Month: November 2019

Naked Wines appoints Nick Devlin as new chief executive officer

Online subscription wine retailer, Naked Wines, has appointed Nick Devlin as chief executive officer.  Currently the chief operating officer, Devlin has been confirmed for the position of CEO after Rowan Gormley announced he will depart his position once the Christmas trading season is over.  Gormley founded Naked Wines in 2008,…

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Burberry introduces 18 week parental leave

Burberry will launch a new global parental leave policy, it was announced today.  The new policy will offer all employees 18 weeks of fully-paid parental leave. Upon their return to work, employees will also be given the opportunity to work a 30-hour week at full pay for a further four…

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How AI can help implement a quick and seamless shopping experience

Earlier this year, Sainsbury’s announced it was in talks with Uber Eats to launch a grocery delivery service. Whilst most major supermarkets offer their own online delivery service, it’s this kind of innovative thinking and the alignment of offerings with services relevant to your audience that will help gain an…

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‘Worst ever’ growth for online retail sales in October

Online retail sales has seen its lowest ever growth during the month of October, according to the latest IMRG Capgemini Online Retail Index. E-commerce sales grew by 6.2% and managed to beat the three-month, six-month, and 12-month rolling averages – respectively +5.0%, +4.5%, +5.1%. However, the results are still behind…

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Hammerson reaches £577m of disposals with £54m St Oswald’s sale

Hammerson has exchanged contracts on the sale of St Oswald’s Retail Park, Gloucester, to a local authority for £54m, taking its total to £577m in disposals this year. The 20,900m2 scheme, which is located to the north of Gloucester city centre offers a range of bulky goods, retail and leisure…

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Kingfisher sales take a tumble in Q3

Kingfisher, the parent company of B&Q and Screwfix, has announced a poor quarter of sales in its latest trading update. Total sales slumped by 3.2%, in what CEO Thierry Garnierd called a “disappointing” result. Like-for-like sales were also down 3.7% for the quarter.   Kingfisher said that disruption from new product…

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Arlo & Jacob to open fifth UK store with new London flagship

Arlo and Jacob has revealed plans to open its fifth flagship showroom in Islington, London, set to launch in January 2020. The furniture brand claims to “defy the high street slow down” after opening four showrooms within 18 months. The showroom will be be situated at Islington Square at the…

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What retailers can learn from Europe’s top performers about transformation

With e-commerce being the fastest growing segment of the retail market in Europe and North America, it would be natural to assume that the online store should be the key focus for retailers. However, in reality, this is not so clear-cut. Following recent research from Google and e-commerce consultancy Practicology,…

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AO World closes Netherlands arm amid losses of £6.2m

AO World has reported an underlying loss of £6.2m compared to £5.4m last year, resulting in the business to pull out of The Netherlands, less than four years after its launch. The online electricals retailer’s half year report for the period ending 30 September stated a statutory pre-tax loss of…

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Almost 6000 shops closed by major retailers this year, research finds

British retailing may be in “crisis”, after new figures from the Centre of Retail Research revealed that large high street retailers have faced a total of 5,834 store closures so far this year. CRR said this marked a 77% increase from the entirety of closures in 2018, when 3,303 large…

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