Shadowing Practice: Why Retailers Are Shrinking Their Assortments - Learn English Speaking with Video
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Retailers across the board are slashing assortments.
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You may notice when a product is no longer carried at your favorite store or online.
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And when companies start talking about it on their earnings calls, you know it's happening at a wider scale.
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SKUs, or stock keeping units, are unique codes assigned to every product to keep track of inventory.
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Let's say you want to buy this jacket.
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Its SKU number might indicate the manufacturer, product type, color, and size, with a series of numbers and letters.
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Companies like Dollar General, BJ's Wholesale Club, Lululemon, and Under Armour are either planning to cut
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or have already cut skews at their stores in an effort to improve their financials.
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But how can intentionally reducing the number of products, and in some cases even intentionally shrinking revenue, ultimately help a business turn things around?
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amount.
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Public companies typically want to show investors growth, quarter after quarter.
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And one of the ways brands can grow sales is by adding more products.
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But what happens when those products don't sell?
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Well, it can lead to discounting, which in turn hurts profitability.
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That product can also end up at off -price stores like TJ Maxx, which can hurt a brand's reputation.
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If you have zero discounting, you're not taking enough fashion risk.
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If you're not taking enough fashion risk, why do you exist?
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And so you absolutely need to discount.
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But discounting needs to be fixing mistakes.
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It needs to be done quickly.
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It needs to be done somewhat invisibly.
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And then we need to move on.
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There's a reason I believe the off -pricers are such compelling business models.
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TJ, Ross Stores.
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These businesses allow companies, allow big brands to sell product invisibly.
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When a brand isn't selling its products at full price, that means less profit.
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It's one of the reasons Lululemon has been struggling lately.
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From 2024 to 2025, the company grew sales by about $500 million, yet its operating profit fell by about $300 million.
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The company acknowledged the negative impact of markdowns in recent earnings calls.
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It said it cut North American SKUs by 15%.
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You can reduce assortments and then try to make up for that revenue by selling more of your signature items.
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Or a brand can acknowledge that its revenues need to shrink too.
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The goal here is to increase the price of your remaining products, in turn selling less of them, but making more profit on each one.
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Lulu has a long way to go.
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And simply cutting skews, simply saying we need to have better product is not the answer if you're too large.
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The absolute best product can still be dilutive if there's too much of it in the market.
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And Lulu last year did $6 .5 billion of American sales.
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3 to 4 billion dollars in revenue is where companies generally hit a healthy saturation level.
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It's a level where they can be large and still cool.
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Nike is an exception to this rule.
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One of the reasons why is because of its ability to sell distinctively different brands, like Jordan.
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While the company doesn't specifically break out its U .S sales, it did around 20 billion dollars in North America in 2025.
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Nike is in the midst of a massive downturn, and while it's almost certainly not going to bring domestic sales down to that $3 -4 billion level,
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it's actively working to clean up its product offerings.
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We made meaningful progress across the business through rebalancing the product portfolio, driving momentum and growth in performance,
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while reducing classic footwear franchises by more than $2 billion.
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For big box stores like BJ's and small box stores like Dollar General, the goal of assortment reduction is different.
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These retailers carry thousands of individual brands
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so removing certain products is more of a defensive move it simplifies inventory management
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and allows stores to refine what they're offering from a brand perspective
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if you were of something the more expensive it can be
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when you shrink a box when you take a retailer
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and say i'm going to focus more on curation you're getting smaller
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but you're trying to re -establish why someone's walking into your box in the first place
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and so it does get better but it doesn't necessarily help your bottom line as much, it's more protecting.
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In an earnings call from June 2025, Dollar General said the elimination of 1 ,000 SKUs from the
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previous year opened up more shelf space for its best -selling products.
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By March 2026, the SKU reductions reached over 1 ,500 products, which the company said provided benefits to the overall supply chain.
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The team is looking at continued SKU rationalization, albeit probably more surgical in nature as we move forward
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but it is still our ultimate goal to grow sales at or above the rate of inventory growth overall.
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Reducing assortments is much easier said than done.
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Box stores risk losing customers to competitors with more offerings.
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BJ's actually acknowledged that a previous attempt to cut SKUs was unsuccessful.
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We didn't prosecute that opportunity in the right way.
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We just cut SKUs, which cut sales, and then we added some SKUs back and
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so really what we're doing is removing unnecessary choice think about traditional soda we don't carry cans
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and two liters of the same product anymore For individual brands, on the other hand, cutting revenue can be intentional.
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Under Armour's stock is down significantly over the past five years.
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Its revenue has also fallen by nearly a billion dollars, and its operating income, a key measure of profitability, has turned negative over the past couple of years.
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Under Armour shrunk their skews by 25 % over the past few years and plans to cut another 25%.
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In an August 2026 earnings call, the company acknowledged that its problems would not be solved by chasing unhealthy sales volume
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or short -term revenue today we're managing for quality fewer products with greater purpose tighter execution
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and a clearer reason to buy this mandate to the organization is incredibly straightforward real will sell
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so much more of so many less products at a much higher full retail price under armor feels like it has
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tried many times it's had multiple fits and starts of acknowledging that it may be a better business as a smaller business, and those are the words that management says,
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so far in the results, it seems very much a working process.
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But it's hard.
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You can't shrink in a half measure because it's very hard to do, and the worst thing you could do is try and give up.
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Cutting products can also make a brand less accessible.
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If, for example, you cannot afford to shop at a store paying full price but frequent their clearance section, the company may lose you as a customer as they work to reduce markdowns.
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And that may be deliberate, despite how difficult it may be to turn away that additional revenue, because your discounted purchase wasn't a very profitable sale for the company in the first place.
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It's hard for a company ever to say we need to shrink anything, but it's dramatically harder to say we need to shrink revenues.
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For brands, the more people you get, the less exciting the story becomes.
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For more people you get, the less specialized the product becomes.
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And so, so frequently we find that brands hit a peak, a healthy peak, extend past the peak by forcing it, and then find their way back down pretty harshly.
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Woordenschat en spreektips bij deze les
Deze spreekles is gebaseerd op de video “Why Retailers Are Shrinking Their Assortments”. Deze woorden komen het vaakst terug: product, brand, Sku, revenue, sale. Deze video bevat 47 zinnen en 1233 woorden om na te spreken. Het gesproken deel duurt 7:01. De spreker praat in een natuurlijk tempo van ongeveer 176 woorden per minuut, dicht bij een alledaags gesprek. 84% van de woorden hoort bij de 3.000 meest gebruikte Engelse woorden; de rest kun je beter vooraf bekijken.
Belangrijke woorden in deze video
15 woorden uit de video die het leren waard zijn, met uitspraak en betekenis:
| Woord | Uitspraak | Betekenis |
|---|---|---|
| discount zelfstandig naamwoord | /ˈdɪskaʊnt/ | korting |
| acknowledge werkwoord | /əkˈnɑ.lɪd͡ʒ/ | bekennen, erkennen |
| inventory zelfstandig naamwoord | /ˈɪn.vən.tɹi/ | voorraad, inventaris |
| retailer zelfstandig naamwoord | /ˈɹiteɪlɚ/ | middenstander |
| necessarily bijwoord | /ˌnɛs.əˈsɛɹ.ə.li/ | nodig, noodzakelijk |
| reputation zelfstandig naamwoord | /ˌɹɛpjʊˈteɪʃən/ | faam, naam |
| chase werkwoord | /t͡ʃeɪs/ | achtervolgen, achternazitten |
| solve werkwoord | /sɒlv/ | oplossen |
| defensive bijvoeglijk naamwoord | /dɪˈfɛn.sɪv/ | defensief, beschermend |
| exception zelfstandig naamwoord | /əkˈsɛpʃən/ | uitzondering |
| indicate werkwoord | /ˈɪndɪˌkeɪt/ | aanwijzen, aanduiden |
| extend werkwoord | /ɛkˈstɛnd/ | uitbreiden |
| jacket zelfstandig naamwoord | /ˈd͡ʒæk.ɪt/ | jas |
| fewer | /ˈfjuː.ɚ/ | minder |
| execution zelfstandig naamwoord | /ˌɛk.sɪˈkjuː.ʃən/ | uitvoering |
Phrasal verbs die je zult horen
| Woord | Betekenis |
|---|---|
| clean up werkwoord | schoonmaken |
| give up werkwoord | zich overgeven |
Grammatica in deze video
De structuren die de spreker het meest gebruikt, met de exacte woorden uit de video:
| Structuur | In de video |
|---|---|
| Lijdende vorm be + voltooid deelwoord — het gaat om wat er gebeurt, niet om wie het doet | be done · would not be solved |
| Present perfect have/has + voltooid deelwoord — iets uit het verleden dat nu nog telt | have already cut · has also fallen |
Uitspraak om op te letten
De spreker gebruikt 17 samentrekkingen en verkorte vormen, zoals you're, doesn't, don't. Spreek ze kort uit, zoals je ze hoort.
- De klanken “sh” en “zh”: reduction /ɹɪˈdʌk.ʃən/, intentionally /ɪnˈtɛn(t)ʃənəli/, reputation /ˌɹɛpjʊˈteɪʃən/, exception /əkˈsɛpʃən/, execution /ˌɛk.sɪˈkjuː.ʃən/
- Lange woorden — let op de klemtoon: intentionally /ɪnˈtɛn(t)ʃənəli/, necessarily /ˌnɛs.əˈsɛɹ.ə.li/, reputation /ˌɹɛpjʊˈteɪʃən/, incredibly /ɪŋˈkɹɛdɪbli/, execution /ˌɛk.sɪˈkjuː.ʃən/
Klanken die Nederlandstaligen lastig vinden:
- Stemhebbende eindmedeklinker — /b/, /d/, /g/, /z/, /v/ niet verscherpen: acknowledge /əkˈnɑ.lɪd͡ʒ/, solve /sɒlv/, defensive /dɪˈfɛn.sɪv/, extend /ɛkˈstɛnd/, franchise /ˈfɹænt͡ʃaɪ̯z/
- /æ/ — opener dan de Nederlandse “e”: jacket /ˈd͡ʒæk.ɪt/, franchise /ˈfɹænt͡ʃaɪ̯z/, actively /ˈæktɪvli/, manufacturer /ˌmænjʊˈfæktʃəɹə/, mandate /ˈmændeɪ̯t/
- /w/ — met ronde lippen: frequent /ˈfɹiː.kwənt/, straightforward /ˌstɹeɪtˈfɔː(ɹ)wə(ɹ)d/, footwear /ˈfʊtwɛə(ɹ)/
Zo oefen je met deze video
- Luister de hele video één keer zonder te spreken en noteer de woorden die je niet kent.
- Begin op 0,75× snelheid, spreek zin voor zin na en ga terug naar normale snelheid zodra het makkelijk gaat.
- Neem jezelf op en vergelijk met het origineel; let daarbij op woorden als discount, acknowledge, inventory.
Wat is de Shadowing-techniek?
Shadowing is een wetenschappelijk onderbouwde taalleermethode die oorspronkelijk is ontwikkeld voor professionele tolkentraining en gepopulariseerd door polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. De methode is eenvoudig maar krachtig: je luistert naar native Engelse audio en herhaalt het onmiddellijk hardop — als een schaduw die de spreker volgt met slechts 1–2 seconden vertraging. In tegenstelling tot passief luisteren of grammaticadrills, dwingt shadowing je hersenen en mondspieren om echte spraakpatronen tegelijkertijd te verwerken en te reproduceren. Onderzoek toont aan dat het de uitspraaknauwkeurigheid, intonatie, ritme, verbonden spraak, luisterbegrip en spreekvaardigheid aanzienlijk verbetert — waardoor het een van de meest effectieve methoden is voor IELTS Speaking-voorbereiding en echte Engelse communicatie.