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Geoff's View - 2012 Outlook

Posted by: FSPRetail , 22 February 2012

The ONS retail figures for January were better than expected. The explanation seems likely to be local, relating for example to the ONS seasonal adjustment factor or the digital switchover in London, rather than a fundamental change to the longer term outlook for the industry.  read more…

Tags: GEOFF'S VIEW, STATISTICS

Christmas Sales Commentary

Posted by: FSPRetail , 24 January 2012

The retail story of 2011/12 Christmas is less about sales and more about survival. Sales generally were better than in snow-struck ’10/11 but the number of retailers going into administration has been the highest since the ‘08/09 crisis. Few of the failures have been a surprise and sadly there is still a queue of struggling retailers.  read more…

Tags: STATISTICS, SNAPSHOP, CHRISTMAS SALES REPORT

SnapShop Blog - All White

Posted by: FSPRetail , 17 January 2012

Peacocks, on the verge of administration, would be the biggest failure since the Woolworths collapse of 2008, which preceded a Christmas of Horrors for a host of retailers. This year is showing similar tendencies, but with all around them failing, or at least flailing, White Stuff has a reason to smile.  read more…

Tags: STATISTICS, SNAPSHOP

Christmas Sales Report 2011 - Available January 6th 2011

Posted by: FSPRetail , 23 December 2011

It's that time of year again!  read more…

Tags: RETAILERS, FUTURE OF RETAILING, STATISTICS, CHRISTMAS SALES REPORT

November Retail Sales Fall

Posted by: Hpratley , 07 December 2011

It is gloomy news for retail and the high street at the moment, with news that customers are not and will not be spending as much as last year.  read more…

Tags: RETAILERS, TOWN/SHOPPING CENTRES, FUTURE OF RETAILING, STATISTICS, RETAIL STATISTICS, CHRISTMAS SALES REPORT

Retail Pulse Product Focus - The medium term outlook for UK retailing

Posted by: FSPRetail , 09 November 2011

The demand to understand the future course of UK retailing has grown sharply. A joint FSP and twentyretail research project published in Estates Gazette in 2010 continues to be up-dated and is proving prescient.

The need to know what lies round the corner is driven by unease within the UK retail property market. The fall of DTZ, articles such as Property Week’s “Retail’s Exiled Agents”, unprecedented levels of shop vacancies in some locations and record rents in others, are a few indicators of the dislocation of the UK retail property market.  read more…

Tags: RETAILERS, FUTURE OF RETAILING, STATISTICS, RETAIL PULSE

Retail recovery slows in February as sales take a hit

Posted by: Hpratley , 10 March 2011

Positive sales seen at the beginning on 2011 have slowed as retailers saw their worst February sales for nearly a year, according to a report by the BRC.  read more…

Tags: GEOFF'S VIEW, RETAILERS, STATISTICS, SOCIAL COMMENTARY, RETAIL STATISTICS

Product Focus: Christmas Sales 2010

Posted by: Hpratley , 13 January 2011

The first FSP Christmas Sales Report for Christmas 2010 was published on 7th January 2011 and will be updated throughout the month.  read more…

Tags: RETAILERS, E-TAILING, STATISTICS, GENERAL, SHOPPERS, CHRISTMAS, SOCIAL COMMENTARY, RETAIL STATISTICS

FISH

Posted by: FSPRetail , 12 May 2010

Fashion typically accounts for over 60% of shopping centre floorspace and 70% of rental income. Achieving an appropriate mix of fashion retailers to engage and delight shoppers is clearly central to creating valuable retail assets. Detailed fashion market analysis however, can be confused by overly general lifestyle classifications and is often ignored in favour of easier but less relevant merchandise mix and price position analysis.

In response to this challenge, FSP has undertaken detailed research into fashion purchasing behaviour and developed an attitudinal segmentation system. The research identifies two sets of relevant perceptions or attitudes:  read more…

Tags: FUTURE OF RETAILING, STATISTICS, REGENERATION AND DEVELOPMENT

Choose your attitude

Posted by: FSPRetail , 24 June 2009

The Retail News Index (RNI) has risen strongly since its seasonal nadir in January. The RNI, an index based on the balance between positive and negative retail news stories, is now back to levels not seen since 2006, outside the pre-Christmas period. There is a clear seasonal pattern to the RNI which typically rises during the Autumn before falling back. The index for January 2009 was the lowest since January 2005, so the rise this year is particularly marked.  read more…

Tags: GEOFF'S VIEW, STATISTICS

Liberty, Equality, Sorority

Posted by: FSPRetail , 03 June 2009

Sir Stuart of M&S was quoted in the Guardian at the weekend as saying “Women can get to the top of any single job that they want to in the UK. I mean, what else do you want to do, for God's sake? Women astronauts. Women miners. Women dentists. Women doctors. Women managing directors. What is it you haven't got?” (was this a personal rant or could anyone join in?)  read more…

Tags: STATISTICS

Getting our numbers right

Posted by: FSPRetail , 21 May 2009

Early on in my FSP career I was instructed in the value of “Value”. The Value of Retail Sales, in the rawest possible form, completely un-corrupted by seasonal fiddles and unaffected by the transmogrification to Volume as defined in ONS speak here:  read more…

Tags: STATISTICS

Lies, Damn Lies and Statistics

Posted by: FSPRetail , 21 May 2009

The FT headline last week, “ONS admits to getting its sums wrong with overstated retail sales” initially alarmed me. There has been some grumbling that retail sales as reported by ONS have been too optimistic. Were the critics right after all?  read more…

Tags: GEOFF'S VIEW, STATISTICS

The new retailing landscape

Posted by: FSPRetail , 18 September 2008

The performance of the UK economy has been sound throughout the first half of 2008. Why therefore has the reported performance of so many retailers been poor? If they have done badly when the economy was good, what will happen when, as expected, the economy turns down?  read more…

Tags: GEOFF'S VIEW, RETAILERS, E-TAILING, STATISTICS

The fog of war

Posted by: FSPRetail , 22 February 2008

Analogies between business and warfare can be over-done. Perhaps in the realm of intelligence there is a parallel. Both business leaders and generals need to adapt strategy in the light of “events”. But how do they know which events, what changes are significant? The military, it has been said, is always preparing to fight the last war, not the present. Too often, intelligence systems fail to monitor what is strategically most significant.  read more…

Tags: GEOFF'S VIEW, FUTURE OF RETAILING, STATISTICS