1634 great year for selling Dutch Tulips . 1637 not so great.
If you were to take the national media seriously, you would very rapidly come to the conclusion that the market for everything is bad.
Major supermarket with 2,800 sites to close two stores permanently in days – is your local shutting?
The Sun
Yes that major supermarket is Tesco’s and they were closing 2 , yes 2 stores .
The Sun also reported earlier that week with a headline Major Upset for the High Street , as chain closes 2 stores...This was New Look , who have been closing stores for a number of years. The Sun also confirmed that the Chain would be opening six later in the year . So what they chose to headline were the two closures and not the six new ones.
And yet …..
Primark owner raises profit guidance for second time as sales surge 15%
Retail Gazette September 2023
Majestic Wine to hire 200 staff ahead of its ‘biggest Christmas ever’
Retail Gazette September 2023
Next defies expectations as it raises profit outlook for third time this year
Retail Gazette September 2023
JD Sports on track for over £1bn profits amid solid sales growth
Retail Gazette September 2023
Things are tough. But there is still a huge amounts spent each week on stuff we need and stuff we don’t need . The critical issue is making sure you are one of the retailers that get their hands on that cash. At a time when a large Retailer goes bust, the first shout (from the media) is that every retailer is going to hell in a hand cart . Its over . Nobody can operate on the High Street , everyone has gone online . Clearly not true .
If it was all over for the High Street retailer you would not see these sort of headlines. Moreover , you would not see Retailers picking up stores from the demise of Wilko . They will all be rebranded, as the Wilko Brand was already a fading brand and had been for a number of years . It was no longer a good retailer . Their consumer was still buying the type of product Wilko sold but from better retailers .
It is always about ,and always has been, Good retailers and not so Good retailers .The same is true of whether they are bricks and mortar or online. The problems and issues are, sometimes, different but the consequences the same. Looking through a list of non active clients over the last five years, the vast majority are actually or rather were online operators who have gone out of business . Some more recent closures have come about despite having major upturns during Covid , making the false assumption this was the new norm .
There is no norm. I think this part of the biggest problem facing Retail now and going forward. You can think what is the norm ? We all have to think about Tomorrow , we can’t doing anything about Today it is too late .
These are some of the issues and resolutions facing big retail corporations worldwide, or at least according to Deloitte …..
As consumer product companies struggle to obtain the inputs and commodities they require, they also face a changing geopolitical and business environment. This involves governmental restrictions on technology transfer, fraught relations between the world’s greatest powers, and increased regionalisation of supply chains. It also involves new efforts by global companies to reinforce supply chain resilience and redundancy, partly by diversifying supply chain processes and no longer depending on just one country or supplier. As a result, we may begin to see a consumer products industry emerge that is, in many ways, more diverse than before.
Dr Ira Kalish, Chief Global Economist, Deloitte
While some of this has an indirect impact on the smaller enterprises few are in a position to do anything about these macro factors. However, I do see the last sentence, from the above quote, having a resonance much further down the chain . That very sentence could very well be have written specifically for Independents .
Diversity in terms of product and service, are precisely where the Independent needs to be . Within my own industry i.e. Party, the success of the good Independent Party Retailer in the UK and beyond over the last couple of years is down to diversity. And by diversity I refer to specifically balloon decoration . This is has been taken to a different level .
It is something that cannot be reproduced within large retail chains . And most certainly cannot be sold at a discount but it has come about because the consumer seeks something different and is prepared to pay for it. Of course, this is an over simplification. But it serves as an illustration of creating products and services that are innovative and diverse.
There no simple solutions to effective retailing . Since 2008 (financial recession) through Brexit, Covid and the current cost of living crisis (please note this is not something confined to the UK) there has not been a positive retail environment . Yet many retailers have thrived . I cannot think of one Good Retailer-multiple or otherwise that has had to close because of the current trading conditions .
One very good reason
The total value of retail sales, including fuel, reached a peak value of approximately 495.71 billion British pounds in 2022. This marked an increase of about 35 million British pounds on the previous year.
Statista.com
This , of course, included items such as fuel and food but it still represents a heck of a lot of money . I think if you examine the successful retailers e.g Next, Zara, Uniqlo, Dunelm and the major discounters , all have a number of common factors:
- frequency of new product
- good stock holdings
- innovation
- understanding their customers perception of value
Dunelm has seen its first-quarter sales up 9%, largely driven by volume, as customers continued to revamp their, bedding and home decorations despite the ongoing cost-of-living crisis.
The homewares retailer said both its stores and digital channels ‘performed well’, with the contribution from digital sales up 2 percentage points year-on-year to 35% as looks to ‘take further market share.’
“Growth was broad based across our categories with our new autumn/winter ranges, including new collaborations with Disney and the Natural History Museum, resonating well,” the company said in a statement.
The company added that it is on track with its accelerated store roll-out plan which includes opening five to ten stores per year for the next two years.
Retail Gazette
The following is a list of lesser known brands but have the common factor of being the fastest growing retailers in the UK
- AU Vodka (£43.9m, 413%) – a premium spirits
- Ooni (£208m, 289%) – a pizza oven retailer
- Lounge Underwear (£71.3m, 113%) – lingerie retailer
- Wolf & Badger (£24.6m, 108%) – a fashion marketplace
- Gousto – (£315.2m, 95%) – meal kits
- Fairfax & Favor (£28.9m, 85%) – a country lifestyle brand
- Sosandar (£29.5m, 81%) – women’s fashion
- Butternut Box (£34.9m, 79%) – fresh dog food delivery
- Beauty Pie (£53.1m, 79%) – cosmetics buying club
- Muc Off (£44.3m, 73%) – bike cleaning products
The Retail Bulletin
The retail brands in the 2023 Top 100 logged cumulative sales of £2,227m – whereas the Retail businesses in the Top 100 last year achieved just £1,874m. Of the 26 retail companies in the 100, 18 of them are new entries this year
The Retail Bulletin
So much of this indicates is that there is always a good time to sell stuff. Just make sure it is the right stuff sold in the right way….
The Party Blog 