We often think of Amazon as one of those invincible brands. A bulletproof business. But like a lot of tech companies they thrived during the pandemic and now they’re finding life difficult. Why? 1) General volatility. Like all retailers, Amazon is grappling with unprecedented cost inflation at a time when Read more…
‘Permacrisis’ was declared the word of 2022, so what might 2023 bring? There are reasons for cautious optimism, but first retailers are going to have to buckle up and brace themselves for more turbulence. Spending more to buy less Let’s briefly recap on retail’s Golden Quarter. Christmas was not the Read more…
The COVID crisis has upended shopping habits and forever changed the world of retail, according to the second edition of Amazon: How the World’s Most Relentless Retailer Will Continue to Revolutionize Commerce. Authors Natalie Berg and Miya Knights argue that while COVID sounded the death knell for many businesses, one Read more…
Let’s talk returns. The industry’s perennial problem has been exacerbated by the pandemic and retailers can no longer afford to avoid the post-purchase experience. In this latest report with Klarna, Rethinking Returns: From Returns to Retention, we explore the power of returns as a customer acquisition and retention tool, and Read more…
Knowing your customer is essential in the best of times. In a post-pandemic world, it will be the difference between survival and failure. I had the pleasure to work with Klarna on their latest report Clicks and Cliques: Understanding Modern Shoppers where we identified five distinct shopper tribes for the Read more…
Natalie Berg joins Karl McKeever, MD of Visual Thinking, as co-host of The Retail Exchange‘s final podcast episode of the year. If you were trying to end this year by winning a prize for its greatest understatement, you could describe 2020 as ‘eventful’. It is difficult in many respects to Read more…
What will shopping look like in 2021, 2025 and 2030? I had the pleasure of speaking to Raconteur for this annual supplement in The Times. Always an interesting read but especially this year given that we are in the middle of a pandemic that has upended the industry like nothing Read more…
In my latest long read for Forbes, I explore how London’s green recovery will create opportunities for local retail: Across the UK, city streets are quietly undergoing radical transformation. Temporary cycle lanes have popped up, footways widened to enable social distancing and, perhaps most drastically, residential roads are being blocked Read more…