All Opinion articles – Page 9
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Opinion
‘Next wave of ecommerce goes beyond perfecting online shopping experience’
Despite the stiff economic headwinds, the need to get digital transformation right has never been more important, says AlixPartners managing director Brian Kalms.
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Opinion
‘Refusal to allow M&S to modernise Marble Arch will further diminish West End’s appeal’
Retail businesses, shops and the locations where they trade cannot be preserved in aspic. But that is what opponents of Marks & Spencer’s plans to redevelop its flagship Marble Arch store seem to want.
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Opinion
‘Today, retailers can harness the power of artificial intelligence in practical ways’
Applied AI can bring efficiency gains, improved decision-making and enhanced financial performance, say McKinsey’s Anita Balchandani and Louise Herring.
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Opinion
‘Is UK retail’s £2.8bn excess stock timebomb set to be the sector’s next big crisis?’
UK retail is facing a perfect storm of rising costs and plummeting consumer confidence. Could an excess of stock be the final nail in the coffin for many in the squeezed mid-market?
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Opinion
‘Cost-of-living tsar appointment smacks more of spin than substance’
As the punishing weight of inflation dominates daily life – and looks as if it will continue to for a long time yet – the government’s latest attempt to address the issue is the appointment of a cost-of-living tsar.
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Opinion
‘Only with economically unsustainable competition removed can the economy reset’
The fiscal stimulus in response to Covid lowered the cost of capital, flooding business models that didn’t deserve funding with valuations that were, at times, eye-watering. The upshot of excess stimulus is the inflation every business is now faced with, says True co-founder Matt Truman.
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Opinion
‘Avalanche of returns is dragging down profits in an industry living on thin margins’
Retailers are adopting a variety of measures to try to soothe the growing returns headache. Alvarez & Marsal’s head of retail Erin Brookes looks at how the challenge is being addressed
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Opinion
‘CMA will act to protect shoppers from price fixing’
The Competition and Markets Authority receives more complaints about price fixing than any other infringement of competition law, says its senior director of antitrust Ann Pope – and it will not hesitate to clamp down on offenders
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Opinion
‘JD Sports must call on bench strength to stay top of the league’
For about as long as anyone can remember, JD Sports has stood proudly on the top of the podium in its field, but it is looks as if the retailer has lost its form, writes George MacDonald
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Opinion
‘Retailers should be a little less quick to dismiss the crazy ideas’
It is easy to ignore the ‘dreamers’ but retailers should find the visionaries in their teams and dedicate a portion of their innovation portfolio to bold experiments, believes Bain & Company’s Jonathon Ringer
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Opinion
‘Retailers must be on top form to ensure jubilee is not consumers’ last hurrah’
Retailers – grocers particularly – can probably look forward to a golden few days as the platinum jubilee celebrations take place.
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Opinion
‘No bombast or self-proclaiming, but Steve Rowe leaves M&S transformed’
As Steve Rowe bowed out this week as Marks & Spencer chief executive, he left a business in one respect as he found it – in the midst of radical change.
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Opinion
In pictures: ‘A tribute to a remarkable man and a social history of local retailing’
On Christmas Eve 2019, Maurice Dorfman flipped the sign on his haberdashery shop door to ‘closed’, just as he, and before him, his parents, had on 60 previous Christmas Eves. This time he would never flip it back. He died two months later, at the age of 87.
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Opinion
‘Walmart woes spook investors, but now’s not the time to run a business for the share price’
The challenges flagged by Walmart, and its responses to them, likely give a taste of things to come for the US giant’s counterparts on this side of the pond.
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Opinion
‘Make no mistake – quick commerce is not going anywhere’
Even before the pandemic, grocery shopping was ripe for disruption and q-commerce is here to stay, argues Edge by Ascential’s Xian Wang
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Opinion
‘A new kind of leadership can help retailers thrive through the challenges ahead’
In the face of mounting challenges, retail leaders can succeed by hiring and developing the right people, adopting a constructive approach to all stakeholders and fostering a culture of innovation, writes Sally Elliott.
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Opinion
‘Asos’ chair has taken on a second retail giant, but when will it find its new CEO?’
Asos and Asda’s difficulties in finding new chief executives reflect a bigger problem in retail’s battle to secure top talent, writes Rosie Shepard
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Opinion
‘Retail hardly features in the levelling-up debate – that’s a mistake’
Small, entrepreneurial retailers can be the drivers of redistributing wealth and opportunity across the UK, believes eBay UK general manager Murray Lambell.
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Opinion
Alessandra Bellini: ‘Now more than ever, we must make healthy food accessible to all’
The cost-of-living crisis may be dominating headlines, but making products healthier and more sustainable is just as important, says Alessandra Bellini, chief customer officer at Tesco.
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Opinion
‘A huge change is coming to online retail – are you ready for it?’
An update to Google Analytics is likely to transform how business performance is reported and how retailers resources are allocated, cautions Good Growth co-founder and chief executive James Hammersley