The Voice Of Global Retail

The lifecycle of brands
In a world where life moves faster than ever; where attention spans shorten and long-held loyalties to companies and brands are being replaced by promiscuity, is it no longer possible to create a branded business than will still be with us in generations? Are the days long gone where fantastic heritage brands [...]

With the world’s political, financial, business and special interest group leaders gathering in Davos for the World Economic Forum this week, it is interesting to read the many statements coming out of the Swiss mountain resort. Many newspapers have been asking attendees for their views on the key priorities and there is remarkable consistency around [...]

Incredibly there are just two weeks to go now until this year’s World Retail Congress. But what is really striking is not the speed with which time has gone by but it is the sheer pace of change and events since the Congress last met. When this year’s programme was first being researched and constructed, [...]

There was a time when the months of July and August would be pretty uneventful, when the pace of life would slow just a little as the summer months settled in over the northern hemisphere. But no more. I can’t recall a time on the economic, political and business fronts that have been so frenetic. [...]

Over the last couple of weeks I have been spending some time as part of the judging teams for the second annual Global Fashion Awards run by fashion and consumer trend analysts WGSN. One of the categories covers Best E-tailer and has assembled a shortlist of some outstanding online retailers.
A number of things have struck [...]

The last few weeks in UK retailing have been amongst the worst experienced for quite some time. Major retail names have finally succumbed to the economic climate and changing consumer demand with businesses disappearing or announcing major store closures. The number of retail jobs lost just in these last few weeks are now running into [...]

Ask any retailer which retail business they admire the most or believe has set the pace for others to follow and I would guarantee that the name Apple would come up pretty quickly. So how many retailers instructing executive search teams to find a new CEO will have said: “what we really want is someone [...]

It has become fashionable to refer to the low growth economic future facing many countries as “the new norm”. But having just returned from the US where I spoke with a number of retailers and continued conversations with other retailers back in Europe, it has struck me that the real new norm is “change”. The [...]

One of the issues identified by our Advisory Board as well as many others across the retail industry as worthy of debate at this year’s Congress is the increasing tension around retail real estate portfolios. Just how many stores does a forward-thinking retail business need when an increasing percentage of their business is being driven [...]

Earlier this week I chaired a fascinating discussion amongst global sourcing and supply chain directors. These are the people who are at the very cutting edge of globalised retailing. High on their agenda was the continuing increase in prices - both of products and of the cost of physically moving them around the world. The [...]