Viewpoint – Keep changing the proposition to stay relevant

Pret A Manger is a pretty successful business as evidenced by its recent results that showed it enjoying strong sales growth of 16% for 2014 – it has been in the double-digits annually for some years. But like any decent business the company continues to challenge itself in order that it does not go stale…

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Stores no longer a millstone, they’re the future

On my travels recently to a conference in The Netherlands the founder and CEO of a major electrical retailer BAS Group suggested merchants without physical stores do not have a future. The inference being that the pure-plays out there need to get themselves a bricks and mortar presence – and quickly. If he is right…

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Innovative Retailer – Cannibal NYC

The Name: Cannibal NYC The Place: New York City The Story: This is the tale of how you can buy a unit with one purpose in mind only to find it hijacked by the customer who has quite different ideas about what they want you to do with it. Cannibal is a B&B with a…

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Retail Insider Breakfast – Bertrand Bodson, chief digital officer at Home Retail Group + Gillian Drakeford, country manager for UK & Ireland at IKEA

Retail Insider held its latest Breakfast Event this week with Gillian Drakeford, country manager for UK & Ireland at IKEA, and Bertrand Bodson, chief digital officer at Home Retail Group, who discussed the future of the physical store. Senior executives from John Lewis, The White Stuff, TM Lewin, The Entertainer, Cook and Farfetch were among…

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Kingfisher boss doing it her way – but is it right

  All new bosses look to make their mark early in their tenures at the top but it is questionable whether some of their more radical moves are always relevant. Are they sometimes merely making changes for changes sake. The decision by new Kingfisher CEO Véronique Laury to rejig her top team’s responsibilities and restructure…

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Movers & Shakers Q&A – Alison Lancaster, interim marketing director, McArthurGlen Group

  Alison Lancaster, interim marketing director, McArthurGlen Group 1. What is the greatest opportunity for retail businesses? To digitally transform their businesses in order to better serve customers anytime, anywhere, anyhow. Digital transformation will be a brand differentiator and essential ‘enabler’ for retailers (new and old) to compete and win on a global scale. This…

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Viewpoint – Dragging furniture into the digital era

  Furniture is bulky, it’s not a particularly frequent purchase, and arguably such high value items require a bit of touching-and-feeling before customers commit to making a purchase.   This suggests the category is not particularly well suited to online transactions. Not so it seems as there has certainly been some action in this area…

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Innovative Retailer – Audi City

  The Name: Audi The Place: Very selected showrooms: Piccadilly in London and also Beijing and Berlin. The Story: So the thing with selling cars is this – they’re big and you can’t get many into a small showroom and the rents on a large city showroom would be astronomical. And then, oh dear, you…

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