News English — retail

Retail is detail... and customer service.  Long gone are the days when you could instruct your store staff to decline any returns or refunds for whatever reason. However, in an online world the ability of customers who feel they have been wronged to broadcast their grievance has empowered customers to a level which legacy retailers do not appear well prepared for. Following the [again] lacklustre results from Arcadia Group we took it upon us to go through their finances to see if there is anything alluding to why the company is not doing well and gaining online traction where Asos...

We visited Arket on Long Acre in Lodnon's Covent Garden earlier this week. The store is located on three floors and is very plain in its layout. It reminds us of a Muji store, but much larger and with less products. Arket is, of course, also primarily a clothing brand. At the back, next to the Floral Street entrance, this Arket store also host an Arket-branded cafe serving a number of cakes (however, the Arket cafe has stiff competition from the Swedish-owned cafe 'Bageriet' on Rose Street - highly recommended!) which we have never seen in Sweden before. Our visit...

Definitely worth visiting!  Retail Without Borders 2018 #RWB18 is one of the better conferences for its networking opportunities. It is not one of the largest conferences, neither the best quality speakers (most often co-sponsors), but if you are looking to talking and networking with your peers this is definitely worth a visit. The fact the conference is held in the QE2 centre just opposite Houses of Parliament add is a bonus and very easy access. The event is organised by We Are Pentagon The main theatre at #RWB18, ex-Alibaba speker Al Gerrie, CEO at ZigZag Global    

On our recent visit to NRF2018 we saw the new piece of EPOS hardware Square payments had just recently released and at TDC18 we noticed Hermes new hardware for its partner stores. In addition to this we also read about Just-Eat's development of a hardware platform for its partner restaurants. All this is pointing to increased competition for retailer's and hospitality businesses IT estate - but what does it really mean? Will EPOS and ERP-light suppliers experience a declining market? To what extent is hardware and EPOS used as a way to 'tie in' customers and partners? Our take on...

There are so many questions about the retailer, its presumed staged divestment of BHS, its [lack of] response on the six or seven senior management departures (in 2017 alone!!), its reluctance to invest properly, its China rollout, why it continues making a loss in the US, what is happening in Ireland, and has the owner finally turned into a liability for the company... among many many others. Taveta Investments Ltd (ultimate parent company) and its subsidiaries are providing opaque P&L accounts making any deep analysis tricky. However, top line revenues are always telling of what is happening under the surface....