibility that Walmart+ subscribers are merging purchases at one retailer, especially if they can find the same sellers at both.

Keep reading here.—JS

      

COMMUNITY

Photo: Nitesh Nihalani

On Wednesdays, we wear pink spotlight Retail Brew’s readers. Want to be featured in an upcoming edition? Click here to introduce yourself.

Nitesh Nihalani is VP of digital at haircare brand Divi Growth Care.

How would you describe your job to someone who doesn’t work in retail? I’m responsible for figuring out how to grow the business, from getting new customers to keeping them coming back. That means a mix of marketing, analytics, e-commerce, and customer experience across everywhere we sell online, from our own website to Amazon and TikTok Shop. On any given day, I might be reviewing new ads, digging into why shoppers leave a product page without buying, or testing what brings a customer back for a second order. I spend a lot of time in the data understanding what’s working, but the real goal is turning those insights into ideas that make shopping easier, build customer loyalty, and keep Divi growing.

One thing we can’t guess about your job from your LinkedIn profile? A big part of my job is being a detective. The numbers can tell you what is happening, but figuring out why takes a lot of curiosity and experimentation. The clues are rarely in one place. Someone might discover us on TikTok, look us up on Google, and buy on Amazon a few weeks later. And sometimes the answer isn’t in a dashboard at all, but in customer reviews, where people explain in their own words why they bought. Some of the best growth opportunities come from asking a simple question that nobody has thought to ask yet.

What’s your favorite project you’ve worked on? Divi built its name on scalp care and hair growth, so our first-ever hairsprays had to prove our Growth Care approach works in a finishing product, not just a scalp serum.

Keep reading here.—EC

      

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Morning Brew Inc.

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swapping skus

Today’s top retail reads.

Name your price: Consumer prices rose 0.4% in October, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported, a higher than expected increase following a 0.6% jump in September. (CNBC)

Going flat: PepsiCo will cut 1,000 jobs within the next week across its North American food and beverage division. (the Wall Street Journal)

Common thread: Reddit debuted a new AI-powered feature called Reddit Reviews that organizes threads to allow users to see conversations and feedback about consumer products. (TechCrunch)

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