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- 2019 -1 October
From clicks-to-bricks
2019 continues to be an extremely turbulent time for the retail sector. Barely a week goes by when we don’t hear of yet another, long-standing and well-established high street retailer beginning to crumble as it struggles to keep up with a number of online rivals. In fact, new figures released…
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Sep- 2019 -30 September
The benefits of the secondary market
In June, the French prime minister announced a new law that looks to ban the destruction of unsold products. The legislation, which directly tackles the €650m (£576m) worth of new consumer products that are binned or destroyed every year in France, will go into effect within the next four years.…
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27 September
How to save a sale with an efficient warehouse operation
One of the biggest frustrations in store shoppers face is not being able to find the products they’re looking for – whether they are sold out, hard to find or simply not practical to keep in stock. And customers hardly ever ask about them if they’re not. While these missed…
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25 September
Retail Lessons from DTC challenger brands
Direct-to-consumer (DTC) brands are shaking up entire categories. It’s now nearly impossible to find a single product category left unaffected by the arrival of this new wave of challenger brands. Even categories that have been stagnating for decades are finding themselves being disrupted. So how can your brand win in…
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24 September
The rise of loyalty schemes in the retail sector
E-vouchers are increasing in popularity. While at a relatively steady pace, the sector has grown 10% over the past two years. Hawk Incentives recently published The Loyalty Evolution Report which looked at customer loyalty and what’s driving it. Currently a massive 82% of Brits subscribe to at least one loyalty…
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20 September
Resurrecting Retail through Improvement of Customer Service
The retail sector is used to bustling sales and packed shoppers during bank holiday weekends. However, the latest data showed a sharp drop of 1.9% in footfall on bank holiday Monday compared to August 2018. Why has this decline occurred? Why are high streets failing to generate equal or higher…
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19 September
How investing in brand ambassadors can help boost your bottom line
Most shopping still happens in-store rather than online, but it is clear that online shopping is a significant growth engine so stores need to do more to drive footfall. Respondents to Zebra’s 2019 Shopper Vision Study said the top two factors that get them to spend more time in brick-and-mortar…
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18 September
Why the death of the high street has been greatly exaggerated
To misappropriate Mark Twain’s famous quote, news of the high street’s death has been greatly exaggerated. There is no doubt it’s undergoing a seismic shift, with the option to buy online continuing to change the landscape. We’ve seen several historic retail businesses in crisis, while online operators have been acquiring…
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17 September
Navigating a path to success – the retail roadmap
The struggles of high street stalwarts such as House of Fraser and BHS have brought the challenges facing traditional retailers into sharp focus. In an era where the customer calls the tune by which retailers must play, many brands have struggled to provide the personalised, convenient services that their audiences…
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16 September
Black Friday: How online retailers can maximise sales this season
The Christmas sales have begun, and retailers are counting down the days to some of the biggest e-commerce days of the year. If last year is any indication, Black Friday and Cyber Monday 2019 are likely to drive another huge peak in online traffic given the discount event is seen…
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