River Island is a mainstream high fashion retailer that is part of the family-owned Lewis Trust Group. It operates around 260 high street stores throughout the UK and sells online through Riverisland.com, as well as sites such as Asos, Next and Very. It sells a wide range of clothing, footwear and accessories for young men, women and children. River Island has focused on expanding its product offer over the years, including kidswear launched in 2010, a homewares collection in 2018, and a brand aimed at the older female customer named Harpenne. River Island has also made a name for itself with its vintage-inspired Chelsea Girl range and collaboration with singer Rihanna. The retailer has been investing heavily in technology and innovation, setting up a ‘collaboration hub’ in London’s Shoreditch, focusing on areas such as AI and machine learning in the supply chain, and personalisation in ecommerce. It has also made a move to create superstores capable of holding its entire product offer.
River Island says it will close down its UK warehouse by the end of this week in a bid to “protect the health of our employees”.
Retailers are banding together to call on the government for exemption from business rates if shops are forced to close because of the coronavirus outbreak, and have renewed demands for far-reaching reform.
What burgeoning technology will really take off in 2020 and what will it enable retailers to do? We put the question to a panel of tech experts.
“What online-only company is really profitable? Basically none of them. That’s the dirty secret”
River Island has posted a steep fall in earnings after ploughing cash into improving the business to ensure it is future-fit.
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