Janet Kloppenburg is President of JJK Research. Ms. Kloppenburg is a well-known specialty retail analyst who served 18 years on Wall Street’s sell side. There, she developed extensive knowledge and expertise of the retailing industry.
Ms. Kloppenburg has a proven track record on delivering timely and pertinent research and analysis, which has been instrumental to the investment decisions of her clients. Ms. Kloppenburg became a stock analyst after being trained as a buyer for a major New York City department store where she gained invaluable insights into the inner workings of a major retail operation.
In this 3,470 word interview, exclusive to the Wall Street Transcript, Ms. Kloppenburg determines which retail stocks will prosper in the post-COVID 19 world.
“The second group of winners would be those that had wisely and astutely built strong digital platforms and were positioned to take advantage of services that extend into the omni world, which include ship from store and BOPUS — buy online pick up in store.
So the winners are the well-positioned digital players. For instance, Urban Outfitters (NASDAQ:URBN) having over 40% of their business in the digital channel prior to the pandemic gave them a great opportunity to capitalize on the consumer’s need for products, and with a well-equipped digital platform, they were able to take market share.”
The retail expert has a very firm list, some additional names:
“But I think that on a relative basis, the off-price retailers — all three of them, Burlington, TJX and Ross (NASDAQ:ROST) — will perform better than most. So the active sector, Nike and LULU; the off-price sector, again on a relative basis.”
The analyst also has a warning for other retailers:
“Department stores are in real jeopardy right now. They don’t really have an infrastructure to bring in that value customer. They all have tried to be too much to too many, and they are going to have to each figure out their own strategies.
I will give Nordstrom (NYSE:JWN) credit for developing digital in a very big way, unlike their competitors, and also for the development of their off-price business. Their investments are shifting toward digital and off-price, but it’s still going to be very hard for Nordstrom to operate in this environment, and they are really, really cutting costs in a way that I never imagined.”
Further insight into sub-sectors is detailed and actionable:
“The wholesalers should say, “Maybe we should clean house here and not be in so many weak, underperforming doors. Let’s cut some of that out, and let’s spend more money on opening a few flagship stores,” like VF, which has opened a couple of beautiful stores in Manhattan right by Grand Central, in terms of The North Face and Timberland.
“Let’s open a few flagship stores around this country and the world, and then, we’ll drive everybody to our digital channel, and we really need to develop that.” I just think that’s something that may make operating margins not bounce as much as we thought but could really help those companies have sustained outperformance in the industry as we look into 2022 and beyond.”
Get further detailed retail analysis in this 3,470 word interview, exclusive to the Wall Street Transcript.
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