Latest / The Retail Podcast / Circular Fashion, Topshop’s Comeback & Currys’ AI: 5 Retail Shifts Shaping the UK

Transcript

Circular Fashion, Topshop’s Comeback & Currys’ AI: 5 Retail Shifts Shaping the UK · The Retail Podcast

• 0:00
  Welcome to Five Things Friday. Hello, good morning, good
• 0:16
  afternoon. I don't know what part of Friday
• 0:18
  this is getting into your inbox or into your feed.
• 0:22
  Maybe even a Saturday or Sunday. But don't worry, my name is
• 0:26
  Alex. I'm the founder of the Retail
• 0:27
  podcast and Co host the Five Things Friday UK edition.
• 0:32
  I help retailers stay relevant through thought leadership and
• 0:35
  creating those systems to help them.
• 0:37
  And this is my lovely Co host, my sorry, my fabulous Co host
• 0:42
  Simone. Fabulous, love it.
• 0:43
  Hi everybody, I'm Simone, Co founder and CEO of Need.
• 0:46
  If it's night all Simone is nift.
• 0:48
  I always say the easiest way to describe us.
• 0:50
  It's kind of like delivery for quality fashion.
• 0:53
  So I'm working with lots of different retailers helping them
• 0:56
  to implement rapid delivery. And as I learned, local as well
• 1:01
  as large, large ones, right? Yeah, correct.
• 1:04
  That's. That's the thing I learned last
• 1:05
  week that that you, you're also focused on those local High
• 1:08
  Street retailers were thinking how do I get my product out
• 1:13
  without getting into these logistics nightmares contracts
• 1:16
  that they have to sign up to. So Simone, we're going to start
• 1:19
  with you 5 things Friday for everyone who knows, we're going
• 1:22
  to look at the five top things. We may have 61 throw it
• 1:26
  underneath the banner of of five.
• 1:28
  So why don't you start us off with?
• 1:31
  Rick so well more yes, the topic of resale and the continued rise
• 1:36
  of resale. You know, we've seen Rick saw
• 1:38
  launch one, I think it was this week.
• 1:41
  We've seen farm Rio launch one in the past couple of weeks and
• 1:44
  also wise as well. And the way it's been done is
• 1:47
  really becoming part of the the brand's ecosystem.
• 1:50
  And what I find exciting about this is it's not just secondhand
• 1:54
  anymore. It's really about curation
• 1:56
  community and offering your customers, I guess longevity and
• 2:01
  circularity, but in a, more of a, a stylish and a more brand
• 2:06
  owned way. You know, it's super elevated
• 2:08
  and with risk. Rick's, they've got this new
• 2:10
  resale platform, I think it's called.
• 2:12
  Is it Rick's or Reloved? I think it's Rick's or Reloved.
• 2:15
  I might be making that up. Name they should use it.
• 2:18
  I look on Kings Rd as well. Yes they are.
• 2:21
  They're on Kings Rd. What are they?
• 2:23
  Just up or down from farm Rio then?
• 2:26
  Couple of doors down, yeah, so. I'm Rio, one of your customers.
• 2:29
  They are, they are lovely brands.
• 2:31
  But yeah, so Wicks are relived. It's all run directly through
• 2:34
  their own website. Customers can upload their pre
• 2:36
  loved pieces to resell. It can set the price and once it
• 2:40
  sells, the buyer gets the item. But then the seller receives a
• 2:44
  Ricks or gift card in return. So and it keeps the whole
• 2:48
  process in brand because what I noticed is that it doesn't send
• 2:52
  the customer off to some random third party reseller.
• 2:57
  It really kind of keeps them inside of this Ricksaw universe.
• 3:01
  And I think I just think what's smart is that it's not just
• 3:04
  about sustainability, It's also about customer retention.
• 3:07
  You know, you're giving loyal fans a reason to come back and
• 3:10
  shop again and really feel good about extending the life of
• 3:13
  their clothes. And I guess that while resale is
• 3:16
  obviously framed around sustainability, which we love,
• 3:19
  but what we're really seeing is is that customers also love it
• 3:22
  for the value. You know, it's not just about
• 3:24
  doing the right thing, it's also about getting access to quality
• 3:28
  pieces at a better price point, especially with brands like Rixo
• 3:31
  and farm Rio, you're not just buying random basics.
• 3:34
  You know, you're buying beautiful, elevated stand out
• 3:38
  investment pieces. And I think by being able to buy
• 3:41
  them pre loved and maybe grab a dress that you missed last
• 3:44
  season for half the price. Well, that's a huge one for
• 3:47
  customers. And the store credit is very
• 3:49
  clever paying money. They're getting store credit and
• 3:52
  it's it's just becoming a, a real, a real loyalty loop.
• 3:55
  So yeah, I thought that was really smart.
• 3:58
  I love it because it's tied into their physical store, right?
• 4:01
  So this is their Kings Rd store. They all it says it here.
• 4:04
  They'll they'll for certain garments.
• 4:06
  They'll hold it in store, right as in like, sorry, they'll
• 4:09
  display it in store, which anything for me that sort of
• 4:12
  connects these wonderful worlds of digital and physical and then
• 4:16
  provides better in store experiences.
• 4:20
  And I think this, I have to say, I don't think it's a London
• 4:23
  trend. I think it's a European trend,
• 4:25
  but London is beginning to lead on on this because you've got
• 4:28
  Westfields doing their pop up circular elements.
• 4:32
  And so you got to love anything that goes into pre loved or
• 4:36
  circular, which really nicely sort of I remember, and I think
• 4:40
  we were just talking about this, talking about Lone hoods
• 4:43
  originally. I think they they set out in One
• 4:47
  Direction. But what I thought was really
• 4:50
  interesting, if you're a loose end and you live in London, get
• 4:54
  down to Islington. In collaboration or partnership
• 4:58
  with Islington Council. They're running a close swap of
• 5:01
  anything. Well, OK, that's just a maybe an
• 5:03
  up end. It's Islington.
• 5:05
  So everyone's going to be very beautiful darling.
• 5:07
  And you know, not as beautiful darling as a King's Road.
• 5:10
  So a little bit less than King's Road, but it's still beautiful
• 5:12
  darlings. What's interesting here is the
• 5:14
  credit system behind the way that Lone Hood is running these
• 5:18
  events now Lone Hood I they've, I saw that they ran an event in
• 5:22
  Manchester. So these types of community
• 5:25
  events where people bring their pre loved pre owned items with a
• 5:30
  set bunch of rules and then, you know, here, so for example,
• 5:35
  don't bring any more than five items, Make sure that they're
• 5:37
  cleaned and ready to go onto the racks.
• 5:39
  They accept all shapes and sizes, including children's
• 5:42
  clothing. So back to school, you know,
• 5:44
  parents have been loving a bit of circular and recycle.
• 5:47
  But let's get to the interesting thing.
• 5:49
  The tokens now in my mind and I remember when Logan had
• 5:53
  originally started they did have something to do with credit, but
• 5:56
  this in my mind is trying to sort of you know who is the
• 6:00
  credit owner of the circular economy and you know your
• 6:05
  credits if you don't use or don't find anything from roll
• 6:07
  forward, they'll be running more events.
• 6:09
  Maybe hypothetically in the future your your pre loved event
• 6:13
  on the Kings Rd you'll be able to use the credits from loan
• 6:17
  hood. That's where I see them.
• 6:19
  What probably going with this yeah and I think you know again
• 6:22
  it's a swap as well. I, I don't know how the swap
• 6:25
  works and I have to read how the swap works, but there is a, a
• 6:28
  swap mechanism as well. So, you know, it's, I, I, I
• 6:31
  think it's really amazing. I think this is the future.
• 6:34
  People are going to want more and more and more experiences.
• 6:38
  And I think London is leading the way because this is one of
• 6:40
  like three other circular events and, and there's nothing bad
• 6:45
  about that. We just want more of these.
• 6:47
  I go with you for your favourite and now obviously one of your
• 6:50
  friends has gone gone over there.
• 6:51
  Oh yes, Top Shop. And I know I talked about Top
• 6:54
  Shop last week and I really don't want to sound like a
• 6:56
  Broadcom record, but it felt rude not to bring it up again
• 7:00
  when they dropped an absolute banger this week that Cara
• 7:03
  Delevingne is one of the new faces for their relaunch.
• 7:07
  Which is. So this is not like this is your
• 7:10
  generation that they're reaching out to.
• 7:12
  This is very much my generation. So she was the original face of
• 7:17
  Topshop back in Leos 2010. Oh my goodness.
• 7:22
  Long as Kate Moss. Now all we need is Kate Moss and
• 7:25
  it's going to be an absolute game changer.
• 7:28
  But yeah, she's launching a 30 piece edit which will be
• 7:31
  exclusively available on topshop.com.
• 7:34
  Yeah. From the I think it was August
• 7:38
  the 16th, which marks the the return of top online standalone
• 7:45
  destination, which is very exciting.
• 7:48
  Apparently the collaboration isn't A1 off planning for a full
• 7:53
  capsule collection in 26 and 27 and quote.
• 7:57
  It is built around sustainability, inclusivity and
• 8:01
  high quality design. And I think what's interesting,
• 8:05
  like you just said last week, I was obviously questioning
• 8:07
  whether they were going after Gen Z, which isn't me, with a
• 8:11
  fresh brand moment, or if this was all about millennial
• 8:14
  nostalgia, which is me. And this bringing back Cara
• 8:19
  definitely feels like a win to. You think they'll bring back
• 8:22
  Kate? Well, Kate be Kate's retired,
• 8:24
  right? Or she's still working.
• 8:26
  She still dibbled apples and things.
• 8:28
  I mean, she did the whole thing with Coca-Cola last year.
• 8:32
  Was that last year? OK.
• 8:34
  But if they brought her back, wow.
• 8:37
  Well. I.
• 8:38
  I think I, I was trying to remember when you were talking
• 8:41
  about it, who owns Top Shop and it's obviously ASOS, right?
• 8:45
  So I think ASOS need, you know, to be building that value.
• 8:49
  And I think Top Shop's a fantastic brand for them to, to
• 8:52
  focus in on because I think that they've been really troubled
• 8:55
  over the years and, and recently with their returns saga of
• 9:00
  sending emails to people saying, Hey, you're no longer a, we're
• 9:04
  no longer going to serve you because you've returned too many
• 9:06
  things. I think, you know, this is, this
• 9:08
  is a positive thing for the UK and hopefully back onto the High
• 9:12
  Street. That's that's really, really
• 9:14
  interesting to see what this looks like in the real world.
• 9:18
  But I think the words that described it as as well, you
• 9:20
  know, pushing towards that kind of high quality sustainability,
• 9:25
  you know. Not fast fashion G or T.
• 9:28
  Yeah. So it's, you know, me as a
• 9:31
  consumer, as I mentioned last week, you know, 19 year old me
• 9:35
  didn't care as much about those things.
• 9:38
  I now do, as do a lot of millennials, and yeah, it's
• 9:43
  interesting. Very intrigued by the whole
• 9:45
  thing. I'm not going to say anymore
• 9:47
  about it because I bet people are sick of hearing me talk
• 9:50
  about it. Well, no, because I because I'm
• 9:53
  still waiting for the Johnny and James Jeans element to come
• 9:56
  back. Enough, we said.
• 9:57
  Jordy. I didn't know it was Johnny.
• 10:00
  I I did, I really tickled. Anyway, so that because it says
• 10:03
  they obviously they are such a big brand, but in the press
• 10:07
  release I'm like, what the hell is Johnny and Jamie jeans?
• 10:10
  But anyway, then that before I do any more damage to my
• 10:14
  reputation, let's move on. So Taco Swim, another Cloven
• 10:18
  brand who have been all over Vogue and all the glamour
• 10:22
  newspapers, they obviously they're swimwear and I'm always
• 10:26
  a bit nervous about showing swimwear.
• 10:28
  But what they do really interesting I find is their
• 10:32
  loyalty programme. And yeah, and I think for me,
• 10:35
  why is this interesting? Because I always talk about
• 10:37
  physical retailers learning, having to do better with
• 10:41
  building communities. And then, you know, if I meet an
• 10:44
  exec from a retailer, they'll say, oh, but what?
• 10:47
  What are online DTC brands doing that we are not?
• 10:51
  And one of the things I'll say is engagement.
• 10:52
  How are you engaging with them? And they'll say we've got
• 10:54
  loyalty points like OK, what do those, you know, what does that
• 10:57
  look like? And I think Tokyo do a fantastic
• 11:00
  and, and you mentioned this yourself, you know, they've sort
• 11:02
  of taken from the airline industry where you get that
• 11:06
  premium feel, you know, you get that, but everyone is speedy
• 11:10
  boarding, right? Literally the whole plane speedy
• 11:12
  boards now. But yes, but you do get that
• 11:14
  exclusive axis. But it's not, it doesn't just
• 11:17
  stop there. So of course, if you purchase
• 11:19
  their beautiful swimwear that is inclusive, I have to say,
• 11:22
  because sometimes with swimwear brands, everyone's a size 06 or
• 11:27
  zero in America, they're 100% inclusive.
• 11:31
  I've seen loads of different models in different sizes, which
• 11:34
  is definitely spot on, but they're, they're, they're
• 11:37
  classes here in terms of the level of class, sorry, the
• 11:41
  business levels are and you can see that they've got business
• 11:44
  and, and you, you rack up the points that you go there, but
• 11:47
  then they also reward engagement, which is what we as
• 11:50
  consumers who are being asked to sign up to mailing lists, right?
• 11:54
  You get 130 points gain that converts to discounts on your
• 11:59
  next purchase. Follow them on Instagram
• 12:01
  convert. I think this is, you know, I, I
• 12:04
  say this sometimes this is the master class in how brands will
• 12:08
  reshape how they manage and put their loyalty market.
• 12:12
  Sorry, loyalty programmes out there, especially for this new
• 12:16
  generation that says, Hey, I don't mind you knowing more
• 12:20
  stuff about me, like happy birthday, right, had your
• 12:23
  birthday to get. And and it's one of the ones
• 12:24
  that's, you know, you get the most points for because you
• 12:27
  know, that's the moment of where you spoil yourself.
• 12:31
  What a piece of genius, right? You know, that's a good feel
• 12:34
  feel good moment should be. And now there's a whole
• 12:38
  ecosystem behind it and I and I love it.
• 12:40
  And I was going to sort of say, Hey, if you're at loose end, go
• 12:42
  to their rooftop garden party, which is in Wandsworth, but it's
• 12:46
  sold out. So don't don't try and go to it
• 12:49
  because it's sold out the the beautiful people.
• 12:52
  I've already bought it. So I think a master class in in
• 12:55
  loyalty. And our final thing is
• 12:58
  everyone's social media favourite Darlings curries.
• 13:01
  They've I think they've done so well on social media to turn
• 13:05
  around this sort of boring selling fridges and freezers to
• 13:09
  being a a really relevant brand in people's lives in a category
• 13:13
  that is so hard. I mean, it's got to be one of
• 13:17
  the the hardest categories white white goods and they've done
• 13:20
  phenomenally well and and here the story is smart video note.
• 13:25
  I think the business is called Vyn yeah, Vy intelligence, but
• 13:29
  they basically provide a video AI feed to the Currys assistant
• 13:35
  that's helping you. So you've got a problem with
• 13:37
  your laptop, your phone up there help centre you get Centrelink.
• 13:41
  That link now has AI because potentially there could be
• 13:45
  something that the AI has seen before that allows you to get to
• 13:48
  the root of the problem faster. And it's sort of, as it says
• 13:52
  here, improves first time fixed rate, streamlines workloads and
• 13:56
  reduces carbon footprint generated by unnecessary call
• 13:59
  outs because that's what really try and you know, before they,
• 14:01
  the, the the person comes to your house to try and fix
• 14:04
  whatever is broken. This sort of levels up that from
• 14:09
  home, from home experience, which I think probably this will
• 14:14
  become commonplace. It just makes so much sense to
• 14:18
  do it. So anyway, I, I think that's a
• 14:19
  nice one to end on or not, depending on how you, what your
• 14:22
  views on AI are and whether they'll be, yeah, Cole's going
• 14:25
  to say without jobs. But anyway, that's a whole
• 14:27
  different thing. OK, come on.
• 14:30
  Where are you next week? Are you back in I?
• 14:32
  I'll be in London next week, yeah, Hopefully the weather is
• 14:36
  going to brighten off because right now it's looking pretty
• 14:39
  dull. I'm imagining Madrid is a lot
• 14:41
  sunnier than here. Yeah, I don't talk about the
• 14:44
  weather because I always feel guilty.
• 14:46
  Yeah. It's like if you've never know,
• 14:48
  I've I've in my old world, in the enterprise world, I used to
• 14:52
  meet people who used to live by the beach, right.
• 14:54
  And the first thing you would realise is that they live by the
• 14:57
  beach because they'll come in and they're like little shorts
• 15:00
  or their or their whatever, T-shirts and stuff like that.
• 15:03
  And they will tell you that they're by the beach.
• 15:06
  And I remember sat there on a Friday going bloody middle of
• 15:09
  London. It's peeing down with rain.
• 15:11
  I promised myself I would never make anyone feel bad, so I never
• 15:15
  talk about. But yeah, it's glorious.
• 15:17
  Well that's very nice of you. I would be rubbing it in.
• 15:19
  Oh no, so next time I'll be with my Pina Colada sat my my pool.
• 15:24
  We we can do it from the pool side.
• 15:25
  So that'll probably take care anyway.
• 15:27
  Simone, thank you so much as always for giving up your time.
• 15:30
  It's been a blast. Until next week.
• 15:33
  Thank you. Until next week, bye.