Black Friday UK 2015: Asda might be right to scale back its bargains on 27 November – but shoppers will still expect the deals Last year Black Friday broke the internet. Well, not quite; but it did break the websites of many UK retailers which struggled to cope with demand. In stores the occasion created Walking Dead type scenes, with hoards of shoppers frantically clawing for the best bargains. Given that these are sure signs that the event – [...]
Amazon might be planning to launch online food service Fresh in the UK – but against Tesco, Sainsbury, Asda and other major players, has it bitten off more than it can chew? If there were an award for the company that most shaped the retail zeitgeist over the past 10 years, then Amazon would most certainly be a contender. Its innovations have changed the way we shop. Such a pioneering status inevitably creates a great deal of interest. However, along with the interest come some hype: including the [...]
Amazon overtakes Walmart as US’ biggest retailer: But has it really stolen its crown? The king is dead: Long live the king. If Americans still had monarchic leanings that might be how they would have viewed last night’s shock announcement that Walmart, that behemoth of retailing, had lost its crown as the nation’s biggest retailer. The fact that it lost it to Amazon, a dot-com upstart with no physical [...]
Lies, damned lies, and statistics: ONS’ retail sales are, at best, a partial truth and, at worst, misleading July 23, 2015 There are lies, damned lies, and statistics. Nowhere is this truer than in the retail sales numbers reported each month by the ONS. The official statistics body for the UK is nothing if not thorough. Each month it presents more than 300 variants of the numbers, each using a different measure or examining a particular [...]
With this estimate of Apple Watch sales, the tech giant shows every sign of maintaining momentum: Investors are wrong to punish Apple July 22, 2015 Despite posting strong third-quarter revenue growth (up 33 per cent to $49.6bn) and a slight gain in margin, Apple’s shares slipped seven per cent in after hours trading, wiping billions off its valuation and leading other tech stocks down. Investors were concerned, it seems, by lower than expected iPad and iPhone shipments and the possibility of [...]
Dave Lewis’s shopping list: Blueprint for a Tesco turnaround plan October 23, 2014 Another update, another set of gloomy results from Tesco. The pattern is now well established, and yesterday’s weak trading numbers didn’t come as a great surprise. But one thing that did surprise was the apparent lack of a forward strategy. What is new chief executive Dave Lewis going to focus on? The issue of price [...]
Tesco can still win back shoppers by slashing prices: Investors may now be harder to convince September 22, 2014 EVEN before the announcement of accounting irregularities yesterday, Tesco was a company beset by problems. Once the darling of the British retail scene and the undisputed leader of the grocery pack, Tesco has faced years of falling sales and profits, combined with some high profile failures, like the disposal of its costly Fresh & Easy [...]