Latest / The Retail Podcast / ASOS IRL, New Look Bets on Loyalty, Topshop Plays Nostalgia, Outcast Fashion +Rosalía “Berghain”

Transcript

ASOS IRL, New Look Bets on Loyalty, Topshop Plays Nostalgia, Outcast Fashion +Rosalía “Berghain” · The Retail Podcast

• 0:00
  Hello, welcome back to another fantastic edition of Five Things
• 0:04
  Friday UK edition Pro Credit. So as always, I'm joined by my
• 0:20
  fabulous Co host, Simone. Simone, Hello, how are you
• 0:23
  doing? Hi.
• 0:24
  I'm good. How are you?
• 0:27
  Yeah, really good. So what we're going to do, we're
• 0:29
  going to just jump straight into this.
• 0:32
  I want to share what I feel is a cultural moment and the reason
• 0:36
  why it's a cultural moment. I'll tell you after.
• 0:39
  I'll just add our guest Co host Rosalia to the to the to the
• 0:45
  podcast and let's have a listen. So I'm gonna stop it there
• 1:00
  because it gets in today if unfortunately finished N off
• 1:04
  with we were random with random swearing.
• 1:07
  Oh, I'll let people go off and listen to it.
• 1:09
  But why is that genre defining? I think we're going to hear that
• 1:13
  this new generation is exhausted with pop culture and is looking
• 1:19
  for something different. And it's got Bjork on that with,
• 1:23
  I forget the rapper's name. He's the guy that starts
• 1:25
  swearing at the end. But for me, this is Rosalia,
• 1:29
  challenging the norm of what people think of her.
• 1:32
  What you thought, Simone? I loved that.
• 1:35
  It's incredible. What to expect?
• 1:38
  I'll that was not what I was expecting.
• 1:42
  Yeah, OK. We'll go back to normal
• 1:44
  transmission now. So why don't we start with you,
• 1:47
  Simone? I notice you when we've got the
• 1:49
  ASOS pop up coming up. Yes, yeah, that was a story that
• 1:53
  really stood out to me this week because obviously as we know,
• 1:56
  ASOS is a pure play online reading and they're stepping
• 2:00
  into physical reading, launching a premium pop up on Carnaby St.
• 2:05
  It's going to be running from the 7th to the 16th of November
• 2:10
  and they have over 200 pieces from party wear to beauty heroes
• 2:17
  to gifting. They've lined up a lot of their
• 2:19
  own labels, the Asus Collective, alongside other brands like
• 2:24
  Olsense, Carhartt, Good American and I believe Adidas Asus collab
• 2:29
  as well, which they've just launched.
• 2:31
  But for me, I thought it was interesting and I guess I'm
• 2:34
  actually really intrigued by the whole thing as they're so
• 2:37
  they're so online. But I think it's it's good
• 2:41
  because it's also recognising the value of the physical
• 2:44
  experience, even though they have been online for their using
• 2:48
  pop ups to clearly build buzz and to really bring their
• 2:51
  curation to life. And I think the timing is pretty
• 2:55
  smart as well. Obviously it's just ahead of the
• 2:57
  festive season gifting party where it's, it's all about
• 3:01
  capturing those moments. But I guess it'll be interesting
• 3:05
  to see how successful it is. I guess I'm quite curious on the
• 3:09
  location because Carnaby is a big tourist area.
• 3:12
  I wonder will they attract the right customer?
• 3:16
  Will the people who actually shop on a system lime actually
• 3:21
  make the trip in person? Or will it be tourists passing
• 3:25
  through? Interesting.
• 3:26
  OK. Yeah, so that was my thought, it
• 3:29
  being on Carnaby Street, but who knows.
• 3:32
  I think look, whether or not ASOS ends up being a, a, a
• 3:36
  permanent fixture on the High Street, for me, it's just a
• 3:39
  matter of time. It's not if it's like when right
• 3:42
  I. And.
• 3:44
  Yeah. I any, if you look at any, any,
• 3:47
  any e-commerce brand, right, they get to a certain level
• 3:51
  where 20% is not enough and they have to go after physical.
• 3:56
  That's how that it's done. They're not getting the growth
• 3:58
  that they want from online anymore.
• 4:00
  And physical is the only way of getting that growth.
• 4:03
  And so it's if this for me is a little bit of experimentation
• 4:07
  before they get into the real thing.
• 4:10
  Yeah, yeah, because I think the challenge with I guess it being
• 4:14
  a pop up, I mean, I'm actually a big fan of pop ups, but it's can
• 4:19
  you really turn this moment into momentum?
• 4:22
  I imagine it'll be very, very unctual and very I think.
• 4:25
  They'll see how them look, Yeah. I think they'll see other cues.
• 4:29
  Are they going to get good vibes?
• 4:31
  Is there going to be, you know, positive?
• 4:33
  Like are are you going to long term shoppers from it?
• 4:37
  I don't know. It'll be interesting to see.
• 4:38
  I'm very curious about it and we'll be checking it out.
• 4:42
  Yeah, definitely one to watch, specifically the brand ASOS in
• 4:48
  general. So moving on to me, I've got one
• 4:52
  from Australia. It's another entrant into the UK
• 4:56
  market online only. But the key thing about here is
• 5:01
  because of Brexit and everything else, they are starting with
• 5:03
  their own factory. They're going to have their own
• 5:05
  depot to fulfil. So it is a move into the UK
• 5:09
  rather than shipping from Australia.
• 5:11
  It's great that someone's coming to the UK and it's great that
• 5:14
  again, you know, this is breathing life and keeping
• 5:17
  competition alive in the online, in the online world.
• 5:20
  Because one of the things that when I did look at how many
• 5:23
  options they are, it is really narrowing, right?
• 5:26
  The the UK retail market is being led by those 45 major
• 5:32
  brands. And so we need to, you know,
• 5:35
  the, we need more things like this.
• 5:36
  And obviously any female founder businesses that needs promoting,
• 5:40
  let let us know with I'd love to talk about that going on to you
• 5:44
  for New Look. Yeah, so New Look have launched
• 5:47
  their first ever loyalty programme called Club New Look,
• 5:51
  and it's a part of their £30 million digital transformation
• 5:56
  and so it's free to join. It's pretty juicy, might I say
• 6:01
  and then they get the weekly club prices or I think it's like
• 6:06
  special pricing drops, early access to sale and new launches.
• 6:10
  And I think it's the entry into prize draws and members only
• 6:13
  content as well. What impressed me was that
• 6:17
  they've just done a soft launch with over half a million sign
• 6:21
  ups already. Pretty impressive and they're
• 6:26
  aiming for 800,000 by the end of the year.
• 6:29
  So I was like, yeah, that's, that's some pretty good numbers.
• 6:36
  But yeah, I think why I mean, it just got me thinking about
• 6:38
  really why it matters. And I think, you know, loyalty
• 6:42
  programmes are really no longer just nice extras.
• 6:47
  I think they're really kind of becoming essential tools for
• 6:51
  brands to really keep customers engaged that and really reduce
• 6:54
  churn. And I think for a brand like New
• 6:56
  Look, which obviously compete in a very crowded and price
• 7:02
  sensitive space, I think offering value beyond just
• 7:07
  product or discount is really smart.
• 7:10
  You know, you get people into that habit of being members and
• 7:14
  maybe spending more often as well.
• 7:16
  So yeah, I'll be excited to see how that rolls out.
• 7:20
  I love the fact that obviously new lookers value and they're,
• 7:23
  they're trying to spread the wings, but obviously the amount
• 7:26
  of data they should then hopefully get their customers to
• 7:29
  have a better relationship. I think I've discussed my only
• 7:32
  thing that frustrates me with loyalty memberships is I, I, I
• 7:37
  think for this new generation, they want interaction.
• 7:43
  You know, they want more, not less, right?
• 7:46
  So if I'm going to sign up for a loyalty programme, I want to
• 7:49
  have that relationship with you. Stop just sending the offers.
• 7:53
  Interact with me, you know, be part of my, my circle of
• 7:58
  influence in one way or another. So anyway, interesting to see.
• 8:02
  I always see the best loyalty programmes is when they're
• 8:05
  really, you know, Selfridges do it and a lot more of like the
• 8:10
  the more premium brands, but it's when they're able to do a
• 8:14
  tiered access, kind of like how BA do it.
• 8:17
  You're really kind of working your way up through the to like
• 8:21
  a gold. I don't want to say money can't
• 8:23
  buy things that you typically can't buy.
• 8:26
  And I think they're also the ones that crack loyalty because
• 8:29
  those are the ones that really get the form on you end up.
• 8:32
  It was quite addictive, right. You're like more money these
• 8:35
  points because I want to be the member that gets access to X
• 8:40
  event that I couldn't normally go to.
• 8:43
  So yeah, it'll be interesting to see if they go down that route,
• 8:45
  I think. 100% and coming back to you.
• 8:49
  Oh, no, sorry, this one's with me.
• 8:51
  It's a question that I, we've discussed this on the show and
• 8:55
  it's a brand that you, you love and you know Cara and the brand
• 8:59
  is Top Shop. Top Shop on Top Man.
• 9:01
  I left last week's show thinking she's so right.
• 9:03
  Nostalgia for nostalgia's sake doesn't work.
• 9:07
  And so don't, you know, don't tell me about the past somehow
• 9:10
  bring it to the to the day. And I was curious because
• 9:12
  Topshop you were upbeat about and I and I just love to get
• 9:16
  your perspective on why you think Topshop has gone beyond
• 9:21
  nostalgia whereas Gap potentially hasn't.
• 9:24
  Yeah, I always say like, no, I just personally I don't think
• 9:28
  nostalgia is enough to keep the lights on.
• 9:30
  And I think we've seen it with like businesses like Claire's,
• 9:34
  like Claire's being a retailer that I, I do, I get nostalgic
• 9:39
  when I think of that. That's why I got my ears pierced
• 9:41
  when I was young. That's the place I got the
• 9:42
  jewellery. But would it, would that feeling
• 9:46
  like, make me want to go and shop at Claire's?
• 9:48
  No. And I think that's the harsh
• 9:50
  reality. But I think with Topshop, I
• 9:52
  think clearly they are trying to tap into nostalgia because
• 10:00
  bringing Cara Delevingne really signals signals that to me.
• 10:03
  Because Cara Delevingne was the face of Top Shop when I used to
• 10:07
  shop there in my late teens. So to me, I was like, Oh my God,
• 10:13
  Cara Delevingne's back, we're back in 2007.
• 10:15
  This is great. But I think what they're doing
• 10:19
  well is they are balancing that with tapping into the nostalgia
• 10:24
  of of the millennials whilst also going after the Gen Z and
• 10:28
  making sure that actually we're not just going to rely on
• 10:30
  nostalgia. We are going to balance with
• 10:34
  with with going after the Gen Z customers.
• 10:36
  And I think what they're doing well, it's like they are popping
• 10:39
  up everywhere. They've got all of these
• 10:41
  activations and I think they're really doing well at meeting the
• 10:45
  customer culturally, where they are meeting Gen Z's, they are
• 10:50
  and doing collabs, doing strategic partnerships, bringing
• 10:53
  in cool artists. What is going to capture Gen Z's
• 10:57
  attention? So for me, I think it's, I think
• 11:00
  it's about the balance of not just purely relying on
• 11:04
  nostalgia, because I think nostalgia can I, I, I'm not
• 11:09
  saying nostalgia is bad, but. It's not enough to launch a
• 11:12
  brand, and I hope that that's enough to drive traffic.
• 11:16
  Sorry, I spoke. Hang on.
• 11:17
  I spoke over you. So go ahead.
• 11:20
  No, I, I was, I was basically going to say exactly that.
• 11:22
  I just, I don't think it's, I think it has to be balanced and
• 11:26
  I think the best brands that the best brands are the ones that
• 11:29
  that are finding that balance. Fantastic, brilliant.
• 11:32
  Well, listen, thank you so much. I hope you have a fabulous
• 11:35
  anything on for next week. Oh, how did the men's fitting
• 11:39
  go? That's today.
• 11:41
  Oh. OK, yeah, I'm not acting on a
• 11:45
  Wednesday. Just thinking, hang on a minute,
• 11:46
  this is supposed to be Friday. We're recording this on
• 11:48
  Wednesday. So.
• 11:49
  Oh, it's. Two days.
• 11:52
  Oh. OK, all right, well, I I was
• 11:57
  thinking you need to if this personal shopper does private
• 12:00
  clients, I'd love to I that that's my dream right to have
• 12:04
  someone. Yeah.
• 12:07
  Absolutely. We'll get you books in.
• 12:09
  Yeah, well, no, irrespective I'll be, I would love to get my
• 12:13
  own little because I'm thinking outfits for NRF next year.
• 12:17
  What a top three really cool outfits that's sort of like on
• 12:21
  train, but you know, anyway. Help you out.
• 12:26
  I'd love it. I'd love it in all seriousness,
• 12:27
  I'd I'd love it so. But anyway, on that bombshell.
• 12:31
  So I have a lovely week until we speak again.
• 12:35
  So bye.