Posts Tagged ‘General’

Last week Retail Insider attended the central London launch of the Midsommar range of three new cakes from Danish artisan bakery Ole & Steen to mark the Summer solstice and the beginning of the Great British Summer. Graham Hollinshead, Ole & Steen’s UK MD took us through the collection and also gave a few hints…

In an era characterised by a whirlwind of technological information digital literacy has never been more critical to the workforce. The growth of e-commerce and the shift towards omni-channel retail highlight the widespread transformation, but too many workers are on the wrong side of the digital divide. With advancing technology and consumer demand, digital transformation…

Micro-donations provider Pennies is helping its retail partners achieve growing volumes of donations at their points of sale from customers despite the cost-of-living crisis. During Q1 2023 volumes of donations increased 47% versus the same quarter in 2022 as large retailers confidently rolled-out the Pennies solution across their estates. In store the software sits on…

Khaki specialist Dockers led the revolution in dress-down Fridays in the late 1980’s and is now positioning itself as the daily workwear brand of choice among thirtysomethings who no longer wear a suit any day of the week. After distributing its casual wear manual to HR departments after the financial crisis of 1987 Levi’s-owned Dockers…

Here at Retail Insider we are always interested in the ways retailers get the most out of our seasonal celebrations – and none is more interesting than Valentine’s Day which has been twisted round more tenuous tie-ins than most other annual festivities. If you had told us yesterday that cook in the pot noodles could…

Welcome to a monthly column within our broader sustainability section which focuses on what fashion is doing to address the issues in its industry brought to you by Retail Insider with Clipper and Give Back Box Ask most people whether they might consider darning a hole in their favourite socks and the answer is probably a resounding no. Ask…

Retail Insider is pleased to launch a new publication the Retail Insider Digital Champions Report 2019(sponsored by Software AG) that highlights some of the retailers, and individuals within them, that have taken the decision to be proactive in this new digitally-led world of retail. A batch of retailers have been selected who we believe are…

When I took a job with a US financial institution it involved making regular phone calls to its European offices during what was often a very long day with little time for lunch breaks, as the Americans wanted their pound of flesh. One day I called the Geneva office at 1pm to be answered by…

Welcome to our brand new section of the site which is going to focus on the sustainable side of retail. It’s exciting times for anyone involved in this area as technology and retailers try to keep up with customers’ demand for all things ethical.  From palm oil to fur farms, fast fashion to one use…

Important life choices such as leaving the parental home, first house purchases, and marriage are being made are now being made significantly later in life, which is impacting spending patterns and retailers’ fortunes. The Office of National Statistics (ONS) is not usually known for its exciting press releases but there was a lot of pick…

Retail’s Big Show, also known as NRF, rolled into New York for what is the big annual retail technology jamboree, which this year brought together 37,000 people – including 16,000 retailers from 3,500 different companies. There is no disputing the fact that it is an extremely big show and that as such it arguably has…

Zoe Colegrave, head of online and marketing, Fortnum & Mason  1. What is the greatest opportunity for your business?
 While there are many, growth in Asia is a current focus. We’ve successfully launched three shop-in-shops in Shinsegae’s department stores in Seoul and our relationship with Lane Crawford goes from strength to strength. This year we’ve re-evaluated…

Airbnb is a phenomenal company that continues to disrupt the hotel industry. It’s a beast of a competitor with about five million listings on its website while 3.5 million people stayed at an Airbnb property on its best night in August this year. This has helped it gain a valuation of more than $30bn but…

Welcome to our brand new series of articles on those retailers who choose to concentrate only on one very specific product or expertise. In a world where so many are jacks of all trades – we meet the masters of one. Name: Bridgewood & Neitzert Location: Stoke Newington Church Street, Hackney. Specialism: The making and…

A host of senior retail executives gathered yesterday in central London at Sourced Market to celebrate the second Retail Insider ‘Transforming Retail Awards’ aimed at highlighting some of the most exciting innovations in the retail sector over the past year. The Awards attracted many entries of a very high standard giving the judges a particularly…

Regardless of whether it is driven by the increasingly time poor characteristic of most people or simply their growing impatience we are moving into the era of the ‘micro shopping’ trip that is defined as taking less than five minutes. The trend is being further fuelled by the emergence of in-store services linked to online…

Guy Hipwell, non-executive director and investor What is the greatest opportunity for your business? Diversity and the speed of technological change. As I work with businesses that range in value from revenues of sub $1 million to several billion dollars, I am very fortunate to be able to learn from experiences across a broad range…

Retail Insider recently announced the shortlist for its ‘Transforming Retail Awards’ and over the next few weeks we will be focusing on each of the six categories in the awards.  For each we will be providing a profile of each of the shortlisted entries. Delivery Innovation of the Year (sponsored by SAP)   1. Starship…

The retail industry has a great capacity to devise descriptive terms that should never see the light of day. Retailtainment and omni-channel are two such terms that really should have been consigned straight to the bin. A similar thought occurred to me when I came across a new term – grocerant. I guess you’ve worked…

The Screen on the Green is a cinema in North London that has a majestic history, having played host to some thought-provoking bands. It is also the location for the Future of Food & Beverage’ seminar hosted by Portland. Retail Insider has long been an advocate of the theory that the leisure and retail industries…

School can be a nightmare and one of the worst anybody can suffer is to be the last person to be picked when the selections are made for sporting teams. And let’s not even go near the potential embarrassment of being left on the sidelines of school dances/discos/proms. While being left out can be a…

One of the big trends among Millennials is the embracing of a mentality of renting goods rather than purchasing them outright – hence the growth in market leaders like Rent the Runway. The obvious assumption here is that these organisations will take sales away from traditional retailers. This is not entirely correct. Hence the counter-intuitive…

It seems that we might now be well and truly entering the era of the data and digital analyst in the retail industry. Recent research from OC&C Strategy Consultants found that 60,000 new digital and analytical roles will be urgently required by 2020 in the fashion industry alone. This is a big number and highlights…

The Name: Pro Direct The Place: Basically an online family business based in Devon with 350 staff and a big warehouse. But also boasting one stupendous shop in Carnaby Street, W1. The Story: Ah, websites and shops. How to integrate them. One of the great retail questions of the day. Is it? Yes. Often there…

Marks & Spencer has the most improved drinks website in August according to its progress up the table of the Top UK drinks sites tested during the month, according to analysis undertaken exclusively for Retail Insider by online specialist Sitemorse, as it climbs 13 places into eighth spot. The retailer achieved a score of 4.02…

Matt Truman, CEO, True Capital 1.What is the greatest opportunity for the retail businesses you are involved with? There is a fundamental lack of growth in the retail industry but we are investing in disruptive businesses. There is a step-change in the value proposition for customers and the incumbents cannot compete. Take ‘Tyres On The…

Brian McBride, chairman of Asos and Wiggle 1. What is the greatest opportunity for the retail businesses you are involved with? I think every e-commerce business has the same phenomenal opportunity as we can clearly see the percentage of the retail market served by online rising inexorably daily, weekly, and monthly. If we perform averagely…

The ‘Digital Retail Innovations Report 2016’ has launched with Amazon commandeering the top end of the table with three innovations listed in the top 10 places. To access the report please click on the link below: Digital-Innovations-Report-2016 This year’s report, sponsored by Webloyalty, includes the Top 50 innovations in the UK and Ireland so it…

Specialist whisky retailer The Whisky Shop has delivered the most improved performance in the table of the Top UK drinks websites in June, according to analysis undertaken exclusively for Retail Insider by online specialist Sitemorse, and shares the top spot with Budgens this month. It climbs four places with a score of 5.58 out of…

Who would have believed that the world’s best B&B is a modestly proportioned place in the small village of Masham in North Yorkshire. But it’s true and Millgate Bed & Breakfast sits proudly atop the pile. When reading the Times newspaper recently I came across an article about the guest house that was set up…

The table of the top online drinks retailers published each month by Retail Insider is to be re-launched in September as a ranking of the results from an ‘Online Mystery Shopper’ service provided by Sitemorse that will accurately reflect the experiences faced by customers online. It will be the ultimate authoritative measure of real customer…

Recent figures from the BRC predicting that the number of people employed in the retail sector will reduce from a present three million to nearer two million by 2025 paints a very worrying picture. In the same way that retailers are having to completely overhaul their IT infrastructures, they are also embarking on serious reinventions…

Watching Powa Technologies call in the administrators Deloitte last week was very sad but not necessarily that surprising to the market. In my opinion, even though its founder Dan Wagner had been claiming it was worth almost £2 billion a few months ago, his businesses suggest this was more about over-hyping than actual reality. The…

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) publicly shamed five brands in February for suppressing negative reviews and not providing a ‘complete picture (for consumers) when making buying decisions’. The CMA renewed its commitment to ensure transparency in user generated content (UGC) in January, and is on the prowl for firms misrepresenting themselves on third-party sites…

It’s that time of year again and with 45% of people stating they will do most of their Christmas shopping online, postal and carrier companies are going to have a bigger job than ever keeping up the pace to deliver gifts on time. But, across Europe, gift giving is far from identical and not just…

Time flies when you’re having fun. Can it really be 20 years since Pierre Omidyar created eBay and sold the very first item on what was then a rather unusual beast – an online marketplace. Since then there have been marketplaces opened up by all and sundry but none have gained the presence that eBay…

Retailers have made great strides in improving disabled access over the past few years but there is still much more that can be done. Thousands of businesses are losing out on revenue by not offering adequate disabled access. The former Minister for Disabled People claimed last year that UK high streets could be overlooking £212…

Michael Durbridge, director of omni-channel, B&Q 1. What is the greatest opportunity for your business? We’ve the right mix of a large number of stores and ambitions for digital growth. We kicked off our five-year digital plan two years ago and believe the home improvement market is big and made for digital. People research, they…

Consumers’ appetite for multichannel retail is posing many challenges to merchants and brand owners, but one thing they are all certain of is the increased power of digital channels. Over time they have also become aware of the need to not only improve how their product data is structured online – but also to better…

The Name: Sourced Market The Place: For now only in the capital with the flagship in St Pancras station but there are several others in the pipeline including a site near Victoria station for 2016 and leases on the table for two others. All other sites are under wraps. If I told you I’d have…

Retail Insider and K3 bring you a monthly column taking a look at some of the most pertinent and interesting topics of the day in the big wide world of retail. Downsizing on the up Downsizing is definitely the name of the game today as the move towards multi-channel continues to force retailers to re-assess…

‘Excerpts from the life of a head-hunter’ working in the leisure/hospitality/retail sectors. [Unfortunately such is the sensitivity of the head-hunting profession that it is rarely possible that the names of the Insiders’ clients can be divulged] 12:30pm Tuesday Feb 4 – Private equity for lunch? As described in my previous column, the owner of the innovative…

The term ‘wardrobing’ is a little like friendly fire – a lot more dangerous than it sounds. Neither is harmless and cuddly. We’ve written about this issue on Retail Insider before (link to article from Nov) and it is a problem that hits all retailers, but especially those selling via catalogue or online, as they…

Having launched with a great fanfare, the innovative website Morrisons Cellar has performed disappointingly during December, in the ranked table of the UK’s leading drinks retailing websites, which follows declines in previous months. When the dedicated Morrisons site for wine launched in June it placed in 15th spot in the table but it has since…

Welcome to a new monthly column the ‘Data Insider Insight’ double-bill that gives the Top 10 best selling books on the Amazon Market Place in the UK as well as a changing table of 10 ‘under-the-radar’ products – beginning with toys this month. Data supplied by Research Farm reveals that the top 10 books for…

The Name: Timpson The Place: Little tiny outlets all over the UK, providing those useful old-fashioned services like key cutting, cobbling, dry cleaning, house sign engraving. Around 1,020 in all but doing so well it should/could be 1,500 before you know it. The Story: Quick question – if you wanted your precious house door keys…

Eagle-eyed readers of Retail Insider might well have noticed that the site has undergone something of a change this week. Moving to a new platform will provide much greater flexibility in the way information is conveyed to the readership and will also offer the opportunity for greater interaction. It might also have been noticed that…

Cask ales from smaller producers are enjoying an ongoing strong period of growth, which has led to a dramatic increase in the number of brewers. More brewers and more beers The Good Beer Guide for 2013 showed the number of brewers in the UK had surpassed 1,000 representing a significant increase on the lows the…

The bankers have rather sullied the notion of the free market but there are still many examples where a light touch or zero intervention has its merits. This week I came across an example on Amazon where you have to love the market giant’s liberal stance. But also the ballsy approach taken by the publishers…

Buying goods on the internet was once purely about paying a lesser price than when purchasing the same items from a shop on the high street. Buying online = time for other things Plenty of research has since shown that this is no longer the case and the primary reason that consumers buy online is…

Brought to you by Retailinsider.com and PCMS The Name: Paper & Cup The Place: Shoreditch, London E2 (and soon also in Mile End, London E3) The Story: Mixing hospitality and charity is not easy. Well-meaning it may be but stylish it usually ain’t. Until now. Step forward Paper & Cup, recently opened by Diane Abbott…

Lovehoney Week continues with the big announcement that the online adult products company has launched a range of branded ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’ products. The success of the book has led to a collaboration between Lovehoney and the book’s author E L James to develop a range of merchandise that featured in the publication. The…

Ann Summers has been the acceptable face of the adult market for some time and has largely had the category all to itself. But not any more.   Fuelled by being featured on a Channel 4 documentary this year and the publication of the ’50 Shades of  Grey’ book, the online business Lovehoney has leapt…

The Person: Julia Stafford The Company: The Wine Pantry The Job Title: Director The Story: There she was just minding her own business, working in the City on the legal shipping side of the oil and gas industry, dealing with liability and pollution claims. And just when it all seems settled your honour she winds…

  It’s not too big a secret that for many retailers their best performing stores are based in travel locations – namely airports and train stations. It is no wonder therefore that spaces like the high-gothic St Pancras station and the glass palace that is Heathrow’s Terminal 5 are locations that retailers are taking more…

Brought to you by Retailinsider.com and K3 Retail Jo Molineux, head of multi-channel at Republic 1. What is the greatest opportunity for your business? Republic is a brand about fashion and music and therefore strategically we aim to be the most relevant and interesting youth brand to 15-25 year olds. The biggest opportunity is to understand…

Brought to you by Retailinsider.com and PCMS The Name: Notonthehighstreet.com (NOTHS) The Place: Headquartered in Richmond The Story: Venture capital firms line up to throw money at this business because buying hand made artisan crafts and gifts is so now. And that is exactly what Notonthehighstreet.com does. The stuff is unique, British,  often ethically produced,…

Brought to you by Retailinsider.com and Cookie Reports  Discount retailer Aldi is the new name at the head of the table of the Top 25 UK’s leading drinks retailing websites for July, which was a month of great change including a serious climb up the table by Naked Wines. Aldi pushed aside last month’s leader…

Brought to you by Retailinsider.com and PCMS The Name: Hubbub The Place: Islington but if they have their way all over the place in five year’s time The Story: Marisa Leaf  was all set  to save the world, working long and hard as a human rights lawyer. Trouble was the hours were so long and…

Brought to you by Retailinsider.com and K3 Retail Alan White, CEO of N. Brown Group 1. What is the greatest opportunity for your business? There is still a great opportunity to improve our online conversion by trading the web more effectively. 2. What is the biggest challenge to your business? Undoubtedly it is the lack…

Tesco’s highly anticipated launch of its marketplace last month may have been a quiet internal affair but it’s likely to set off a number of waves across the online retail market. The store’s decision to compete with the likes of Amazon and eBay may have come as a surprise to some but at eSellerPro, we…

Brought to you by Retailinsider.com and PCMS The Name: All About Food The Place: On the shelves of all the leading food retailers and one restaurant in Dartington, Devon.   The Story: OK, so it’s not strictly a retailer, or a manufacturer, or a distributor. It’s more of a licensee. But it’s a cracking idea…

Brought to you by Retailinsider.com and Cookie Reports The upper echelon of the UK’s drinks retail websites are performing more strongly in May than last month, according to the monthly Top 25 UK websites for drinks retailers, produced exclusively by website testing specialist Sitemorse. All the top five this month scored more highly than the…

My grandparents lived in a village on the outskirts of Doncaster called Carcroft, which is where the 40-plus year-old DFS was founded and is still based. Made in Doncaster. I can recall a school trip to the factory where its founder Lord Kirkham (it was just Graham in those days) proudly explained how the sofas…

Fast-forward five years from now and the question being asked about pure play retailers will be how exactly do they survive without taking advantage of trading across multiple channels including physical stores? Having no stores will be seen as a mistake. Shoppers will find it rather strange that they can only buy from them online…

The Person: Nick Wheeler The Company: Charles Tyrwhitt The Job Title: Founder and Owner Some people start making money seriously early don’t they?Certainly do. The young Wheeler was a mere student in arms when he set up shirt maker and clothing retailer Charles Tyrwhitt in 1986. In fact he had no choice but to found…

To any overseas visitors coming to these shores for the Olympic Games the organisers of the event would have you believe that the main beers produced in the UK are Heineken and its sister brands John Smith’s and Strongbow. London + Olympics = Heineken! They’d also have you believe that we don’t have anything more…

Brought to you by Retailinsider.com and Cookie Reports Welcome to the inaugural Retailinsider.com monthly ‘Drinks Retail Website Index’ that ranks the Top 25 UK websites for drinks retailers, which has been produced exclusively by website testing specialist Sitemorse. The objective is to give a cross-section of the category with the constituents comprising large grocers, pure-play…

Brought to you by Retailinsider.com and PCMS The Name: IKEAThe Place: Too many countries to mention – but about 325 stores in around 35 countries.The Story: It starts with another youngster in a shed – Ingvar Kamprad, stuck in the depths of southern Sweden with a helpful aunt. In 1930-something she helps him buy 100…

Brought to you by Retailinsider.com and K3 Retail Mark Lewis, chief executive of CollectPlus 1. What is the greatest opportunity for your business? The rapid rise of Click and Collect services presents the biggest opportunity for our business. With over half of online consumers already using the service, this take-up indicates that customers are rejecting…