In Overstored, Brand-Saturated Market, Retailers Need the ‘Old Merchant Magic’

Despite record-breaking indices on Wall Street, solid employment numbers and increasing consumer spending, the retail industry is in a profound state of fluctuation. Shoppers continue to shift toward online while also buying more products from direct-to-consumer brands as they drift away from traditional department store retailers. As a result, retailers are restructuring their business, which includes bankruptcies and store closures. Here, Gilbert W. Harrison, chairman of the Harrison Group and founder of Financo as well as a senior adviser at GLC Advisors, shares his insights into the current market and what’s behind these business trends. WWD: From your perspective in the market, what are some of the challenges facing fashion apparel retailers and brands? And where are the opportunities? Gilbert W. Harrison: As always, you must ask how companies are responding to the “new informal look” and other ever-changing styles. And what happens to a brand when the designer changes or leaves to go to another Maison, or the designer loses the perspective and point of view of an “A” brand, which is only as good as the style and design behind it? Brands must stay relevant and be consistently compelling to consumers. WWD: You once said the industry needed to return to having “merchant princes” who were

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