Category: retail businesses
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Why an unlikely alliance of Donald Trump & Taylor Swift could put an end to Shein!
Please excuse the dramatic title for this post. As it currently stands there is as much chance of Mr Trump & Ms Swift collaborating together, as hell freezing over. (Although that does seem more likely than it did a month ago! ) The point is that if you want to curtail the ultra-fast fashion machine,…
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Is a global fashion business without global creativity the biggest waste of human resources?
I’ve always found it very strange that many of the factories that are required to churn out mindless, repetitive fashions for global brands, are in countries which naturally have the most beautiful fabrics, designs, colours, fashion sense, and artisan skills to create extraordinary and original clothing. It is even stranger when you consider that the…
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“Shein don’t Cheat, they Compete!” – Discuss…
in assortment structure planning, ethical retailing, fabrics, fashion, fast fashion, internationalisation, ladies fashion, meaning in the retail madness, product development, product suppliers, pureplay, retail, retail businesses, retail management, retail organisations, retail strategy, social savvy, supply-chains, sustainability, value retailingAnd then suddenly from the Shein silence, the non-communication with government committees, potential shareholders and the general public, we have Peter Pernot-Day, Shein’s head of strategic and corporate affairs in North America, the UK and Europe, speaking to delegates at Retail Week’s Live 2025 conference. Firstly, thank you to Retail Week for sharing his speech…
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Is your brand worth repairing, renewing, & re-selling to your customer?
On a recent tour of central London stores with some retail clients, they were amazed at how many brands offer repair services and are moving to ‘products for life’ mentalities. Finisterre, not for the first time, stands out as best practice in the world of product repairs. Firstly it offers the customer videos and manuals…
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Vans West End: Owning & creating a customer destination
in branding & visual communication, customer experience, customer-engagement, disruptive retail, footwear, in-store services, internationalisation, leisure & sport, location strategy, new retail, product development, retail, retail brand heritage, retail businesses, retail strategy, shop of the future, space management, space planning, store experience, store layout, store theatre, visual merchandisingThe brave & extraordinary Vans West End is a shop, a skate-park, an exhibition and a concert venue. Within this complexity it has a simple message for retail brands. “Customer community & loyalty must come through more than just selling product. It must come through ‘owning’ something which is central and essential to your customer…
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Finisterre: Owning a responsibility to protect and share the ocean.
in branding & visual communication, customer service, customer-engagement, disruptive retail, ethical retailing, fabrics, in-store services, leisure & sport, meaning in the retail madness, pre-loved, product development, re-sell, recycling, renting, retail, retail brand heritage, retail businesses, retail management, retail organisations, retail strategy, secondhand, shop of the future, store experience, store theatre, supply-chains, sustainabilitySome brands sell products, whilst others sell passions. And in this consumer world of over-supply and product fatigue it finally seems that customers are being drawn to companies that were never really meant to be retailers at all. To call them ‘accidental retailers’ is really not fair, because in most cases they have developed assortments…
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Uniqlo: ‘Now a luxury that none of us can afford to ignore!’
Technical materials development has always been at the heart of Uniqlo’s evolution as a producer and retailer. But for many customers, fibres & fabrics alone, no matter how innovative are not enough. They want more fashion and styling in what they choose to buy and wear. Enter Uniqlo’s latest appointment in the shape of its…
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‘Making the most of the winter blues?’ IKEA have it in the bag!
in assortment structure planning, branding & visual communication, customer experience, customer-engagement, disruptive retail, food & drink, home, in-store services, internationalisation, location strategy, packaging, personalisation, pop-up stores, retail brand heritage, retail businesses, retail management, retail strategy, sales promotions & events, shop of the future, store experience, store theatre, telling product stories, town centre planning, visual merchandising, windowsIKEA is so much more than a retailer of things. It is a business driven by a philosophy of innovation and ideas, and not least, a dry Scandinavian sense of humour. The brand will magnificently be seen in all of its glory soon, when it opens its London West End flagship store in Oxford Circus,…
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To achieve the ‘Healthier Planet’ we crave, will we all need to suffer an ‘Unhealthier Economy?’
in disruptive retail, ethical retailing, fast fashion, high street planning, ladies fashion, meaning in the retail madness, new retail, pre-loved, product suppliers, re-sell, recycling, retail, retail businesses, retail organisations, retail strategy, secondhand, supply-chains, sustainability, town centre planningSustainability must mean less consumption. But should we be very careful about what we wish for? The results from Primark for the recent period, including the ‘golden quarter of Christmas, show a 6% slump in like-for-like sales in the UK. Primark has explained that this has been caused by fragile customer confidence and the wider…
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No.05: Introducing the beauty of linear metres into your space planning – ’52 Steps to the Perfect Shop!’
in analytics, assortment structure planning, customer experience, high street planning, multi-category, omni-channel retailing, retail, retail businesses, retail management, retail strategy, shop of the future, space management, space planning, store layout, store operations, store operations compliance, visual merchandising, visual merchandising operations, vm compliance, vm operations, VM Selling Toolkit, VManalyticsPost No.05 in the weekly newsletter series: ‘52 Steps to the Perfect Shop!’ You too can have ‘The Perfect Shop’ by this time next year! When planning shops, and when planning the product to go in them, we need to be analytical. We need to study the data to ensure that our options per sqm…
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’52 Steps to the Perfect Shop!’
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For everyone looking to improve their physical shops,
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You too can have ‘The Perfect Shop’ by this time next year!