|
|
Retail Update - November 2018 |
| |
Posted At: 15 November 2018 16:54 PM
Related Categories: Future of Retailing, General, Retailers, Store Closures |
| |
Continuing the pattern of the year, and starting to sound like a broken record, the retail world is still rather gloomy.
The high street continues to suffer retail losses; bakery chain Peyton & Byrne, Evans Cycles and listed butcher Crawshaws Group all fell into administration but have subsequently been rescued. This week alone has seen the demise of 50-year old bridal chain Berketex Brides, which fell into administration with the immediate closure of its stores. Almost 1,000 retail businesses fell into administration in the year to September 2018, the highest number in five years.
As many as 85,000 jobs have disappeared from the UK high street so far in 2018, according to figures from the Office for National Statistics. The first six months of the year saw 80,000 jobs lost, with a further 5,000 thought to have been lost between July and October.
However, as autumn gives way to winter and retailers turn their attention to the all-important Christmas trading season, there is some better news to be had;
-
Spending by retailers on Christmas advertising is set to hit a new high of £6.4bn this year [Advertising Association], having risen nearly 50% in eight years
-
London’s New Bond Street has been named as the most expensive retail street by rental value in Europe, new data from Cushman & Wakefield shows
-
UK apparel and footwear spend via online-only retailers is set to soar by 67.4% over the next five years, reaching £7.5bn in 2023 and accounting for over one-third of online clothing and footwear sales by 2023, a new report by GlobalData claims
-
The number of independent retailers in the UK is forecast to creep up 0.3% by 2023, surviving because they can be more nimble than big businesses in the face of change, according to the research by American Express and GlobalData
-
Westfield London has been named as the leading UK shopping centre by the Trevor Wood Associates’ shopping centre guide, overtaking Westfield Stratford which has been number one for the last six years
-
Black Friday sales in the UK are expected to reach £1.54bn, with shoppers set to spend 13% more than 2017. Online spend is estimated to total £8.1bn during peak activity between 19-26 November [IMRG]
And finally, October’s Budget revealed a £675m pledge to create a “Future High Streets Fund” to support councils in drawing up plans for the transformation of their High Streets, allowing them to invest in the improvements they need and to facilitate redevelopment of under-used retail and commercial areas into residential.
|
|
|
|
Retailer Spotlight - Leon reimagines roadside eating with Roadchef |
| |
Posted At: 21 August 2017 10:25 AM
Related Categories: Future of Retailing, Retailers |
| |
As growth in the UK’s F&B market starts to slow, some are asking whether the bubble has - or is about to - burst. With operators like Ed’s Easy Diner and Handmade Burger Co going into administration, players are approaching the market with far more caution.
At the same time, we’re seeing innovative partnerships as the industry looks to create new ways to grow. Leon’s deal will Roadchef is one such example, with the upmarket, healthy fast food chain announcing plans to open outlets along UK motorways this summer. More are in the pipeline over the next five years.
Tapping into the motorway network
Roadchef, which operates 30 service area sites across the UK, with around 52m motorists visiting every year, has chosen its Norton Canes on the M6 and Strensham South in the M5 locations as the first to house Leon restaurants. Customers will be able to purchase Leon’s popular dishes such as the Moroccan Meatball Hotbox, Fish Finger Wrap and the Original Super Salad. The deal will see nearly 60 jobs created at both service stations.
Leon and Roadchef’s partnership follows a similar venture by Pizza Express and one of Roadchef’s main competitors, Welcome Break. It is part of Roadchef’s drive to offer UK motorists a wider choice and to reflect the diversity of the high street.
Simon Turl, CEO of Roadchef said: “We scoured the market for a brand that would complement our existing offering and Leon, with its impressive naturally fast food credentials, stood out. We are thrilled that Leon has chosen Roadchef as the partner to introduce its brand to the motorway network, our two companies share a people focused culture and we are confident that our customers will be impressed with what Leon has to offer.”
Taking on the greasy spoon?
From Leon’s perspective, the agreement supports its aims to provide a nutritious alternative to traditional fast food chains, using healthy ingredients that are quick and easy to prepare.
Leon managing director John Upton explained: “We’re thrilled to be working with Roadchef and taking Leon onto the motorways of Britain. At Leon we want to help everyone eat well and live well. We have always said we want Leon to be where it was most needed – either on the high street or easy to find when you’re out and about. This new partnership with Roadchef will help us provide fun, fast, fresh Leon food to the millions of people who use our motorways every day.”
Leon’s international growth strategy
Leon was founded by John Vincent, Henry Dimbleby, and chef Allegra McEvedy in 2004. The group currently operates 47 sites in the UK and earlier this year, secured £25m in private equity to power its international growth. Leon has already opened two stores in the Netherlands with plans to expand to the US next. Its 2015 revenues rose by almost 50% £36.9m. Its 2016 results will be posted next month and the FSP team will share insights on these.
|
|
|
|
Retailer Spotlight - Amazon continues on its disruptive path |
| |
Posted At: 12 July 2017 13:00 PM
Related Categories: Future of Retailing, Retail, Retailers |
| |
In this month’s FSP Spotlight, we’re looking at how Amazon remains on track to leave no corner of the retail space untouched by its disruptive strategy.
Disrupting a new industry
First, let’s look at its acquisition of Wholefoods, a move that took many industry commentators by surprise; not only is it a tech company taking over a grocery chain, but because Amazon has a reputation for making smaller deals. This $13.7bn deal is Amazon’s first ever $1bn+ purchase. The acquisition seals Amazon’s long-term commitment to building out its grocery business, consolidating its efforts via Amazon Fresh and the introduction of brick-and-mortar stores.
Amazon’s expertise in distribution means both grocery delivery and "Click and Collect" is set to sky-rocket though experts do expect in-store innovations, such as live cooking shows, trend showrooms and personalisation. At the same time, while Amazon has kept its UK-ventures small-scale, experimental and mostly confined to London, further disruption of the UK supermarket sector – and “Amazon fear” is widely expected.
Real-world expansion
Close to Amazon’s strategy is how it uses Whole Foods stores to keep expanding its own successful third-party business, an area that generates significantly higher margins than items sold directly by Amazon. It’s anticipated that the deal will build on its bricks and mortar strategy, utilising the Whole Foods locations as local distribution points for food as well as other items, as well as capitalising on Whole Foods' organic private label brand.
The launch – albeit small scale – of real stores earlier this year has also strengthened the brand’s footprint. While bricks and mortar retail remains a marginal part of Amazon's business, benefits include boosting brand awareness and exposing customers to Amazon's Prime subscription service. Prime members get the online prices in the store, while non-members pay the list price for books.
Becoming “the best place to buy fashion online”
Fashion also remains a huge focus for Amazon and this year it seems closer to achieving its aim of being the “best place to buy fashion online”. So far in 2017, it has launched seven private label apparel brands, added its own lingerie line with cut-rate prices and announced an extension of its Alexa-enabled Echo product line specifically designed to take outfit photos and give style feedback. The company is also investing in its own fully automated clothing factory, a shipping company and physical stores, showing it means all-out war on the industry.
Shares of Amazon have gained 9.2% in the past three months, compared with the S&P 500 index gain of 3%.
So what’s next for Amazon? Having filed patents for a robotic fashion mannequin that can change dimensions to allow a shopper to see how clothing items fit on different sizes, and a ‘try before you buy’ services in the US, it is clear that Amazon has the potential to become a major player in the fashion market, and that in the long-run this could have an impact on traditional fashion retailers. Watch this space!
|
|
|
|
Retail Update - March 2017 |
| |
Posted At: 24 March 2017 15:51 PM
Related Categories: Future of Retailing, Retail |
| |
February saw restaurant group Viva Brazil fall into administration after unsuccessful expansions put the business under unsustainable financial pressure. The business was sold as part of a pre-pack deal to its founder and has kept its restaurants open in Liverpool, Glasgow, Cardiff and Birmingham.
The month also saw a for sale sign hoisted above Jones Bootmaker, with all options for the business being explored. At the time of writing, the future of Jones Bootmaker hangs in the balance as it teeters on the brink of administration.
As ever, speculation surrounding Brexit and business rates dominated the headlines. A new study by Total Retail revealed that a fifth of UK shoppers (20%) think Brexit will impact their shopping habits over the next 12 months, with almost six in 10 consumers worried about their lack of disposable income; and almost one-fifth of small businesses - including retailers - would consider closing down as a result of the looming business rates revaluation, according to research from the Federation of Small Businesses. The research suggests that 36% of small businesses expect to see their rates increase, with 44% expecting bills to eventually rise by more than £1000 a year. Of the businesses expecting a rise in rates, 54% expect profits to drop and 38% said they will increase prices to make up for the loss.
However, it was not all doom and gloom on the high street.
According to Savills’ Global Luxury Retail report, London topped the global rankings for new luxury retail store openings in 2016. London saw a total of 41 new luxury openings during the year, (of which 15 were the respective brand’s first ever store in London), compared to 36 in Paris and 31 in both New York and Dubai.
New figures from Visa UK’s Consumer Spending Index show that average spend grew 1.5% in February, up from a five-month low of 0.4% in January. Spend on recreation and culture saw the most significant boost of 3.3%, compared to a rise of just 2% on miscellaneous goods and a drop in spend on clothing, footwear, food, drink and household goods.
It will certainly be interesting to see how consumer spending fares over the next few months and the impact rising business rates has on business. SnapShop will aim to keep you informed of this as and when it happens.
|
|
|
|
Growing Old Gracefully |
| |
Posted At: 12 March 2012 17:28 PM
Related Categories: Future of Retailing, Retailers, Town & Shopping Centre Management |
| |
Age. Sometimes having lots of it is good – think cheese, whiskey, doctors (no one wants a young doctor), and sometimes its bad – old cars, for example, are quite unreliable.
When it comes to retailing, I guess the jury is still out on whether age really matters; take Woolworths, 100 years of experience couldn’t save them. People were fond of them, sure, most of us had grown up stealing pick n mix from the local Woolies*, but fondness doesn’t pay the bills.
On the flip side there’s ASOS, just ten years old and turning over £165m. And catering to the most fickle market of them all; youth.
So, is it a big deal? Probably not to most. Knowing that Forfars has been baking since the 1500’s isn’t going to influence me when purchasing a pasty, and I won’t be going to D&A over Specsavers purely based on their ‘oldest opticians’ boasts, but it does provide some comfort to see ‘old faithfuls’ when visiting an unknown town or city.
I sometimes wonder if, in ten years’ time, there will be any grandma and grandad retailers left on the high street at all. As companies get taken over, department stores get purchased and renamed, and others simply fail to move with the times only to disappear, more of the old gets pushed out and more of the new comes stomping its big noisy neon feet in.
Life is moving quickly and trends have become fads – is the key to the future keeping things fresh and new, or will our inability to incubate brand loyalty encourage the manufacture of poor quality, throwaway products? And will we become ‘less British’?!
These things have to be considered. They should be considered. When you dismiss M&S as too ‘fuddy duddy’ and nip on over to Superdry, are you destroying English heritage or are you creating new?
I’m not sure, but I don’t see many retailers striving gain for loyalty; it seems like ‘sell, sell, sell’ to me, and to hell with longevity. Keeping things new and interesting isn’t bad, not at all, but it would be a shame to keep loosing traditions, bit by bit.
What do you think…? Comment below.
*Not me, of course, other miscreants
|
|
|
|
Waterstone’s Vs. Amazon |
| |
Posted At: 11 March 2011 00:33 AM
Related Categories: Future of Retailing, Retail, Retailers, Social Commentary |
| |
Gone are the days when, if you wanted to read a book, you either bought it with the choice of hard or soft backed, or you went to the local library.
With the internet came Amazon and many other internet book retailers, with their super-cheap new and second hand books and speedy delivery (most of the time).
The humble book shop that you had to actually physically visit faded into the background with Waterstone’s experiencing dreadful Christmas results in 2009 and failures in its supply chain costing the then managing director his job.
The most recent news relating to book stores is that Russian investor Alexander Mamut has directed Credit Suisse to advise him on a potential acquisition of Waterstone’s.
Mr Mamut holds a 6 per cent stake in HMV (Waterstone’s parent). Many observers did not think the businessman would consider making a bid for the book retailer with no clear business benefits.
One reason however could be that in fact Mr Mamut’s aspiration to own the chain stems from an intellectual ambition, rather than a financial one, in the same way that other oligarchs collect Premiership football teams.
In my opinion, Mr Mamut buying the Book store would be a positive thing.
I enjoy visiting a store, browsing through books, visiting the café if there is one.
One significant difference between online stores and bricks and mortar is that you don’t have the helpful staff available.
They can recommend books, order in obscure titles or even recommend a book similar to something you have already read. The reason Waterstone’s has all these benefits is that genuine book lovers work in store who have actually read the books and can give real advice.
Amazon may be able to use clever queries to sell you similar items or possible items you may be interested in due to your shopping activity, but this will never compare to a real life person giving a recommendation based on the fact they personally really enjoyed a book.
Some believe that physical shops will only survive in city centres and affluent locations as the market moves online, and books become increasingly available to download.
This may be the case, and if this is the future then businessmen such as Alexander Mamut saving book stores as a hobby rather than a business acquisition can only be a good thing?
|
|
|
|
Out-of-town, in-town and e-tailing |
| |
Posted At: 23 December 2010 13:00 PM
Related Categories: E-tailing, Future of Retailing, Retail |
| |
In response to a query, raised on the SnapShop website, about the trends in retail sales between town centres, out-of-town and e-retail, FSP's Managing Director, Geoff Nicholson, writes: The share taken by e-tail is monitored both by ONS and by IMRG. They use different metrics and with adjustments, they broadly tell the same story – the market has grown quickly but is still quite small, i.e. less than 10%.
The in-town/out-of-town split is more difficult to find but is much more significant. FSP has done quite a lot of work, using the development of space and average sales densities, to track the increasing share of the out-of-town market. The greatest push is coming from the supermarkets and their increasing proportion of non-food sales.
FSP has published some top-line results, tracking the market share change over the last 10 years and a projection for the next 10 years. In broad terms, FSP expects the non-food market share of in-town retailing to drop from around 64% in 2000 to around 42% by 2020.
FSP has worked on a number of town centres that are being strangled by edge-of-town developments, particularly large supermarkets. It is surprising that the scale of the change has attracted so little comment or political attention. I can only presume this is testament to the power of the supermarkets.
|
|
|
|
Another small nail |
| |
Posted At: 14 July 2010 13:40 PM
Related Categories: E-tailing, Future of Retailing |
| |
FSP applauds the Post Office’s lethargic ability to move with the times. We see today that about 650 of the 1,400 delivery offices across the UK will stay open until 8pm on Wednesday evenings and 2pm on Saturdays for those who are not at home to receive items during the day. Bravo! Not quite the major supermarket stance of 24 hour opening, but a step in the right direction of keeping up with the times and the needs of the consumer.
But the worrying part is captured in this quote from the Post Office’s Mike Brown: “With online sales continuing to grow, this initiative demonstrates our determination to develop products and services that help both retailers and their customers have greater choice and control over the delivery of items.”
Our own MD, Geoff Nicholson recently noted “The migration of shopping away from town centres is accelerating. It is going to the more efficient and convenient supermarkets, to out-of-town retailing and to the internet. Without action, the UK will follow the United States into suburbanisation with largely lifeless town centres”
Our SnapShop data shows us just how many retailers now have a transactional website – and we barely touch on those who are solely online (N Brown owns 33 of them!). So, for those with bricks and clicks, the multi-channel offer should enhance the high street by selling the in-store experience, as well as offering the convenience of online shopping. Retailers need to focus on why their customers should visit the store by making it an enjoyable event, not a chore. Then the Post Office can return to the dark ages!
|
|
|
|
2009 Review |
| |
Posted At: 04 January 2010 16:44 PM
Related Categories: Administrations, Future of Retailing, General, Retail, Retailers, Social Commentary |
| |
If you’re anything like me, you’ll be thoroughly confused as to how it can be January 2010 already. 2009 seems to have gone by in a blur of drama and change for the retail world, as the industry struggled to stay afloat in the difficult market conditions.
January was perhaps the most traumatic month, as the final Woolworths store closed and SnapShop record 20 – yes 20 – retailers falling into Administration!
On the flip side of that of course are new market entrants, which also saw a decline in 2009. Falling from 110 in 2008 to 79 between January and December 2009, they struggled to offset the losses felt on the high street.
Interestingly, some retailers who may have been destined to die managed to breathe new life into their lungs by persuading landlords to agree to a CVA. Focus, Blacks and Flannels all took advantage of this rarely-used opportunity.
Though many property developments slowed down as redundancies in the sector increased in abundance, Aberdeen’s Union Square, Bath’s SouthGate scheme and the St David’s 2 shopping centres in Cardiff all opened successfully and continue to trade well.
And finally, towards the end of the year, we though Christmas was doomed as a veil of white snow fell across the country, creating panic and pandemonium amongst the hundreds of men who had left their Christmas shopping till the last minute – again! John Lewis was on hand, however, to provide a bed for those stranded at their High Wycombe store when the blizzards hit – aaaw!
It may not have been the best year, and it may not yet turn out to be the worst, but those who got through it are likely hoping for some reprieve in 2010, so here's hopping they get it!
Also in 2009…
- Co-Op completed its £1.5bn acquisition of Somerfield
- Primark was hit with more controversy over questionable ethics at some of its suppliers
- JJB Sports and Chris Ronnie got into a right old spat, ending with his suspension and a subsequent investigation into his dismissal
- Iceland’s economic crisis threw Baugur into turmoil – it eventually put its stakes in House of Fraser, Hamleys, Aurum and Iceland into Administration in February
- HMV ventured into new things, opening a cinema above one store, Orange concessions on the high street and taking stakes in various music venues
- New Look relocated their head office from Dorset to London
- Jimmy Choo collaborated with H&M
- Best Buy ramped up its UK entrance plans
- And importantly, M&S won its £3.5m teacake tax battle, to determine that teacakes were in fact cake and not chocolate-covered biscuits as they had been taxed for
|
|
|
|
Waste Watchdog Encourages Renting Not Spending |
| |
Posted At: 05 November 2009 00:00 AM
Related Categories: Future of Retailing, Social Commentary |
| |
An article in todays Times quotes Governments waste watchdog (Wrap) has called for fifth of all household spending to be converted to renting by 2020. The 5 categories it cites as most suitable for conversion are; high end clothing, glass and tableware, tools and equip (house and garden), vehicles, and telephone (audio and recreational equipment).
I can see the attraction of some of this - 'oh dear can't cut the lawn this weekend as I forget to rent the lawn mower' - has a certain appeal. But clothes? As someone who still has the outfit I was wearing when I met my husband 16 years ago, I don't think so! It may pain me to be 2 sizes larger now but at least its actual proof I was once a size 8!
|
|
|
|
Borderline |
| |
Posted At: 09 October 2009 16:55 PM
Related Categories: Administrations, Future of Retailing, Retailers |
| |
I’m concerned about the UK arm of bookseller Borders.
When you read as much retail news as I do – in other words, lots – you start to pick things out. Sometimes its good things – the turnaround of New Look into a fashion behemoth, for example, but as is the nature of the UK press, you more often pick up on worrying signs...and Borders have started flashing on my radar.
Some Borders headlines from the past few months:
What do you see? Whatever it is, I doubt it’s good.
The first headline, in my opinion, is the most worrying; historically, retailers start turning to landlords in the weeks coming up to something desperate – like CVAs.
Focus entered into their CVA just 8 months after begging Landlords for monthly payment terms, while JJB had a similar history before theirs.
I wouldn’t want to be put in a similar financial category as either of those retailers, would you?
Borders seem to have exhausted most other attempts at a turnaround; no one wanted to buy the chain back in June, when a corporate finance house was appointed to assess sale options (a MBO in July doesn’t count); no one really cared about the proposed re-vamp (I say proposed because I’ve seen no evidence of it); and closing stores didn’t seem to help either.
Moreover, I question some expansion decisions the company have made in recent months. I’m not sure moving away from your core product line in times of troubles is a good idea – especially not when you’re extending to such things as online dating! You’re a book seller Borders! Stop trying to compete with those who can – and do! - do it better!
I don’t know, maybe its not desperation, maybe they just have a nasty case of Amazonitus, but whatever it is, it doesn’t seem particularly well informed to me, and I don’t think the signs are good at all. Dr SnapShop is predicting some very bad news on the cards for poor old Borders UK in the not so near future.
Tell us what you think; should Borders concentrate on rectifying their existing problems, or is moving out of the dwindling book market the only way they can survive? Comment below, by choosing “Comments” from the links!
|
|
|
|
Think Outside The Box |
| |
Posted At: 24 July 2009 14:41 PM
Related Categories: E-tailing, Future of Retailing |
| |
The Internet is beautiful. It’s most definitely the best thing since sliced bread, and it’s probably the most important creation in the history of time (apart from, like, electricity, but I’m not really sure if you actually “create” electric so…) - and I think that if it were a Harry Potter film, it would be The Goblet of Fire. Stick with me here.
Like the Goblet itself, ‘the Internet’ accepts all people over a certain age (cough cough) and, if they’re lucky, they get chosen to be catapulted towards wealth and stardom. How else can you become rich, famous and speak to a million people without even leaving your home?
Also, I’m pretty sure that [Amazon.com, Inc founder] Jeff Bezos felt exactly like Viktor Krum throwing his name into the Goblet when he published the first incarnation of the now multi-million pound company’s website; he wasn’t sure if he would make it, and certainly wasn’t aware of what would happen if he did. He did. And unlike Krum, he went right the way to the top of the pile with Amazon, who now holds 4.84% of the UK e-commerce market, according to hitwise.co.uk.
The term ‘market share’ in relation to the Internet doesn’t really reconcile with me to be honest. Being naïve and I suppose wishful, I like to think of the ‘net as a place where anything goes – where people are equal and where everyone has a chance to play...and those things in turn cannot exist in places where you can have such a thing as market share.
‘Market share’ jargon is for big industries – construction, real estate, manufacturing; industries that don’t exist in the online world, industries that are left well and truly to the big boys in the real world that the Internet lets us escape from. Unfortunately, some of these big boys are not as stupid as they look, for retail has infiltrated utopia.
Probably the biggest business in the world, retailing storms ahead of most when it comes to innovation. Think back to the old days of the cash-only, manual tills – then flash forward to today, only a few years, when contactless payment systems are almost a reality. It’s immense, and the possibilities have most certainly not been exhausted. Aside from the newer emerging m-tailing (retailing through mobile phones), e-tailing is fast becoming the saviour of the sector.
In the UK, eBay has approximately 22.31% of the retailing market share as at 27th June 09. That’s over 18% more than its closes rival, the aforementioned Amazon. What this means is that the power gathered and exerted by this giant player will almost certainly stifle any competitor that may like a slice of the pie for themselves - and that, in my book, makes them a monopoly.
According to the always reliable Wikipedia, the lowest…market share of a firm considered "dominant" in the EU...is...39.7%.
Ebay is only a few steps away from a figure like that, and what will happen if they get that big, that clever? Who will be there to object? At the moment, no one. There are – as far as I know – no regulating bodies for competition law on the Internet, and I don’t expect there will be until it is perhaps too late.
Let face it, people are sheep – they (we!) will go where everyone else goes, do what everyone else does. Fuelling the fire like this is only encouraging the limitation of choice – the thing that made the Internet so very, very fabulous.
I fear the online retailing market will essentially become as stifled and as boring as the current offering on high streets across the UK; we broke those by being biased, lets not do the same the second time around. Think. Outside. The box.
|
|
|
|
Rearranging the Deck Chairs on the Titanic |
| |
Posted At: 10 July 2009 16:12 PM
Related Categories: Finance & Investment Management, Future of Retailing, Retail Property, Retailers, Town & Shopping Centre Management |
| |
A quick Google for the term “Save Our Shops” throws up 220,000,000 results in 0.29 seconds. The top results come in from The Evening Standard – championing the capitals independent shops; BBC iPlayer – re-running Mary Portas’ “Save Our Shops” series; and, interestingly, the Portsmouth Today newspaper site – which is covering the issue locally. These are just the top of the pile, for the list of people championing British retail in a vain attempt to rejuvenate the high street is seemingly endless. But why did it come to this?
We all know there is a recession going on – whether it is affecting us or not – but the problems were there before they were compounded by the current financial crisis. The rise of the clone town was being rebelled against; rents were increasing and people were aborting in-town shopping efforts in favour of the easier out of town retail park experience; all issues closely intertwined and ones that we are now facing the consequences of. And so the golden era of “build it and they will come” is well and truly over. If only the planners had listened sooner…
It’s not really fair to blame developers though. Developers, after all, respond to economic indicators which are essentially fuelled by our actions.
An element of greed is at play on both parts, but we should take some responsibility instead of blaming all and sundry.
It wasn’t just the banks – of Iceland, America or the UK - or Labour, Gordon Brown or Tony Blair – that got greedy, it was everyone.
Our celebrity obsession began to influence the decisions and aspirations we made and had; we became a consumer culture, punching well above our weight, and it was unfortunate that there was no ‘Big Brother’ around to say no when we asked for “more sir”. We got given credit that we couldn’t repay; we bought things that we couldn’t afford; and we artificially inflated the growth of the economy to breaking point. Quite literally. So, as an investor, a bank, a developer, why wouldn’t you take advantage? If the statistics are telling you to build, you build, and as our gold plated wallets got larger, so did the developments. Some may say that regeneration and development proposals became so large that town centres could no longer accommodate them, so they were sent elsewhere…somewhere ‘out-of-town’ (sure, it was all political). The clue is in the name. At the end of the day. it’s vain to argue that the capacity is there to support two healthy shopping destinations in one place. In most case, it wasn’t, and the survival of the fittest came into play.
At present, 65% of comparison goods shopping is done in town centres, 45% elsewhere; in 10 years time, it is expected these figures will do a flip turn. Basically, some town centres will die. Will we be upset? For a while…but people don’t like town centres – why would they? They’re not practical, and they’re full of people who hate shopping, so what will we be losing? A sense of community? Not really – when was the last time you went shopping and everybody knew your name? Its sad, but its industrial evolution, and at present, it doesn’t look like it can be avoided.
But, we can try. There are some cool initiatives in place – some councils and regeneration schemes, for example, are planning to buy up empty shops and letting them at a reduced price; resident-owned shops are springing up in an effort to revitalise ‘community spirit’; and entrepreneurs like Red or Dead footwear founders Wayne and Geraldine Hemingway are thinking up new, cheaper ways to bring retailers back to town centres, with things like their rent-free pop-up shops.
All is not lost, but a long hard look at the future is most certainly needed; jumping up and down screaming “save our shops” is not enough. Bandwagons are all very well and good, until the wheels fall off...
|
|
|
|
This Town Is Nothing But A Ghost Town |
| |
Posted At: 23 June 2009 15:39 PM
Related Categories: Future of Retailing, Retailers |
| |
I was saddened by the news that Brinker International has closed all of their UK restaurants – officially confirmed at the end of last week – not least because this means the demise of one of my more recent favourite restaurants, Chilis.
Chilis was what I supposed can be described as a tex-mex style restaurant, offering the usual classics such as chilli cheese fries, burgers, quesadillas, and New York strip steaks.
I know you can get that stuff everywhere, but you know, sometimes you just find a place you like and roll with it. And besides, it was a bit more 50’s than, say, TGIs (I remember it having a black and white chequered bar floor, at least!) and I love all things 50’s.
I’m sure I’ll get over it, and it may even prompt me to visit some of the better, more classic American diners peppered across the UK. (The 50s American Diner, Swadlincote, Derbyshire; Nelsons Diner in Newbury, Berkshire; Woodies or JJBs, both in Brighton; or one of the Ed’s Easy Diners across London and the south.)
Hopefully, this sad news will also give some still-existing chains food for thought; if even an American giant like Brinker have given up the ghost, perhaps it’s become more important than ever to offer value for money, good service and a reason for your customers to return.
Interested in who you’re competing against? The advanced search features on SnapShop enable existing or prospective retailers to identify competitors and to keep up to date with the latest industry news. For more information about SnapShop, sign up for our FreeZone information pack, take a look at the demo or email one of the team.
|
|
|
|
We're Nice Guys Really |
| |
Posted At: 16 April 2009 14:30 PM
Related Categories: E-tailing, Future of Retailing |
| |
Social Networking. Some understand it, some don’t. Some use it, some don’t. Nevertheless, all retailers should keep it in their peripheral vision because it’s a brand new weapon competitors will use to beat you down! Ok, so that’s a bit extreme, but it is very important…
Where our parents passed on their news, ideas, reviews and experiences with friends, neighbours and loved ones by word of mouth, the next generation are turning to the web. If you don’t have a website by now, shame on you! If you do, are you using it to its full potential? ASOS, Waitrose, River Island and Mothercare, to name but a few, have taken the plunge and added interactive social forums to their websites to great effect, and countless others are using sites like Facebook, MySpace and Twitter to increase 3 things; their brand presence, their personableness and, as a result, revenues.
I can think of at least ten high profile retailers who have MySpace pages which work well for them – by that I mean their users are active, they update regularly and they have a benefit to the marketing of that retailer. TopShop are a great example of how to use MySpace – their profile is both ‘fresh’ and ‘funky’ (read: appeals to young ‘uns) and they use it to promote new lines, therefore quelling the risk of distracting users from what they ultimately want them to do – become interested in the products and shop shop shop!
Some people suggest an ‘adapt or fail’ philosophy should be adopted when it comes to ‘Web 2.0’, but I don’t think that’s right at all. As with any marketing – and that is effectively what retailers are using it for – the target demographic should be the deciding factor; are the ‘old homelies’ going to care that you have a Facebook page? Would a typical CC customer feel lost without a regular Tweets? Probably not.
All that really matters is that you understand it. It’s really not good enough to respond to the question “do you have a Bebo page” with a blank look anymore – but it is ok to weigh up the pros and cons, and to decide that perhaps no benefit would be had from investing time and effort in this ‘new fangled’ marketing fad.
If you do decide to take the plunge into the murky depths of social media marketing, however, then please, for the love of God, grasp it with both hands. Us consumers hate nothing more than a stale page with no new updates; that would likely do more harm, than good.
Over and out. Oh, and keep an eye on our Twitter ;)
|
|
|
|
Why not make them sit on their hands while you’re at it, stop them scoffing those deep fried Mars Bars! |
| |
Posted At: 06 March 2009 17:00 PM
Related Categories: Future of Retailing |
| |
|
2 things I’ve picked up in the news this week, one ridiculous, one great.
First, the great: Scotland and Northern Ireland phasing out prescription charges. Us here in England aren’t as lucky, but there is hope…although why we should have to pay to be medicated is beyond me. It raises a lot of money for the NHS, yes, I’ll give you that, and I suppose it stops hypochondriacs heading off to the doctor every time they have an itch on their arse, but you know, I thought I paid other compulsory taxes that go towards the NHS? You could actually argue that having to pay for any medication isn’t giving us a free National Heath Service at all, but that’s a whole different can of worms. What I really want to write about is ‘the ridiculous’. Namely, Scotland outlining plans to set a minimum price for alcohol.
It’s not a good time to be a landlord in Scotland is it. First the smoking ban (on the plus side, the staff are more healthy, but there is less of them, since half had to be let go after a sharp decline in sales) and now this? Dear oh dear.
I wasn’t actually aware that Scotland’s love affair with alcohol was that much of an issue. It’s a well known fact that Scots like a tipple – I was up in Edinburgh at the beginning of the month and there certainly are a lot of pubs – but we all do. So what’s the problem?
The Scots have the highest rate for cirrhosis of the liver in Europe, and one of the worst alcohol-related death rates. Rising murder and crime figures are also linked to drink. A study conducted for the Scottish Prison Service between 1979 and 2007 and published this year discovered that alcohol use had soared, with 79.6% of the young inmates surveyed in the final year claiming alcohol as a contributing factor in their offences, compared to 47.9% in 1979. Respondents reporting that they had been drunk every day before their incarceration rose to 40.1% of those surveyed, up from 7.3% in the same period.
Oops. It appears things are getting a bit desperate after all.
From what I gather, the proposals suggest that a £0.40p minimum charge per unit of alcohol is introduced across the board. I’m not very good at maths and I don’t really understand volumes of alcohol but if you go by that scary misogynistic anti-drinking advert that’s running on TV at the moment and assume a large glass of wine is 3 units of alcohol, that’s £1.20 before you’ve even started! Are they going to add this on top of current charges? That would make an average glass of wine somewhere in the region of £4! £4! You can buy a drinkable bottle for that! But then I suppose that will go up too.
While I’m not in support of such a ban, since I feel it represents indignant nannying by the state and I can’t possibly get behind something like that, I do think it might actually be good news for retailers, at least. Maybe if everyone had the same starting price, independents would have a better chance of competing with the supermarkets; they would still have bulk buying power, of course, but a legal minimum price would be a good start.
Basically, I agree with whoever I pilfered this quote from: "You can't change a culture by law", and I hope it really doesn’t come to that.
|
|
|
|
Is the name 'Brighthouse' ironic? |
| |
Posted At: 02 March 2009 15:00 PM
Related Categories: Future of Retailing, Retailers |
| |
Is the name ‘Brighthouse’ ironic? Because I can’t imagine your house will be feeling very bright once you’ve stocked up on useless crap and are hit with massive weekly bills that you can’t afford to pay…
I’ve had a bit of a bugbear with Brighthouse for a while now. I suppose its not just Brighthouse – many hire purchase stores operate the same lack of morals, sorry, I mean business models – but Brighthouse are the ones in the press. One of the ones doing well at the moment. One of the ones making a fast buck off the back of this whole banking disaster. And that’s why I mention them in particular.
Apparently formerly called Crazy Georges (presumable crazy old George came up with some crazy old payment terms and some more crazy people called George came and entered into these crazy agreements with crazy George and his crazy company), Brighthouse offer a way for people with poor credit to buy stuff. DING DONG, first alarm bell right there. I am aware that there are a number of reasons one might have a bad credit rating, but feel fairly confident in saying that mostly, its just cos they spent more money than they were able to pay back.
So that’s my first issue; it’s actually irresponsible lending. You don’t have to have a credit check, you just have to be able to prove your address and that you have an income and give them some references, who must promise to give them your new address should you move and *cough* fail to do so.
My second issue; the APR. Typically 29.9%, it’s actually not that bad, compared to the rates offered by similar ‘poor credit’ lenders, but it’s still not great, and there are hidden extras to pay…
Case in point: 1x Phillips 42'' Ambilight TV. Google Product Search brings it in at £868.70 (not even the cheapest price). Brighthouses cash price? £999.13.
According to the example on the website, over 156 weeks at £9.22 per week plus APR, the total ends up at a whopping £1438.32. But if you have the ‘optional’ service cover, which you pretty much have to have, because, er, they nearly always make you, the total looks a lot different…£2213.64. Isn’t that over 100% interest?!
These figures are on their website, so they’re not even being shy about the maths, yet people continue to go there and plough their money into products they just do not need. A comfortable sofa is nice, and a big shiny laptop really wouldn’t go amiss, agreed, but the products Brighthouse ‘sell’ are complete luxuries and actually, companies like this offering aspirational products to those who haven’t aspired to be able to afford them are just as responsible for our £x trillion worth of bad debt as the banks themselves.
Turnover at good old BH was up 18.7 for the quarter ended 28/12/2008. I can almost see their smug faces, grinning through the shiny storefront windows, reflected in the perfectly polished plasmas. Gets my goat it does, and there’s nothing that anyone can do about it.
|
|
|
|
Share & Share Alike. |
| |
Posted At: 19 December 2008 16:00 PM
Related Categories: E-tailing, Future of Retailing, Retail, Retail Suppliers |
| |
This year, why not give the gift of shares. Seriously. Stick with me here. It’s a hot tip and not at all boring.
Founded by former banker Helen Brown, Catwalk Genius is an e-tailer and crowd-funding site that enables commoners like you or I to purchase shares in designers for just a tenner. Each designer has 5,000 shares available, and you can buy as many as you like in exchange for discounts and dividends. There are currently just under 30 designers listed in the ‘Back a Designer’ section, 11 of which are available to fund, and most items in the collections are also available just to buy, should you so wish.
My favourites designers to date are Black Heart Bunny, DAD and Ostwald Helgason, because I consider the products attractive in that a) I would wear them, and b) I can see them selling…therefore giving me, as an investor, a return. Or, it would, if those particular designers were available to back…which brings me to some issues I have with the site:
-
It’s not overly obvious how you buy the shares. (You find a designer, check for the little pink love heart symbol which denotes that shares are available, click on the name and then click on their names again to go to their profile page where shares can be bought – took me a few attempts to discover this)
-
You can hardly call some of the collections ‘collections’. Tom Florian Atelier lists 1 bag on his product page, while Tatty Divine looks more like the former than the latter, listing plastic keychains and dress-up shades with exorbitant price tags. But hey, what do I know about fashion? Apparently “the work for sale on the site is edited and directed by [a] virtual panel of fashion industry experts”…so I guess these things are ‘cutting edge’, not ‘over priced’…
But, it is a fledgling site, so there are bound to be gremlins, and I hope that it does take off once all the kinks are ironed out. I love the idea of Catwalk Genius and genuinely think that it’s important for us to back home-grown talent, so well done to the people sticking their neck out there are creating new concepts like this one.
Some other examples of crowd-funding schemes that I liked include;
- ArtistShare - a service for musicians to fund their projects outside the normal recording industry
- BeerBankroll - a community managed brewing company
- greedyorneedy.com – focuses on fulfilling as many everyday wishes for as many everyday people as possible
- laraghfinance.com - raises funding for businesses so they can execute their business plans.
- nvohk - an eco-friendly clothing company
Maybe something like this would make a great Christmas gift for a friend or relative who you’ve ran out of ideas for; there are lots of these things to choose from and some ultimately very worthy causes out there to support.
|
|
|
|
Eat, Drink, And Be Merry! |
| |
Posted At: 05 December 2008 16:59 PM
Related Categories: Future of Retailing |
| |
In my local Wetherspoons on Wednesday, I noticed a new feature on the menu; Christmas Dinner. Do they offer that every year? I have to admit I spend a lot more time in my local ‘spoons now than I ever used to, as its set in the most awesome building ever (an old cinema) and its big enough so that you don’t have to sit too close to the other, er, ‘patrons’, but I’m sure I would have noticed this before now. I’ve been above the legal drinking age for at least 6 years, there’s no way I would have been that unobservant! And, they even had a veggi option of the meal! Which sounded nice! Some kind of seed/nut, if I remember rightly. Madness. I wonder how it will affect their footfall this year, amidst all this ‘the pub industry is in tatters!’ gossip…
Last year, JD Wetherspoon posted a LfL sales rise of 5.5% for the 12 weeks to January 21st, which isn’t bad considering it was the first Christmas since the smoking ban.
This year, they are relying on real ale, food and coffee to bolster sales, so maybe this Christmas dinner thing is new.
It would be nice to see pub sales increasing a bit more. I’ve no reason to support the industry other than the fact that it’s jolly nice to go to a pub, with a nice fire roaring, for a catch up with friends – especially at Christmas - and that it’s a tradition I believe is important to England. There are ‘traditional English pubs’ all across the world, so don’t let it become a thing of the past; its an ideology the rest of the world is jealous of, and lord knows we don’t have many of those left.
What do you think? Is the pub industry dead? Are supermarket undercutters to blame? Will you be eating out this Christmas? And will it be at a your local ‘spoons!
|
|
|
|
Caffè Americano, Caramel Macchiato, Espresso Ristretto. But Italy this is not. |
| |
Posted At: 17 October 2008 15:19 PM
Related Categories: Future of Retailing, Retail |
| |
I am a recent coffee convert. I’m not ashamed that I never used to like coffee...sometimes I still think it tastes like licking tree bark…but now, mostly, I’ll go with it.
I think it has something to do with growing up. When I was younger, I used to envy those people sitting at the back of Caffe Nero with their laptops, supping away at their soup-bowl-sized mugs of brown. And the thought of running for the tube with a green and white paper cup in my hand….well, that was the epitome of cool. Be that as it may, it didn’t change the fact that I just didn’t like the flavour of the stuff. So what changed? Well, I discovered posh coffee, that’s what.
Gone are the days of replying ‘just a tea please’ in a bonafide coffee shop (why the hell are you here if you’re not drinking coffee!? they think). Now I can say - with confidence – “a Grande Caramel Latte please”, hand over my £6.95 (joke!), and head to the back sofas to sit with the rest of the smugs (all puns intended – snobs, mugs…coffee mugs…get it? Bad, I know).
And so it is that Britain’s coffee shop boom takes hold. In my town alone (population just over 80k), we have 6 shops specialising in coffee, not including cafes, pubs etc. 6! List them – honestly – how many different high street coffee shop brands can you reel off the top of your head? You never thought about it before, did you? Nero, Costa, Starbucks, Revive, Ritazza, Primo, Republic, AMT; if you’re well travelled enough you’ll have been to them all without even realising that Britain’s coffee shop industry was buoyant enough to support them all at once. And support them well!
Britons drink 70 million cups of coffee daily, with retail sales rising from £632m in 2002 to £680m in 2005. The biggest growth has come from coffee shops which specialise in stronger espresso-based drinks, such as lattes and Americanos, and its thought that this sector can be worth around £1 billion a year. A small, daily purchase of a common, insignificant drink means nothing in the scheme of things, right? Wrong. It’s not just a cup of coffee now, is it?
|
|
|
|
Online Retailing; A Marvellous Evolution |
| |
Posted At: 02 October 2008 13:36 PM
Related Categories: E-tailing, Future of Retailing |
| |
|
I am a great fan of shopping online. As you may expect, I’ve been a dedicated surfer for a while now - a good decade or so, really (not long to some, but I’m only 23!) - so the fears and reservations harboured by many have been quelled within me by a long and successful relationship with the e-street, during which I’ve never experienced so much as a denied refund let alone identity fraud.
Yes, ‘plastic card’ fraud is up 14% since last year, but to put this into context, fraud sourced from the Internet went up 204% between 2001 and 2007, while transactions increased by 415%!
Take a look at that figure. 415%. Staggering, isn’t it. In 2001, the internet was…well, not much more than a massive pornography library, and the hangout of some uber geeks, if we’re honest about it. The word ‘iPod’ returned an “Image Proof of Deposit Document Processing System” website top of the list, and shopping options included Amazon (launched in 1995) and a supremely ugly CDNow website*. Now…well, now you can book a holiday to Australia, get a taxi to the airport and back, and arrange for your food shopping to be dropped at your door just hours after your return, without even leaving the house.
I’m gad that things have moved on and I’m clearly not the only one.
While high street sales figures are falling, online figures continue to rise; just today, Marks and Spencer posted an overall 1.6 per cent fall in UK sales for the second quarter of 2008, with online sales 34% up! And do I need to mention the word ‘ASOS’…? The golden child of cyber space, ASOS recently announced a 104% year on year increase in sales for the 6 months to the end of September 2008!
So, we’re all in love. Even men love Internet shopping (42% of men shop online every week compared to 35% of women) so while I’m not going to say the future looks bright, I will say that I expect to see online spending increase more and more as shoppers hunt for both a bargain and a way of saving more of their ever-dwindling time. Lets hope retailers are ready, eh…
*To see for yourself, visit Google as it was in 2001 here
|
|
|
|
Dedicated Follower Of Fashion |
| |
Posted At: 22 September 2008 16:52 PM
Related Categories: Future of Retailing, Retailers |
| |
Reuters USA posted an interesting article last week about the slow in sales at traditional teenwear brands American Eagle Outfitters and Abercrombie & Fitch. These two brands in particular have been dominant in the teen apparel market of the States for a number of years, with their results usually giving a good indication of how the market is performing.
But things seem to be a-changing! As always, I think music can say it best…in 1999, LFO liked girls who wore Abercrombie & Fitch…while in 2008, Scouting For Girls like a girl who looks like them girls in Vogue. I think this conveniently highlights my point.
The increased focus on fashion for teenagers, driven through TV (The Hills), film (Bratz: The Movie) and magazines (Teen Vogue) is causing a shift in the tastes of young shoppers from the casual jeans and t-shirt styles of Abercrombie to the leopard print and leather loving fashion seen at, say, H&M.
As always, what happens in America is echoed over here in Blighty (what is it they say, America sneezes and Britain gets a cold?). The once popular Bay Trading has posted continuously poor results over the last few years; former value favourite C&A has disappeared from the UK (although they maintain a strong presence overseas) and New Look have severely ramped up their catwalk rip-offs over the last ten years. The ultra-hip Topshop and aforementioned H&M, however, got them some famous designers and celebrity endorsements to push their fashion credentials and have reaped the benefits with record results becoming a norm.
Personally, it worries me. I used to be quite happy roaming the streets (not literally) in my raggedy jeans, and I now get the distinct impression that the girls I see in town on a Saturday wouldn’t be seen dead in stonewash denim (not until next season, anyway – hot tip for you there ladies!), let alone an elasticated waist (my first pair of jeans – green denim, no less – were elasticated)!
It does make me sad, because being a young teenager should be all worrying about GCSC grades and how much you hate your parents, not chastising yourself for forgetting skinny is out and bootcut is in...
|
|
|
|
BPI forces ISP's to target law breaking customers |
| |
Posted At: 07 July 2008 13:29 PM
Related Categories: E-tailing, Future of Retailing, General |
| |
It was announced in the press last week that Virgin Media has teamed up with the BPI (British Phonographic Industry) to target illegal file sharers on their network. Around 800 letters were sent to customers who the BPI had identified as participating in illegal download activities warning them that they, well, shouldn’t be.
The BPI wants all UK Internet Service Providers to advocate a ‘3 strikes and you’re out’ policy, however so far only Virgin Media has agreed. I find this curious, to be honest; from the reviews I’ve been hearing, I’m not sure Virgin Media can afford to give customers another reason to go elsewhere or to discourage people from taking up their reportedly mediocre service further! And, really, people will choose to go elsewhere unless the BPI get full co-operation - something that doesn’t appear to be happening (Carphone Warehouse have refused to sign up already and BT have stated they already have their own similar policy so are not interested in aligning themselves with BPI).
In my opinion, this is just another instance of the recording industry blaming everybody but themselves for the state of the music retail market.
For many, many years record companies had a monopoly on the way we accessed music – options ranged from ‘pay £13.99 for that CD’ to ‘pay £13.99 for that CD’ – and now there are other ways to listen to our favourite artists they don’t know what the hell to do. Point is, illegal file sharing isn’t a new phenomenon, it’s been around for a good ten years now and the BPI really should have worked with the recording industry to respond to developments in technology and the shift in the way people access music much, much sooner.
While I wholeheartedly agree that illegal downloading does affect the music industry, it is entirely unfair of the media to paint such a ridiculously bleak picture. In reality, revenue is still higher than it was 10 years ago; other, equally vulnerable, industries have continued to grow since the advent of file sharing; and like it or not, there are many other, more influential factors aside from p2p which may have contributed to the decrease in music sales (both Zavvi and HMV in the UK have recently posted healthy trading results due to increased spending in their DVD and gaming sectors, for example)
The BPI does, and will always, work for the recording industry. It is not interested in consumers or any other industries, and I truly believe that ISP’s are just the next victim the BPI have chosen to take the brunt for something which is essentially their fault. Loss of revenue from illegal filesharing will only be stopped by a lot of time and effort being invested by them, no one else, and so how on earth they have the cheek to launch a campaign like this right now - when they’ve openly admitted that their current mechanisms for selling music online are inadequate - is beyond me. Studies report a willingness amongst illegal p2p users to use legal services if they are improved, so why not offer a viable alternative to illegal downloading before having a childlike tantrum and blatantly forcing ISP’s into threatening their own customers. Step up, take responsibility and sort out your own problems, BPI, your failings created the problem, only you can remedy it!
8th July 2008 edit: For further reading about the propsed European Anti-Piracy laws mentioned above and more on what the opposition has been saying, see this interesting article by the BBC: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7492907.stm
|
|
|
|
The Future of Retailing - Growth Prospects of Local Shops |
| |
Posted At: 03 June 2008 13:12 PM
Related Categories: Future of Retailing |
| |
The days when every corner, certainly every village, had a shop, now seem only a distant memory; but a renaissance is coming.
Taking the independent local retailer a step further, the symbol groups had developed quite a stranglehold on the market, but the big boys are looking to get a piece of the action. With Sainsbury’s Local, Tesco Express, M&S Simply Food and now Waitrose, who are planning market town and convenience stores, is this evidence that the weekly shop is under threat and we’re shopping in bite size chunks?
So having originally deserted the corner shop for the glossy supermarket, what’s caused this renaissance? Well, no longer do shoppers have to make a choice between the convenient, but dog-eared and dubiously merchandised corner shop and the glossy, well-stocked supermarket. There is a mini-version of the supermarket on the corner or in the village. And offering competitive prices! They support our fast paced, live for the moment lifestyles that no longer allow for planning a whole week’s worth of meals. Unless we want also to buy a mobile phone for a fiver, some garden furniture or sort out our personal finances, a local shop will suffice!
|
|
|
|
|