Sun.Nov 12, 2023

article thumbnail

“An emotional message”: Why Christmas ads are all about storytelling

Inside Retail

With the Christmas holidays almost a month away, and Cyber Weekend sales starting soon, brands around the world have started releasing their holiday ads. And while presents, family and connection are still top of mind, brands are finding new, inventive ways to get their message across this year. For example, in its new ad, the John Lewis Partnership seeks to replace a traditional pine tree with a giant venus flytrap as a family Christmas centrepiece.

article thumbnail

Ikea owner Ingka acquires Brighton’s Churchill Square shopping centre

Retail Gazette

Ikea owner Ingka Group has acquired its second UK shopping centre, in Brighton, as the business targets city centres for new stores. The deal, estimated to be worth £145m, will see the furniture retailer convert the empty former Debenhams outlet in the coastal town’s Churchill Square Centre into a new Ikea store. The acquisition comes three years after it snapped up Hammersmith’s Kings Mall in west London, where it opened its smaller-format store in the ex-Debenhams unit alongside transfor

Shopping 117
Insiders

Sign Up for our Newsletter

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

article thumbnail

Metcash to take complete ownership of Total Tools

Inside Retail

Wholesale distribution company Metcash will fully acquire trade tool supplier Total Tools by the end of this month. Metcash currently owns 85 per cent of Total Tools and is acquiring the remaining 15 per cent stake for $101.5 million after the current owners of the minority stake exercised a put option. Total Tools has 112 retail stores and is expected to open about 10 more stores a year for the foreseeable future.

Wholesale 246
article thumbnail

Co-op: Actions must speak louder than words to tackle retail crime

Retail Gazette

Co-op has warned there is a long way to go to tackle retail crime after the supermarket reported more than 300,000 incidents so far this year. Although it welcomed the ambition of the government’s new Retail Crime Action Plan, Co-op Food managing director Matt Hood insisted it needed to “see it in action” across its stores. The news comes as retail crime has reached record levels, with the supermarket’s latest data showing of the almost 3,000 occasions this year where spe

article thumbnail

Turn Payments Into Personalization: Unlock the Value of Transaction Data

Speaker: Loreal Lynch, Everett Zufelt, and Michaela Weber

Once upon a time, in the vast realm of online commerce, there lived a humble checkout button overlooked by many. Yet, within its humble click lay the power to transform a mere visitor into a loyal customer. 🧐 💡 Getting checkout right can mark the difference between a successful sale and an abandoned cart, yet many businesses fail to make payments a part of their commerce strategy even when it has a direct impact on revenue.

article thumbnail

How can your business prepare for a cyber-attack and improve recovery times?

Inside Retail

With cyber breaches on the rise, particularly as we head into the ‘Golden Quarter’ for retailers, it is important that all businesses think not just about identifying the weak points that could let a cyber-attacker in and remedying one – but also about how you’d get your business back up and running again in the aftermath of a cyber incident. Why you need a recovery plan Imagine your business has been impacted by a cyber-attack.

Planning 147
article thumbnail

Wilko: Poundland rescue deal stalls with 15 former stores at risk

Retail Gazette

Poundland has yet to agree a deal with landlords on over 15 ex-Wilko stores that it planned to reopen under its own brand. The discount retailer has been renegotiating with landlords to line up back-to-back rent deals on the 71 Wilko shops it agreed to take on in September. It has opened 56 of the former outlets so far, but has not secured an agreement for over 15 due to landlords not engaging to aerated concrete in the buildings, The Grocer reported.

Grocer 107

More Trending

article thumbnail

Majestic eyes 50 stores amid expansion drive

Retail Gazette

Majestic boss John Colley has revealed plans to open more than 50 new stores along Britain’s high streets. The chief executive told The Telegraph that its physical outlets were “sacrosanct” for the wine retailer. The firm has been on a opening spree as of late bringing the total number of stores it has unveiled since it was snapped up by US private equity firm Fortress in 2019 to 15.

article thumbnail

Richemont posts moderate sales growth for H1

Inside Retail

Cartier’s parent company Richemont has reported $17.13 billion in sales for the six months to September, posting a 6 per cent year-on-year growth led by Asia Pacific. The luxury group said the slow pace of growth was influenced by the “uncertain macroeconomic and geopolitical environments”. Meanwhile, the company recorded an operating loss of $1.18 billion from discontinued operations primarily resulting from an $840 million non-cash write-down of Yoox Net-a-Porter net assets.

Marketing 130
article thumbnail

Sainsbury’s, M&S and Currys call on chancellor ahead of business rates rise

Retail Gazette

Several major retailers have demanded action from the Chancellor ahead of the planned business rates rise later this month. Jeremy Hunt is set to announce a 6.7% increase in the metric used to calculate property tax bills at the Autumn Statement on November 22. The British Retail Consortium said the new rate translates to a £470m hike for the industry.

article thumbnail

Alibaba International’s VP on the AI opportunity for SMEs

Inside Retail

Alibaba International has unveiled its AI-powered suite, “Aidge”, becoming one of the early movers harnessing recent advancements in artificial intelligence to improve retail operations. Just to recap, Aidge, is an acronym for “AI for digital and global entrepreneurship,” and is built on the firm’s proprietary large language models (LLMs) and computer vision models.

article thumbnail

Get MACH Ready: Preparing Your Business for Digital Transformation

Adopting MACH technology means more than implementing new platforms. This type of digital change affects your organization at every level and requires a thoughtful approach to navigate challenges that crop up. The Get MACH Ready report, co-authored by MACH Alliance member Scott Canney in collaboration with Orium, commercetools, and Contentstack, will provide you with strategies to prepare your organization for a digital transformation.

article thumbnail

Carbon footprint of Black Friday fashion is 70% higher than rest of year

Retail Gazette

The carbon footprint of fashion and clothing sales spikes by 70% on Black Friday, a new study from the accounting platform Greenly reveals. Exploring data from a SaleCycle report which looked at the big shopping day last year, Greenly estimated that the carbon footprint of clothing sales amounted to 33,012 tonnes of tCO2e, which is 72% higher than a normal day (19,325 tCO2e).

Fashion 57
article thumbnail

Lego opens world’s largest store in Sydney

Inside Retail

Toy company Lego has opened the world’s largest store in Sydney, featuring a minifigure factory, a story-telling table and a pick-and-build wall. The 900sqm two-storey Lego store at Sydney Arcade opened its doors to the public on Saturday (November 11). The store also features architectural landmarks of Australia, such as the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Sydney Opera House, made of Lego bricks. “We hope the unveiling of the world’s largest Lego store in Australia will delight both l

ATS 130
article thumbnail

Dune sale process delayed

Retail Gazette

The sale of footwear retailer Dune has been delayed despite receiving offers from Footasylum owner Aurelius and Next. The retailer appointed KPMG back in March to find new investors for the business to help accelerate its growth. The buyer would take on founder Daniel Rubin’s controlling stake in the business. Subscribe to Retail Gazette for free Sign up here to g et the latest news straight into your inbox each morning Drapers reported that Dune has received multiple offers from prosp

Fashion 57
article thumbnail

Paradigm shift: Why SMEs face urgent need to change data collection habits

Inside Retail

The federal government recently announced that it would accept many of the recommendations outlined in its review of the Privacy Act 1988, which was released earlier this year. A significant change is the removal of an exemption for small businesses, with a turnover of less than $3 million. Previously, these small to medium enterprises (SMEs) were exempt from provisions obligating them to keep private information secure, and to notify customers if a breach occurred.

Consumer 246
article thumbnail

How Retailers Are Transforming Customer Experiences with Data & AI

Speaker: David Azoulay, Marc Stracuzza, Román Tejada, and Guest Speaker Sucharita Kodali

Imagine a retail landscape where every interaction is personalized, every decision informed, and every opportunity maximized 🤔✨ Join us for an exploratory journey into the heart of AI-driven retail innovation. We’ll unveil the transformative potential of AI and data analytics in shaping the future of omnichannel personalization and e-commerce.