The changes in the retail landscape continue, in terms of brands and consumer behaviour.

In fashion, the new kids on the block – Boohoo, Asos, Pretty Little Thing, Missguided, Quiz – are stealing the limelight from the older, longer-standing retailers.

The latter are still struggling with the dual challenges of the legacy of too much real estate, combined with pre-digital mindsets. When brands such as Jaeger and Austin Reed get into trouble, no-one is surprised.

This culling process is not new and it’s healthy to have renewal, otherwise complacency sets in.

“Are we now seeing more change than usual? Maybe not. The past decade brought significant retail restructuring”

Consumers don’t want to see the same things all the time. They already have enough stuff, so persuading them to buy more isn’t easy.

Discretionary spend easily goes elsewhere, particularly into leisure activities such as restaurants, cinemas and weekends away. Today, all generations eat out to a much greater extent than their predecessors.

Are we now seeing more change than usual? Maybe not. The past decade brought significant retail restructuring.

However, the economic tensions still exist and in some respects are tightening.

Unprofitable spaces

Consumer demand in total is fairly flat, with customers continuing to make an increasing proportion of their purchases online, so more stores are becoming unprofitable.

This is especially painful for large-space retailers such as the department store and general merchandise chains, for whom reducing the number of stores or the size of the shop is a difficult process.

Without question, virtually every retailer has to be able to transact online – the consumer now expects it.

But even though the shift online has been going on for over a decade, we still don’t know where maturity is.

“As one of my chief executives put it: ‘Why open a store when you have whole countries to aim at?’”

Although opportunities for new entrants on the high street are arguably becoming easier as rents in secondary and tertiary locations decline, the level of council rates is a significant hurdle.

So why will new entrants open stores when they can start their business from a lower cost base and less risky position online?

Interestingly, there has been some movement recently by some of the pureplay companies to open physical stores.

In the case of fashion pureplays, I’m not convinced, given the huge growth opportunities that exist both in the UK and internationally, that they should do this right now.

As one of my chief executives put it: “Why open a store when you have whole countries to aim at?”

Online vs offline

There are not only the obvious operational differences in running physical stores compared with online but, more significantly, merchandising a store is far more difficult than online.

In a store you need ranges that tell a story for a number of weeks, which weakens as the stock becomes fragmented. Online you are merchandising a series of items.

For some merchandise categories, such as furniture, the opportunity for the customer to try out the sofa or bed is helpful in making the final decision.

So a limited number of physical stores makes eminent sense for the likes of Loaf.com, Made.com and Sofa.com.

At Mister Spex, we too have started to open a limited number of stores to help the consumer with the more complicated process of buying prescription eyewear.

We may all look at the political and economic landscape in the UK and elsewhere with some trepidation, but there’s still a lot happening in our own backyard.