Congratulations to everyone who has made it into our second Retail Week Etail Power List.

Congratulations to everyone who has made it into our second Retail Week Etail Power List.

We’ve got 18 new entries in the main list this year, as well as an expanded Ones To Watch section, reflecting the fact that there are so many interesting and ambitious people working within this area of the retail industry.

Some may argue that it’s a cop-out keeping Nick Robertson on the top spot but, after much debate, the Retail Week team decided that no one’s caught him yet. While high street competitors are beginning to cause him trouble in his domestic market, his global ambition has proved to be successful in keeping his revenue growth on track. However, there are several other names on this list who could overtake him next year.

There has also been a lot of movement on the list, with our biggest riser, Chris North, moving straight from Ones To Watch last year to the number two slot. This is indicative of how quickly the industry moves, and necessitates others moving down in the rankings even when we believe that they are doing a great job.

The feedback on the first list last year was fantastic, and we are particularly pleased with the number who feature again this year having moved to bigger and better jobs. Within one year, Tesco.com’s boss has defected to Marks & Spencer, Morrisons has bought Kiddicare and a former senior executive from Asda has moved to Amazon.

The rate of growth of sales may well have slowed, but the industry is as dynamic as ever. And its evolution with the development of cross-channel and multichannel services by many in the list means that it’s more relevant to the whole retail industry than ever.

Etail has turned from a direct competitor to store-based retailing to a channel which can complement it. And mobile retailing will almost certainly advance this channel blurring trend in the next 12 months.

I’ll be very surprised if we don’t receive a few phone calls and emails when this list comes out. We welcome your feedback and hope to continue engaging with, and reporting on, many of the people in this list.

  • Do you agree with the list? Let me know in the comment section below.