All Newsletter briefing articles
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NewsletterIntelligence Briefing: The UK consumer really doesnât understand grocery margins
The Great British public may be good at many things, but understanding the profit margins of food retailers and hospitality businesses is not one of them. New data from the Institute of Economic Affairs found that Brits think that hospitality companies like pubs, restaurants and hotels are operating on 40% ...
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Newsletter
Tech & Digital Briefing: World Cup opportunity for retailers; Googleâs new suite of products; and more
Weâre now in June, and the countdown to the World Cup is truly on. No matter what you think of the England squad line-up, England and Scotlandâs chances of going far, or the fact itâll be hosted mainly in the US, we can all agree itâs typically a time when ...
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NewsletterIntelligence Briefing: Lidl guarantees Champions League qualification; retail sales dip
After a year of running close, Lidl finally overtook Morrisons to become Britainâs fifth-largest grocer in the latest Worldpanel by Numerator figures for the 12 weeks ending May 17, 2026. Gallingly for the Bradford-based retailer, it was overtaken four years to the month after Lidlâs fellow discounter Aldi knocked it ...
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Newsletter
Tech & Digital Briefing: Virtual-try on to help returns?; AI smart glasses sales rise; and more
Is virtual try-on actually being used by consumers? Well, Zara has seen over 7 million sessions in just four months across 45 markets. As was first revealed by Retail Week, JD Sports has also just launched a trial of a new try-on service for tracksuits on its UK website. Though ...
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NewsletterEditorâs Choice: Retail PR disasters; Alex Baldock to lead Boots; and more
This week, I wrote about the PR disasters for several grocers â most recently Sainsburyâs â surrounding the sacking of store colleagues for challenging shoplifters and responding to abuse in ways that are against company policy. Every case is nuanced and complex, and news coverage very often only tells one ...
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NewsletterIntelligence Briefing: April was awful and election fallout
The big political story running on from last week into this was the local election results, bad for Labour, and subsequent efforts by MPs to remove Keir Starmer as leader. This is not a politics newsletter, but there is one very current economic ramification for the sector, and that ...
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Newsletter
Tech & Digital briefing: eBayâs breaking new ground; Itâs farewell to Kingfisherâs CEO; and more
A lot of eyes have been on eBay last week, as it was widely reported that video game retailer GameStop made a bid for the marketplace to turn it into a âlegit competitor to Amazonâ. The $56bn bid is being considered, and not much else has been divulged. Chief executive ...
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NewsletterIntelligence Briefing: Next and Middle East costs, coolest stores and LADs
Next has no doubt been the most transparent major UK retailer on the potential costs of the conflict in the Middle East, and that trend continued yesterday with the release of its once again forecast-busting Q1 results. The company tripled its previous guidance of ÂŁ15m costs to ÂŁ47m, with ...
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Newsletter
Tech & Digital Briefing: An AI threat emerges; Which retailers are making the best use of tech?
One year on from a devastating cyber attack at M&S, the industry is still scarred from such a large-scale attack that ended up costing the retailer hundreds of millions. I donât need to remind you about all the other brands out there that suffered hacks and cyber attacks following, but ...
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Newsletter
Tech & Digital Briefing: Unveiling the AI investment tracker; Sparks makes a huge return
Retail Week has come up with an incredibly handy AI investment tracker that does what it says on the tin. It follows every AI investment we have reported since June 2023 and provides more information on the retailer, supplier, and other details. The investments have really been ramping up in ...
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NewsletterIntelligence Briefing: AI Investment Tracker; Hackett and Bodenâs speedy delivery
Introducing the Retail Week AI Investment Tracker. Weâve been reporting in depth about how UK retailers (and some big names abroad, too) are experimenting with AI for the past two years. It made a lot of sense to put all of those announcements in place, so you could see what ...
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Newsletter
Tech & Digital Briefing: Transformation of marketing through AI; latest partnership update; and more
I hope you all had a lovely Easter break. In the absence of last weekâs briefing, we have a lot to unpack â starting with last weekâs essential read around how AI has transformed retail marketing, advertising, and brand storytelling. There were some really compelling opinions on what AI can ...
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NewsletterIntelligence Briefing: We have a ceasefire; charting profitability of fashion etailers
On Tuesday, Iran and the US confirmed a two-week ceasefire. This included the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, the closure of which has been driving petrol prices, jet fuel, and natural gas prices in the UK upwards. Share prices of retailers with Asian supply chain exposure or strong travel ...
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NewsletterIntelligence Briefing: 9% food price inflation?; the importance of digital wallets
All the retail data weâre seeing at the moment is landing with a chunky caveat. We had grocery price inflation of 4.3% in March, according to Worldpanel by Numerator, and consumer confidence was down two points, said GfK. Retail sales volumes (excl. fuel), according to the ONS, were down 0.5 ...
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Newsletter
Tech & Digital Briefing: Changes at the top; Asos aims to impress with new app features
I canât start this weekâs briefing without addressing the leadership changes occurring in retail of late. There have been changes at the top for N Brown and Holland & Barrett, but perhaps most shockingly, the two updates to the City were that Co-op boss Shirine Khoury-Haq is leaving the business ...
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NewsletterIntelligence Briefing: Countdown to âAwful Aprilâ, inflation and Next results
We are just a few days away from the new financial year, which means bill rises aplenty (and a wage bump if you are lucky). My commiserations, in particular, to those in Aberdeenshire who are facing a 10% rise in council tax for the second year in a row. Last ...
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Newsletter
Tech & Digital Briefing: Launch of online shopping platform Joybuy; the winners at the Retail Week Awards
We are jam-packed with content this week, so I will try to put the âbriefâ in briefing. First off, an exciting launch from JD.comâs online shopping venture Joybuy, which launched in the UK and Europe last week. The excitement from managing director Matthew Nobbs was evident when speaking to him, ...
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NewsletterIntelligence Briefing: Do people want to checkout in AI?; AF beer now a staple
Earlier this month, we had the surprising news that OpenAI was going to scale back its support for an integrated checkout within ChatGPT. First reported by The Information, the decision marks a sharp reversal on the tech firmâs initial retail plans announced in September last year. The Information report said ...
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Newsletter
Tech & Digital Briefing: Agentic commerce is all the rage; Middle East woes spells supply chain trouble
John Lewis made the rather exciting statement that it aims to become one of the first UK retailers to âfully embrace the new era of retailâ as it makes a significant investment in digital. Part of that is a pilot launch on TikTok Shop, while the other is leveraging AI-shopping ...