THE EVOLUTION OF CONVENIENCE FOOD IN AMERICA

A 1953 Birds Eye advertisement

Via Flickr user Classic Film

Meal kits, currently a niche product sold by startups like Blue Apron, could be hitting the bigtime, with big-name food companies like Tyson and Campbell Soup now entering the market. If that signals a change in the way Americans cook and eat, it’s nothing compared with the way frozen food disrupted meals in the mid-twentieth century, as Shane Hamilton explained in a 2003 paper.

The story of frozen foods starts with the familiar Birds Eye brand. Back in the 1920s, Hamilton writes, Clarence Birdseye figured out a quick-freeze method to preserve seafood, vegetables, and fruit on an industrial scale. But until the late 1940s, Birds Eye and its competitors sold frozen foods only to a limited set of high-end consumers. In 1946, Fortune magazine reported that consumers were buying more tons of pickles and sauerkraut than of all frozen foods combined.

That changed fast. In the 1940s, railcar and truck trailer makers constructed mechanically refrigerated transportation, replacing unreliable dry ice. After the end of World War II, demand rose too, thanks to growing family incomes and increasing workforce participation by women.

Only when companies began doing market research in the mid-50s did they realize they had a much wider customer base.

Hamilton writes that, in the late 40s, Birds Eye was still selling frozen food as a luxury good: A 1949 Life magazine ad, featuring a woman in elegant satin, declared the company’s frozen spinach “grander than the grandest spinach.” But new, smaller operators began taking a different tack. Quality Frozen of San Francisco sold frozen “B grade” food in plain red-and-white packaging with the low price marked in large type. Big companies fought back with advertising campaigns promising healthy, cheap, and easy food. By 1951, Birds Eye was selling its spinach as “oh, so easy on Mom—and her pocketbook.”

Transporting frozen food also became more reliable and safer in the 1950s, thanks largely to collaboration between the industry and government regulators to develop and enforce standards for handling frozen goods.

The market for frozen food grew fast. Minute Maid was a particular success story. Using a new method of freezing concentrated orange juice that the US Department of Agriculture had invented, it went from $3 million in sales in 1948 to $29 million three years later.

And yet, Hamilton writes, for years the industry assumed its customers were white, middle-class, stay-at-home mothers. Only when companies began doing market research in the mid-50s did they realize they had a much wider customer base. For instance, many working-class black families who lived in Harlem apartments without freezers bought frozen foods on a daily basis, cooking them immediately.

By the 1960s, companies were targeting specific demographics, including Jews, African-Americans, teenagers, and working women. They also returned to the luxury market, selling vegetables packaged with fancy sauces and whole pre-cooked meals.

Today, of course, those kinds of packaged meals are just what many customers are trying to avoid by buying meal kits that let them cook quick meals “from scratch.” And big food companies are hoping that will mean another new market for them.

3 Disruptive Shifts Require Brands To Think Different

by Geoffrey Colon

 

For brands to succeed in the next decade, they will have to realign their thinking and operating model so that they can not merely function, but actually matter.

Here are three of a growing number of new requirements to earn a place in the future.

1. Employee Advocacy Instead Of C-Suite Spokespeople – In old models, the highest ranking officials at a brand or company spoke for that organization. But there’s a problem that has now surfaced for brands. The most vocal and influential employees may not be VPs or SVPs but simply managers who have built up an effective social media influence. These employees can now be advocates on behalf of brands as subject matter experts if those brands move toward a flattened matrix model and give up on the hierarchies of the past. There should no longer be one defining voice for a brand but many. Brands that align their organizations in this way no longer have to rely on one voice but can rely on hundreds if not thousands of employees to help carry their conversations to current and potential customers. Software like Sociabble and TrapIt can come in handy in these scenarios. What also can be handy is how you hire and retain employees. The most successful brands have talent that are interchangeable. Put emphasis on who you hire and seek those that can be generalists and understand a lot of areas rather than specialists who only understand one. This is important in case business pivots and your brand needs to shift with it.

2. Contextual Conversations Instead Of Managed Narratives – Narratives are dead just like managed public relation programs. Customers are asking for transparency, authenticity and open honesty from every company in which they do transactions. As a result, managed perception is now a thing of the past. Customers can see that brands are simply trying to get people to think or feel a certain way and will move toward brands that are real than those who are simply corporate by design. As a result, you should be figuring out what matters to people and how you fit contextually into that conversation. You should also be able to develop points of view in real time based on what is happening in the world. If you plan everything, what if the world drastically changes? Also you don’t have to be everything for everyone. If your brand doesn’t matter to people around cultural events, then you shouldn’t be trying to insert yourself into those scenarios. Brands that did this the past three years have been ridiculed due to the fact they were “trying too hard” to be something for everyone. You don’t need to do any of that anymore. Just be you, and people will love you as a result.

3. Behavioral Experience Instead Of Channel Tactics – Brands still do marketing in silos and this is detrimental to how humans behave. Humans use a variety of different methodologies to find out information. If you are going to invest in a better way to measure effectiveness in the next year or two, align your marketing around the design experience of humans, not channels. This means you no longer should be doing digital or social marketing, but marketing where digital, social, email and mobile help people with decisions based on what they are doing at a point in time. This “point in time” scenario is more relevant to how people behave and marketers and brands must adjust to this fact. The most agile brands that are aligned around how people behave will perform the best over time because they can see where they need to invest or divest based on how their customers really behave. Right now, most brands are just piling cash into areas because they are bright shiny objects. Such thinking will bankrupt them in the short run and may not reach people in ways in which they truly interact. People aren’t shaped around marketing channels but around the world at large. Each person’s world is different from another person’s but we still share experiences as social animals. Brands that realize this will perform better because they will align around the complexity of what motivates people rather than how people are motivated by tactics

3PLs & Carriers: At Your Service

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By Merrill Douglas

Tags: Retail, Customer Service, Last Mile Delivery, Logistics, Retail Logistics, Supply Chain

Shippers don't always measure the 'softer' aspects of the service they receive from carriers and 3PLs. But those metrics can make all the difference for your supply chain and your company's brand.

"How do I make it easy for customers to give me their money?" That question practically defines customer service for Kevin Huntsman, senior vice president of sales at St. Joseph, Mo.-based research and consulting firm Mastio & Company. "You try to find a way to make it easy for companies to do business with you," he explains.

We all recognize great customer service when it blesses us: a friendly human answers your call on the first ring; an order arrives sooner than promised; a troubleshooter promises to help with a problem and then calls back one hour later to report that it's solved.

We also recognize poor customer service: you spend 20 minutes in a phone queue, a bill comes laden with unexpected fees, a company passes your complaint from one office to another with no resolution in sight.

Strong customer service is vital to a successful logistics operation. The supply chain operates best when third-party logistics (3PL) companies, carriers, and other providers are responsive, courteous, and flexible; take a proactive approach to problem solving; and otherwise treat the shipper with utmost care.

In many cases, the partner's service performance affects not just the immediate customer—the shipper—but also that shipper's customers. Because the partner is responsible for getting product delivered on time and in good condition, that partner's performance could determine whether the end customer has a great experience or a bad one.

Given the importance of customer service in logistics, you might expect shippers to measure the quality of service their partners provide, and use that data in performance evaluations. Shippers do that to some extent. But not everyone scrutinizes those "softer" factors the same as easy-to-define performance measures.

Shippers say that customer service factors are important, says Huntsman, whose company publishes a series of Carrier Customer Value & Loyalty Studies. But shippers also say those elements aren't as critical as the metrics that tell them, for instance, how often a carrier delivers freight with no missing or damaged items.

Whether shippers realize it or not, though, customer service influences the way they perceive their partners. Pure performance factors are baseline requirements; a carrier that can't deliver on those measures won't win a shipper's business.

"But once shippers assess that the carrier is competent at those fundamentals, what areas do they want them to excel at on top of that?" Huntsman asks. "Those areas are the soft issues—people-related issues."

Mastio & Company focuses its transportation studies on four kinds of service partners: less-than-truckload (LTL) carriers in the United States, LTL carriers in Canada, truckload carriers, and global freight forwarders. For each study, researchers interview about 1,000 shippers for their opinions on prominent service providers.

For the U.S. LTL study, for instance, more than 2,000 shippers rate carriers on 29 attributes, including 11 in the customer service category: billing accuracy; carrier responsiveness; proactive communications; problem resolution; timely customer service personnel response; freight tracking/tracing capabilities; knowledgeable and helpful sales representatives; willing to be flexible with operations; courteous and professional drivers; easy-to-understand pricing terms; and useful website.

KEEP CUSTOMERS IN THE KNOW

Based on those surveys, it's clear that communication is one of the most significant customer service values for shippers. Communicating in advance about upcoming problems is especially important. "If a carrier is not going to make it for a pickup, let the customer know," Huntsman says.

Carriers are getting better at measuring the quality of their own customer service, because those factors have grown so important in relationships with customers. Chalk that evolution up to the influence of the top e-commerce companies. "If Amazon can tell customers when an order will ship or be delivered, or if it's not in inventory, then why can't my business-to-business suppliers do the same for me?" Huntsman asks.

One striking aspect of good customer service is its halo effect. "Doing exceptionally well at a handful of these soft issues gives the impression to the shipper that you're doing exceptionally well on the others," Huntsman says.

IT'S ABOUT TIME

While customer service is more subjective than, say, on-time delivery, some providers and shippers do find objective ways to measure it. For example, Zipline Logistics tracks how long it takes to respond to customer requests, says J.J. Rodeheffer, a partner and director of sales for the Columbus, Ohio-based 3PL.

"We also track the timeliness of not just providing rate quotes, but also how long it takes to get a customer order into our system and get the process moving," he says.

Zipline works with shippers to design the key performance indicators (KPIs) that each customer considers most important, including traditional operational metrics and customer service metrics. Through Zipline's proprietary client dashboard, customers can view the 3PL's performance against those KPIs in real time. "It creates a level of accountability for us, so we can't hide from mistakes," Rodeheffer says.

Working to provide a better-than-average customer experience, Zipline tries not just to measure its performance, but also to measure its success at improving performance through proactive measures.

Say a retailer asks a vendor to deliver product to its distribution center in Florida. But the vendor—Zipline's customer—has run out of that product in its Florida warehouse, and has to fill the order from its New Jersey facility. Zipline can measure the cost of dealing with that out-of-stock situation.

"We also measure whether we can let the customer know far enough in advance to avoid that cost," Rodeheffer says. With visibility into its customer's entire supply chain, Zipline detects potential out-of-stocks and warns the customer to take corrective action before problems arise.

Among the other customer service values embedded in Zipline's culture is a promise to stand by its word. "If we give you a quote, we'll stick to it, no matter what," the company says on its website. "This also means we'll never give back freight."

It's easy to measure that kind of fidelity. "At the end of the month, we get a note from accounts payable that says, 'Are we really taking a $900 loss on this shipment?'" Rodeheffer says. Whether Zipline makes an error in calculating a quote, or it loses a carrier at the last minute and then pays a premium to give the freight to a different trucker, it will never penalize the customer.

"If we give the customer a rate, we're moving the shipment, and that's that," he says. "We can measure it—it's tangible."

PERSONAL BEST

Measuring customer service won't take a company far unless it motivates employees to keep the number high. "We incentivize our operators around our service metrics," Rodeheffer says. "It's not about who does the most or who does it the fastest. We measure on who does it best."

In this context, "best" could mean choosing a new partner that results in better service, even at a lower profit margin. "If a truck is a few hundred dollars cheaper, but pushes the limits of whether they will pick up or deliver on time, that's not a gamble we're willing to take," Rodeheffer says.

Among the shippers on the receiving end of Zipline's customer service is Canberra Corp., a manufacturer of cleaning chemicals based in Toledo, Ohio.

Zipline handles all Canberra's collect, full truckload shipments on the inbound side, all its pre-paid outbound truckload freight, and an occasional outbound LTL shipment.

Mike Melms, Canberra's logistics manager, tracks Zipline's performance metrics daily and quarterly, looking at inventory turns, back orders, production cycle times, inventory accuracy, on-time shipments, and conformance to the first-in, first-out (FIFO) principle. "Many of our products have lot codes and expiration dates, so turns and FIFO are musts," he says.

Although he doesn't apply hard metrics to customer service, Melms gives Zipline high marks on those values. "Zipline created my definition of customer service: Having the ability to almost read my mind, answer my questions before I even ask them, and react as I would react with my own business; having courteous and professional employees contact my customers for delivery or pickup appointments."

Canberra routinely follows up with its customers after Zipline Logistics, through one of its carriers, drops a load, to see if the customer received the correct product and if it arrived without damage.

Along with the percentage of on-time deliveries and the company's freight costs, Melms names another metric he thinks 3PLs should track on behalf of their customers, one that bears more directly on customer service: "The speed of recovering a load after an unfortunate situation arises."

In retail—and especially in e-commerce—logistics partners play a major role in creating a good end customer experience. The partner that puts product into packages for shipping, or performs last-mile delivery, touches the customer directly. That partner becomes the face of the merchant, and the quality of its service influences how customers perceive the brand.

Quiet Logistics, a multi-channel fulfillment company, has built a business around services that touch the end customer. "The brands we partner with are trying to differentiate themselves and mimic a positive experience that customers might have while shopping in a store," says Brian Lemerise, president of Quiet Logistics, Devens, Mass. Quiet works to promote that objective.

For some e-commerce merchants, excellent service simply means delivering orders quickly. But Quiet tends to work with brands—mainly in the fashion and lifestyle categories—that want to give their customers something extra.

"They might want to write their customer's name on the packing slip, or create custom packing slips, depending on the order profile," Lemerise says. "They might ask for tissue paper and ribbons. Or they might want to include other branded collateral, such as marketing pieces or a customer satisfaction survey." Quiet accommodates all those needs.

BEGINNING AT THE BACK

Some of Quiet's efforts to deliver a great customer experience occur at the back end, starting with accurate inventory management. "Out-of-stocks are inconvenient and can have a negative customer service impact on the transaction," Lemerise says. Meeting merchants' expectations about how quickly orders go out the door is important as well.

Quiet uses KPIs to measure its performance on functions that keep product moving through the fulfillment center and out to the customer. "That could be measuring dock-to-stock time in hours, not days," Lemerise says. "It's the same for outbound, when we measure a time-to-fill expectation and a service level agreement (SLA)."

Another step Quiet takes to give the end customer a good experience is a series of quality control inspections on incoming product. Quiet not only checks whether items and quantities match the purchase order, but also examines the merchandise itself: Are the shirt buttons the right size? Are the pants legs hemmed correctly?

"The feedback we provide fuels the vendor compliance programs our brands are managing with their manufacturers," Lemerise says. "This makes a better experience for our brands, but also for the end customers, because they will receive what they were trying to buy online."

To make sure that each package shipped includes all the specified details and flourishes, Quiet hires associates who understand customer service. "We try to recruit people who have worked at a mall store or other retailer, because they tend to have a higher appreciation for product care and brand support," Lemerise says.

Those associates rely on Quiet's fulfillment management software to tell them, for example, that Package A needs a marketing insert, tissue paper, and a ribbon, while Package B also needs a handwritten thank-you note.

Bonobos, a New York-based vendor of men's clothing and accessories, is one company that relies on Quiet to deliver brand-enhancing customer service. Bonobos sells through an e-commerce channel and at more than 20 "Guideshops" across the United States.

The relationship with Quiet Logistics is one key to Bonobos' excellent customer service. "Quiet is consistent in meeting our same-day outbound shipping SLA," says Angela Goldstein, director of operations. "It provides customized packaging services for us to make sure that the presentation to our customer aligns with what we're trying to achieve with our brand experience."

Quiet is also consistent in processing returns. "We don't send refunds to customers until Quiet actually processes the units," Goldstein adds. "That happens within one business day, so the returns experience is positive for our customers."

To make sure Quiet maintains the expected service level, Bonobos monitors a collection of SLAs each day. Among the metrics that involve customer-facing activities, the most important are the time to process and fill orders, and the time to process returns. Bonobos also tracks how quickly Quiet processes inbound shipments.

Quiet receives those figures in a daily report, with questions attached to any items that seem to fall out of range. If Quiet misses an SLA because a last-minute promotion pushed sales way beyond the forecast, officials at Bonobos won't blame the 3PL. "Our expectations are reasonable," Goldstein says.

Bonobos doesn't measure how well Quiet meets its packaging standards. But the company has a reliable source of feedback on that score: its own employees, who are also loyal customers.

"Close to 200 employees work in our building, and we get many packages delivered here every day," Goldstein says. "If there's ever a one-off problem, and we see a box that may be inconsistent, we're quick to snap a picture and send it to our account reps. And they're quick to do some retraining if needed."

CUSTOMER SERVICE NINJAS

Customers who are not Bonobos employees offer feedback via e-mail and in conversations with the company's customer service reps, known as Ninjas. At Bonobos' headquarters, the operations staff works just 10 feet from the Ninjas. "They pass us any anecdotal feedback related to fulfillment, positive or negative," Goldstein says. The Ninjas also aggregate the information they get from customers, by category—including service issues—and provide that to Goldstein's team monthly.

Regarding Bonobos' own role as a Quiet Logistics customer, company officials don't see a need to measure the softer aspects of the service they receive, such as how quickly Quiet returns calls and answers e-mails. "We look at our relationship with Quiet as a true partnership," Goldstein says.

Employees at Bonobos also take it for granted that their partners at Quiet will communicate quickly about problems, such as product that arrives at the fulfillment center in damaged boxes. Regular visits by Bonobos' staff to Quiet's facility help to cement the relationship. "We walk the floors, just to see what's going on," Goldstein says. "They know we care a lot, and it's obvious that they care as well."

Like Quiet Logistics, XPO Logistics plays a big role in helping merchants make a good impression on their customers. XPO's last-mile service manages the delivery of heavy goods—such as furniture, appliances, and home electronics—to customers on behalf of retailers and consumer goods companies. XPO handles more than 12 million such deliveries per year, and its job doesn't end at the doorstep.

"In many cases, we need to facilitate white-glove services inside the home, such as installation," says Will O'Shea, chief sales and marketing officer at XPO Logistics Last Mile, Greenwich, Conn. That puts XPO and its contracted carriers and installers into particularly close contact with end customers.

XPO works with more than 7,000 independent contractors to provide its services. "We conduct background checks on these contractors, because consumers trust them inside the home," O'Shea says. The company relies on customer feedback to make sure contractors continue to uphold the service standards set by XPO and the merchants.

The feedback process starts when the consumer signs a digital proof-of-delivery form. The form tells consumers that they will soon get a phone call; the consumer chooses whether the call should come from an automated system or a live representative. The phone rings within 12 minutes of the sign-off, giving the customer a chance to respond verbally to a series of survey questions while the delivery experience is still fresh.

"We immediately evaluate any voice feedback and get a concern into the right hands for resolution," O'Shea says. "For example, if it's a problem with the product, we route it to the retailer right away."

The customer service factors that XPO measures vary with the needs of individual merchants. "Delivery within a defined time window, exceptions, and satisfaction ratings are key industry metrics," O'Shea says. "Our technology platform is scalable and flexible, with apps that give customers constant visibility to data. Together, we evaluate that data and focus on ways to continuously improve."

That's a worthy goal for every shipper and its logistics partners—keep an eye on the measurements, and use them to make customers increasingly happy with the service they receive.

Nearly all Americans under 50 are buying online

 BY STEFANY ZAROBAN Director of Research

The vast majority of 18- to 49-year-olds are using their phones to make online purchases, according to new data from the Pew Research Center.

A close look at the buying behavior of younger consumers is crucial for merchants planning for the future. Consumers between the ages of 18 and 35—so-called millennials—are expected to spend more than $200 billion annually starting next year and $10 trillion in their lifetimes, according to an estimate from Advertising Age.

That’s why web merchants especially should take note of a new study released this week from the Pew Research Center, which shows younger adults are far more likely to purchase products on their phone or through social channels than older consumers. They’re also much more likely to check online reviews before buying a new product online or in stores.

Shopping online is now generally mainstream across all age groups, as 79% of consumers have purchased something online in their lifetime (90% of 18- to 29-year-olds; 87% of 30- to 49-year-olds; 72% of 50- to 64-year-olds; and 59% of those 65 and over), the study finds.

Shopping via smartphone is much more popular in the under-50 age bracket, however. Roughly 77% of consumers ages 18 to 29 have purchased something on their phones, while 64% of consumers 30 to 49 have done the same. That compares to a drastically smaller portion of older Americans that are doing so. Only 36% of consumers 50 to 64 years old have bought something on their phone and only 17% of those 65 and above.

Younger consumers aren’t only using their phones to make purchases; they’re also much more likely than older age groups to use them to get more information on products in stores, such as to check prices, read online reviews or ask a friend for advice.

For example, 63% of consumers under 30 years old say they’ve used their phone in stores to check online reviews of a product. Only 13% of Americans over the age of 65 have done the same.

Younger consumers are also much more likely to rely on social media. When it comes to buying something through a social media link, 24% of adults 29 and under have done so, versus 19%, 11% and 5% of the older demographic segments tracked.

The Pew Research Center’s December 2016 study, called “Online Shopping and E-Commerce,” is based on a survey of 4,7897 U.S. adults conducted by mail and online in December 2015.

The survey also shows that younger consumers increasingly turn to online reviews to guide them in their purchasing decisions. Roughly 53% of Americans under 30 say they always or almost always check reviews before buying a new item. 43% they sometimes check and 4% say they never do.

That compares to the 65 and older demographic, 23% of which say they always check online reviews, 36% say they sometimes do and 34% say never.

How Can You Redefine Retail?

Dec 08, 2016 — Beth Wanner

A new year, a new you… right? As 2016 comes to a close, consumers are hoping for a new retail experience too.

If you’re a retailer, it’s likely the challenges of shifting toward being an omnichannel retailer have crossed your plate at one point or another. It can be extremely challenging to know where to start.

Over the past several years, many retailers made a mad dash to the great online. Building out e-commerce websites was a major goal and focus. While that shift in retail was (and is) very important, it left the in-store experience rather neglected. Between online and mobile, in-store is now the middle child of retail.

The in-store experience is broken and needs to be redefined. But how?

Look beyond the transaction 

In the past, people came to your store for one reason. They needed to make a purchase. If the item wasn’t there, they either purchased something else or resolved to come back later. It’s far from that simple today. Today’s consumers have options. They can buy pretty much anything online. So why do so many (85% according to TimeTrade research) still bother to go in-store? Being able to touch and feel, learn from a brand ambassador, share a social experience and connect with retail on a personalized and emotional level are a few of the reasons. Are your stores overcrowded? Or worse, plagued with out of stocks? Are your sales reps equipped with the right tools and knowledge to turn them into brand ambassadors or are they basically human mannequins? Does your store speak to your customer on an emotional level and connect with the ideals they identify with like Toms, tentree or Warby Parker?

Create a destination

Shoppers today are most loyal to brands they identify as being part of their lifestyle. These brands bring together communities of like-minded individuals. Think yoga classes at Lululemon or Starbucks Reserve Roastery and Tasting Rooms. Bringing people together to share an experience in your store has the potential to create loyalty the online world will never be able to match. Millennials have now surpassed Baby Boomers as the largest generation. According to Accenture, the United States alone is home to 80 million Millennials who spend roughly $600 billion annually. N/A Marketing’s head of strategy, Marissa de Miguel, highlights the motivations of Millennials beautifully. As she puts it, “The future belongs to pervasive brands – brands that behave like our most valued relationships. They flow seamlessly in and out of our lives; they don’t just mirror our wants and aspirations, but contribute to them in meaningful ways. Brands that can provide us with this kind of experience are brands we’ll open our wallets for.”

Invest in tools that make sense

We hear a lot about blending online with in-store but actually achieving this is much more complicated than adding a bunch of tech to your stores. The tools you bring in must solve a pain point for your customers. What is it about your current in-store experience that is causing your customers the most frustration? Is it your inventory mix? Stock outs? Not enough (or maybe too much?) sales assistance? Does the in-store experience not align with what they experience on your website or other channels? Until you know what problem you have you can’t go looking for solutions – no matter how cool new technology might be.

Keep your eye to the future

Okay, so I just said don’t get caught up in cool new technology but that doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be on your radar. I’d love to tell you omnichannel is something you can work toward, achieve, and then sit back to reap the benefits but omnichannel is more a philosophy than a strategy. It’s a way of viewing your approach to retail that needs to be imbedded deep within your company’s culture. It’s ongoing. You’ll need to constantly be evolving with your customers which means the solutions you implement today, and the partners you choose to work with, need to be thinking of, and ready for, what’s next.

Retailers brace for 2017: Expect more store closings and major changes under Trump's tax policy

Krystina Gustafson | @KrystinaGustafs

Wednesday, 28 Dec 2016 | 8:00 AM ETCNBC.com

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2017 playbook: Retail  Thursday, 22 Dec 2016 | 5:18 AM ET | 01:23

More upheaval is ahead for retailers in 2017, thanks to changes in the political landscape and consumer behavior.

Following a year in which several bricks-and-mortar players made big strides on the web (think Wal-Mart's acquisition of Jet.com, or Best Buy's three straight quarters of 24 percent online sales growth), the battle for second place is intensifying.

This shift toward digital is likely to reverberate through retailers' physical footprints, as they re-evaluate their needs for space.

Amid all of this change, it's becoming clearer that retailers need to take back control of their own destiny, so expect to see more brands that relied on third-party retailers to sell their goods getting more hand's-on.

All the while, economic and political changes will play a role on retailers' top and bottom lines.

As the page turns on 2016, here are five trends you can expect to see in the retail sector next year.

A new digital divide

Though data shows that Amazon gave up a tiny bit of market share this holiday season, its massive online lead over bricks-and-mortar retailers is indisputable. Yet as the fight for second place heats up, a second type of digital divide is taking shape.

According to data from Slice Intelligence, which scans shoppers' digital receipts, the top 10 online retailers accounted for slightly more digital spending than they did last holiday season. This is a trend that Ken Cassar, the firm's principal analyst, sees continuing in 2017.

Because major retailers tend to have larger budgets, it's often easier for them to invest in their websites and faster shipping. As they make these types of improvements, they're winning the trust of repeat shoppers — who should help them continue growing their lead, according to Adobe Digital Insights.

"We are seeing the bigger retailers become more dominant," Cassar said.

He added that small, specialized shops with unique products are also performing well online, and that should continue in 2017.

Taking over control

Selling merchandise through a department store is a lower-risk, less expensive way for brands to grow their sales. Yet as these shops have become more promotional, labels including Michael Kors, Ralph Lauren and Coach are dialing back their exposure, in an effort to wean customers off of discounts.

Starting in February, Michael Kors will sit out department stores' broad friends and family sales, and will stop accepting coupons at those locations. In a slightly different twist, Coach started removing its product from wholesale shops this year, and will have exited a total of 250 before mid-2017.

Outside of the handbag space, athletic wear companies like Nike, Adidas and Under Armour are building out their own network of stores, where they have more control over the way their brands are presented. At Nike's new Manhattan store, shoppers can test running sneakers on a treadmill, or try new basketball shoes on a court.

"We create environments that bring our products and services together in a way that allows consumers to experience the Nike brand," Trevor Edwards, president of the Nike brand, recently told analysts.

Another wave of store closures

As the clock ticks on debt payments for struggling retailers like Claire's, and as hundreds of leases come up for renewal at healthier players, another round of store closings is ahead for the retail sector.

Shrinking department store Sears said in its latest earnings report that it will continue to close unprofitable shops as their leases expire. Roughly 80 percent of its 714 leased Kmart stores come up for renewal in less than five years, as do nearly half its 386 leased Sears stores.

About 50 percent of Abercrombie & Fitch's 745 U.S. leases will be on the chopping block over the next year and a half, the retailer said last month. More than 500 stores in American Eagle's fleet have leases that expire over the next two years, including 185 over the next 12 months, management said at the end of November.

"There was a big rush to do deals" before the recession hit, Naveen Jaggi, president of JLL's retail brokerage, told CNBC. Now that those 10-year leases are up, retailers have a chance to re-evaluate the importance of those stores in the post-recession era.

"They haven't seen that customer come back to the same level," Jaggi said.

Tax concerns

Retailers are keeping an eye on potential policy changes under a Trump administration next year. One particular topic they're monitoring is a proposed border-adjustment tax for goods that are brought into the U.S.

Though there are many moving parts that could dictate how dramatic the repercussions would be on retailers, Evercore ISI analyst Omar Saad said any potential benefit from a lower U.S. corporate tax rate would be "more than offset" by these challenges.

If passed, this type of policy change would take the biggest bite out of retailers who import much of their merchandise, including Gap and Urban Outfitters, analysts have said.

A resurgence at the high end

As income gains benefit the wealthy and the stock market soars to new highs, well-to-do shoppers will drive much of the spending boost in 2017, Customer Growth Partners President Craig Johnson said. That could deliver a much-needed lift to personal luxury goods like handbags, where sales are seen falling by 1 percent this year.

Separately, some have speculated that Donald Trump's election will bring back the feeling that it's once again acceptable for people to flaunt their wealth. That includes Nobel Prize winner Robert Shiller, who told CNBC last week that modest living is losing its appeal in America.

"You have to live big-league and you're on your way," the economist said.

Though lower-income shoppers are still facing headwinds from high health-care and rent costs, they will continue to benefit from low fuel costs and food deflation. In the end, that should translate into slightly higher spending, Johnson said.