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How to avoid profit loss by keeping your retail store up to date

In the store many actions are taken just because management likes to do them a certain way. “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” it’s often said.  And particularly in well-established stores with a reputation to uphold, keeping standards high might entail squashing innovation in order to protect a static…

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A festive general election: how will retailers survive Christmas 2019?

For retailers, the closer it gets to Christmas, the more political uncertainty there is leading to dwindling consumer confidence and irrefutable anticipation of poor festive sales. After a year of struggle for retailers across the country and more odds against them, how can this festive season be the most profitable…

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Why hackers or malware are not the biggest security risk for retailers

Attackers are successfully pivoting away from complex technical exploits and instead are identifying ways to exploit a business’s core functionality. These business logic attacks exploit legitimate functions like username and password login or pages to add new credit cards and changes to shipping addresses. These new attacks are significantly harder…

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What implications will the Royal Mail strike have on UK retailers?

Royal Mail workers have voted to strike over job insecurity and employment terms and conditions, raising concerns that there could be walkouts in the run-up to Christmas. The announcement comes as we approach the retail industry’s crucial Q4 period where Black Friday, Cyber Monday and Boxing Day sales all take…

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Why retailers are responsible for customer experience this festive season

As retailers move into an annual festive shopping season that seems to arrive earlier each year, they would be wise to remember one particular lesson from Christmas past: when something goes wrong with their customers’ shopping experience, the retailer will get the blame, no matter who is actually at fault.…

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Sustainability Consumerism: How retailers are on the front line

We live in febrile times, and for once we are not talking about Brexit. Within the last year we have seen a global backlash against disposable plastics and mounting concern over climate change. Anxiety about deforestation, and especially the uncontrolled spread of industrial scale farming and ranching, also made the…

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How retail outlet destinations have evolved

Outlet shopping was born in the US in the 1930s through the development of standalone stores that enabled brands to sell-through damaged or excess goods. This evolved into the concept of a multi-store outlet shopping mall in the 1970s; a significant step for both retailers and shoppers alike.  Large-scale US…

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How personalised strategies transform one-off festive buyers into loyal customers

News reports about post-Christmas sales slumps are becoming as traditional as turkey and stuffing. Whether it’s gifts for the kids or the dogs, everyone has a reason to shop during the festive season and any resulting casualties show just how competitive the retail landscape really is. With new customer acquisition…

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What retailers can learn from the success of Downton Abbey

The film adaptation of the award-winning period drama, Downton Abbey, made its highly anticipated debut in cinemas recently. The film, which follows the lives of Downton Abbey’s well-loved residents – the Crawley family and its household staff – has currently amassed £27.3m, topping the cinema box office at home in…

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Can intelligent retail improve the shopping experience?

You would be hard pressed to find a retailer who doesn’t want greater insight into what is happening within its stores and warehouses – and why it’s happening. Perhaps that’s why Zebra’s 2019 Intelligent Enterprise Index revealed a record number of retailers accelerating their efforts to become ‘intelligent.’ According to…

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