Scottish retail was given a boost Wednesday with news it won’t pay business rates through to next year. The measures, which also cover the hospitality and leisure industries, will last until April 2022.
There may have been lots of news stories about interruptions to trade because of Brexit, but it seems that consumers in key European markets are still buying from Britain, data from eShopWorld (ESW) shows.
Not only have the Chinese returned to physical stores in large numbers as the pandemic has eased in that country, but consumers there remain the biggest online spenders globally, a new study shows.
Sales at Kering's leading brand, Gucci, suffered a bigger-than-expected drop in Q4 as Covid continued to dent luxury shopping and crimp tourist spending in particular.
It took the pandemic to shift all sales operations online. So clothing, lifestyle and accessories retailer Skinnydip London introduced automated merchandising and A/B testing technology to boost its digital operations.
UK retailers are facing “spiralling Brexit challenges” at border Customs and a crisis developing in Northern Ireland trade, according to international courier ParcelHero.
Westminster City Council has announced an “ambitious” plan to “reinvent the nation’s high street and boost London’s recovery” with a new vision for Oxford Street.
The UK needs to prepare for a spending boom once restrictions on consumer behaviour are loosened, according to a new report, and fashion will be among the beneficiaries.
The weather may not have been great last week and non-essential shops may have stayed closed, but footfall to retail destinations continued to rise, having done so steadily in recent weeks.
The Weston family may need to pump some money into its European department stores business that includes Selfridges, Brown Thomas, Arnotts, and De Bijenkorf.
A distinct lack of tourists in London to celebrate this year’s Chinese Lunar New Year hasn’t stopped Shaftesbury from forging ahead with a related promotion.
Retailers had been expecting a steady shift towards online shopping for some time, but the impact of the pandemic changed retail fast and the UK saw the equivalent of five years of e-tail sales growth in only a year.
Physical shops may be closed, but 52% of UK retailers are offering products specifically for Valentine’s Day. And 41% are expecting the event to give them a sales boost with average expectations of a 26% increase.
Consumers may have shifted their non-essentials spend online at a fast pace during lockdown, but the web channel hasn't been able to fill all of the gap caused by the closure of physical shops.
Ted Baker is one of the last of the big names to deliver a Christmas quarter trading update and on Thursday it said that the 13 weeks from November to the end of January sent its revenues plunging.
