Dive Brief:

• John Garratt, Dollar General’s president and chief financial officer, plans to retire on June 2 after less than six months in the position. Garratt became president and CFO in September 2022.
• Garratt has been with the company for nearly a decade. He first served as senior vice president of finance and strategy, then assumed the role of executive vice president and CFO in late 2015. During his time at Dollar General, he oversaw finance, accounting, investor relations and procurement. 
• In an announcement, the company praised Garratt for his “focus on delivering strong and consistent financial performance.” Dollar General said it’s evaluating options for its next CFO. The company isn’t conducting an external search right now.

Dive Insight:

Garratt has more than 30 years of corporate, retail and financial leadership experience. Before joining Dollar General, Garratt held various roles with Yum Brands, which is the parent company of familiar fast food names like KFC and Pizza Hut. He also held financial management positions at Alcoa and General Electric.

Jeff Owen, Dollar General’s CEO, said Garratt’s “exceptional business and financial acumen coupled with his strategic vision have positioned the company for profitable growth.”

Tennessee-based Dollar General is one of America’s largest retailers. The company had $34.2 billion in retail sales in 2021. This C-suite leadership transition comes as the company celebrates a milestone.

On Saturday, Dollar General commemorated the grand opening of its 19,000th store in Joplin, Missouri, with a community celebration and a $19,000 donation to a local elementary school. Customers received complimentary Dollar General gift cards, tote bags, and product samples.

By the end of 2021, Dollar General said it was one of the largest discount retailers in the United States by store count. At 19,000 stores, it is also one of the fastest-growing retailers. The retailer opened more than 1,000 stores in 2021 and 2022, and is on track to open an estimated 1,048 stores this year, according to a report from Coresight Research. The report also said the retailer accounted for more than 55% of all U.S. discount store openings in 2022.

By comparison, Virginia-based rival Dollar Tree, which also owns Family Dollar, has about 16,000 stores. Walmart has approximately 5,300 locations and Target has nearly 2,000 U.S. stores. 

The company also faces ongoing challenges. In early January, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost asked a state court to issue a temporary restraining order against the company over recurring price discrepancies. 

Dollar General was founded in 1939 by J.L. Turner and his son, Cal Turner Sr. They opened the first Dollar General store in 1955 in Springfield, Kentucky.

Dive Brief:

• Alongside other retailers launching mobile apps, Pottery Barn Kids and Pottery Barn Teen have introduced shopping apps for iOS, the retailers announced Wednesday. 
• With the apps, shoppers can create registries, browse products across age groups, view and purchase items from 3D rooms, save their favorite products and make purchases using Apple Pay, according to the announcement. 
• Shoppers can also schedule appointments to meet with its designers in-store, at home or online.

Dive Insight:

Pottery Barn Kids and Pottery Barn Teen have joined other home goods retailers that have released mobile apps.

“The development of our mobile shopping apps was a coordinated effort focused on delivering a seamless, convenient customer experience. As brands who put digital first, the apps offer a new way to shop, find design inspiration and create and manage a registry on-the-go,” Jennifer Kellor, president of Pottery Barn Kids and Pottery Barn Teen, said in a statement. 

Meanwhile, other retailers have invested in mobile apps, too. In November, True Religion launched its mobile app and expects app to generate 10% of its e-commerce sales this year. In October, At Home debuted its own mobile app and expanded its same-day delivery to all locations. And in August, Bath & Body Works unveiled a mobile app alongside its new loyalty program that lets customers earn rewards points, shop and store their gift cards. Last March, Chico’s FAS debuted mobile apps across all of its portfolio brands.

The 2022 holiday season illustrated how critical it is for retailers to have a digital presence. Research from Adobe found that e-commerce sales rose 3.5% year-over-year between Nov. 1 and Dec. 31 to $211.7 billion. The same report found that nearly half of online sales came from smartphones in the 2022 holiday season. 

Dive Brief:

• Resale platforms Trove and ThredUp added to their rosters this week amid exploding sales in used goods. Canada Goose has partnered with Trove for “Canada Goose Generations,” launching Tuesday in the U.S. and in Canada later this year, according to a company press release.

• Customers can trade in Canada Goose items, which are then “assessed and authenticated,” and receive a Canada Goose gift card, good at stores and online, if they are accepted. Vintage, preowned and refurbished goods are for sale via the Generations tab on the 65-year-old Canadian outerwear brand’s website. 

• Mall-based apparel store Francesca’s is the latest retailer to partner with ThredUp for its resale program, “Forever Francesca’s,” also announced Tuesday. Sellers can trade items for shopping credit usable at stores and online, and, for a limited time, will get an extra 15% for them, according to a company press release.

Dive Insight:

Selling secondhand goods is quickly evolving into a requirement for any retailer interested in tapping into consumers’ intense — and growing — interest in them. Shoppers see the option as helping the environment, getting a good deal or both. 

The market could reach $82 billion within three years, according to research from ThredUp and GlobalData. And the appeal is true not just for apparel but also electronics, furniture and sporting goods, according to a recent report from WD Partners. Retailers and brands from budget to luxury are increasingly moving to take part.

If the resale market is a dream, the logistics involved are something of a nightmare, however, according to Lee Peterson, executive vice president of thought leadership and marketing. So far, the acquisition, inventory management and sale of secondhand items are most efficiently and profitably conducted in stores, he recently told an audience of the National Retail Federation’s annual conference.

Still, most major chains and brands are keeping their resale programs online, operated with the help of third parties like ThredUp and Trove. Wells Fargo analysts see the resale-as-a-service side of ThredUp’s business as potentially more lucrative than its own retail operation, with retailers from J. Crew to Target, and now Francesca’s turning to the company.

“Francesca’s customer demographic is the perfect candidate for resale, as Gen Z and Millennials are the ones largely powering resale’s growth,” ThredUp CEO James Reinhart said in a statement.

Dive Brief:

• Dick’s Sporting Goods on Monday announced it is partnering with NFL player Tom Brady to introduce his apparel brand, Brady, according to a press release shared with Retail Dive. 
• The clothing brand features pants, joggers, underwear, T-shirts and shorts. The brand will be available on Dick’s Sporting Goods’ website and at its House of Sport locations, per the announcement. 
• The retailer said the brand took more than three years to develop. Prices range from $45 to $145, according to its website.

Dive Insight:

In addition to Dick’s Sporting Goods, Brady is also launching his namesake clothing brand in select Nordstrom stores, including in New York City; Los Angeles; Tampa; and Natick, Massachusetts. The locations were selected in part to reach Brady’s fan base, the company said.

“As we continue to grow, we are excited to expand our online and in-store retail distribution at one of the world’s largest sports retail stores,” Jens Grede, CEO and co-founder of Brady, said in a statement. “Our displays at Dick’s Sporting Goods House of Sport locations will provide consumers with an immersive Brady experience featuring key styles and some of Tom Brady’s personal memorabilia.”

Before Dick’s Sporting Goods teamed up with Tom Brady, the retailer had been testing new store concepts to attract more shoppers. In April 2021, the company debuted the House of Sport concept, which featured a rock climbing mall, a batting cage and a turf field. The company also created other experiential retail and off-price retail concepts to enter new segments and draw customers seeking tactile experiences.

The retailer has been working to attract more shoppers through its ambassador program. The company last year tapped ambassadors for its Calia brand, including wellness entrepreneur Hannah Bronfman, actress Dascha Polanco, golf journalist Alexandra O’Laughlin, and gymnast Shawn Johnson East, a few months after Carrie Underwood announced she would be stepping away from the brand.

Coming off of a strong third-quarter earnings report, Dick’s raised its outlook for the year, now expecting comparable sales to fall by up to 3% compared to a previously projected decline of 6%.

Dive Brief:

• Online retail sales, excluding travel, surpassed $1 trillion last year “for the first time in history,” according to Comscore’s State of Digital Commerce report. While online non-travel sales totaled $1.09 trillion last year, e-commerce sales in Q4 reached its “highest quarter ever” at $332.2 billion.
• The top grossing digital commerce categories in 2022 were food, pet and baby goods ($219 billion), followed by apparel and accessories ($175 billion) and computers and peripherals ($117 billion), the report found. While apparel and accessories spending rose 37% year over year, video games and accessories online purchases rose by nearly a third (31%) and home and garden online sales rose by a quarter. 
• Mobile sales increased by more than a quarter (26%) in the fourth quarter of 2022 compared to the previous year. Mobile sales now comprise 38% of overall digital commerce sales, the report said.

Dive Insight:

After the coronavirus pandemic pushed consumers to shop more online, e-commerce sales have continued to grow in recent years. A March 2021 Adobe report found that the shoppers spent a total of $844 billion since March 2020. It also predicted that e-commerce spending would reach $1 trillion last year. 

Comscore’s findings exceeded a prediction from FTI Consulting. Last July, FTI Consulting forecast that e-commerce retail sales would reach $1.07 trillion last year, just shy of Comscore’s $1.09 trillion calculation. The firm previously projected that online retail sales wouldn’t attain that milestone until 2025. 

E-commerce spending reached record highs during the 2022 holiday season. According to an Adobe report, consumers spent $211.7 billion online from Nov. 1 to Dec. 31, up 3.5% year over year. Among the top product categories during the holidays were toy sales, video games, apparel and accessories. 

Comscore’s report also showed some signs that shoppers were hunting for deals as inflation shrank their buying power. While the retail keyword “bargain” spiked 97% between 2021 and 2022, the terms “bulk” and “budget” also increased 32% and 30%, respectively. 

Though inflation appears to be slowing down, retailers feel the pinch as shoppers seek markdowns to reduce spending. A recent Deloitte survey of 50 retail executives found that two-thirds of respondents anticipate pricing to be more of a deciding factor to consumers than retailer loyalty. Overall, Deloitte said that reduced spending power will impact retail sales this year. 

With global expansion in mind, Skims — the Kim Kardashian co-founded apparel brand — has appointed Robert Norton as its chief commercial officer.

“I have been a fan of Robert’s for several years and believe him to be a rare, creatively minded executive who knows how to build both a brand and a business,” Skims CEO and co-founder Jens Grede said in a company LinkedIn post. “We are excited to have Robert on the team as we continue the evolution of SKIMS into a global retail brand.”

Norton’s appointment, which was initially reported by Women’s Wear Daily, comes with decades of retail experience. Norton most recently served as president for about five years at the Italian luxury brand Moncler. Prior to that, he was CEO of Americas at Roberto Cavalli and worked at Ralph Lauren for over 13 years. 

Skims — which sells loungewear, shapewear and undergarments — is one of the fastest-growing apparel brands online, according to a report this month from Similarweb. The report, which also listed luggage brand Monos and apparel brand Quince among the fastest growing in the sector, said Skims’ website traffic grew about 157% in 2022.

But Skims has also experimented with retail outside its e-commerce channel. The brand has previously held a pop-up event at The Grove shopping center in Los Angeles, and entered into its first wholesale deal with Nordstrom in January 2020. It also lists Harrods, Lane Crawford and Selfridges & Co. as stockists, per its website.

Dive Brief:

• 7-Eleven is testing robotic delivery in West Hollywood, California, in partnership with Serve Robotics, as was first reported by food tech news site HNGRY on Wednesday. 
• 7-Eleven has been involved with Serve since late 2021, when 7-Ventures, the investment branch of 7-Eleven dedicated to early stage investments, invested in a $13 million seed funding round.   
• Serve “did start delivering for 7-Eleven some weeks ago” a spokesperson for the robotics company said in an email. Robot delivery for 7-Eleven currently saves customers the cost of a tip, and is only available when ordering through its 7Now app.

Dive Insight:

Robotic deliveries have the potential to ease some labor problems for c-stores, assuming, as HNGRY pointed out, that the robots perform as well or better than humans. Serve claims that, with over 20,000 deliveries completed, it “has attained exceptional on-time delivery, fulfillment, and customer satisfaction metrics.”

The plan is for this test to eventually spread to other locations. 

“7-Eleven and Serve invested significant resources into integrating our robots with the 7NOW app with the ambition to scale this partnership,” said the spokesperson.

Serve delivery robots can carry up to 50 liters and have cupholders to stabilize drinks and enough space for four pizza boxes, according to its website. They can navigate autonomously through a series of sensors, or can be piloted remotely. When reaching its destination, the robot’s compartment requires a passcode to open. The robots pollute less than an internal-combustion-engine vehicle making the same delivery, the site claims.

Customers cannot specifically request robot delivery, but may be offered one when they place their order.

The robots were already on the streets in West Hollywood delivering orders for Uber Eats. Uber, which spun off Serve as its own company in February 2021, has also been testing Serve in Los Angeles since May. 7-Eleven began offering the option of robotic delivery in the area in October.

7-Eleven did not return a request for more information by press time.

Irving, Texas-based 7-Eleven Inc. owns, franchises or licenses over 13,000 locations in the U.S. and Canada. The company also owns Speedway and Stripes c-stores, as well as the Laredo Taco and Raise the Roost restaurant chains.

Ahead of showcasing its latest premium mattress collection at the Las Vegas Market trade show, Purple announced it expects to report a fiscal 2022 net loss between $83.7 million and $97.5 million. The preliminary results compare to its 2021 reported net income of $3.9 million.

The home goods brand said Monday it expects 2022’s net sales to be on the lower end of its guidance, at about $574 million, according to a press release. Adjusted EBITDA is expected to also be at the lower end of its guidance range of $2 million to $7 million.

“I am pleased that we delivered sequential improvement in quarterly net sales despite ongoing macroeconomic challenges,” Purple CEO Rob DeMartini said in a statement. “While our fourth quarter top-line performance was encouraging, industry headwinds, in particular the impact of inflation on consumer discretionary spending and a highly promotional environment during the holiday season, put some additional pressure on gross margins and profitability.”

At Las Vegas Market this week, Purple will reveal a new line of premium mattresses, which DeMartini says will be launched through its e-commerce, wholesale and showroom channels in the second quarter of 2023.

The projected results come amid a battle between the brand’s board and an activist investor. Earlier this month, Purple said it had previously rejected an unsolicited buyout bid from Coliseum Capital Management, which currently owns about 44% of the brand’s shares. The investors have since proposed to replace most of Purple’s board, according to a statement from a special committee its board.

After serving as acting CEO since December 2021, the company officially gave DeMartini the chief role in March 2022, and later appointed a new chief operating officer in May.

Purple’s financial performance has declined since the height of the pandemic, when it saw 2020 net revenue increase 51.4% year over year, with direct-to-consumer revenue jumping by 83%.

Destination XL Group on Monday announced the appointment of Dara Pauker as the company’s chief operating officer.

Pauker has been working with the men’s big and tall retailer as a consultant since December 2021. Before founding her consulting company, Dauntless Decisions, Pauker was president and general manager of Ghd North America and served as the CEO of North America for Custo Barcelona. Pauker also has held executive positions at Liz Claiborne and The Jones Group.

The company’s chief stores officer, chief merchandising officer, senior vice president of global sourcing and senior vice president of technology will report to Pauker.

“Working with Dara on the Company’s long-range business development and strategic plan, I have been consistently impressed by both her strategic acumen and her ability to collaboratively help us define growth and operational initiatives,” Harvey Kanter, president and CEO of Destination XL Group, said in a statement. “Dara’s appointment emphasizes our commitment to transforming and growing our business,” he continued.

Destination XL previously made regular appearances on default and bankruptcy watchlists, but last year posted record profit and sales after nearly a decade in the red. 

“At the onset of the pandemic in 2020, DXL was in survival mode, and we took both meaningful and sometimes difficult actions to ensure that we would live to fight another day,” Kanter said during last year’s Q4 earnings. “During that time, we also began to set the table, so to speak, to build towards long-term success.”

Dive Brief:

• Expanding its footprint in the city, upscale convenience store chain Foxtrot on Tuesday will open a new location in the Farragut Square area of Washington, D.C., according to a press release emailed to Retail Dive.
• Foxtrot’s new Farragut Square store is meant to “cater to the surrounding office buildings, providing a space for lunch meetings, coffee breaks and much-needed snack breaks,” according to the company.
• The new location at 888 17th St. NW will host an opening event on Tuesday, which will include swag, food and drinks, per the release. Visitors who download and use the company app during the opening week will get a gift while supplies last. 

Dive Insight:

Foxtrot’s heavy expansion in the Washington, D.C., area is continuing into the new year with its latest store.

The company currently has six other locations in the Washington, Maryland and Virginia region. In April 2022, the company announced it planned to open four stores in the region by the end of the year, which included its first Maryland location in the Bethesda neighborhood and two additional Washington, D.C., spaces. The expansion arose from $100 million in investments it had raised in months prior.

Since the company opened its first Washington location in March 2021, it’s had a focus on carrying local products. Currently, it offers products from regional brands including Ceremony Coffee, Little Sesame and Anchor Beer, per the press release.

It also discovers and showcases more local brands through its annual Up & Comers awards, which help to “catalyze the growth and success of small businesses.”

Since initially launching as an online retailer in 2013, Foxtrot has opened a total of 24 brick-and-mortar stores across the Chicago, Dallas and Washington, D.C., areas.