Today In Retail: Target To Add More Disney Shops To Stores; Francesca’s CEO Says Traditional Consumer Mindset Is ‘Completely Upended’

In today’s top retail news, Target is expanding its partnership with Disney to add more than 160 new shop-in-shops across the U.S., and Francesca’s CEO Andrew Clarke tells PYMNTS “there is no playbook” for retailers post-pandemic. Also, Chinese eCommerce giant JD.com is seeing a jump in revenues as its home country remains locked down because of COVID-19, while brand accelerators such as Heyday look to institutionalize digital marketplaces.

Target Adding More Than 160 Disney Shops To Stores In Expanded Partnership

Ahead of the holiday shopping season, Target is expanding its partnership with Disney, adding dozens of new shop-in-shop experiences to locations across the country. By the end of 2021, more than 160 Target locations will have Disney stores within their toy section, selling merchandise from popular Disney movies. Disney and Target first partnered ahead of the 2019 holiday shopping season.

Francesca’s CEO Says ‘No Playbook’ Is New Normal For Retail

Francesca’s CEO Andrew Clarke told PYMNTS that the traditional seasonality and calendar mindset of what a customer wants at a particular time of year “has been completely upended.” For example, even as back-to-school shopping ramps up, Francesca’s is still seeing plenty of travel and vacation spending, as well as an increase in apparel for dating and social events. The Texas-based specialty retailer filed for bankruptcy protection in December and was sold to stalking-horse bidders TerraMar Capital and Tiger Capital earlier this year.

JD.com Sees Massive Jumps In Revenue As China Remains Locked Down

Chinese supply chain-based technology and service company JD.com reported $39.3 billion in net revenue for the second quarter of 2021, up 26.2 percent from the previous year, and net service revenues of $5.3 billion, almost 50 percent higher than the same time a year earlier. Earlier this month, China implemented a new wave of travel restrictions and quarantine orders as the country battles the increasing spread of COVID-19 and the highly contagious delta variant. China has said it plans to keep its pandemic border restrictions in place through at least the second half of 2022.

Brand Aggregators, Accelerators Look To Institutionalize Digital Marketplaces

Heyday Co-Founder and CEO Sebastian Rymarz told PYMNTS that a stigma about great digitally-native brands not selling on Amazon or other digital marketplaces has held back the institutionalization of marketplaces as a digital economy. That stigma is quickly eroding though as consumers increasingly turn to marketplaces as convenient places to shop for a wide selection of items. “If you’re building an eCommerce business, digital marketplace is obviously going to be your biggest channel,” he said. “It’s not going to be direct-to-consumer.”