ICSC President and CEO Tom McGee, TD Bank Head of Consumer Products Matt Boss and NEST CEO Rob Almond provide insight on the state of the retail industry

Retail and banking industry leaders came together during The Rollout Event, hosted virtually by RetailSpaces. The panel included Tom McGee, President and CEO of ICSC, Matt Boss, Head of Consumer Products at TD Bank, and Rob Almond, CEO of NEST, the leading integrated facilities management firm.
Despite the pandemic, McGee, Boss and Almond provided an optimistic outlook for the retail industry due to retailers’ ability to be flexible, pent-up customer demand and consumer’s available liquidity.

Marketing Technology News: Lumen and Zoom Combine Technology and Collaboration Platforms

“ICSC is forecasting a solid holiday season with 1.9% growth year-over-year,” said McGee. “This holiday season will be longer for a variety of reasons, including retailers encouraging shoppers to get out earlier. As a result, you’ll see a continuation of the trends that have accelerated over the course of the last number of the months due to the pandemic.”

Marketing Technology News: Entravision Launches New Audio Streaming Hub, El Botón

“NEST’s retail clients are telling us they have received more foot traffic than they expected during the pandemic,” said Almond. “People want to get back out and shop. That made us feel good, knowing that once people feel safe, customers are going to walk back into the stores.”

“One thing we’ve seen (at TD Bank) is that loyalty really matters,” said Boss. “With specific retailers, a disproportionate amount of their business has come from what we consider loyal customers. We’ve seen some of that physical spend come back and there are reasons for optimism.”

Marketing Technology News: 1WorldSync to Acquire CNET Content Solutions