Last night, I spoke to the BBC about the 12,000 job cuts announced in the UK this week. Retail will certainly not be spared: Harrods, an iconic brand but reliant on international visitors, and Arcadia, a retailer that has quite simply failed to evolve, are collectively cutting 1,000+ jobs. TM Lewin, a brand that has been trading for over a century, is closing all of its shops and focusing exclusively online. Microsoft will be doing similar by shutting virtually all of its stores around the globe. Will 2020 see a reversal of the online-to-offline trend?
Who’s going to be hit worst? Those that failed to adapt pre-crisis of course. We’ll see an acceleration in the demise of mediocre or irrelevant retail. Buckle up, folks. It’s going to get a lot worse before it gets better.