Retail sales smash expectations despite a drop in consumer confidence September 20, 2024 Retail sales in the UK blew past expectations in August, climbing to their highest level since July 2022, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS). Sales were up one per cent compared to the previous month, beating analysts’ predictions of a 0.4 per cent rise. The increase builds on July’s return to growth, which [...]
How Asos’ post-pandemic debt led it to sell Topshop September 5, 2024 Three years after buying the British high street brands Topshop and Topman from Phillip Green’s collapsed Arcadia empire, Asos has said it will sell 75 per cent of its stake in the brands to a joint venture with Heartland. Asos bought the brands at a buoyant time for the company when its stock was near [...]
How retailers like ASOS, H&M and Zara are fighting back against ‘serial’ returns September 3, 2024 ASOS has become the latest retailer to change their returns policy as firms increasingly try to fight back on costly high-frequency takebacks – as well as outright fraud. In an email to its premier and non-premier members, the popular fashion giant shared that it would be updating its Fair Use Policy foe “select customers” in [...]
Easing inflation helps retail footfall in August despite riots August 30, 2024 Retail footfall in the UK was boosted by good weather and easing inflation in August, despite the effect of the violent riots which erupted earlier in the month. Total UK retail footfall fell by 0.4 per cent in August year-on-year, compared to an annual drop of 3.3 per cent in July, according to the British Retail Consortium (BRC). It’s [...]
JD Sports: FTSE 100 retailer beats analyst predictions in a ‘volatile’ market August 22, 2024 JD Sports has reported good global sales growth in the second quarter of 2024, smashing analysts’ expectations and leading to the share price rising by over six per cent in early trades. Like-for-like sales at the FTSE 100 firm rose 2.4 per cent in the 13 weeks to 3 August 2024 or 0.7 per cent [...]
John Lewis redundancies: What does the law say about department store job cuts? August 14, 2024 More UK retail jobs are set to be lost after John Lewis revealed plans to cut its headcount by more than 150 in the coming months. The move means the department store giant becomes the latest household name to reduce its staffing numbers so far this year. John Lewis has said it hopes to achieve [...]
John Lewis: How all the major changes will impact staff and shoppers August 14, 2024 John Lewis is poised to make a series of major changes that will affect all of its stores across the country and its partners. The organisation announced a restructuring plan yesterday that it described as a “multimillion pound” investment in technology and what it has described as ‘simplification’ would help “improve our customer service and make [...]
John Lewis to make redundancies as major store changes announced August 13, 2024 Department store giant John Lewis is to cut more than 150 jobs as it unveiled a major restructuring plan to its partners. The company is to reduce its headcount by 153 roles, about one per cent of its current workforce, which it hopes to achieve by natural attrition and voluntary redundancies. The news was first [...]
UK retail sales pick up as summer finally heats up August 6, 2024 Retail sales returned to growth in July after the long-awaited summer boost for retail finally arrived along with the warmer weather. Total retail sales increased by 0.5 per cent year on year in July, up from the three-month average growth rate of 0.3 per cent, according to the British Retail Consortium (BRC)-KPMG Retail Sales Monitor [...]
Losses from in-store retail fraud rise 2,000 per cent in 2024 August 5, 2024 Reports of in-store retail fraud rose by 545 per cent in the first six months of 2024 compared to 2023, while losses rose an estimated 2,000 per cent, according to new data. Figures from the NFIB Fraud and Cyber Crime Dashboard showed that in-store losses widened from £258,000 in 2023 to £5.4m in 2024. The [...]