Where To Find The Top Retail Innovators In 2019

• (0:40) - Who Is Disrupting The Retail Industry?
• (4:00) - Rent The Runway
• (8:50) - Stitch Fix: Expansive Men’s Lineup
• (14:00) - Revolve: Social Media Dominance
• (23:25) - Glossier: Skincare and Beauty Products
• (29:45) - Episode Roundup: SFIX, RVLV, JWN, ULTA, URBN, GIII, PVH, FB
• Podcast@Zacks.com

Welcome to Episode #181 of the Zacks Market Edge Podcast.

Every week, host and Zacks stock strategist, Tracey Ryniec, will be joined by guests to discuss the hottest investing topics in stocks, bonds and ETFs and how it impacts your life.

This week she’s joined by Zacks Associate Strategist, and the Editor of the Income Investor newsletter, Maddy Johnson, to discuss their favorite topic, the retailers.

Even though retail is one of the weaker industries, as poor weather and Chinese tariffs played havoc on them in the second quarter of the year, there are a bunch of retail innovators, some that are publicly traded, and some that aren’t, that are bucking the trend.

The Hot Private Innovators

These companies haven’t gone IPO.

Not yet.

But they are certainly on many people’s lips because of what they are doing right now in retail. And you never know who is suddenly going to file to go public.

1. Rent the Runway has a valuation of about $1 billion as of March 2019. Did you know you can rent a prom dress from the site?

2. Glossier is one of the top new beauty brands. It has brick and mortar stores in New York and LA. It also has a fiercely loyal customer base.

These Innovators Have Gone Public

1. Stitch Fix (NASDAQ:SFIX) is the old man on this list. They went public in 2017. Last quarter, active clients was up 17% to 3.1 million. Revenue per active client grew 8% to $467. It’s expanding its men’s business and is now in Kids. Also, it recently jumped the pond to the UK.

2. Revolve (NYSE:RVLV) is a new IPO that soared upon its debut. It’s a popular on-line shopping site which has apparel, accessories and beauty products including popular brands like Free People which is owned by Urban Outfitters (NASDAQ:URBN) . Could its beauty segment be a challenger to beauty retailers like Ulta (NASDAQ:ULTA) ?

Some of the old-school retailers also have divisions that are innovating.

Nordstrom (NYSE:JWN) bought Trunk Club which is a similar business model to Stitch Fix. It’s so similar that when I googled “Trunk Club,” Stitch Fix ads appear at the top of the search.

Yet Nordstrom is trading at just 9x earnings.

What else should you know about the retail innovators?

Find out on this week’s podcast.

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