Author: Tim
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Retailers & Consumers: A Conflict of Space & Interests
Many traditional retailers and their customers just don’t “get each other” anymore! A gap has appeared between the priorities of each, the desires, the realistic possibilities of buying & selling – a conflict of interest. The distance that divides the two camps is best seen when we look at the issue of space and…
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Le Labo: Scenting an Opportunity
Le Labo is one cool, expensive perfumery retailer. Its origins are in France – hence “The Lab” – and it draws its inspiration from the halcyon days of perfumeries of the 19th & early 20th centuries. However Le Labo is not just about exquisite scents & smells but is very cleverly put together. As…
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A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Iceland: No joke for Department Stores
So, a funny thing happened on the way to the shops. To be precise a couple of funny things with more to follow without doubt. Let’s move forward a few months and I’m making my way into The Range, my local store for value home furnishings and décor. Inside I also find my new…
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Dyson: Designs on Disruption a Retail Lesson for Us All
For those people who have been in the retail business for more than a few years, or have been working in a traditional retail business for what might seem more than a few years, it must appear as though disruption in retail is only for others! However, many so-called disruptors are simply self-evangelists of…
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Knowing the qualitative retail reality of your town centres
I’ve walked on both sides of the retail High Street this week. On the one side I’ve been listening once again, as I’m sure you have, to more news of widespread store closures. This time it was House of Fraser. However what seemed so chilling on this occasion was the list of towns soon…
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The Golden Age of Retail Personalisation: 100 years ago
Lest we get ahead of ourselves and think that we have invented the retail wheel through our technological mastery its worth reflecting that certainly up until today the golden era of retail personalisation was in a time before even H.G. Wells envisaged the role that computers would play in our lives. And should we consider…
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Is your online sales & physical store numbers strategy in place?
Online & offline, the biggest challenge for historic retailers is to remain relevant and attractive to their customers. That will ultimately dictate the online sales potential and physical store numbers that will be viable for a business. Do you remember the days when the e-commerce part of a bricks ‘n’ mortar business was compared to…
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Customer Experience Analytics: Which comes first…the Chicken or the Egg?
Which should come first, the chicken or the egg? How long will the chicken stay for, where will she go, and how many eggs will be in her basket? The answers to customer experience analytics still seem tantalisingly out of reach for many retailers. This year’s RBTE event at Olympia had its fair…
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John Lewis: The Revolutionary “Loved & Found”
Still my retail highlight of the year for many reasons was to see the opening of the new John Lewis at the Westfield London extension. But whilst the popular headlines latched onto the innovative and original idea to train the store personnel with actors so as to be able to engage and sell more successfully,…
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“Selling other Peoples’ Stuff! Is it the end of Generic Retailers?
So what are the common threads amongst many of the retailers suffering in the current market climate? They’re certainly well publicized. Of course there are the issues with over-sized expensive store portfolios, a slowness to embrace omnichannel, a lack of consumer confidence and a dearth of disposable income…but certainly at the epicenter of the…
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