At first blush, the main brand objective for Foot Locker – the sneaker and apparel retailer – seems to make no sense.
“We constantly want to be out of stock,” Vijay Talwar, the New York-based organization’s president/digital, explained to delegates at the 2018 CommerceNext Conference. “It sounds counter-intuitive, but that's just how our business works.”
This goal partly follows on from the underlying premise of “want-based retail”, where consumers are enticed to buy desirable items – in Foot Locker’s case, the coolest sneakers and clothing – rather than purchasing daily essentials. And that strategy, in...