News English — retail

Omni-channel retailing has been one of the most talked about concepts in retailing for a while. The idea is to connect brands & products with customers across all available touch points. First came multi-channel, the concept to sell online as well as on the high-street. This was replaced with omni-channel when bloggers and social media personalities grew their influence over customers. Connecting the multi-channel with all the various online touch points became a hot topic. How do retailers bridge the channels? Putting it simply, there is no real connection between physical stores and online apart from a number of stores...

The most boring store interior designs in London this Christmas We visited Oxford Street, Carnaby Street, and Regent Street on November 10th to view store preparations for Christmas. Our general observations: Retailers are desperately trying to find ways to connect with the omnichannel audience. There are a number of ways stores seek to create interaction with customers through social media, online shopping and high street stores, with the main option being in-store signage displaying Snapchat and/or Twitter handles. Product densities vary hugely between stores. Music volumes vary from nothing to the very loud (often depending on the target demographic). The...

Primark has reported about £0.7bn in net profits on revenues of close to £6bn in its 2016 full year report. The company has single-mindedly focused on building its store portfolio and remains one of the last high-street retailers in the UK without a transactional e-commerce website. (Source: Company Accounts) Primark's first Oxford Street store (Marble Arch end) spread over 70,000 sqft opened in April 2007 and generated about £200m in revenues to June 2008. Average sales were reported at an average of £2.5m-£3m (The Independent, June 2008) per week. We visited the four-storey 82,400 sqft shop at the Tottenham Court...

Images from pre-Christmas store fronts on Oxford Street. Taken Oct 13, 2016. Dr Martens Shopfront Oxford Street. Forever21 (on sale) Oxford Street. Forever21, Store Interior Detail, Oxford Street. H&M and Forever21 - happy neighbours? David Beckham for H&M, Oxford Street store front. Detail of David Beckham for H&M, Oxford Street. Modern Essentials by David Beckham, David Beckham & Kevin Hart video - The Road Trip (shoppable?).   Video: The Road Trip with David Beckham and Kevin Hart French Connection's window display looks dull compared to H&M with a similar set-up. Located next to Selfridges this is a high traffic location...

In September 2015 we took the decision to build a library of Fashion Technology specific sector reports. Throughout the 12 months since we started we have been very impressed with the ecosystem of Fashion related technology, and in particular its global spread. Although the US continues to dominate funding there are a lot of bootstrapping going on and some pretty awesome ideas being born and brought to market from other parts of the world. Our library is not building as fast as we would have liked, but this is about to change and our aim is to produce one new...