Traditional Retailers Going Exclusive, Giving Cash To Lure Holiday Shoppers

Aiming to get a leg-up on internet merchants, traditional retailers are embracing new ways to bring people into the stores this holiday season.

According to a report, Macy’s and JCPenney are gearing up for the holidays by providing more exclusive products in their stores, store-in-store showrooms and rewards in the form of cash.

“The problem is there’s no silver bullet,” said Ed Yruma, a retail analyst at KeyBanc Capital Markets Inc., in the report. “What we’re increasingly seeing is a consumer for a holiday season that’s shopping off a list, and there’s no better way to shop off a list than on your computer.”

One of the big ways brick-and-mortar retailers are trying to lure consumers to their stores is by offering merchandise that is exclusive and can’t be found anywhere else, including online. For Macy’s, that means highlighting exclusive apparel and fragrances. For JCPenney, that means launchinch appliance showrooms in its stores and also expanding into toys as a way to lure more shoppers. “Our consumers have said they want us to be in this business,” JCPenney CEO Marvin Ellison said in an interview with Bloomberg.

Belk is taking its strategy to the rewards road, offering what it is calling Christmas Cash. Customers get $10 for every $100 they spend in the store from Thanksgiving to Black Friday. Meanwhile, Nordstrom partnered with J.Crew this past summer to sell J.Crew apparel in its department stores, while Neiman Marcus has carved out some floor space for online retailer Rent the Runway.

The move on the part of traditional retailers comes at a tough time for them. With competition heating up online and Amazon killing it in any category it enters, retailers are struggling to respond. Macy’s already announced it is closing 100 stores.