Ahead of her virtual appearance at Festival of Licensing, BuyersEye’s Julia Redman shares some thoughts.
With the right retail formula, it is still very possible to do well on our high streets – this is the view of Julia Redman, former head of buying and founder of buying and sourcing consultancy BuyersEye.
Ahead of a busy week at Festival of Licensing – where she will be delivering exclusive, never-before-seen free content to retailers who work in the licensing space – Julia (pictured) has shared some of her thoughts on the current retail landscape and its challenges.
“The challenges for retail right now may seem, in some cases, insurmountable, but the situation we are facing is forcing rapid changes in the industry, which might otherwise have taken years to be realised,” Julia commented. “The consumer is embracing online retail even more quickly than it has done in recent years, opening up the possibilities for online business to sectors of the market which may have resisted it before.
“Take a look at the huge online success stories such as ASOS and Gymshark, for example, and other growing online retailers such as Shein and Yoox.”
Of course, consumer behaviour is also changing in other ways, such as spending more time working from home and socialising less than we would like.
“Our needs are different, in many cases we are consuming less, and what we are buying may be different than before,” Julia continued. “Retail is having to adapt to these changes – buying smaller volumes, on shorter lead times, to enable us to react more quickly to the twists and turns of a life living with COVID-19. And in order to persuade potential customers to spend, what we offer them has to be exciting, relevant and great value for money.”
The on-going battle for bricks and mortar retailers over extortionate rent and rates also seems to be making headway. “We are seeing agreements reached by some retailers to have their rent and rates based on turnover going forward,” Julia added. “I don’t believe this would ever have happened had we not been forced into such an uncomfortable position.”
Julia – who will also be hosting live Ask Me Anything expert advice sessions on Tuesday October 6 and Thursday October 8 from 11-12pm – continued: “It has also become obvious that with the right retail formula, it is still very possible to do well on our high streets.
“Take Primark as an example – they suffered more than most when stores had to close but are already reporting profits which are outstripping predictions. Next are another great example, one of the very few retail businesses who have managed to successfully embrace both online and offline retail, and now seem to operate at just about 50/50. I can’t think of another business that have managed this so successfully.”
Festival of Licensing is the four-week virtual celebration of the global licensing industry, running from October 6-29. It is free to attend – simply register at www.festivaloflicensing.com.
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