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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May- 2019 -9 May
Retailers should learn from shopping centres to be inclusive
Shopping centres increasingly act as hubs pulling local communities together and are becoming an essential cornerstone of everyday life. As society quite rightly becomes more inclusive, shopping centres must lead the way in their own communities by ensuring that every individual can benefit from the facilities equally. One in five…
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8 May
Why shopping centres must now focus on experience
The traditional shopping centre model is currently undergoing a seismic shift. I’ve no doubt that those centres that will thrive in the coming decades will employ an entirely customer centric experiential model. As the line between retail and leisure becomes increasingly blurred, shopping centres will need to evolve from being…
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7 May
Making lighting work for the modern fitting room experience
Despite the growing popularity of shopping online over visiting physical retail stores, the capacity to ‘try before you buy’ remains a key motivator for high street customers and is an experience e- commerce has yet to replicate. However, many of us find contact with public fitting rooms uncomfortable and less…
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3 May
Why progressive web apps are the future of mobile commerce
It’s no secret that, while bricks-and-mortar retail is on the decline, e-commerce has been steadily growing in popularity. In fact, between December 2008 and December 2018, internet sales increased from 5.8% to 20% of total retail sales in the UK. However, while most retailers now recognise the importance of investing…
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2 May
What can the West learn from Amazon China’s failure?
Amazon China did not do enough to build on brand reputation, and it is only until they can appease the demands of an increasingly connected and experience-orientated consumer base that they have a chance of challenging the giants in the East. For native businesses in the East, the rapidly developing…
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1 May
Can e-commerce save the high street?
According to PwC a record net 2,481 stores disappeared from the UK’s top 500 high streets in 2018 – 40% more than in 2017 – a worrying statistic for the future of the high street. Even the big retailers were not immune with Maplin, Toys R Us and Poundworld casualties…
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Apr- 2019 -30 April
Why DTC brand Harry’s needs to think like a publisher
Last week, direct-to-consumer (DTC) shaving brand Harry’s teamed up with Boots in a move to widen its distribution channels and routes to market. The idea isn’t new – I took a similar approach more than 20 years ago for Sky, distributing set top boxes and subscriptions through retail and shopping…
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29 April
The subscription economy
Global spending on subscription-based services and products is booming, powered by an ever-growing range of brands offering everything from media content, to specialist food and drink, apparel, and cosmetics. Initially these existed in the realm of pioneering startups offering niche services and products. Now global retail giants are scrambling to…
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26 April
Beating the retail downturn: three lessons from Dunelm
We are clearly amidst challenging times for high street retailers at the moment, with Brexit uncertainty coupled with increased competition from online pureplays putting substantial pressure on the UK’s retail businesses. Recent figures from the British Retail Consortium and KPMG revealed that sales growth dropped to 0.5% in the year…
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25 April
In-house or outsource – the GNFR conundrum
The retail sector is undergoing unprecedented change and while this is bringing amazing opportunities in the customer experience space, it also means that budgets continue to be squeezed in the drive for operational efficiencies. Goods not for resale (GNFR) is an often-overlooked area of retail that when managed properly, offers…
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