Posted by: FSPRetail , 26 May 2011
How to save our town centres - EGi 23/05/2011
read more…
Tags: RETAILERS, TOWN/SHOPPING CENTRES, FUTURE OF RETAILING
Posted by: FSPRetail , 20 May 2011
As discussed in a previous SnapShop Blog Waterstone’s Vs. Amazon, HMV has sold its Waterstone’s book store to Russian investor Alexander Mamut for a reported £53 million. read more…
Tags: GEOFF'S VIEW, RETAILERS, TOWN/SHOPPING CENTRES, FUTURE OF RETAILING
Posted by: FSPRetail , 25 March 2011
FSP Director, Jo Hewson visited Gilly Hicks last week - the latest Abercrombie & Fitch fascia to reach the UK.
Below is a review of Abercrombie & Fitches 'Cheeky Cousin'. read more…
Tags: RETAILERS, GENERAL, STORE REVIEWS
Posted by: FSPRetail , 21 March 2011
This week Retail Week reported that Asda chief executive Andy Clarke believes “the future of retail is local, and supermarkets need to be clear about the role they play in local communities.” read more…
Tags: GEOFF'S VIEW, RETAILERS, TOWN/SHOPPING CENTRES, SHOPPERS, SHOP LOCAL
Posted by: FSPRetail , 17 March 2011
The outlook for town centre retailing is much worse, and the required action is more urgent, than is suggested in the BCSC and Lunson Mitchenall report on the Shopping Centre development pipeline. read more…
Tags: GEOFF'S VIEW, RETAILERS, TOWN/SHOPPING CENTRES, FUTURE OF RETAILING, SHOPPERS
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
Posted by: FSPRetail , 08 March 2011
FSP looks beyond traditional indicators of retail performance to give clients the advice they require.
With government austerity measures gathering momentum, 2011 is likely to be a difficult year for areas with high levels of public sector employment. FSP is often asked by clients how these measures could affect their business. read more…
Tags: RETAILERS, CENTRES, GENERAL, SHOPPERS, SOCIAL COMMENTARY
Posted by: Hpratley , 01 March 2011
In a recent article in Marketing Week, a report from Deloitte suggested ‘retailers must rethink the purpose of their stores as part of a multi-channel strategy’. read more…
Tags: RETAILERS, SOCIAL COMMENTARY
Posted by: FSPRetail , 23 February 2011
Response to the Financial Times article Asda warns over consumer confidence : It is one thing to reference the Gfk index of Consumer Confidence, as does SnapShop each month, or for Asda to calculate the spending power of the average family, apparently down £9 a week in January 2011 compared to 12 months previous. It is quite another to observe behavioural changes that indicate a loss of consumer confidence. Amongst the changes to which Asda has drawn attention are: read more…
Tags: GEOFF'S VIEW, RETAILERS, GENERAL, SHOPPERS
Posted by: FSPRetail , 18 February 2011
Visiting the first Discount UK outlet, the new fascia from Poundworld, prompted some thoughts about the dynamism of UK retailing. The Discount UK proposition is to offer a wide variety of branded, mostly household, products at discounted prices. There is no great depth within each merchandise category but major brands are on offer. The store environment is bright, well laid-out and tidy. read more…
Tags: RETAILERS, GENERAL, SHOPPERS
Posted by: Hpratley , 10 February 2011
FSP produces an annual analysis of the Christmas sales for the year. Along with Christmas sales reports there has been a lot of news reporting on the sales between Christmas and the end of January. read more…
Tags: RETAILERS, GENERAL, SOCIAL COMMENTARY
Posted by: Hpratley , 18 January 2011
Marks & Spencer and House of Fraser have joined O2’s ‘You are here’ location-based marketing service.
They are both taking part in a pilot location-based ad campaign which enables the retailer to target consumers with special offers. read more…
Tags: RETAILERS, E-TAILING, FUTURE OF RETAILING, SHOPPERS, SOCIAL COMMENTARY
Posted by: Hpratley , 14 January 2011
Comment read more…
Tags: GEOFF'S VIEW, RETAILERS, E-TAILING, SHOPPERS, CHRISTMAS, RETAIL STATISTICS
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
Posted by: Hpratley , 05 January 2011
VAT reached a record high this week as it was raised from 17.5% to 20%.The Government’s aim is to raise £13bn from the increase. read more…
Tags: RETAILERS, GENERAL, SHOPPERS, SOCIAL COMMENTARY
Posted by: Hpratley , 23 December 2010
Retailers have been hit after the severe weather stopped many shoppers from reaching the High Street on what is usually one of the busiest weekends of the year. read more…
Tags: RETAILERS, CHRISTMAS, SOCIAL COMMENTARY, RETAIL STATISTICS
Posted by: Hpratley , 09 December 2010
When Wham's ‘Last Christmas’ plays in a shop barely half way through November, do you cringe or even leave?
Most shoppers want the calendar to reach December before festive music plays in stores. read more…
Tags: RETAILERS, SOCIAL COMMENTARY
Posted by: Hpratley , 09 December 2010
With recent snow and icy conditions keeping shoppers at home, the freezing weather has affected high street sales with a reduction on footfall and sales.
read more…
Tags: RETAILERS, CHRISTMAS
Posted by: Hpratley , 01 December 2010
Did you know that…21% of Irish mothers plan to spend most of their Christmas budget in Smyth’s toy stores? This may not be too surprising, but the Eumom survey also shows that Tesco is the second highest ranked store in this regard, with 13% of Irish mothers saying that Tesco will account for the bulk of their overall seasonal spend.
read more…
Tags: RETAILERS, SHOPPERS, CHRISTMAS, SOCIAL COMMENTARY
Posted by: Hpratley , 09 November 2010
The rate of retailers going into administration has slowed significantly.
As shown in the below graph, new retailers have dropped significantly since July, however companies going into administration remains low.
read more…
Tags: RETAILERS
Posted by: HRoberts , 11 October 2010
Gap, the stalwart American casualwear retailer which has been around since 1969 (you might have noticed that), has upset everyone (yes, everyone) the other side of the pond. How? Well, they had the temerity to change their logo and suddenly, without telling anyone, there it was on www.gap.com. Boy, are they upset! Not just the customers (it must be like your mum having a facelift!), but the design firms (they presumably weren't asked to devote their huge talent to coming up with something "more contemporary and current [which] honors (sic) our heritage through the blue box while still taking it forward"), and, of course, the bloggers and anyone with a Facebook account. After all, until Mrs Kutcher is up, there's very little to comment on. read more…
Tags: RETAILERS, SOCIAL COMMENTARY
Posted by: FSPRetail , 03 August 2010
Previous editions of Retail Pulse have dealt with identifying Corporate Risk (occupiers in poor financial health who may go into administration) and Trading Risk (occupiers who cannot afford to pay the passing rent). FSP studies identify that the combination of these issues typically puts about 35% of current rental income at risk in shopping centres adding to the threat to future income growth and asset values from historically high rates of vacancy. read more…
Tags: RETAILERS
Posted by: FSPRetail , 07 July 2010
With schemes in the hands of administrators, debt driven ‘fire sales’, the high cost of filling voids, continuing deterioration in the financial health of occupiers and worries about the future of the UK economy, beleaguered investors can be forgiven for feeling unenthusiastic about retail property. read more…
Tags: RETAILERS
Posted by: FSPRetail , 09 June 2010
With schemes in the hands of administrators, debt driven ‘fire sales’, the high cost of filling voids, continuing deterioration in the financial health of occupiers and worries about the future of the UK economy, beleaguered investors can be forgiven for feeling unenthusiastic about retail property. read more…
Tags: RETAILERS
Posted by: FSPRetail , 02 December 2009
We at FSP endeavour to identify the registered company behind all the lovely retailers we feature on SnapShop (our online retail intelligence service). Piece of cake you might think. One fascia, one retailer, one name, one company. If only!! read more…
Tags: RETAILERS
Posted by: FSPRetail , 27 July 2009
There have been several hysteria-inducing reports released in the press over the last few weeks. About certain high streets being at risk of demise, sales feeling the pinch because of swine flu (!!) and discounting reaching dangerous levels. Most of this is old news and the rest hyperbole, so a bit of real perspective should be applied to make sense of it all. read more…
Tags: RETAILERS, FUTURE OF RETAILING
Posted by: FSPRetail , 06 July 2009
I note today that SockShop is heading back out of the ether with a physical store in Manchester Airport. read more…
Tags: RETAILERS
Posted by: FSPRetail , 16 June 2009
I see David Wild has noted that “Reserve & Collect success drives 90% growth in multi-channel revenue” when announcing the Halfords preliminary results last week. What he means is that Halfords are making a killing out of people who can’t be bothered to go and look around the shop, or, more likely, are savvy enough to know that time spent in a fruitless search around the shop is time lost from more worthwhile pursuits. Halfords have tapped into the very sound idea that people can surf for their goods from the comfort of their own home, then pop in to collect when they’re out and about anyway. This saves on the delivery charge for the customer, but has the benefit that these customers are brought into the store anyway, offering Halfords the opportunity to persuade them to part with more cash whilst they’re there. Looks like a win:win to me. read more…
Tags: RETAILERS, FUTURE OF RETAILING, SHOPPERS
Posted by: FSPRetail , 05 June 2009
When Morrisons gobbled up Safeway, many of us southerners were a little concerned that the philosophy might not fit down here. I’m not sure how much the philosophy has changed, and how much we’ve been crunched by the lack of credit and are therefore willing to revise our shopping habits, but Morrisons is one of the few just now who are recording increases in their sales. read more…
Tags: RETAILERS
Posted by: FSPRetail , 20 May 2009
Lots of birthdays going on at the moment – or should I say birth-years - as many retailers seem to be celebrating the fact that they’ve been around for significantly more than the average person (even the cosseted and therefore presumably well-preserved MPs!) read more…
Tags: RETAILERS
Posted by: FSPRetail , 13 May 2009
The normal categorisation of shoppers, their attitudes, behaviours and lifestages, does not easily apply to supermarket shopping. Shopping can be a social activity, a means to an end and at times, just a chore. The weekly shop falls into the last category and the supermarkets have their work cut out persuading us to frequent their premises. If we didn’t really have to eat, we surely wouldn’t bother trudging round aisles of food? read more…
Tags: RETAILERS
Posted by: FSPRetail , 24 February 2009
Last month, in SnapShop Monthly, I talked about those retailers whose financial health was Very Worrying, leading to whole centres being At Risk. With a wealth of retailer information at our fingertips, much of it available to SnapShop Members, we have now looked at the converse and produced FSP's list of Hot 100 retailers. read more…
Tags: RETAILERS
Posted by: FSPRetail , 13 October 2008
How do you know if a retailer is going to fit into your shopping centre? Is it going to bring in the type of shopper you want? Will it fit in with your other tenants? FSP has been working to improve its retailer classification in order to answer just these type of questions. We know retailers, and the increased number of categories we now use to define their price position and their predominant customer group means that we can easily identify the right retailers for you. This can be further enhanced when added to the powerful tools we use to classify shopper populations, to ensure a match between the potential customers in your high street and the shops they most want to visit. Contact us to find out more about our research methodology, and have a look at our online database SnapShop to get a view of the type of classifications we use. read more…
Tags: RETAILERS
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
Posted by: FSPRetail , 19 August 2008
FSP Managing Director Geoff Nicholson graced the airwaves yet again with another appearance on BBC Radio 4 yesterday morning. read more…
Tags: RETAILERS, GENERAL