Category: ethical retailing
-
How can a truly sustainable brand embrace the concept of growth?
As with all things sustainable the answer is often complex and multi-layered. This question is no exception. Just like many consumers I’ve sifted through all the general data and detailed product specifications to try to work out how sustainable a brand, or a individual item actually is. How much damage am I doing to the…
-
Body Shop: Seeking a change in fortune for this rough-cut diamond
in branding & visual communication, brave-words, customer experience, customer service, customer-engagement, disruptive retail, ethical retailing, health & beauty, impulse retailing, in-store services, packaging, product suppliers, recycling, retail, retail brand heritage, retail businesses, retail management, retail organisations, retail strategy, store theatre, sustainability, telling product storiesWhere do you begin with the story of Body Shop. So many twists and turns, and so many lessons. Anyone who remembers the 1980s and 1990s experienced a totally new retail concept. Body Shop was way ahead of its time in the world of conscientious cosmetics and toiletries. It was primarily a producer, ensuring that…
-
Is Responsibility more Natural to Customers than Sustainability?
Getting the message across to customers about sustainability is a challenge. Not only is it one of those words that can mean many things to many people, but it often involves technical data and scientific concepts, and is a nightmare to assess with its veils of spurious marketing claims and dubious transparency. So whilst many…
-
How and where to invest in the circular supply chain
in assortment structure planning, branding & visual communication, customer-engagement, disruptive retail, ethical retailing, fast fashion, meaning in the retail madness, new retail, pre-loved, preorder, product suppliers, pureplay, re-sell, recycling, renting, retail, retail businesses, retail management, retail organisations, retail strategy, secondhand, sustainabilityGreater than the disruptive markets we operate in, is the disrupted world that we live in. Time has long passed, from when a sustainable initiative was not much more than a smart marketing strategy. Sustainability has now irreversibly developed into something essential to establish commercial traction with many customers. Responsibility for sustainability has also shifted,…
-
Moving from ‘Retail location planning’ to ‘Customer location planning’
in analytics, assortment structure planning, disruptive retail, ethical retailing, high street planning, internationalisation, location strategy, meaning in the retail madness, multi-category, new retail, omni-channel retailing, product suppliers, retail, retail businesses, retail management, retail organisations, retail strategy, store operations, sustainability, town centre planning‘Channel’ is already becoming an obsolete word. Customers and retailers are connecting via an array of ‘Shopping touchpoints.’ These ‘shopping touchpoints’ will continue to be a fusion of traditional and new shop formats and customer ‘lifestyle locations,’ across digital and physical worlds. Retailers themselves will not be the ones to decide which channels to offer…
-
Time for us to create our own certainty in this world of retail uncertainty.
If there has always been one certainty in the retail industry, then it is uncertainty. We deal with customers who are unpredictable. We forward guess every season in terms of what we should stock in the hope we can sell it. We are at the mercy of the weather, the geo-politics of the world and…
-
Where is your sales growth going to come from this year?
in assortment structure planning, branding & visual communication, customer experience, customer service, customer-engagement, ethical retailing, food & drink, health & beauty, in-store services, meaning in the retail madness, personalisation, retail, retail businesses, retail management, retail organisations, retail strategy, social savvy, store theatre, sustainability, telling product storiesWe are already in autumn, an important time of year for planning the commercial growth of our retail businesses. We may be considering extending our assortments, planning new product ranges, growing our human resources, even contemplating opening new physical shops and online sales channels. Growth can come in many ways to achieve these crucial additional…
-
Nobody’s Child: Everyone’s favourite sustainable partner
in customer service, customer-engagement, disruptive retail, ethical retailing, fashion accessories, footwear, ladies fashion, meaning in the retail madness, new retail, omni-channel retailing, Pinterest Gallery, product suppliers, recycling, retail, retail strategy, social savvy, supply-chains, sustainability, telling product storiesThe lessons for us all: “Modern retail is too complex for a single business. Collaboration is essential for success. Collaboration through the complete supply chain from growers to retail partners. To be sustainable there is no alternative!” Nobody’s Child is a responsible brand on a mission to bring beautiful fashion to every woman, everywhere without…
-
Petit Pli: One giant leap in space-age fashion
in assortment structure planning, customer service, disruptive retail, ethical retailing, fashion accessories, footwear, in-store services, internationalisation, kids fashion, ladies fashion, leisure & sport, meaning in the retail madness, new retail, omni-channel retailing, packaging, personalisation, Pinterest Gallery, retail, retail businesses, retail strategy, shop of the future, store experience, supply-chains, sustainability, telling product storiesThe lessons for us all: “Petit Pli is born from innovation and invention and has created unique materials & products that make it unique. But it is essential that every retailer also lives continuously with innovation and invention. In the best and worst of times continually look forwards to be new, newsworthy and interesting for…
-
House of Hackney: Home for inspiration.
in accessories, branding & visual communication, customer experience, customer service, customer-engagement, ethical retailing, home, in-store services, internationalisation, location strategy, luxury, new retail, omni-channel retailing, Pinterest Gallery, product suppliers, retail, retail management, retail organisations, retail strategy, shop of the future, store experience, store layout, store theatre, sustainability, telling product stories, visual merchandisingThe lessons for us all: “To build a beautiful retail proposition that engages and attracts remarkable loyalty and trust, a business must move beyond product and price, no matter how attractive. Beauty and loyalty now come through the incarnation of a mission, of values and qualities that are expressed through product, people, environments and actions.”…
Stay in touch with our…
’52 Steps to the Perfect Shop!’
weekly newsletter
For everyone looking to improve their physical shops,
or even thinking of opening their first pop-up or permanent shop,
we have written the ’52 Steps to the Perfect Shop!’ weekly newsletter, delivered direct to your inbox.
You too can have ‘The Perfect Shop’ by this time next year!