What: Selfridges and new owners Central Group and Signa Holding, have plans to offer shoppers mood-boosting experiences and countless ways to tap into the circular economy.

Why it is important: Amid all the domestic turmoil, Selfridges is shifting up a gear, accelerating its green agenda and its commitment to experiential retail. It’s also promising a year of positive intentions, colour therapy and a call to action on the environmental front.

Selfridges’ new year is set to begin on Monday with the unveiling of windows in London, Manchester and Birmingham, England. They’ll be filled with a host of colourful, original illustrations around this year’s theme, Selfridges Celebrates.

The store asked illustrators to create pieces that will be displayed in the windows and across the stores throughout the year, they are to be a point of contrast in a world that celebrates the hyper-connected and the multisensory and be a celebration of form and color.

As reported last September, Selfridges accelerated its net-zero carbon-emissions goal, moving its deadline up to 2040 from 2050 as a promise to the Climate Pledge, a cross-sector group of companies committed to reaching net zero 10 years ahead of the Paris Agreement.

As part of that commitment, the retailer also set a new target of ensuring that at least 45% of its transactions (excluding food, restaurants and homeware) come from recycled products or circular services such as resale, rental, refill or repair.

It has also established “Reselfridges,” a portfolio of circular initiatives it hopes will eventually become the backbone of the business.

As part of that commitment to the circular economy, the store plans to launch a bag subscription service this year and expand its existing rentals for childrenswear.

Selfridges is also taking on new labels that have embedded green values into their collections, such as urging customers to buy less and more responsibly.

Co-chairman of Selfridges Group and chairman of the executive board of Signa, said initial investments at Selfridges will focus initially on the food and beauty halls and the omnichannel offer.

The plan is to have a food market in addition to a series of restaurants.

The new owners are also planning to refurbish the Old Selfridges Hotel, next to the Oxford Street store in London. The space hasn’t functioned as a hotel for years, although it’s been used for fashion shows and other events.

The two partners said they want the new hotel space to enhance the surrounding neighborhood on Oxford Street and serve the community for the next 20 to 30 years.

Selfridges continues to raise the retail bar

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What: In order to generate some growth, Shopify opens up its system to large retailers who can access it a la carte.

Why it is important: This could be a great way for department stores to test and learn new options with a limited cost and time spent.

Shopify is granting large retailers a way to integrate individual Shopify components in their own systems. Toy maker Mattel is the first one to use such features, called Commerce Components by Shopify, and which allows an integration of Shopify modular components in retailers’ own systems according to their needs.

This can be seen as an “a la carte” option, allowing to make the most of Shopify tools without having to create from scratch a new platform.

Shopify peaked during the pandemic, however its stock lost 70% since mid-2022 as growth slowed.

Shopify announces new ways for retailers to use its platform 

What: Harvey Nichols is starting to phase out fur products with the process to be complete by the end of the year.

Why it is important: The number of retailers and brands going fur-free is increasing as the industry work towards a more sustainable future, putting pressure on the remaining retailers who continue to sell fur.

The British department store, Harvey Nichols, is going fur-free by the end of 2023. The company first introduced a fur-free policy in 2004 but began selling fur products again in 2013. Now, the brand has stated that ethical fur doesn’t exist, and fur farming goes against sustainable practices. The department store follows many other brands who have gone fur-free including Frasers Group, Farfetch, Net-A-Porter, Burberry, Chanel, Dolce & Gabana, and Prada.

 Harvey Nichols is latest big name to say no thanks to fur

What: Bloomie’s, the scaled-down format of Bloomingdale’s, plans to open a third unit later this year, north of downtown Seattle.

Why it is important: The decision reflects confidence in the fledging Bloomie’s concept, which was introduced in 2021 with the opening of a 22,000-square-foot site in the Mosaic District lifestyle centre in Fairfax, Virginia. The second Bloomie’s, a 51,000-square-foot unit, opened in October in the Westfield Old Orchard Mall in Skokie, Illinois.

By opening a Bloomie's in the Seattle area, the department store also fills a big geographic void in its national footprint.

Bloomie’s advances its expansion agenda

What: Thirteen Lune, the inclusive beauty platform founded by Nyakio Grieco and Patrick Herning, has raised $8 million in a seed plus investment round, with new participation from The BrainTrust Fund.

Why it is important: Last year, IADS interviewed Grieco to understand more about the inclusive e-commerce beauty marketplace. She created her first beauty brand 20 years ago to celebrate the sophistication of Africa in premium beauty. During the racial reckoning of 2020, she found herself and many other founders of colour on various lists celebrating Black beauty founders.

Alongside an initial Seed round led by Fearless Fund, the new capital means that Thirteen Lune has $12.5 million in total funds raised, which should help it reach profitability this year, according to the company.

While the company declined to disclose a revenue figure, it said that the business has seen 2,000 percent plus sales growth year-over-year. The capital raise will drive its omnichannel approach, supporting brick-and-mortar, experiential retail and Relevant: Your Skin Seen brand expansion. It will also continue expanding into 600 JCPenney locations nationwide and open its own flagship store, a 1,700-square-foot space in Larchmont Village in Los Angeles later this year.

Thirteen Lune raises more capital

What: The group will open eight "full-line" stores in shopping centres such as the Bullring, Birmingham, and the Trafford Centre, Manchester, as well as in retail parks and high streets. It also will open 12 food halls, including in Stockport, Barnsley and the North Ayrshire seaside town of Largs, Scotland.

Why it is important: The group last November had proposed a target to reduce its full-line stores by 67 to 180 by 2028, while increasing its food-only stores by 104 to 420. Chief Executive Stuart Machin said that the investment in stores "fits into the levelling-up agenda, with the creation of jobs across the whole of the UK."

Marks & Spencer plans to open 20 new stores in Britain

What: Paris, the department store of the Chilean conglomerate Cencosud, wanted to compete with Falabella and Ripley and was never able to achieve the desired success. More than two years have passed since Paris decided to close its 11 stores in Peru.

Why it is important: The absence of e-commerce during the pandemic, the lack of differentiation, and the weakness of its sales and brand strategy were what caused the operation in Peru to be discontinued. Besides, Paris should have opened stores first in Lima, where the bulk of consumption is concentrated, and not start with the provinces

The company 's initial argument for leaving the Peruvian market is that it did not obtain the results or the participation it expected. This can be easily corroborated with figures published by market research company Euromonitor mentions that, at the end of 2019, the retailer's participation amounted to only 8.3%, while Falabella had 46.5%, Ripley with 27.6% and Oeschle with 11%.

Another mistake is that Cencosud privileged the growth of its supermarket division in Peru, through its Wong and Metro brands. Also, despite the fact that in Chile Cencosud has a battery of strong brands for Paris, it did not bring them here. The own brands that they had failed to penetrate and those that added did not give them the necessary strength.

Why did Paris close in Peru? 

What: x Southeast Asian E-commerce giant is closing Poland this January, after a year of operations and having exited France a year ago.

Why it is important: Is this the beginning of the end of regional pure players’ international expansion?

Shopee, which launched operations in Poland in 2021, is closing down its operations there. The company has also exited France and India, meaning that the international expansion of the Singapore-based company is now on hold.

Shopee recorded a loss of $931,2m in Q2 2022, up from the loss of $433,7m in Q2 2021.

Shopee to shut Poland operations 

What: Flannels has opened the doors to its latest store in Blanchardstown, Ireland.

Why it is important: Representative of Flannels’ commitment to growth, their first Irish store expands the retail offering across the UK and Europe, marking over 60 stores.

The Blanchardstown store stretches across 30,000 square feet offering luxury and major streetwear brands along with Flannels Beauty and curated luxury fragrances.

Flannels opens first Irish store

What: John Lewis has extended both its Christmas delivery and click-&-collect windows in a bid to attract last-minute shopper sales.

Why it is important: The retailer has added an extra day, allowing customers to complete their online Christmas shopping with a deadline of 4 pm on 22 December for orders selected for delivery.

Meanwhile, the Partnership’s click & collect service has been extended until midday on 23 December, allowing customers to arrange their orders to be collected from more than 360 John Lewis and Waitrose stores on Christmas Eve.

John Lewis extends pre-Christmas delivery window

What: Footfall for the UK dropped 15.3% compared to pre-Covid levels for this year’s Boxing Day.

Why it is important: Store traffic in the Southeast and London reflected the smallest footfall decline on Boxing Day compared to 2019 (-8.0%), but was up year over year (61.2%) for the day. From a category perspective, Clothing and Shoes attracted the highest traffic on Boxing Day compared to 2019 (-6.3%) and was up almost 71% over last year.

UK footfall drops 15.3% on Boxing Day

What: The UK has lost a total of 9,300 retail outlets in the pace of 2 years due to the pandemic.

Why it is important: The country used to have the second highest number of retail square feet per capita in the world, and the pandemic led to a reset for more balance (creating casualties on the way).

According to a BBC/Ordnance Survey, the pandemic contributed to a 13,4% drop in the UK (excluding Ireland) between March 2020 and March 2022, leading to the closure of 328 units (including the Debenhams and Beales entire fleets).

At the same time, 8,5% of fashion stores had to close (4,300 units) including Burtons, Dorothy Perkins, Wallis, Topshop and Miss Selfridges entire fleets. Malls have replaced them by hair & beauty services (+5,9% in total units), services and hospitality-based venues.

In the UK, the pandemic was the most damaging to department stores and fashion stores 

What: The former Arcadia Group brands and Debenhams, which were snapped up by Boohoo last year, have continued to make a loss under the etailer’s ownership.

Why it is important: Debenhams, Boohoo’s largest acquisition, made an 11.7-million-pound pre-tax loss against 56.9 million pounds in sales in a slightly longer period of 14 January 2021 to February 28 2022.

The group acquired the department store retailer in a 55-million-pound deal in January 2021 after it fell into administration. It then snapped up Burton, Dorothy Perkins and Wallis in a separate 25-million-pound deal the following month.

The online retail giant blamed falling consumer demand and rising returns post-lockdown for the disappointing performance of its newly acquired brands, which also hit the wider Boohoo Group.

Arcadia brands and Debenhams fail to profit under new owners

What: The National Association of Large Distribution Companies Agned’s collective agreement is expiring at the end of 2022 which has opened negotiations for its renewal along with ‘historical’ salary increases.

Why it is important: Of the 234,000 employees that Anged brings together, the main union at El Corte Inglés, will request a total wage increase of 19.6% in four years (6% in the first two and 3.2% in the following), while Comisiones Obreras aligns itself with Fetico requesting an 18% increase in salaries during the term of the agreement.

The unions support their demands with the argument that wages in Spain have risen only 1% since the current agreement was put in place during the pandemic in 2020, and with inflation rising, workers are concerned.

Unions negotiate for historic salary increases in Spain 

What: Labour union members took over the sales floor to demand higher wages.

Why it is important: Luxury department store La Samaritaine was shut amid the last-minute Christmas shopping rush as protesters took over the sales floor Thursday.

The store remained closed for the remainder of the day. CGT said about 200 protesters, wearing the union’s signature red vests, entered the store to demand wage increases and stood among the displays of luxury goods, according to AFP.

La Samaritaine closes due to protests

What: Japanese retail sales rose for a ninth straight month in November, data showed on Tuesday, as the lifting of COVID-19 border controls and the government’s domestic travel subsidy helped consumer demand.

Why it is important: Sales fell from October, with price increases in daily necessities weighing on Japanese households as the nation’s core consumer inflation rate hit a fresh 40-year high, indicating price hikes were broadening.

Retail sales grew 2.6% from the year earlier but short of a median forecast of 3.7%. The pace of annual growth in sales, a barometer of private consumption, slowed from 4.4% in October and 4.8% in September.

A recovery in private consumption, which makes up more than half of Japan’s economy, is key to driving growth in the economy, which unexpectedly shrank in the third quarter.

Japan retail sales stay up thanks to tourism

What: Predictions claim that one of China’s biggest exports in 2023 will be its social e-commerce phenomenon as TikTok, YouTube and Amazon.com among others begin rolling out features that blend online sharing and shopping.

Why it is important: There’s early evidence that selling goods over live social networking is beginning to take hold outside of China, with viewers enjoying interacting with celebrities and so-called influencers; the ultimate goal is clicks to buy.

Live online shopping revenue will help offset shrinking marketing budgets. U.S. social media advertising spending, which had been growing at around 30% a year, is set to slow to about 12% on average over the next three years, to reach USD 114 billion in 2025, according to data portal Statista. By contrast, consultancy McKinsey projects U.S. social media e-commerce sales will increase 20% annually over the same span, to USD 80 billion.

Social commerce to go viral in 2023

What: Fast fashion production has increased twice as much compared to 20 years ago, leading to a 10-fold increase in textile waste every year.

Why it is important: Calls for reduced consumption of fast fashion items are multiplying and increasingly echoed in mainstream media (such as the FT). Department stores must pay attention to this movement, as it might propagate by capillarity to consumption of other goods in a context combining  inflation with customers having lower purchasing power and climate crisis.

In its opinion column, the Financial Times reviews the fast fashion business model and consumption patterns. In the $100bn fast fashion market, industry players produce twice as much as they did 20 years ago, and it is estimated that 50bn items are thrown away every year.

Since recycling is labour-intensive, the use of new plastics is easier, leading to an increase in permanent waste (polyester is not biodegradable). The Financial Times mentions that industry solutions include lab-grown fibres, however, it strongly advocates for a reduction in consumption instead.

Calls for fast fashion consumption reduction are multiplying 

What: According to findmycasino.com, Harrods, Selfridges and Macy’s were ranked as the ‘most popular’ department stores globally.

Why it is important: The metrics for ranking included average Google search volumes, Instagram hashtags and TikTok views.

Paris’s Galeries Lafayette store took fourth place in the ranking, followed by Saks Fifth Avenue for most popular department stores; Harrods was the clear winner in the first place, followed by Selfridges and Macy’s. Harrods scored 10 out of 10, with 134,000 people per month Googling the store, while shoppers have so far uploaded 1.5 million images of the retailer on Instagram. Selfridges, with a score of 9.49 out of 10, with Google searches for the retailer averaged 109,000 per month. However, it’s loved on TikTok, with over 47 million views on the platform. Macy’s, the largest department store in the US, had a lower Google search ranking, but the store still receives over 1.2 million hashtags on Instagram and 2.3 billion views on TikTok.

Harrods, Selfridges, Macy’s ranked as ‘most popular’ department stores globally

What: Half-year profits surged 53% to 284.6 million pounds as Frasers Group’s new acquisitions helped boost sales.

Why it is important: Frasers said UK sports retail revenue increased by 11.6% thanks to the acquisition of Studio Retail, premium lifestyle revenue increased by 24.7% thanks to the growth of Flannels and its online expansion, while sales across the group increased by 12.7%. Excluding acquisitions, Frasers Group revenue increased by 22.2%.

Frasers Group profits surge 53% from acquisitions

What: After beating Wall Street estimates on the top and bottom lines in the third quarter, the beauty retailer has once again increased its full-year outlook.

Why it is important: Despite inflation, customers don’t appear to be deterred from making beauty purchases at higher prices leading Ulta to beat its Q3 estimates, ultimately raising its 2023 outlook.

Net sales rose 17.2% to USD 2.3 billion in the 13 weeks ended Oct. 29, primarily due to the favourable impact from the continued resilience of the beauty category, retail price increases, and the impact of new brands and product innovation. Cosmetics sales rose 44%, hair care 21%, skin care 16%, fragrance and bath 12%, services 4% and accessories 3%.

Net sales are now forecast to come in at between USD 9.95 billion and USD 10 billion. Diluted EPS are expected to be USD 22.60 to 22.90, compared with prior guidance of USD 20.70 to 21.20.

Ulta beats Q3 estimates and raises full-year forecast

What: A slowdown in retail sales before the winter stirs fears of a recession in Europe.

Why it is important: Tourism has helped so far department stores to weather the situation, including in November. But many IADS members are wondering what will be in store for the beginning of 2023.

Eurostat reports that retail sales in Europe fell by -1.8% in October 2022, compared to the previous month. This is the largest drop recorded since July 2021, and took place before heating was turned on. By comparison, in the US retail sales increased by +1.3% on the same period.

While the EC forecasts a GDP decline as early as Q4 2022  due to the rapid rise of energy costs and the upcoming cold winter, it is also understood that the resilient European labour market should help into making the feared upcoming recession a short-lived one.

Retail sales are slowing down in Europe

What: Macy’s aims at helping SMEs from minority backgrounds to develop and scale up their companies.

Why it is important: The new fund is a smart way to both promote diversity but also secure a good ROI in terms of new brands and products access for Macy’s.

Macy’s has teamed up with Momentus Capital, a small business lender, to launch a $200m fund to help entrepreneurs from underrepresented backgrounds, of which Macy’s contributes to $30m.

This fund aims at helping Macy’s vendors to scale their companies and meet the demand, but non vendors can also apply to a variety of support, including 10 years loans or capital participations. This action is part of Macy’s plan to promote diversity and sustainability, but also helps the retailer to secure access to new products and brands as well.

Inside the Macy’s plan to fund underrepresented entrepreneurs 

What: Klarna expands its affiliate marketing program through a new platform linking influencers and retailers.

Why it is important: Micro-influencing is everywhere, including in the Buy Now Pay Later payment apps, which is quickly making traditional credit cards program looking old fashioned.

The Buy Now Pay Later company Klarna is expanding its Creator Platform (initially launched in the US in October) globally. This program matches retailers with the right influencer among a pool of 500,000 and tracks performance metrics in real time. This is also a way for Klarna to expand their affiliate marketing business, said to generate 600m leads a year.

Klarna launches a globally curated influencer partnership platform