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High Street 'Store Closing' sign with mo

Retail 
 

Looking ahead...

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Where have all the shops gone?​

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Retail is no longer a case of simply stocking shelves with desirable goods and waiting for shoppers to flock through the doors. Developments in technology, accelerated by CoVid, meant the speed and type of change increased. 

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The collapse of Arcadia Group with its best-known brands TopShop, Burton and Dorothy Perkins, highlighted the challenge the UK High Street. Then  CoVid created the necessity for a rapid change in consumer buying habits towards buying on-line, and those companies unprepared consequently suffered.

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Recent UK government changes to Employer National Insurance will impact businesses greatly.

 

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Supply Chain

  • Trend from off-shoring to on-shoring 

  • Shortening and simplifying supply chains to reduce inventory, lead-times, enabling quicker reaction to changing product demand.

 

Logistics

  • Drive to increase flexibility in 3PL contracts 

  • Key to optimize consumer delivery through partnering, charging for delivery timing 

 

Channels to market

  • The multichannel routes to market increase inventory levels across DC’s sores

 

Head office

  • Key to accurate forecasting to provide rapid response to changing consumer buying patterns, trends driven by social media 

 

Inventory

  • Effective ways to clear slow / obsolete/ returned stock 

 

Returns 

  • Consumers expect free returns, often buying online multiples of the same item (clothing) in different sizes and colours knowing a high percentage will be returned. 

 

Omnichannel Retail

  • Black Friday, has evolved into week-long promotions 

  • Savvy customers are refining the delivery 

  • Customers are shopping late and bringing the fitting room home 

  • Free returns are driving extra online purchases, but increasing overall logistic costs. 

  • The key is improving the end-to-end experience whilst balancing the economic performance. 

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Key Trends:

  • Discounting / Black Friday

  • Focus on Customer Experience

  • Consumer choice 

  • Tracking systems 

  • Consumer experience

  • Simplifying offerings

  • Increase use of parcel allocation systems 

  • Intelligent customers ( will search to find a good deal)

  • Box size increasing 

  • Omnichannel retail 

  • Parcel providers, as important as “3PL logistic providers” 

  • End consumer communication, scheduling and tracking. 

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