Latest / The Retail Podcast / Five Things Friday: Luxury in Riyadh, Shein Pop-Ups, Amazon Fresh Shifts, Retail Contraction & Burberry’s Comeback

Transcript

Five Things Friday: Luxury in Riyadh, Shein Pop-Ups, Amazon Fresh Shifts, Retail Contraction & Burberry’s Comeback · The Retail Podcast

• 0:00
  Welcome to Five Things Friday, an impontuous event if that's
• 0:05
  such a word. I'm joined by my fantastic Co
• 0:09
  host Simone, who you'll meet after our fabulous intro.
• 0:24
  Simone, hello. Hi how you doing?
• 0:29
  I'm good. How are you?
• 0:30
  Yeah, really good. Back in the UK before some more
• 0:34
  travel, which I don't mind boasting about.
• 0:37
  I'm off to Riyadh on Sunday, really excited.
• 0:40
  I'm still clapping and I'm going to be looking at the future of
• 0:43
  luxury in Riyadh. And so I look forward to
• 0:46
  bringing all of that beautiful luxury retail and actually more
• 0:50
  about I'm going to a lot of the cultural heritage sites as well.
• 0:55
  It's a tour that I'm being taken on, Full disclosure, and I'll
• 0:59
  share full details next week, but so I'm super excited about
• 1:03
  that. How was your week?
• 1:04
  Very jealous. Very, very.
• 1:06
  My week has been. Busy.
• 1:09
  A week of events. I saw you.
• 1:11
  What was the event that was on LinkedIn?
• 1:13
  I saw you giving free merch to people.
• 1:16
  Oh, last night's event, we did a fun event with one of our shop
• 1:20
  partners and wonderful community, women in product
• 1:24
  community and we did a styling event on.
• 1:28
  The new. Rules of power dressing which I.
• 1:31
  Thoroughly enjoyed. Loved that.
• 1:33
  That's really cool. Well, listen, for those who
• 1:35
  don't know, maybe this is the first time you're tuning in to
• 1:38
  us. My name is Alex.
• 1:39
  I help businesses that sell to retailers maintain their thought
• 1:43
  leadership. I go to 15 events throughout the
• 1:47
  year, look at all the wonderful insights that people and
• 1:50
  retailers are talking about. The last event being NRF in
• 1:54
  Paris, which had some cracking talks, still needs to improve.
• 1:58
  It's not, it's not where it needs to be, but it was a good
• 2:00
  event and I bring that all to my customers.
• 2:03
  Simone, what do you do? I am the Co founder and CEO of
• 2:08
  Need It for Tonight, also known as NIFT.
• 2:10
  I always say easiest way to describe us is kind of like
• 2:13
  delivery for quality fashion. So I work with lots of brands
• 2:17
  and retailers to help them with 90 minute delivery.
• 2:20
  Yeah, I've actually not asked you this.
• 2:21
  The people who are delivering are not cyclists, delivery
• 2:25
  cyclists. They're not delivery cyclists.
• 2:27
  I always like to emphasise this. The dress will not.
• 2:30
  There's anything wrong with delivery cyclists, but I'm just
• 2:33
  it's not a delivery type experience, no.
• 2:36
  It's not gonna turn up with a kebab, It's not gonna turn up
• 2:39
  smelling of McDonald's. They are on bikes.
• 2:41
  Put it in the back. It's not gonna turn up with a.
• 2:44
  McDonald's. Okay, fantastic.
• 2:46
  Well, listen, why don't we start with you?
• 2:48
  What's top of mind this week? Lots.
• 2:51
  I think one of the big talking points of this week has been the
• 2:55
  launch of the Sheehan pop up on. I also like to think is it
• 3:00
  Sheehan or shine? I think.
• 3:01
  Yeah, I'll call. It shine but I'm going to call
• 3:04
  it Sheehan but it's caused a bit of uproar.
• 3:07
  Sheehan, as we know, is the biggest fast fashion brand in
• 3:11
  the world and I think has been one of the most heavily
• 3:14
  criticised, especially when it comes to ethics, mass
• 3:18
  overproduction, environmental impact.
• 3:21
  So I think seeing them pop up in a space that's traditionally
• 3:26
  been about independent brands and discovery and curated.
• 3:30
  Storytelling I think has caused a bit of backlash and I, I have
• 3:34
  to admit it does feel off. I think for me, you know, that's
• 3:38
  what pop ups are meant to be about.
• 3:39
  You know, they're about to be giving smaller interesting kind
• 3:43
  of creative brands and platform, not just about shifting product,
• 3:47
  telling a story which we've hopped on about.
• 3:49
  People are probably sick of us talking about that.
• 3:52
  Yeah, look, Sheen, I did an event in Chicago with them and,
• 3:56
  and yeah, it's it's it's a, it's a big hairy monster because it
• 4:00
  means it does get people's backs up in some parts of the world
• 4:04
  and in other parts of the world. They're like, that's my way of
• 4:06
  shopping. I love it.
• 4:08
  Price is the right price and that's what I'm doing.
• 4:11
  Yeah. And look, I don't doubt that
• 4:13
  they'll have still people queuing up, but there's the
• 4:17
  other side where I think people are frustrated and rightly so.
• 4:21
  So yeah, that's I certainly won't be going down, but that
• 4:24
  was top of my mind this week because it's been cool.
• 4:28
  So I'm going to do I'm going to do a rapid fire 3 and then maybe
• 4:32
  comes back. And to be fair, the reason why
• 4:33
  we're doing a little bit more than five if I just stack stuck
• 4:37
  to what was in the headlines would actually be quite
• 4:39
  depressed. First one, Amazon has finally
• 4:41
  pulled the plug on its Amazon fresh.
• 4:43
  I'm giving you the narrative of the media and then we'll look at
• 4:45
  what Amazon's saying because the media is saying, you know,
• 4:48
  futuristic cashier grocery shops you walked in if you didn't know
• 4:51
  what the Amazon experience was, you pick up your item and then
• 4:55
  you walk out a sort of marvel of the technology, but consumers
• 4:59
  didn't want it. And that's pretty much because
• 5:01
  the the shopping mission that people were on wouldn't be
• 5:04
  served in the format of store that they had created.
• 5:07
  But for me, Amazon's are the genius of invention and
• 5:11
  experimentation. And so for me, this was four or
• 5:14
  five or six years of experimentation to find out
• 5:17
  works. And what are the use cases that
• 5:19
  will take off? The locations that they've shut
• 5:22
  down will be some of them will become whole food locations.
• 5:25
  I can imagine the one in Ealing, actually, that one's already
• 5:28
  gone. But anyway, some of them will
• 5:29
  become whole food locations and we'll, it's like watch this
• 5:32
  space where that will appear in airports.
• 5:36
  Coincidentally, this technology is taking off where you just
• 5:39
  walk in and pick up your crisps and snacks and come out.
• 5:42
  So I think the way that Amazon's position there, rightly so, is
• 5:46
  they're retrenching back on e-commerce because the margins
• 5:51
  in this world and and specifically in the UK right now
• 5:54
  just doesn't lend itself to these sort of premium shopping
• 5:57
  experiences. Yeah, Next one is the CBI sales
• 6:02
  data. Again, quite depressing if I was
• 6:04
  in retail 12 months of in a row of decline, so that a full year
• 6:10
  of decline, not just one bad quarter or two bad quarter.
• 6:14
  It's a structural malaise and it's not, it's, again, there'll
• 6:18
  be lots of different reasons when people look at this on, on
• 6:21
  wine and you know how, but according to the Confederation
• 6:25
  of Business Industry, retailers are reporting lower volumes
• 6:29
  every single month with no real sign of turnaround.
• 6:33
  And consumers are being, I think we talked about this on one of
• 6:36
  the shows or one of the global shows.
• 6:38
  They're being, you know, they've got wage pressures, they've got
• 6:41
  higher taxes, they've got broader economic challenges, you
• 6:44
  know, with what's going on around the world.
• 6:46
  And ultimately, it's showing in footfall to spending for
• 6:50
  retailers who are massively discounting having thinner the
• 6:54
  margins than normal and having quite brutal competition from
• 6:58
  some home competition, some abroad competition.
• 7:01
  And again, sticking with this sort of doom and gloom of what's
• 7:06
  going on, Starbucks are closing. I think they've said here, I
• 7:11
  don't know if they've actually given a number, but they will
• 7:13
  shut some of their 520 UK stores.
• 7:17
  Now, Starbucks have been on the naughty list for a lot of
• 7:20
  customers for a couple of years now.
• 7:22
  And so in my mind, it's like, it makes sense.
• 7:24
  It's if, if 40% of the population aren't going to be
• 7:27
  coming into a, a Starbucks for one reason or another, it's,
• 7:31
  you're going to have to reset. But this to me is the broader
• 7:34
  trend that I was, I've been speaking about for a while.
• 7:36
  Retailers are trenching in to create more, more experiential
• 7:40
  stores. So, you know, the Starbucks
• 7:42
  Reserve, I can imagine these types of stores will continue to
• 7:45
  grow. And they also, they had made a
• 7:47
  commitment, I think of growing where is it 18 new stores in the
• 7:50
  UK and 150 across an EMEA. So yeah, they're going to be
• 7:54
  closing the ones that aren't making any money and opening
• 7:57
  some in areas where it's more favourable to operating
• 8:00
  conditions, which again, another not not a great example of
• 8:04
  what's really happening in in retail.
• 8:06
  And when you put these three stories together, they sort of
• 8:09
  sketch some uncomfortable truths for the UK.
• 8:12
  And it's an because the UK is in a moment of contraction, not
• 8:15
  expansion. And some of the shiny
• 8:17
  experiments regarding technologies are just working
• 8:20
  for traditional players who are ultimately under siege from the
• 8:24
  consumers shrinking wallet. However, we've got Christmas and
• 8:28
  the golden quarter coming up. So that will be a crucial stress
• 8:32
  test to see whether or not this trend will continue.
• 8:36
  But you know, consumers are looking for things to to be
• 8:39
  happy about. And So what I want to finish off
• 8:42
  is actually not doom and gloom. We'll come back.
• 8:44
  Actually, why don't we do you? And then we'll come back to some
• 8:47
  some happy stuff rather than the doom and gloom stuff.
• 8:50
  So give me, what's your next one?
• 8:52
  Yeah, not Doom and Gloom 1. That was a really nervous laugh,
• 8:56
  by the way. I guess it's just because what
• 9:01
  I'm about to speak about I've had mixed feelings about and it
• 9:04
  was the launch of It's funny because I've grew up calling it
• 9:07
  Primark, but I do know it's called Primark.
• 9:09
  So Primark's in store clothing repairs pop up the trialling in
• 9:14
  Manchester Market Street and in partnership with the same who
• 9:18
  I'm a big fan of. On one side.
• 9:20
  I'm like would you need an in store repairs thing if the if
• 9:24
  the quality was better And on the other side.
• 9:29
  I do think it's smart and I think perhaps a bit overdue.
• 9:33
  So from now until I think it's December, customers can get
• 9:36
  simple repairs to like pop buttons or wherever same day,
• 9:39
  but with prices starting from just 3 lbs, which I think is
• 9:43
  crucial. Yeah, so you can book online.
• 9:45
  I think they take walk in's as well.
• 9:47
  But I think what I do like is do you think that it tackles a very
• 9:52
  real problem that people do want to keep their clothes, but I
• 9:56
  think that there's a stigma or sometimes repairs can just be
• 10:00
  quite expensive or or hard to access for some people.
• 10:03
  In the article that I was reading about it said that 42%
• 10:06
  of people throw away clothes that they would that they would
• 10:09
  have liked to keep, which is big problem because they couldn't
• 10:13
  get them prepared, repaired. So I.
• 10:15
  Do think? For a brand like Primark,
• 10:17
  obviously not for being very affordable to take this step.
• 10:21
  You know, I think it does show a shift and I hope that more
• 10:24
  retailers do it. But yeah, interesting.
• 10:27
  Still don't know how I feel as I said as.
• 10:30
  Yeah, I got you. Is it greenwashing?
• 10:32
  Is it not? Is it a marketing?
• 10:33
  I know I'm like, is this good? Is it just another thing of
• 10:36
  greenwashing? I don't know.
• 10:38
  I'd like to see more more stores be doing that.
• 10:41
  I don't know why the Primark is that is the best.
• 10:42
  Example but. I do think it's something in it
• 10:45
  about making repairs to. Them for doing it.
• 10:48
  Let's just hope that it's not a one off marketing activity.
• 10:52
  Yeah, exactly. And it might because because
• 10:56
  again, it's between now and December.
• 10:58
  So yeah, I got it. Did you have another one?
• 11:01
  Yeah, I did. This is a bit doom and gloom,
• 11:03
  but I promise it'll end on something a little bit nice.
• 11:06
  Yeah. Well, I guarantee you'll be
• 11:08
  smiling and happy by the end of the one where we've got paid.
• 11:13
  But H&M did announce this week that they've closed 135 stores
• 11:17
  in the past nine months, with more closures expected this
• 11:20
  quarter. I think most of them are in Asia
• 11:23
  and Africa, but 21 closures have happened in Western Europe and
• 11:28
  that includes quite a few if not only H but monkey.
• 11:32
  But I did think that this was interesting timing.
• 11:36
  That whilst the H&M Group is closing stores quite rapidly,
• 11:41
  it's interesting to see that Arquette, who is a part of the
• 11:45
  H&M Group but is more premium, I guess more lifestyle LED, is
• 11:49
  actually set to open up a new store on Kings Rd in Chelsea.
• 11:55
  It opens tomorrow. It's in a redeveloped theatre
• 11:58
  building and it looks gorgeous. So interesting.
• 12:02
  I mean, they've got the fantastic that there's a really
• 12:04
  beautiful H&M store on Kings Rd just at the beginning.
• 12:08
  I remember I covered it last year when it I think was last
• 12:11
  year or year before actually year before when it anyway, when
• 12:14
  it opened it was it was really beautiful and I assume it's
• 12:16
  still there, unless that's changed into an archae, I don't
• 12:19
  know. I.
• 12:19
  Think it is, I don't. Know it's just it's just that
• 12:22
  you come up the king opposite the Saatchi Gallery.
• 12:24
  But anyway, yeah, so I've been teasing this, you know, good
• 12:27
  story that we're going to end on and let me add this lovely lady
• 12:32
  to the stage and ask you which British, which British brand,
• 12:37
  luxury brand is using her for her for them marketing
• 12:42
  materials. This was her very first TikTok
• 12:45
  and on TikTok, some of the late people refer to as Auntie, which
• 12:50
  is fantastic. And she started a trend where
• 12:54
  looking at the camera with some traffic behind her.
• 12:57
  And then over time it sort of continued to change.
• 13:00
  Very, this was 2023 when she started her journey and it's
• 13:06
  just basically looking at camera with things happening behind
• 13:10
  her. And it's incredible to the point
• 13:13
  where the wonderful. Can you tell which brand it is
• 13:16
  yet? I can see.
• 13:17
  Yeah, there you go. Oh, the volumes not?
• 13:21
  Or does it not need to be? Yeah, doesn't.
• 13:25
  She doesn't want to live anywhere else in the world.
• 13:28
  And that brand is, ladies and gentlemen, Burberry who were
• 13:32
  headliners at London Fashion Week.
• 13:34
  And from what the people who do know about fashion, people like
• 13:38
  Simone, not myself, they're saying that Burberry potentially
• 13:43
  has hit a bit of a turn around. I don't know if it's a comeback
• 13:46
  story yet, Too early for me to call because I'm one of the
• 13:49
  people that have been saying they've lost their relevance to
• 13:53
  the industry or to their shop, but they've pulled it out of the
• 13:57
  bag and had a phenomenal London Fashion Week.
• 14:01
  And, you know, for those who love AB Fab, they had, you know,
• 14:06
  lots of celebrities. What's really interesting, I
• 14:09
  think for me, this is a departure from using young,
• 14:12
  beautiful models that potentially wouldn't be able to
• 14:17
  afford, You know, it's a younger generation that can't afford and
• 14:21
  they've gone for, you know, maybe the people who actually
• 14:23
  can afford some of the they're they're selling.
• 14:27
  And so it's it's gone down really well.
• 14:30
  Get on TikTok, have a look at their I can't what was it
• 14:34
  called? Burberry portraits.
• 14:35
  That's it. Have I got any others here that
• 14:37
  I can of of UK social media stars talking about various
• 14:47
  stories? It's called Burberry portraits.
• 14:50
  Definitely worth a little gander.
• 14:52
  And with that bombshell, how have we done on timing?
• 14:56
  We've done. Through it. 17 minutes.
• 14:59
  Not too bad. We've had we had one person on
• 15:04
  our live all the way through, so to that one person.
• 15:08
  We love. You, we love you thank you so
• 15:11
  much and they're on and here's the thing they're on twitch
• 15:15
  right so oh and we've had about 10 people pop in and pop off
• 15:19
  person number 2 has just joined us by the retail podcast
• 15:22
  channel. Thank you so much for joining us
• 15:25
  and we look forward to you around next week, right, we'll
• 15:28
  be able to do. This next week.
• 15:30
  Yeah, OK, fantastic. Until next week, Simone.
• 15:33
  Have a lovely week. Wonderful.
• 15:35
  Thanks, Alex.