Wales
This coverage highlights retail developments and economic trends specific to Wales, examining store openings and closures, regional sales performance, employment issues, and policy changes affecting the retail sector. Reporting provides retail managers and executives with insights into the unique challenges and opportunities shaping retail operations across Welsh towns and cities.
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Nov- 2018 -21 NovemberHigh Street
Crickhowell High Street crowned ‘UK’s best’ in Great British High Street Awards
Crickhowell High Street has been crowned the overall winner of the government-run Great British High Street Awards 2018. The Welsh high street was commended for its community-led initiatives and strong network of independent businesses and was awarded £15,000 for the local community. The result reflects strong public support on social…
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13 NovemberGovernment
EU rules could ‘thwart’ Hammond’s business rates promise
Hammond’s plan to help high streets through a near £1bn, two year business rates cut, is set to be thwarted by European Union state aid rules, real estate agents Altus Group have claimed. The chancellor will slash business rates next April by discounting bills by a third for those retail…
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12 NovemberEconomy
Footfall drops for 11th consecutive month
Footfall in October fell by 2% on the previous year, an identical fall to that recorded in October 2017 and a deeper decline than September 2018 when footfall fell by 1.7%. According to the Springboard retail footfall figures, October also marked the 11th month of consecutive footfall decline. However, analysts…
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9 NovemberHigh Street
October footfall ‘wobble’ sparks fresh concern for UK high street
October saw a 7.4% drop in UK store visits, the biggest year-on-year drop since July, while average weekly footfall was down 2.9% compared with September. According to Ipsos Retail Performance’s latest Retail Traffic Index (RTI) the areas with the highest decline in store visits were south west England and Wales,…
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Oct- 2018 -31 OctoberAdvice
How internal collaboration can unlock the best ecommerce experience
With online shoppers in the UK making 80% of retail purchases online, ecommerce managers can’t afford to adopt a ‘let’s hope for the best’ mentality when it comes to their website infrastructure. Not only would a crash reflect badly on the brand, but the downtime could mean lost revenue and…
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25 OctoberGovernment
Philip Green named as man facing #MeToo allegations
Retail billionaire and Arcadia Group owner Philip Green has been named in Parliament as the man facing newspaper allegations of sexual harassment. Green was named by Lord Peter Hain who said he felt a “duty” to name Green under the protection of parliamentary privilege after being contacted by someone “intimately…
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8 OctoberEconomy
Footfall continues to fall in September
Footfall continued on its decline in September, according to the Ipsos Retail Performance Weathermap. All regions saw a year-on-year drop in footfall, with Scotland and Northern Ireland recording a 3.3% decline and northern England seeing 5.5% less retail visitors. The Midlands, south west England and Wales and London and the…
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Sep- 2018 -26 SeptemberHigh Street
Poundland to remove kitchen knives from stores
Poundland has announced it will have removed all kitchen knives from its 755 UK stores by the end of next month. The budget retailer said the decision was made through “thoughtful reflection about concerns raised by both communities and colleagues”. Knife crime in England and Wales has risen by 16%…
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24 SeptemberHigh Street
60% of British people believe the high street will ‘eventually disappear’
New research has found that 60% of British people believe that the high street will “eventually disappear”. The research by Close Brothers Asset Finance also found that 85% of people feel the high street is in decline, with 70% adding that councils and the government are not giving “enough support”.…
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11 SeptemberComment
The escalating issue of ‘serial returners’
Retailers are already under intense pressure, from reduced margins to competition from online giants, and now they face another woe: the rise of the so-called ‘serial returners’, who deliberately buy more items than they intend to keep and return them days later. Brightpearl we recently surveyed 2,000 consumers across the…
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