High Street 'Store Closing' sign with mo

Retail 

 

Looking ahead from here

 

Where did all the shops go?

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Retail is getting complicated. It is no longer a case of simply stocking shelves with desirable goods and waiting for shoppers to flock through the doors. Rapid developments in technology are changing the game, CoVid-19 has accelerated the speed of change. 

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The collapse of Arcadia Group with its best-known brands TopShop, Burton and Dorothy Perkins, highlights the challenge the UK High Street is facing as CoVid drives a rapid change in consumer buying habits towards buying on-line.

 

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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.