Latest / The Retail Podcast / Why Retail Is Splitting in Two | Ted Baker, AI Commerce, Anthropologie & Coal Drops Yard

Transcript

Why Retail Is Splitting in Two | Ted Baker, AI Commerce, Anthropologie & Coal Drops Yard · The Retail Podcast

• 0:01
  It's Friday 8th of May Welcome to five things Friday.
• 0:16
  Hello. Hi, how?
• 0:19
  Are you doing in HD colour? I have to say looking I'm.
• 0:24
  Good. How are you?
• 0:25
  Very happy. It's Friday.
• 0:30
  I'm good. It's it's nice not to be
• 0:32
  travelling. I'm going to be, I think not
• 0:36
  next week. Oh, it's my son's communion next
• 0:38
  week. So the family are getting
• 0:39
  together, which will be fun because my grandpa, his
• 0:42
  grandparents haven't been here. So anyway, it was like I was my,
• 0:47
  my oldest. I was winding him up saying, oh,
• 0:49
  like my dad, his mum's mum will pick him up from school.
• 0:54
  Don't send them to me. Oh, that sounds community.
• 0:58
  He's he's 16. Well these for you anyway.
• 1:02
  So next week we've got a full house.
• 1:04
  Maybe I'll bring everyone in with like 10 people.
• 1:06
  Please do the more the Maria. Yeah, the more the Maria.
• 1:10
  Anyway, Simone, this is five things.
• 1:11
  Friday, 15 minutes at the top, 5:00-ish.
• 1:14
  And some weeks is hard, and this is definitely a hard week.
• 1:17
  News articles For those who don't know who you are, who are
• 1:20
  you and what do you do? Hello I am the Co founder and
• 1:23
  CEO of a business called need it for tonight.
• 1:25
  Also notice NIFT, we've built the infrastructure that powers
• 1:28
  instant delivery for retail. One with a check out plug in and
• 1:32
  the other with an app which is kind of like Deliveroo but the
• 1:35
  fashion. Fabulous.
• 1:37
  So one thing actually I didn't tell you when we were doing the
• 1:39
  stories before. I've got another story.
• 1:41
  So I'm going to go 1st. And this was a headline that
• 1:45
  caught my eye in The Times Big headline UK for the first time
• 1:50
  in since 1940 something floor square footage is shrinking.
• 1:57
  And in 2025 it was down by 800, 1000 square feet.
• 2:02
  This is the first time in, you know, I have many years working
• 2:07
  out, 60 years or so. But to me, and I've created this
• 2:10
  little PowerPoint, it'll be a LinkedIn post later.
• 2:13
  That is not the story. The story is not that square
• 2:16
  footage is shrinking, is that retail is polarising.
• 2:20
  You'll get the value and the premium and then luxury point 1%
• 2:25
  because I think today's Zara and Mango and M&S all of these sort
• 2:29
  of value everyday pricing, they're all shifting up.
• 2:32
  They're all wanting to move into a premium space, not necessarily
• 2:35
  luxury, but a full and you see that happening again and again
• 2:40
  and again. And then on the value side,
• 2:43
  ALDI, Little and BM are are, you know, are growing like like
• 2:48
  horses. Although I, I did read that
• 2:50
  Tesco's and Asda's and Sainsbury's were putting in
• 2:55
  something to the competitions authority because I didn't know
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  this when they first started ALDI and Little, they used to
• 3:01
  get some concession on how quickly all the land that they
• 3:04
  can grow on, which the guys are saying, well, hang on a minute.
• 3:07
  Yeah, 20 years ago when they came from the UK, give them all
• 3:10
  the concessions they want. We what happened?
• 3:12
  But now there are competitors don't give them an unfair
• 3:15
  advantage on square footage. So headlines are still trying to
• 3:20
  tell us retail. Do you know, it's all going?
• 3:23
  But I just feel that that's people we don't understand that
• 3:25
  the industry is polarising. Online is holding steady and
• 3:29
  people say due to Agentic it will grow, but Agentic will be
• 3:33
  another, you know, say we'll have online and then we'll have
• 3:35
  agentic. And the research is already
• 3:37
  saying that people, if they had a choice, would give their
• 3:39
  weekly shot to an agent, right? And you do it.
• 3:42
  I've got £100 buy me everything that's healthy and, and
• 3:46
  everything. So people are the research is
• 3:48
  already going that way. So I just wanted to leave that
• 3:51
  and we'll go on to you with the next one unless you want to make
• 3:54
  a comment. Now I am now it's, it's really
• 3:57
  interesting. It's, I think I can definitely
• 3:59
  see the world going that way. I mean already, whilst it is
• 4:03
  different, I myself am using AI to do, to plan my meals, to plan
• 4:09
  my, I have a whole health coach on AI.
• 4:11
  It's really sad. It plans my meals.
• 4:15
  And so you can, you can absolutely see, yeah, the
• 4:19
  world's going this way. It's going to be a very
• 4:21
  interesting shift. So I think your first story is
• 4:23
  about a brand that we have talked about previously.
• 4:26
  We have, we have. And it's really nice actually,
• 4:30
  because the last time we spoke about them, I think we were
• 4:32
  talking about the struggles. But I opened my LinkedIn this
• 4:35
  morning and all I kept and seen was Ted Baker and revival and,
• 4:40
  or maybe more accurately, it's transformation.
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  So Ted Baker has returned to the High Street, and it's happening
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  through Selfridges with this new shopwind shop.
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  Manchester. Yeah, not London, the Trafford
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  one. And it's this kind of new shop
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  in shop concept designed to feel a lot more elevated and more
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  experiential. It feels like a little boutique,
• 5:01
  actually, when when you look at it.
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  And the goal, apparently I then started to read is apparently is
• 5:06
  creating the feeling of walking into the wardrobe of the
• 5:10
  ultimate Ted woman. But what's interesting is, you
• 5:14
  know, I was I was thinking thinking about it and I think
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  it's not really just a retail comeback story as such.
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  I do think it's a reminder that a lot of the time brands do
• 5:23
  rarely disappear completely anymore.
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  They reposition. We've just seen it again with
• 5:27
  class accessories, which we talked about last week.
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  They just again with Russell and Bromley, I think they don't
• 5:34
  necessarily disappear. They're just that they're re
• 5:36
  entering culture differently. But yeah, as.
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  More women's wear, right? Yeah, exactly.
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  And I'd like to think then can't think he's behind.
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  And is it authentic Brands group?
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  Yeah, Authentic Brands group. I'd like to think with them
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  behind, Ted Baker is going to feel less like nostalgia because
• 5:54
  that's what we've spoken about before.
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  It is a brand that feels like nostalgia that you wouldn't
• 5:58
  necessarily shop at anymore. But it's like, oh, you know,
• 6:01
  that's nice when we used to shop there in 2007.
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  But hopefully it's being positioned in Selfridges is
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  going to change that. And it's the perfect destination
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  for a brand to feel relevant again.
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  It's cool. It's full of just such amazing
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  brands. I think one thing I'd like to
• 6:17
  see from Ted Baker is and what I think would really help the the
• 6:21
  growth and being able to tap back into that fun, cool
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  consumer is, is collapse. You know, I've spoken before
• 6:28
  about how Barber really, really, you know, heritage brand really
• 6:32
  masters this by collabing with brands like Farm Real and I'd
• 6:36
  love to see the same with Ted Baker.
• 6:38
  Yeah, I think the quick one minute, Ted Baker was founded in
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  Glasgow, which I didn't know, not that, yeah, me too, because
• 6:46
  it says Dead Baker London, but they were originally founded in
• 6:48
  Glasgow and operates more than 500 stores.
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  So and they are they in terms of what we were talking about, they
• 6:55
  are premium, they're not, they're not.
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  They were never cheap right now. So I think, well, it's
• 7:00
  interesting and the reason I know that I was reading the
• 7:03
  Daily Record because they were talking about this news story.
• 7:07
  But anyone Anyway, moving on, staying with you.
• 7:11
  Yes, another one I kept seeing pop up not on LinkedIn but on my
• 7:16
  Instagram is that Anthropology are opening a brand new store in
• 7:20
  Cold Rocks yard in King's Cross, which for me is it's the perfect
• 7:25
  match. They're doing a week long pop
• 7:27
  up, not pop up. Sorry.
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  Launch when they've got DJ sets, events, personalization, again,
• 7:35
  retailers experience. I think the positioning is
• 7:38
  really smart. I really love Coal Drops yard
• 7:41
  and because it really attracts a completely different kind of of
• 7:45
  shopper. People don't really rush through
• 7:47
  there. You know, they wander, they
• 7:49
  discover brands, they spend time.
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  It feels much more lifestyle LED than traditional High Street
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  when you look at the brands and it attracts from tourists to
• 7:59
  absolutely no calls. There it is, right?
• 8:03
  You've got the front of it. Cinema screen down by the canal.
• 8:07
  Exactly that. I it's a really cool area and
• 8:10
  they're clearly focused on brands with originality and
• 8:13
  quality and more long term appeal rather than just filling
• 8:16
  units. It feels very curated.
• 8:19
  And then just one thing to mention.
• 8:20
  So it's cold drops yard are doing very well.
• 8:22
  I was reading in there 20% year on year growth, which is
• 8:26
  obviously incredible with the retail climate.
• 8:29
  So yeah, if you're free, go down to cold.
• 8:33
  Yeah, I mean, look, listen, first time I I spoke at an event
• 8:37
  in the Samson Experience Centre that's there at the end of Cold
• 8:42
  Drops Yard. And I remember going to the
• 8:44
  hairdressers there getting my and it was really cool because I
• 8:46
  felt like, man, I'm so cool getting my hair, in fact.
• 8:50
  And he was like, we've got this special sweat.
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  So do you want it? How are they?
• 8:53
  Yeah, like do anything. I'll buy it.
• 8:56
  And I also came out thinking, you know, I'm a bit younger in
• 9:00
  here, but it's got that certain vibe where there's eaters,
• 9:03
  there's ours, there's food, there's events.
• 9:06
  And that's the other thing they do put on a lot of events and
• 9:09
  collaboration. I think that's part of their
• 9:12
  secret to their success especially like the water area
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  is I remember going there with my kids and you know then
• 9:19
  running GE was a horrendous because he went through the
• 9:21
  fountain got wet and then I'm actually going to not Ted Baker
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  Oregon Reese that's in King's Cross.
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  Yeah trying to get you an outfit because he was soaked all day
• 9:31
  anyway it's really cool. Love it coming on to me this
• 9:34
  again it's not self promotion. It was a it's on the retail news
• 9:37
  website. I just it's a story that I think
• 9:39
  is interesting. Identic commerce is going keeps
• 9:42
  going from strength to strength. Google announced universal
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  commerce protocol and a whole lunch and you can see the brands
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  there. So is this, is this going to be
• 9:52
  the protocol that drives the future of online shopping?
• 9:56
  Right. And well, they launched it.
• 9:58
  Amazon wasn't part of it. And Amazon has launched Alexa
• 10:01
  Plus and that whole authentic has been a walled garden.
• 10:05
  They don't want anyone coming into Amazon.
• 10:07
  They block perplexity that was coming in and scraping prices
• 10:11
  and everything. But and how they've gone into
• 10:13
  this. Does this mean Amazon will pivot
• 10:16
  away from, you know, my marketplace?
• 10:18
  Stay away or are they, you know, are they bowing to knowing what
• 10:22
  the future of commerce is and given the amount of people that
• 10:27
  are on here that this is the the future platform or the future
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  protocol. And currently, what this means
• 10:33
  if you're not a tech person is, or you check out, you'll
• 10:36
  probably get some form of similar experience and you know,
• 10:39
  whether you're Shopify or you're whoever else, you'll, you'll be
• 10:45
  going to be using the same technology language in the
• 10:48
  agent. So I, I, I think it's one to
• 10:51
  watch. It's, it's interesting.
• 10:53
  And you were kind enough to give me this, which is really
• 10:56
  interesting. This story is in time out.
• 10:59
  So if you want to full read the full story, go to time out.
• 11:02
  They've got this full story. Pray have launched the drive
• 11:05
  through and it's not April first because I hear this like, I
• 11:08
  can't remember someone saying, Oh, they've built Dennis.
• 11:09
  I'm reading it was April 1st. But this, I mean, it takes it in
• 11:13
  a, in a new and interesting direction.
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  And for me, Pray has always been willing to experiment.
• 11:20
  You know, they had their coffee subscription service, which
• 11:24
  well, I thought was a good idea. But if you like their coffee.
• 11:27
  But anyway, they've gone into drive through.
• 11:30
  It's interesting whether or not they they this will grow.
• 11:34
  This is in Warrington you were telling me, but every single
• 11:40
  airport almost and it feels like this whole can honestly there
• 11:43
  there can be it's anyway, but they're expanding into these new
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  formats, which is 1 to watch and believe it or not that brings us
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  to our five things Friday in record time of I can't see. 40
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  minutes. Yeah, no edit now because it
• 12:01
  took me two minutes to find the audio. 12 minutes.
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  Yeah, anyway, I don't you got a meeting, Simone, Thank you so
• 12:10
  much. Thank.
• 12:11
  You until next week.