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Recent Posts
- Driverless cars will change everything about retail hotspots
- Avoid the tyranny of choice
- Why you are not a digital retailer
- Retail is not transforming, it is dissolving
- Fairtrade ensures supply chain security as well as trade justice
- A question of trust
- Improving is not winning
- Remodelling the brand / retailer deal
- How the world sees us
- The future of retail: You ain’t seen nothing yet
- The grocery market is not Amazon’s true target
- The fiction of friction
- Volatility killed the strategic plan
- Stores are far from a waste of space
- Brexit shows the danger of trusting averages
- Why retailers are choosing to own more of the process, not less
Twitter Updates
- RT @GeorgeMacD: Great points as always from Michael, one of the most astute and thoughtful retail advisors 3 weeks ago
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- RT @ClarenceHouse: Today @Waitrose have announced that their Duchy Organic range has hit a milestone of £30 million donated to The Prince o… 1 month ago
- I’m reminded (by Jeremy Haywood’s new biog) that Pfizer launched a takeover of AstraZeneca in 2014. UK Govt conclud… twitter.com/i/web/status/1… 2 months ago
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Category Archives: Retail
Driverless cars will change everything about retail hotspots
In his autobiography Sam Walton described why he preferred a small propeller plane to a jet. He could fly closer to the ground and see how America’s towns and cities were growing. Having scouted out the traffic flows and selected … Continue reading
Posted in Future, Retail, Retail space
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Avoid the tyranny of choice
The gloomy Danish philosopher Kierkegaard found much of life to be painful, but it can be assumed he would have harboured a particular ennui for online shopping. Too many options, especially when combined with the stress of information acquisition, create … Continue reading
Posted in Consumer behaviour, Online retailing, Retail
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Why you are not a digital retailer
In all the retail digital transformations I’ve been involved in over the past two decades, a simple truth has emerged. The successful ones brace themselves for a breakneck pace of change – to move at digital speed. And they see … Continue reading
Posted in Future, Online retailing, Retail
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Retail is not transforming, it is dissolving
Many commentators, myself included, have shared their thoughts in Retail Week’s Opinion column on “the future of retail”. We all conclude that retail is undergoing rapid transformation. And yet, I think, we have all missed the point. For retail is … Continue reading
Posted in Future, Retail
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Fairtrade ensures supply chain security as well as trade justice
The aroma of a coffee plantation in full bloom is sweetly intoxicating. Jinaldo encouraged me to sniff the white flowers on the tall, delicate trees and compare their complex bouquets. “Vanilla, fruits, honey, perhaps chocolate?” I suggested. Good, he responds … Continue reading
Posted in Ethics, Fairtrade, Retail
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A question of trust
We often hear that we are in a general crisis of trust. Not only among brands, but also bankers, politicians, the media, and nearly all institutions. Should retailers be concerned about this? On the one hand, yes: each year, OC&C’s … Continue reading
Posted in Ethics, Retail, Trust
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Improving is not winning
The roll call of failed or struggling retailers is growing: Toys R Us, Maplin, Poundworld, Carpetright, Mothercare, House of Fraser. Many more will be added. In the long view, retail has always been an industry of creative destruction. Assets have … Continue reading
Posted in Retail, Strategy
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Remodelling the brand / retailer deal
It’s not easy to spot retail history in the making. WalMart’s acquisition of Asda in 1999 was perhaps less seismic than predicted at the time. Almost no one mentioned shopping when Apple launched the iPhone in January 2007. But 25th … Continue reading
Posted in Brand, Multichannel, Online retailing, Retail
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The future of retail: You ain’t seen nothing yet
For some time retail has been “omnichannel” and then “mobile first”. But mobile is moving into the maturity phase. As one S-curve of adoption slackens off, the next one picks up. So what’s next? Rather than a single answer to that question, … Continue reading
Posted in Future, Multichannel, Online retailing, Retail, Strategy
Tagged innovation, retail, strategy, Technology
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The grocery market is not Amazon’s true target
Amazon’s acquisition of Whole Foods is not about stores. Or even about grocery. Most commentators have portrayed Amazon’s acquisition of Whole Foods as a drawing of the battle lines in the grocery market. Amazon, it is assumed, wants to become … Continue reading
Posted in Future, Multichannel, Online retailing, Retail, Strategy
Tagged Amazon, retail, strategy, Whole Foods
Comments Off on The grocery market is not Amazon’s true target
