Today, people in dozens of countries around the world will mark International Women’s Day – a day that has been set aside for more than a century to celebrate the achievements of women and to campaign for gender equality.
Generation Z (or “Gen Z”), the post-millennial peer group, is the most digitally savvy and socially-engaged generation ever. Even more than their millennial “elders”, their online and offline lives are completely integrated, with enhanced digital tools and visual social platforms being the first port of call when engaging with both peers and brands.
No matter who you talk to, everyone in the retail industry has a view on the online/offline debate. Whilst some prematurely sounded the death knell for the physical store, what’s clear is that, far from disappearing, stores are actually adapting and evolving in response to ecommerce. Despite the fact that around 90% of all UK sales still touch a physical store, generating sales is no longer the sole rationale for retailers’ expanding store footprints.
Reflecting on economic data from Q1, many economists will be revisiting their full year forecasts in an attempt to predict the outcome for 2017. But with a myriad of data, and often conflicting newspaper headlines about the strength of the Irish recovery, economists could be forgiven for doubting their confidence in the outlook.
Impressive sustainability progress against internally established targets has been set and achieved by many businesses, including retailers, across the globe. But to what effect?
Climate change seems to be continuing apace with worsening, well-documented symptoms in the form of warming oceans, dying coral reefs, shrinking ice shelves, disappearing species and worsening air quality.
The economic costs to society, of extreme weather events and poor air quality, are already affecting us all.
Reports of the death of retail parks were greatly exaggerated following negative valuation movements which hit last year in the wake of Brexit. In the immediate aftermath, investors moved to increase liquidity and closed-ended funds attempted to meet redemption requests, with a particular focus on transactions in smaller lot sizes, accentuating valuation declines for larger assets.
Once considered the domain of bargain hunters looking to make the most of discounted surplus stock from last season’s collections, the image of outlets has undergone a significant shift in the last few years. A focus on luxury brands, VIP customer experience and international tourist marketing has altered the perception of outlets for both shoppers and retailers.
It’s official – Birmingham is booming. According to internal migration statistics, over 6,000 people left London for Birmingham in 2015, making the city the most popular destination in the UK for those looking to move out of the capital. And it’s not difficult to understand the reasons why: over the past decade, the city has benefited from a great deal of inward investment, underpinning Birmingham’s role as the cultural and social hub for the Midlands with its compelling blend of retail, entertainment and leisure attractions.
There has been a great deal of focus in recent months on the travails of the retail sector.
Inflation is rising, disposable incomes are being further squeezed by stagnant wage growth, retailers are struggling with a raft of pressures including cost inflation due to the weaker sterling, the National Living Wage and business rates.
Add to this reports over the weekend that retailers top the list for hedge funds shorting stocks in the expectation that they have further to fall, and it would be easy to join the downbeat rhetoric.
One year on from the shock of Brexit, what lessons have been learned by the real estate industry? Immediately following the Referendum, investors took flight from open-ended funds, transactions dried up and share prices were impacted. A year later – and despite the additional uncertainty caused by the snap general election last month – the fundamentals of our market remain strong.
