Comment
Comment features expert perspectives and thought leadership from across the UK retail industry. This section includes opinion pieces, analysis, and commentary from senior retail executives, analysts, and sector specialists on the commercial, strategic, and operational forces shaping retail. Retail Sector’s Comment coverage explores issues such as consumer behaviour shifts, technology adoption, sustainability, regulation, and leadership — providing retail professionals with authoritative insight to inform decision-making and strategic planning.
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Oct- 2021 -21 October
Last chance saloon
Is the writing on the wall for eCommerce? Customers have relied on online retail for 18 months, with repeated lockdowns contributing to an extraordinary spike in growth – online now contributes 36% of retail revenue compared to just 16% pre-pandemic. Yet, while some of this new buying behaviour is likely…
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19 October
Certainty exceeds discounts in 2021 peak trading
Global supply chain disruption could not have come at a worse time for UK retailers desperate to maximise the potential of an ever growing online customer base during peak trading season. But with costs spiralling and many products unlikely to arrive in the country in time for Christmas, let alone…
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18 October
Checkoutless Stores: The Future of Retail
Retailers have been significantly impacted by the pandemic. In 2020, total retail sales fell by 1.9% compared to 2019. Now that consumers are returning to stores, retailers must look to welcome them in new ways. Consumers now want a fast, easy, and convenient shopping experience. On average, a person spends…
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1 October
Delegated Authentication – The secret to a smoother SCA Experience
We’ve seen a lot of talk about about how the secret to successful strong customer authentication (SCA) is in the details — the exemptions, the exclusions, the version of 3DS in play. But there is one other detail, one vital to maintaining magnificent customer experience can’t be overlooked: the importance…
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Sep- 2021 -14 September
Embracing Google Shopping and omnichannel strategies post-lockdown
The relaxation of restrictions on June 21 – or as it has become known in the media, ‘Freedom Day’ – was meant to be a return to normality. For brick and mortar retailers especially, this represented a chance for them to increase sales and recoup losses endured during lockdown. However,…
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1 September
Accelerating retail transformation to drive growth
Retailers have faced a tough year. Stay-at-home orders and the resulting shift to online saw buyer behaviour altered. Consumers across the globe flocked online in numbers not forecast for a decade. McKinsey’s UK Consumer Sentiment research highlighted that 63 per cent of consumers tried new shopping behaviours in the past year,…
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Aug- 2021 -18 August
In-store retail is due for a comeback: how to succeed in the post-vax reopening
Bricks and mortar retail has had a difficult year, and while the situation is improving as vaccines roll out, it’s clear that business as usual is still a long way off. The sector is still reeling from the impact of the Covid crisis, and retailers of every size have been…
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17 August
Consumers prefer face to face when it comes to buying cosmetics
There’s no doubting e-commerce’s convenience. Next-day delivery used to be the pinnacle of fast, efficient service but with the growing range of same-day delivery options and even within-the-hour services in the grocery space, any whim can be sated in a matter of minutes. But convenience isn’t everything and despite e-commerce…
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12 August
Building customer experiences that evolve with the user
The Covid-19 pandemic acted as a catalyst in the growth of online sales for the retail sector – which for some companies was a move they simply, and understandably, were not prepared for. This unprecedented shift to online meant that a basic e-commerce function on a website in many cases…
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9 August
Retail in the age of data: What we can learn from Netflix
Have you ever wondered how Netflix ‘knows’ which movies to recommend? Or how does the entertainment giant choose themes for some of the most popular productions in the film industry? Data. Data. And some artificial intelligence (AI) – that would be the answer in a nutshell. Data lies at the…
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