M&S released its full-year results this morning. But before we go into the figures. Let’s look back. In the financial year 1997/98, M&S had a clothing market share approaching 14%, pre-tax profits of almost £1.2bn on sales on £8.24bn and was the UK’s most profitable retailer. The company’s decline started in the following financial year…
Another report about UK shopper footfall came out yesterday but I didn’t report on it because it was yet more of the same – store traffic down, not many people interested in spring clothes etc etc. But yet another set of figures is out today and I’m reporting this one because it really highlights just…
Modern retail is all about omnichannel but finding the sweet spot where the website helps drive traffic into stores and where the stores help drive shoppers online (all while increasing, rather than cannibalising, sales) is hard. Now Guess is planning a tech assault designed to get those clickers through its physical store doors, in the…
They say that before you can solve a problem, you have to admit you have one. So it is for Gap Inc. Like an unreformed addict, it’s been working on its turnaround for years but it has never really come out and admitted that the problem is fundamental. Until now. Yesterday, on reporting yet another…
If you didn’t trust all the data that’s come out so far suggesting April was well, a crappy month for UK fashion retail… think again. It was really was as bad as everyone thinks. The latest proof today comes from the British Retail Consortium and KPMG’s monthly sales monitor. In a month when overall sales were…
It’s brutal out there. Retail sales weren’t exactly great last year and this year they’ve been… well, disappointing would be an understatement. So was April any better? Not according to the latest BDO high street sales tracker.
US department stores have a tough time ahead – at least that’s according to a new report. They need to close 20% of all anchor space in US malls if they want to return to the productivity levels they had a decade ago, Green Street Advisors claims. The research, reported in The Wall Street Journal,…
pepper.com revealed some interesting data this week about the internet habits of people in the UK, or at least about the shopping sites they visit and how they get there. There were some no-brainers in there of course (Amazon and eBay are the most popular e-tail sites, Google is top for search and mobile use…
We learnt last week that Chinese shoppers pulled back on their relentless spending frenzy abroad last month. And today we’ve found out a lot more about why and just what they’re doing. Global Blue’s latest in-depth analysis of tax-free spending, Globe Shopper Report: China Edition, shows that something happened in March to make Chinese shoppers apply…
The spring season may not have started that well but Mother’s Day on May 8 in the US should bring some relief if a new survey is to be believed. The annual Brand Keys Mother’s Day Survey shows that around 80% of respondents plan to but clothing as gifts. Around 59% will buy jewellery and…
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