Retail TouchPoints

JANUARY 6, 2025

The re-emergence of tariffs on the global trade horizon has once again thrust the retail industry into uncertainty. While policymakers often champion tariffs as a mechanism to protect domestic industries, their ripple effects are far-reaching, inflating costs, disrupting supply chains and, ultimately, burdening consumers. As retailers brace for this looming economic shift, learning from past experiences and implementing forward-thinking strategies is paramount to mitigating risk and seizing oppo

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Retail Focus

JANUARY 7, 2025

In todays competitive retail landscape, creating a memorable brand image and ensuring smooth operations are more crucial than ever. One often-overlooked but highly effective way to accomplish both of these objectives is by implementing branded workwear for retail staff. From enhancing professionalism to boosting brand recognition, branded uniforms provide a range of benefits that positively impact both employees and customers.

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RETAIL MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE

JANUARY 8, 2025

In the world of retail, the importance of customer retention cannot be overstated. As businesses focus on attracting new customers, it’s equally crucial to invest in keeping existing ones. Retaining customers not only ensures consistent revenue but also fosters brand loyalty and advocacy. In this blog, we will explore proven customer retention strategies that retail businesses can implement to boost customer loyalty and long-term success. 1.

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Inside Retail

JANUARY 5, 2025

If 2024 was all about pop-ups , in 2025, it would appear that retailers are leaning into third spaces. The concept was originally coined by American sociologist Ray Oldenburg in his 1989 book, The Great Good Place , and refers to places beyond work and home where people gather and connect. However, as Nick Gray, founder of the Australian-based retail consultant agency I Got You, observed, the concept has been increasingly adopted by brands amidst the closure of public third places, heightened by

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Speaker: Jason Cottrell and Gireesh Sahukar

Retailers know the clock is ticking–legacy SAP Commerce support ends in 2026. Legacy platforms are becoming a liability burdened by complexity, rigidity, and mounting operational costs. But modernization isn’t just about swapping out systems, it’s about preparing for a future shaped by real-time interactions, AI powered buying assistants, and flexible commerce architecture.

Customer Experience

Wiser

JANUARY 6, 2025

When operating in a highly competitive space, every dollar counts. For one ready-to-drink (RTD) beverage brand, missing key opportunities to optimize their shelf presence could have resulted in significant losses. By leveraging Wisers Retail Intelligence, they not only mitigated these risks but also recovered $1 million in losses. The Challenge: Missed Opportunities on the Shelf Competition for shelf space is fierce.

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Retail TouchPoints

JANUARY 8, 2025

Ulta Beauty has teamed up with Instacart to offer same-day delivery from its more than 1,400 stores acrossthe U.S. in as fast as one hour. Instacart customers can now shop a wide selection of skin care, hair care, cosmetics, fragrances and wellness products from Ulta. The partnership also integrates Ulta Beauty Rewards into the Instacart app , allowing members to earn points on every Ulta Beauty purchase made via Instacart by linking their accounts through Ulta Beauty’s storefront.

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Inside Retail

JANUARY 8, 2025

Christmas and end-of-year sales are big business for retailers but they also drive enormous returns. The high volumes of unwanted gifts and remorseful sale purchases have implications beyond the bottom line the environmental impact of emissions, repackaging and damaged goods is becoming excessive. The Australia Institute projected an estimated $1 billion worth of unwanted Christmas gift waste in 2024, with 27 per cent of Australians expected to receive gifts they will not use.

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Retail Gazette

JANUARY 8, 2025

Home Bargains billionaire owner has paid himself more than 1bn as the discount chains sales topped 4.2bn. Tom Morris, who owns 98% of TJ Morris, the firm behind the retailer, received the majority of the 1.22bn in dividends and asset distributions last year, CityAM reported. The payout came as pre-tax profits for Home Bargains surged 35% to 454.8m in the year to 30 June, up from 336.5m.

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Retail TouchPoints

JANUARY 7, 2025

With the holiday season out of the way, next to come is a wave of returns that will stretch into the new year. Given the heightened focus on return policies during this period, it is an opportune time for customer fulfillment leaders to raise awareness within their organizations about a persistent challenge confronting retailers: the rise in retail returns fraud.

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Retail Focus

JANUARY 6, 2025

Pricer , the leading in-store automation andcommunication solutions provider, has announced its availability on Google Cloud Marketplace, allowing retailers to quickly deploy and seamlessly integrate Pricers ESLsolutions within their Google Cloud engagement as part of their digital transformation strategies for their store networks. Google Cloud Marketplace offers a universal catalogue of solutions, both from Google Cloud and its certified best-in-class technology partners, which help enterprise

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AI agents already analyze trends, draft content, and trigger actions across leading commerce platforms. Yet most organizations still rely on workflows built for human‑only teams, losing speed, margin, and customer loyalty. Humans + Agents: Rethinking Enterprise Commerce in the Age of AI Collaboration shows how to close that gap. In one concise read you’ll see where agent gains surface first, how early adopters prove ROI, and which lean controls keep innovation moving without risking data or bran

Inside Retail

JANUARY 10, 2025

As head of digital at Metcash’s Independent Hardware Group (IHG), the $2.1 billion business behind Mitre 10 and Home Hardware, Anna Kismet is a firm believer in using technology to solve unique business problems. One problem she has been working on since joining IHG in 2022 is how to manage the backend systems and processes for a business, Mitre 10, with over 500 stores that are all individually owned and operated. “From a technology point of view, you have multiple point-of-sale sys

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Retail Gazette

JANUARY 6, 2025

B&Q is set to acquire five Homebase stores in the UK for 2.5m following the chain’s collapse last year. The stores in Altrincham, Basingstoke, Biggleswade, Leamington Spa and Worcester will join the DIY giant’s portfolio, and store staff will be transferred across. B&Q said the deal will add a combined 25,000 sqm to its store estate and aims to begin converting the spaces to its banner in the Spring.

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Retail TouchPoints

JANUARY 9, 2025

Barnes & Noble will open approximately 60 stores this year, according to reporting in the Financial Times (FT). The retailer, owned by Elliott Investment Management along with the UK bookseller Waterstones , opened 57 stores in the U.S. and 12 in the UK last year. The retailer currently operates 650 stores. Waterstones Managing Director James Daunt, who also leads Barnes & Noble, told FT that last year represented a really significant expansion, and that the company plans to do that or m

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Retail Focus

JANUARY 8, 2025

This Christmas, UK shoppers showed a clear shift towards sensible spending, prioritising useful, practical gifts over luxury and indulgence. New data from leading eCommerce provider Visualsoft saw that while overall Christmas revenue dropped by 4% compared to 2023, average order value (AOV) rose by 21%, reflecting the growing impact of thoughtful shopping and retailer incentives.

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Category Management is a cornerstone of a successful retail strategy. While it promotes collaboration between manufacturers and retailers to optimize category performance, challenges persist in its effective implementation due to hurdles in communication and collaboration across teams and partners, and more. In this guide, we outline five essential strategies for success in 2025 that will touch on all the essential pieces of a successful strategy and implementation.

Management

Inside Retail

JANUARY 5, 2025

Woolworths and Coles, Australias supermarket goliaths, have gone from Covid-19 heroes to cost-of-living villains in the last two years. Two of the nations major employers, with a combined workforce of 320,000 staff and about a 66 per cent share of the grocery market, Woolworths and Coles endured a 2024 they would no doubt rather forget. There has, of course, been political and media scrutiny of the supermarket sector in the past but in 2024, Australias two largest retailers were caught in a poli

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Retail Gazette

JANUARY 10, 2025

Sainsbury’s is set to increase staff pay this year as it revealed it won grocery market share for the fifth consecutive Christmas. The supermarket giant will split a 5% pay rise for its hourly-paid staff into two separate rises in March and August, which it said will “allow us to navigate a challenging cost environment” It comes as Sainsbury’s enjoyed its “biggest-ever Christmas” as sales rose3.7% for the 16 weeks to 4 January, and 3.8% for the festive period

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Retail TouchPoints

JANUARY 9, 2025

Want to enjoy the best of the outdoors without, you know, actually going outside? Then the recently opened London flagship of The North Face is the place for you. The retailer, working with Mood Media , has created an experiential retail location equipped with a large-scale LED visual wall displaying curated content, carefully chosen music and even a custom fragrance, White Pepperwood, carrying the scent of the outdoors through the air.

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Retail Focus

JANUARY 6, 2025

Holland & Barrett joined The Langham Estate at 146/148 Oxford Street on 20 December, relocating from 52 Oxford Street as part of its strategic expansion on the famous shopping thoroughfare. The deal takes the 11.3-acre Estates total ground floor retail to 87.5% let, with a number of further deals in progress as demand for prime retail space in the West End continues.

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Speaker: David Worrell, CFO, Author & Speaker

Your financial statements hold powerful insights—but are you truly paying attention? Many finance professionals focus on the income statement while overlooking key signals hidden in the balance sheet and cash flow statement. Understanding these numbers can unlock smarter decision-making, uncover risks, and drive long-term success. Join David Worrell, accomplished CFO, finance expert, and author, for an engaging, nontraditional take on reading financial statements.

Finance

Inside Retail

JANUARY 6, 2025

Amazon, the $2 trillion gorilla, arrived on our shores officially in December 2017, just in time for Christmas. And some seven years on, much to the dismay of retailers, it is now starting to shake the tree and become a real force in the market , as Australian shoppers increasingly turn to alternatives to manage the cost-of-living crisis. Amazon announced it posted over $3.1 billion in sales revenue (across cloud, advertising and marketplace sales) in calendar year 2023, up from $2.63 billion in

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Retail Gazette

JANUARY 10, 2025

Tesco and Sainsburys have been crowned the winners of Christmas by Kantar as the pair outperformed the rest of the grocery market. Sales at Tesco rose 2.8% in the 13 weeks to 23 November, rising 3.8% in the six weeks to 4 January. It’s hold on the market rose to 28.5% – the highest of any supermarket – boosted by growth across its convenience, superstore and online channels.

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Retail TouchPoints

JANUARY 10, 2025

Retail research and advisory firm Coresight Research has teamed up with NextRivet a digital innovation consultancy that specializes in retail real estate to launch CoreRivet , a new consultancy aimed at offering retail and real estate executives more client-centric advice and services around technology and other implementations. CoreRivet aims to combine Coresight Researchs expertise in market intelligence and digital strategy with NextRivets track record in digital innovation and implementati

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Retail Focus

JANUARY 6, 2025

The O2, the live entertainment, leisure, and retail destination, has recorded its best-ever year for sales and footfall. These standout results have been strengthened by significant leasing across the Entertainment District and Outlet Shopping at The O2, as well as the growing importance of social spending, and reaffirm The O2s position as a market-leading retail and leisure destination in the UK.

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Marketing

Inside Retail

JANUARY 8, 2025

Australian retail sales saw significant year-on-year increase in November, largely attributed to the Black Friday sales. “Black Friday sales events proved once again to be a big hit, with widespread discounting and higher spending across all retail industries,” said Robert Ewing, head of business statistics at the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). “The popularity of Black Friday sales continues to grow with promotional activity now stretching across the entire month of Nov

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A1 Retail

JANUARY 9, 2025

Successful pop-up shopping experience The Pop-Up Club has extended two of its retail leases in major UK cities, Manchester and London, as it continues to champion its collection of independent traders and retailers The Pop-Up Club has continued its efforts to highlight the UK high street as it announces extensions for two of its current retail units until the end of the month for Manchester Arndale and 27th January for Londons One New Change.

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Retail TouchPoints

JANUARY 9, 2025

JCPenney and SPARC Group, which holds a portfolio of brands including Aropostale, Brooks Brothers, Eddie Bauer, Lucky Brand and Nautica , have formed a joint venture in an all-equity transaction to create Catalyst Brands. The new company launches with more than $9 billion in revenue, 1,800 store locations and 60,000 employees. Catalyst Brands also has sold the U.S. operations of Reebok and is exploring strategic options for Forever 21 soperations.

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Retail Gazette

JANUARY 9, 2025

M&S has had another strong holiday season , with its clothing and home division outshining competitors and building on its recent resurgence. Despite McKinsey stating the wider fashion industrys outlook for 2025 appears to be a continuation of the sluggishness seen in 2024: revenue growth is expected to stabilize in the low single digits, M&S defied these odds with a 1.9% increase in sales over the 13 weeks leading up to 28 December.

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Fulfillment

Inside Retail

JANUARY 10, 2025

M&M’s has launched its first store in Australia after announcing the opening last month. The location, opening from January 6 to January 26 in Melbourne, features M&Ms chocolate wall and products made in Ballarat. M&M’s Melbourne, part of the partnership with the Australian Open, is the brand’s unofficial eighth store worldwide and the first in the Southern Hemisphere, drawing inspiration from M&Ms New York, London, Las Vegas, Shanghai, Berlin, Disney Springs, a

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A1 Retail

JANUARY 10, 2025

Silverburn, Glasgows leading retail and leisure destination, has announced a record-breaking year, surpassing its previous record year in 2023 by 42,000 visitors. In total, the centre welcomed 15.2 million visitors in 2024, marking a 2.4 percent increase in foot traffic in December alone. This growth comes as Silverburn confirms the signing of several new retail and leisure brands, set to occupy over 100,000 sq ft of space in 2025 for context the average UK football pitch is around 77,000 sq ft

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Retail TouchPoints

JANUARY 9, 2025

[Editors note: I sat down with the folks at PAN, our co-host for an exclusive event that will take place Monday, Jan. 13 from 6 to 8 p.m. at KYMA at Hudson Yards, to discuss a few of the key trends retail will be grappling with in 2025 for this blog post. Read on to take a look at the issues we plan to watch and cover onRetail TouchPoints. Adam Blair] Reflections on AI Use Cases PAN: Dont expect to walk by any vendor booths at NRF next week without having them tell you about their latest AI off

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Retail Gazette

JANUARY 6, 2025

Waterstones boss James Daunt plans to open dozens of new bookshops this year following a solid Christmas trading. The chief executive, who also manages Barnes & Noble in the US, said the business opened 12 new stores in the UK last year and is looking to do that or more in 2025. It comes as Daunt revealed another successful festive season for Waterstones, boosted by the last weekend of trading before Christmas Day.

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