All Opinion articles
Most recent first.
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OpinionHelen Dickinson: ‘Leaders owe their people wellbeing, safety and development’
There are around 3 million people who work in retail. It has always been a people business and people are the lifeblood of our industry.
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Opinion
Move of the Week: Finance boss Marsh rejoins Dixons in a very different era
When you’re in the middle of a major transformation programme, it pays to recruit leaders with experience of significant organisational change.
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Opinion
‘Deliveroo IPO will be a bet on retail’s future direction’
“Shall we get something from Deliveroo tonight?” It’s a familiar conversation on thousands of sofas as locked-down consumers seek treats, convenience and a break from monotony.
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Opinion
M&S sustainability boss: ‘Workers in our supply chain need to feel fairly treated’
The Covid crisis has highlighted the importance of resilient supply chains and at the centre of a robust supply chain is people.
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Opinion
Peter Williams: ‘The pressure is on for fewer but better stores’
After the experience of the last 10 months, do we really need shops any more? Perhaps we should start by reflecting on how they were created and why we started going to them in the first place.
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Opinion
‘Times may be tough, but 2021 brings hope for a fresh start’
Happy new year – in spirit, if not yet in reality for many of us involved in the retail sector.
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Opinion
‘As Debenhams exits, Oxford Street must learn from Paris’ radical reinvention’
Another one bites the dust.
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Opinion
David Potts: ‘Our colleagues have earned pay rise many times over’
With supermarket colleagues going above and beyond for their communities throughout the pandemic, the only option is to give them a better pay deal, writes Morrisons CEO David Potts
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Opinion
'Retailers should prepare now for a year of two halves'
Short-term agility remains essential, particularly as retail weathers the current storm. But this lockdown period is also the perfect time to prepare long-term strategies for growth, in order to benefit during the second half of the year.
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Opinion
‘Investors must separate wheat from chaff as etailers race to market’
The acceleration of online retail sales during the pandemic has brought a race to market as ecommerce players rush to pull off IPOs.
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Opinion
‘Forget Jaeger – Topshop should be the prize for M&S’
It makes complete sense for Marks Spencer to add fashion brands to its offer, particularly online, as has successfully been done by rival Next.
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Opinion
‘Act now and act decisively, chancellor – our high streets depend on it’
“The end is in sight,” Rishi Sunak declared this morning as he set out a new package of measures to support businesses through the latest painful phase of the coronavirus crisis – a third national lockdown.
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Opinion
Retail’s 12 gifts to the nation in a year like no other
In a miserable year, retailers once again went above and beyond not just to to make life bearable, but to enhance it.
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Opinion
Addressing the lack of Black talent in the Tech 100 index – and how to fix it
The fact that RWRC’s Tech 100 doesn’t contain a single black person is disappointing, and in some ways, surprising. The retail industry is operating in an incredibly difficult and unforgiving environment, and companies need the best technologists to help them address multiple threats.
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Opinion
‘After its most defining year ever, retail will emerge stronger in 2021’
A retail chief executive put a question to me earlier this week during a (these days somewhat rare) face-to-face meeting: “How would you sum up this year for retail in one word?”
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Opinion
‘This rapid change is not destroying retail but reshaping it’
At a time of mass redundancies on the high street it is only right to be sanguine about the prospects for the job market in 2021.
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Opinion
Peter Williams: ‘The job losses are awful, but fashion needs a cull’
I joined the retail industry rather a long time ago – in 1987 to be precise, at Freemans, the traditional mailorder business that produced a 1,000-page catalogue twice a year.
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Opinion
Roger Wade: ‘We need to level the playing field between online and high street’
Last week brought the end of shopping restrictions as retail returned across the UK. Sadly, the second lockdown did more damage than we ever expected as high street retailers suffered a double blow of not only the pandemic, but online competition.
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Opinion
‘Essential retailers may have shot sector in foot with rates relief repayments’
In the space of a few days, a wave of essential retailers has voluntarily returned the best part of £2bn in business rates relief to the government. In doing so they have won the public relations battle, but have they lost the long-term rates reform war?
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Opinion
Move of the Week: Williams tasked with maintaining eBay momentum
In a desperate week for high street retailers, Eve Williams’ move from Asos to eBay serves as a reminder of how the balance of power has shifted in the industry.
