Latest / The Retail Podcast / Five Things Friday UK - M&S, ONS Data Delay, TikTok GMV Max, Charlotte Tilbury Pop‑ups

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Five Things Friday UK - M&S, ONS Data Delay, TikTok GMV Max, Charlotte Tilbury Pop‑ups · The Retail Podcast

• 0:00
  Hello and welcome to Five Things Friday UK edition with my
• 0:04
  fabulous FO host Simone. OK, thank you for joining us on
• 0:20
  this fast-paced 15 minutes or less hopefully look at the and
• 0:24
  we're going to potentially go over, but it's value to you and
• 0:28
  your ears, all the viewers who are listening.
• 0:30
  And just coincidentally, Simone, last week's episode that we we
• 0:33
  filmed and got out on the same day was actually one of the
• 0:36
  highest trending episodes since we started this little project
• 0:41
  together. So oh gosh, I'm giving the
• 0:44
  secrets away. We're starting with you and M
• 0:46
  and. SM and S launches resale on
• 0:48
  eBay. What I liked is it's not in like
• 0:52
  a clearance last season, dusty stockroom kind of where it's
• 0:58
  really curated. They're launching A resale shop,
• 1:00
  It's pre loved, curated and resold to give their clothes a
• 1:06
  second life. I think it's really small as it
• 1:08
  taps into a huge second hand market without pretending to be
• 1:12
  deep up. Obviously it hits sustainability
• 1:14
  calls and in a very public and practical way.
• 1:17
  And to me it brings in and it really is targeting a new shop
• 1:23
  cohort. You know, it's resale savvy
• 1:26
  values LED and I think probably quite Gen Z ish.
• 1:30
  But yeah, really smart. Look, we know the resale economy
• 1:32
  is booming. And yeah, I'm also just a big
• 1:35
  fan of and brands that that partner with resale platforms
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  instead of trying to launch their own kind of clunky
• 1:41
  version. I think it's a smart thing to
• 1:43
  do. So Weldon M&S.
• 1:45
  Yeah, no, I love it. I agree with you.
• 1:47
  A plug for the European 5 Things Friday.
• 1:50
  Listen to that and we'll talk about all about what happens
• 1:53
  with Amazon's resale programme. That is also this week.
• 1:57
  I think it's for three days, but let me jump straight into it.
• 2:00
  So we're going to focus and 1st ones, consumer social media and
• 2:04
  demand signals. I know I always clap and pray to
• 2:07
  you as first up, the data picture.
• 2:11
  The UK Statistics office delayed their July retail sales to
• 2:15
  today, Friday the 5th of September, citing the need for
• 2:18
  extra quality cheques. And that's really, really
• 2:21
  unusual. But it's important because sales
• 2:24
  data is one of the ways boards calibrate trading plans, their
• 2:28
  pricing and inventory. And the delay, the the delay has
• 2:32
  sort of sharpened the debate about how well traditional
• 2:36
  monthly sales, you know, historical POS data snapshots
• 2:40
  capture what shoppers are actually doing.
• 2:43
  And as you and I have talked about so much, shoppers are
• 2:46
  online shopping online. And so in the world of TikTok
• 2:50
  driven discovery, flash promotions, viral campaigns,
• 2:55
  they have to account somehow for the high return rates and, and
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  this new world that has sort of become social commerce.
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  And Alice have been pointing to social commerce as the growing
• 3:08
  swing factor with the viral spikes, same day spikes.
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  And then as as I said, it's, it's a bit of a mess for them.
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  So kudos to the to the statistician who's going to sit
• 3:19
  there with all the social media data to put it together, but
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  they've delayed it for tomorrow. And so well, let's see what
• 3:24
  comes out. Also, if you are as we're
• 3:28
  staying, it's this isn't one of our things, but I'll talk about
• 3:31
  it anyway. You mentioned TikTok shop the
• 3:33
  way that TikTok is accepting advertising and ads on TikTok,
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  they're changing in terms of more AI powered capabilities and
• 3:43
  the on demand platform is called GMV Max.
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  It is now the only supported campaign type for shop ads.
• 3:51
  The practical takeaway for your retail teams, if you're a a
• 3:54
  marketeer or CMO or an exec in that area, expect more automated
• 3:59
  optimization and make sure your attribution and returns
• 4:04
  accounting can keep up because social commerce isn't just
• 4:08
  marketing anyone. I think this is a really
• 4:10
  important part. It's part of the trading engine,
• 4:12
  but you probably know that Mister and missus retail, so you
• 4:15
  don't need me to tell you that Moving swiftly on to a a very
• 4:20
  the retail problem has a shrink problem, it has a theft problem.
• 4:24
  It is global. So I totally respect retailers
• 4:28
  trying to solve this criminality that is coming into their
• 4:33
  stores. Sainsbury's unfortunately got
• 4:35
  caught on the wrong side of this.
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  They did have a press release here talking about their retail
• 4:42
  technology. The next that sort of starts
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  live face recognition file in two stores in Sydenham in
• 4:50
  London, Oldfield Park in Bath for about 8 weeks.
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  The supermarket says the images and I'll just talk through it
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  rather than going what what they said is basically you go in,
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  they have a known database of people that lifted in their
• 5:04
  stores or a part of whatever, the national database of bad
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  actors and it, it, it matches the two together.
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  And there's been an outcry from, you know, privacy groups to the
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  point where they've deleted it, as you can see here.
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  And you know, they, I don't know if they're backtracking.
• 5:23
  It was a limited 8 week campaign anyway that they were going to
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  see. But the, the civil liberty
• 5:29
  groups all sort of said. And I think if you live in
• 5:32
  London, especially in Ealing, there is a a weird feeling when
• 5:36
  you're walking into Ealing station and the police have this
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  massive van with 500 cameras capturing, you know, commuters
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  going into work. So it's really topical.
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  Whether it's right or wrong, I'll leave that to you to
• 5:51
  decide. It's not for me to tell you.
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  And then here's something that I think in in a world where
• 5:56
  cultural relevance is really important to brands and brands
• 6:00
  think about how they adopt and how they are authentic in
• 6:05
  themselves, I have to respect Lush.
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  Lush is very authentically true to what they talk about and how
• 6:12
  they stand up for different causes and and groups.
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  They shut 100 stores this week in collaborate in sorry in
• 6:22
  solidarity with Gaza. As you can see, you can pop onto
• 6:26
  the Lush website and read about it there.
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  I just think, forgetting this for one second, how do brands
• 6:33
  demonstrate authenticity? And I think Lutch do a good job
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  of that and and people should take note of what's going on
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  there. Coming on to you for Charlotte
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  Tilbury. Yeah, so this weekend I was in
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  John Lewis shopping for a new photo frame and I could see a
• 6:51
  humongous queue in the beauty department.
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  So I was like, right, I need to go and investigate.
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  And it was Charlotte Tilbury. It was a full on as we just saw
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  that I guess a photo beef experience with the tagline.
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  No philtre, just a flawless match and you can go in, sit
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  inside, get your skin tone scanned and then boom free
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  sample in your perfect shirt. It was really effective.
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  You know it was 0 effort, high interaction and instant
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  gratification and honesty. The the queues all big.
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  So you didn't fancy queuing? No way, I don't think I'm
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  getting in that queue, but I, I do, you know what I, I always
• 7:34
  thinking it really happened thinking about Charlotte
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  Tilbury. But that is one of we know
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  beauty is booming and beauty is doing really, really well, but
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  Charlotte Tilbury is one of the bands that just really gets it.
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  They really understand that we've, we've banged on about
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  this with space and care a couple of weeks ago, that beauty
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  needs to feel like entertainment and they're making beauty
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  experiential, I I guess, without it being intimidating as well,
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  you know? That's the biggest thing,
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  intimidation. It's like, you know, whilst it
• 8:01
  it might sound silly like that, that could be actually quite
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  confronting. You know, some people are really
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  conscious about the skin. Yeah, absolutely.
• 8:08
  But I also just felt like it, it wasn't just like luxury for like
• 8:12
  for luxury sake, you know, it was like, yes, it felt like a
• 8:16
  bit of a TikTok moment, but then yeah, I don't know.
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  I just I thought it was did really well and the queue proved
• 8:22
  it so. Yeah, I think it's such a
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  personal thing. I did a project with Boots once
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  and we, we went into the stores, we listened to the customers and
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  listening to whether it's a young girl getting acne or a
• 8:34
  young boy, because now boys are buying makeup as well.
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  So again, kudos to people who are taking proactive steps to,
• 8:42
  to, to have better skin. But this whole personalization
• 8:47
  thing in beauty, I think is a, is a big thing.
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  And I, and I have to, I, I always want to credit.
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  So this profile is with Edith and it's called London Diaries
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  and she's on TikTok and I'll put it in the show notes.
• 9:00
  So I think it's really good. Sticking with beauty for my
• 9:03
  final one. I've spoken about Sunny before,
• 9:07
  her profile is See You Sunny. So if you're in London looking
• 9:11
  for something to do See You Sunny every week religiously,
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  you'll get a whole plethora of freebies of things to do.
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  There is a beauty big beauty event at Common Garden.
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  It just feels like if you go to Common Garden any weekend, they
• 9:25
  should be some form of freebie that you can pick up.
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  But looking at all the brands here, it's it's a it's a big
• 9:32
  beauty bash. And I think, you know, if you're
• 9:35
  up for it, maybe you can get down there.
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  Simone, I don't know if you're on the market for any new beauty
• 9:39
  products. I'm always in the market for new
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  beauty products. I will probably be going down
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  there. OK, well listen, we did it
• 9:46
  underneath 15 minutes. Just this we did it in 10
• 9:48
  minutes. So houses.
• 9:50
  Oh, it's ask like yeah, and let me you know, you know, to to to
• 9:54
  you, the listener who's giving us your ears.
• 9:56
  We missed out the introduction of who we are and what we do and
• 9:59
  just thought, OK, that's what we do.
• 10:00
  Let me know. Do you prefer these fast-paced
• 10:04
  keep it to 15 minutes or do you like linger and dwell where we
• 10:08
  sort of dwell and unpack things? I've waffled.
• 10:12
  Do you think I've waffled? I can waffle for for for King's
• 10:15
  sake. What have you got plans for next
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  week? Me this weekend I'm I was in.
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  I've just come back from a wising this week, this weekend
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  and I was the master of ceremony as well.
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  Big role. Nice.
• 10:27
  I can imagine you're very good at that.
• 10:28
  Thank. You.
• 10:29
  So I'm chilling this weekend. Chilling, chilling, chilling.
• 10:34
  It's quite a lot. And are you've got anything next
• 10:36
  week? Next week other than.
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  You know any events or anything? No, we've just today, we've just
• 10:43
  come back from this morning. We've been at Lloyds Bank doing
• 10:46
  a little pop up there, popping up last.
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  Next So what the banks talk about like founders and funding
• 10:53
  and everything, all that stuff. We were more actually.
• 10:56
  We had a spin the wheel, which was fun, where people scan our
• 11:00
  QR codes, spin the wheel and get a prize.
• 11:02
  We had our bike there with the shopping bags on.
• 11:05
  Just oh cool. Where was that next activation?
• 11:08
  It wasn't if the activation, yeah.
• 11:10
  In a bank. In a bank, well, you know, it's
• 11:13
  meeting the customer where they already are as I have one about
• 11:17
  all the time on this podcast. Well, next week I'm I'm talking
• 11:22
  and it's a shameless plug. I'm kicking off the Rethink
• 11:25
  Productivity forum that's only for retailers.
• 11:28
  It's sold out, but there's a wait list.
• 11:30
  It's in Birmingham next Thursday, so if you're on the
• 11:34
  list, I look forward to seeing you there.
• 11:35
  If you're not, pop your name down.
• 11:37
  We might get to say hello and on that bombshell.
• 11:40
  But thank you so much for joining us.
• 11:42
  Until next week, Simone.