Ian Scott

What’s been happening in retail this week? · John Lewis & Partners has partnered with TOPSHOP TOPMAN to launch Topshop in 32 stores and online from Feb 2026, with Topman in six locations. Great collab! · Aldi UK rolled out InPost UK parcel lockers across 536 UK stores, enabling customers to collect and return parcels, with plans to cover 600 locations by the end of the year. · Amazon has launched its first UK sale focused on returned and refurbished items, with discounts of up to 70% across tech, gaming, home, beauty, fitness and more. · eBay has expanded its authenticity guarantee to apparel, shoes and accessories in the UK, offering a “head-to-toe” service for pre-loved fashion. · Poundland is simplifying grocery pricing nationwide, returning to three clear price points – £1, £2, £3 – as part of efforts to streamline ranges and refocus the brand. · SHEIN will host a 2nd London pop-up on Oxford Street from 26 to 28 Sep, showcasing its autumn-winter collection. · Primark opened its first standalone homeware store in GB, spanning a 12,000 sq ft in Manchester. · Holland & Barrett trialled a revamped beauty category in six stores between June and August, reporting a 7% sales uplift versus control sites. The format mixes topical products, ingestible supplements and expert advice, with rollout to larger city stores planned for 2026. · FatFace launched in Germany using Zalando’s platform. Early trading in Germany is said to have been “positive”, as the retailer eyes further European expansion. · John Lewis Partnership appointed former Tesco executive Tom Denyard as managing director of Waitrose & Partners, replacing James Bailey. Tina Mitchell will act as interim MD from late September until Denyard takes over in January. · Currys plc announced a £50m share buyback after posting a 3% rise in like-for-like sales in UK & Ireland during the 17 weeks to 30 August. Growth was driven by B2B, gaming, AI computing and services. · Sweaty Betty returned to profit with a £1.5m pre-tax profit in 2024 versus a £13.4m loss the year before. Sales slipped from £144.2m to £140.4m, with UK and US under pressure, but rest-of-world sales grew. · H&M has named Karen O’Rourke as UK & Ireland MD. With 25+ years at the retailer, she steps up to lead over 200 stores. · Mulberry England has appointed Tom Burrow (ex-End Clothing) as chief customer & digital officer to drive digital and omnichannel growth. 💥 💥 💥 We're delighted to launch our latest thought leadership research in partnership with beBettor, exploring how retailers can fix customer segmentation. We reveal that whilst retailers see customer segmentation as their most valuable dataset, they rate their level of sophistication at only 60% exposing a critical "segmentation gap". The report reveals that most segmentation frameworks still rely solely on internal datasets, leaving information such as customer spending power invisible to most retailers. Download now ⬇️ https://lnkd.in/eC7Ucrwy

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💄 The UK beauty & skincare industry is worth £30bn+ a year 🤩 — and it’s scaling fast. But growth here isn’t just about products; it’s about leadership, structure, and strategy. 📈 At Zachary Daniels, we support brands across every function — from logistics, supply chain, buying, merchandising, finance, ecomm, digital, tech & sales. And the numbers speak for themselves 🤑 • REVOLUTION BEAUTY – fastest-growing UK beauty brand, listed on the Sunday Times Fast Track 100 • Tropic Skincare – £62m in 2023 revenue, ethical powerhouse scaling year on year • Mallows Beauty – £5m revenue, 100% CAGR, now in 550 Superdrug stores • The Rodial Group - £100M beauty empire (with Nip + Fab) achieving £26.7M+ in annual sales in 2024 • BYOMA – Glasgow-born, 1.2m TikTok followers, fastest-growing UK skincare brand on Boots shelves • REFY – Manchester start-up gone global, with viral hero products • Beauty Pie – membership model disrupting luxury at scale • Space NK - prestige retailer, +38% YoY growth in 2024, expanding physical footprint. • Wild - Named the UK's fastest-growing online health & beauty brand, with a staggering 322% surge in e-commerce sales. • Medik8 - Achieved a remarkable ~50% year-on-year sales growth, with global revenues projected to hit ~$115M in 2025. Meanwhile, new entrants are shaking up the UK market: • Kulfi – South Asian-inspired brand launched in Space NK • Ulta Beauty – US giant entering via Space NK acquisition • Shiseido UKI – UK retail sales up 21%, skincare up 55% • SEPHORA – rolling out beyond London to capture nationwide demand And let’s not forget TikTok-born brands like P Louise, P Louise and Huda Beauty which are redefining how beauty scales. 🙌 📲 📈 The opportunity is huge. The challenge? Having the right people, strategy, and execution to grow in such a competitive market 🤝 That’s where Zachary Daniels comes in — helping beauty brands unlock their next stage of growth. 👉 Ready to scale? Let’s talk... #UKBeauty #BeautyIndustry #SkincareIndustry #CosmeticsBusiness #LuxuryBeauty

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What is the biggest take out from Tesco's update today? Rollback isn't working. We all know it's not working but the Tesco numbers highlight just how much it isn't working. In April Tesco said they expected to spend over £400m on price in a highly competitive market, they now expect to spend less than half of this amount. Ken Murphy's expectation is that Christmas will be just as intensive as the first half of the year. Tesco's results contain a few interesting nuggets highlighting why they continue to dominate. Overall supplier satisfaction 88%, up +1ppt YoY, 1st in the Advantage Survey for the 10th year running. Are Tesco challenging? Of course, but Suppliers are seeing a return with increased volumes. Are their stores less cluttered most of their competitors, yes. Does this make it a better experience for the Customer? Of course. An improved price position against the market, notably on the products most frequently purchased by customers. Price activity by their competitors is having no impact on how Tesco's Customers see their price position. Continued range innovation with investments in distribution capacity and new AI capabilities. Over 470 new products launched, Finest sales up +16%, with over 300 new and improved products. Sainsbury's launched over 1300 new products in their last financial year, over 600 in Taste the Difference. Launching new products comes with risk, the likelihood of success is always low. Better to have less launches with a higher rate of success than a scattergun approach. With all the system chaos & churn of senior leaders the innovation coming out of Leeds has been severely lacking! Tesco are early adopters of technology & it would appear that AI is very high in their agenda. The use of AI is only going to increase. This year Tesco have made improvements to in-house tools which find the most efficient journey for every Tesco lorry and delivery van, removing around 100,000 miles per week. 5.2 million miles removed, that is some saving! Growth in advertisers using Tesco Media and Insight Platform; particularly significant growth for smaller advertisers. We know that all Retailers are on the Retail Media band wagon, some buyers are now targeted on it. But when overused it loses it's impact. There is a fine line that needs to be trodden to ensure that investment by any Supplier sees a return. Otherwise it just becomes wallpaper instore & is ignored by the Customer! Clubcard penetration remains high in all markets: UK 84% with over 24m Clubcard households in the UK. No other Retailer comes close, not just in the number of Customers but how it is used. Tesco are trialling use of Clubcard analytics to anticipate and remind customers when they may be running low on household products. The numbers from Tesco are impressive, they haven't had to invest what they expected due to weak competitors. Foot to the floor is what you can expect from them, absolutely no let up! #theretailmind #groceryretail #keepitsimple  

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Asda Planning Major Upgrade To Stores In Yorkshire Asda has marked Yorkshire Day (1st August) by unveiling a major store investment programme in its home county as part of its drive to improve the in-store experience for its customers. The struggling supermarket is investing £7.2m to upgrade stores in Kingswood, Harrogate, York, Pudsey, and Keighley by the end of 2025. Each store included in the programme will benefit from full shop floor refurbishments, including a “simpler and more intuitive” layout, as well as new lighting and signage – all designed to modernise the shopping space. An additional £4.6m will be invested in two stores in the surrounding area – Grimsby and Stockton – with the retailer aiming to extend the programme to more UK locations next year. Work will begin in most stores in September and is expected to take around seven weeks per store. “We’re proud to continue investing in the communities we serve – especially in Yorkshire, where our story began 60 years ago,” said Liz Evans, Chief Commercial Officer – Retail and Non-Food. “Following the successful refurbishment of our Pilsworth store earlier this year, we’re pleased to share our plans to modernise these Yorkshire stores and further enhance the shopping experience.” While sales at Asda are still in decline, recent industry data suggests that there are signs of recovery after significant investment in cutting prices and improving its offering. NamNews Implications: * Logical for Asda to invest in its stronghold. * ‘And if they can make it work there, they can make it work anywhere…’ * Hopefully.... * But the real issue is Asda’s fight against the clock… * …as stakeholders await the EBITDA 'bottom line' impact. #Asda

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