To start the New Year off, here’s an amazing fact on the business of retailing: those retailers who have a strategy – an actual, real, living, breathing strategy – and know how to execute it will be the most successful.
Duh…
Yeah, I know, sometimes the most obvious statements are…well, the most obvious…but after watching so many retailers, including some in the home furnishings business, implode because they didn’t know what they wanted to be when they grew up sometimes you’ve just got to do it and state the obvious.
All of this comes to mind with the beginning of a new year when people tend to rethink things but also its spurred a new report from the folks at Placer.io, the store traffic tracking research company that is a really valuable source of information on the retail business. Nice people too.
They just came out with their list of the Top Ten Retail Brands to Watch in 2023 and what they all have in common Placer says is that “They all have a winning strategy for the coming year.” You might think that is something most – if not all retailers (in fact most if not all businesses) would say — but when you snoop around you find that’s rarely the case.
Here’s the list from Placer, which includes one pure-play home retailer, but at three others that carry some furnishings products:
- Whataburger
- Wawa
- Bob’s Discount Furniture
- Dave & Buster’s
- Hibbett Sports
- Five Below
- Boot Barn
- Grocery Outlet Bargain Market
- Altar’d State
10.Total Wine & More
Placer will be glad to explain their thinking behind these selections, check out their white paper: https://go.placer.ai/wp/10-top-retail-brands-to-watch-in-2023. Each was picked for a different reason but their clarity of their strategies for growth is the compelling factor here.
Retailers with a plan: imagine that.

Award-winning Journalist & Consultant for the retailing and home furnishings industries with extensive business media experience in both fields.