I know parents are not supposed to play favorites but I’m about to make a confession: Of all the lists STORES produces, the Hot 100 is my favorite.
Unlike the Top 100, which looks at the leading industry performers based on annual retail sales, the Hot 100 ranks the fastest growing retail companies. It’s a fluid list, with the potential to change year after year — and for the most part it has. Since we launched the Hot 100 back in 2006 (based on 2005 financial data), different players have settled in the top spots on the list; there’s a certain amount of cache that now comes with being able to say that your company landed in the top 10.
This year’s fastest growing retailer is Ascena Retail Group — better known by its brands Dress Barn, Maurices and Justice. How great is it to see a company atop the heap that can trace its roots back nearly five decades? (Roslyn Jaffe opened the first Dress Barn in 1962.)
Many years ago I had the pleasure of meeting and interviewing Elliot Jaffe (Roslyn’s husband), who was instrumental in growing Dress Barn from one unit to more than 800 today. At the time he shared a wonderful story about the punch cards on which data was collected. At the end of the work week he’d bring home the cards in brown paper bags and the Jaffe children helped to sort them. (The business remains a family affair today with son David leading the company as president and CEO.)
Dress Barn, Maurices and Justice are keen examples of a retail company that understands its customer and continues to grow the business by maintaining a razor-sharp focus on what she wants and what she considers important — then delivering that season after season.
The term customer centricity has multiple levels of meaning, but if there’s one thing I hope readers will take away from the Hot 100 list, it’s that the retail companies who are precisely focused on their customer have a leg up on the competition when it comes to growth.
Can you think of an online retailer who has taught the entire industry more about customer centricity and personalization than Amazon – #2 on the Hot 100? Bodega Latina (#6) has a super tight niche, and yet the company is growing as a result of its focus on its ethnic customer base. And at a time when some junior-oriented specialty retail chains are sweating to achieve single digit growth, rue21 (#11) and Zumiez (#12) are leading the pack — growing their businesses by 20.8% and 20.2% respectively. How do they do it? Walk their stores and you’ll see; they truly understand the most fickle shopper there is!
Call me old-fashioned but I believe that retail success begins with understanding customers and catering to them. Technology bells and whistles are great — who doesn’t like a bit of retail entertainment and excitement? But the hallmark of a fast-growing retailer is always going to be rooted in a keen awareness of the customer and a willingness to do whatever it takes to make her happy.