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Sales linked to customer data. You can learn about customers, their preferences and shopping behaviour.

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"High quality jackets, parkas and accessories"

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"High quality jackets, parkas and accessories"

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Canada Goose is an established Canadian brand, formed in 1957 and sells luxury apparel. Designed originally to be worn by travellers in the arctic, their garments are now popular worldwide, the warmth and durability of them appealing to those in the UK, especially in wintertime.

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Canada Goose products only vary from jackets and coats to accessories such as hats and bags.

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This article, taken from the Canada Goose website, shows a full history of their brand and how they have become what they are now. The first products from CG were garments such as snowsuits, woolen vests and raincoats, specifically designed to keep arctic travellers warm. The 1970s saw the creations of a volume-based down filling machine, allowing their products to be created in mass. They have only expanded the brand and their product lines over the years and this has resulted in a continuous rise of sales.

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This link shows how Canada Goose are pushing their sales through the use of the brands sustainability.

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Arcteryx page on purpose of their company, what they do and how they differ from other competing brands.

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Arc'teryx is founded on the idea that there is always a better way. No matter how successful or innovative a product is, we believe that each design and process can be further refined. Arc'teryx stands for continuous evolution towards the ultimate balance of lightness, performance and durability.

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Arcteryx is a global design company which, like Canada Goose, is based in Canada, in North Vancouver, BC. They specialise in performance apparel, outerwear and equipment. In a way, Arcteryx and Canada Goose are extremely similar brands. The logo and name of both resemble mammals. Arcteryx refers to the first reptile to develop feather for flight. The logo is based on the fossil of the bird.

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According to Wikipedia, Arcteryx has "over 80 brand stores globally, with these key cities: Vancouver, Toronto, Calgary, New York, Seattle, Beijing, Hong Kong, Tokyo, London and has a retail presence in Key resorts such as Chamonix and Whistler.

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Arcteryx began as a climbing gear retail store as seen in the Wiki article below. The name was changed to reflect the company's vision of creating disruptive "evolutionary" innovation within the outdoor products industry.

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Alongside brands like Canada Goose, many garments from Arcteryx come with a hefty price tag. Although I am looking to place a luxury retailer in my localised town, Arcteryx is not as well known as brands such as Canada Goose or Moncler - would it work as well in my town? It is also worth mentioning that it is predominantly still worn as sports and outdoor clothing, whereas other brands I am researching into have proven popular simply as luxury garments for a mass population. Branded as a more expensive North Face.

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Outdoor brands are numerous and some are comparable to each other in regards to how their products perform, their quality and, sometimes, their prices.

Expensive brands can be found everywhere, but some take it a bit to the extreme.
Why are certain brands so expensive and at the same time how come they are so popular?
We live in a time where fad brands that come and go are a dime a dozen and it's always a bit surprising how high their prices are and how many people buy their products.

It is not surprising, however, when it comes to brands that have been around for years and seem to get more popular as the years go by.

We have looked at some of these outdoor brands that come with crazy prices, including Canada Goose, The North Face and Patagonia, and today we will look at Arc'teryx, one of the most beloved brands by the outdoors communities all over the world.

Contents:

1. The Brand

was established in 1991 by Dave Lane, who originally had founded the Rock Solid company in 1989. That company was then renamed to Arc'teryx, a reference to evolution as a means of representing the brand's focus on innovation and product development.

Arc'teryx was founded by mountain climbers and for mountain climbers, with some of its earliest products being the notable Bora backpack and the Vapor harness, both of which were created by using the thermolamination technology.

Arc'teryx's venture into the outdoor clothing market became notable when the brand partnered with Gore-Tex and obtained licensing for using this fabric technology in their products. Combining their visionary designs with the high-performance of Gore-Tex helped to the brand's quick rise in popularity.

To this day, Arc'teryx continues to be one of the most recommended and raved about brands online among outdoors' enthusiasts and athletes due to its high quality products.

Read next: Arc'teryx vs Patagonia: Which Brand is Better?
Image: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archaeopteryx
2. Why are Arc'teryx Jackets so Expensive?

As we have mentioned in previous articles where we looked at the factors that contribute to the prices and popularity of certain brands, our main focus is on jackets and that is what we will be focusing on today as well.

It bears mentioning, however, that Arc'teryx provides a wide range of products that come with stellar reviews and are worth considering if you are looking to buy everything in one place.

Let's now take a look at some of the main reasons why this brand is so expensive and at the same time so popular.

Quality of Products and Manufacturing

It is no secret that Arc'teryx products last for years and are extremely well-made. A long-lasting product is in itself an investment when taking into consideration that you will not have to repurchase the same jacket year after year because it cannot keep up.

That is not the case with Arc'teryx. The products are not just well-made in regards to manufacturing and overall construction, but they are also very well-made in regards to design.

Their technical pieces perform astonishingly and the odds are quite low that you will be disappointed with any of their jackets.

The quality of stitching, reinforcement and seam taping is so high that very few other brands can really compare, let alone outdo them.

Therefore, if you look at a product that is impeccable in its quality of manufacture it speaks for itself why the price tag is high.

Materials

Here we will be looking at two things:

Being a brand that provides so much versatility of products means a wide range of materials used and thus it's important to consider all of them.

First and foremost, the overall quality of the fabrics and insulation used is really high. We have said this about the other brands we have looked at but in the case of Arc'teryx it bears double mentioning. Their materials are really high quality.

The fabrics used are durable and high-performing and when it comes to the technology, the brand relies primarily on Gore-Tex, which has yet to be matched in its well-rounded weather protection.

The Polartec fleece used is also renowned as being one of the best available. It does not pill and it is also very durable.

The insulation used, be it natural down or synthetic ones, such as and ThermaTek, are also of the highest quality.

In the case of down, the brand uses 750 fill power down and above, whereas the synthetic insulations are high performance ones that mimic down very closely, without suffering when wet.

You might also like: 11 Arc'teryx Jackets for your Favorite Winter Sport

Design and Fit

Arc'teryx focuses on functionality much more so than other brands out there. It is for that reason that their jackets (and other products) perform the way they do.

Performance of a jacket is not just how well it withstands the elements or how well it breathes, but also how it wears, fits and feels.

Their minimalistic approach to style is a major selling point as many people prefer the clean-cut look of their jackets.

We mentioned above that the brand's designs are well-thought out and this is evident in how well their jackets fit. Their streamlined garments are great for moving around, fit comfortably and are easy to layer with. There is no unnecessary bulk or room that gets in the way.

Among their product series there are technical differences that meet certain requirements. The hems are also longer than average and in the drop-tail cut, which allows for better coverage when out and about.
Image: pinterest.com
Warranty and Product Life

We said before that their products last for years and the other great news is that the brand offers a warranty and services related to it that are impressive.

Free replacements and reasonably-priced repairs are the go-to method if something goes wrong with the product and should you accidentally damage your jacket. It's easy to see why the brand is so beloved in this regard since you are not left helpless if something happens, and that's a great selling point.

Having a product that is long-lasting is great as this not only cuts down on your expenses, but on the brand's expenses and also the overall environmental impact of having to re-manufacture a product that keeps failing or getting damaged.

Environmental Consciousness

Year after year we are warned about what is happening to the environment and the damage suffered through the centuries of human activity on our planet.

For this reason, many of us try to be as mindful as we can when purchasing products and opt for brands that are mindful of their production means.

Those who love the outdoors don't just love spending time and having fun outdoors, but they also respect and appreciate their surroundings, nature and the wildlife.

Because of this, it's no surprise that outdoor brands who put great importance to sustainability and ethical means of sourcing and production are also the ones that tend to be favored.

Arc'teryx is one such brand. Being founded by people who were climbers themselves and respect nature, the brand has made great strides into minimizing their environmental footprint.

This is done through several means, one of which is that of ethical sourcing of their raw materials and fabrics. Traceable down, for example, is one of the natural materials used in their insulated jackets and it is sourced from humanely-treated birds.

Their polyester and nylon fabrics and other raw materials are also Bluesign® certified, which guarantees that the materials are free of harmful chemicals and safe to use for humans, and also gentler on the environment.

3. Where Are Their Jackets Made?

The brand manufactures a lot of the products in Canada, but there are many other facilities around the world. Nearly a third of their products are made in China and the rest are made in other countries such as Bangladesh and Indonesia, and several others.

They have made sure that all of the production facilities are up to standard not solely when it comes to working conditions, but also in the treatment of their workers and in accordance with Labor and Human rights.

Being a brand that is so conscious about the environment is an important factor into why the products are so beloved.

4. Are Arc'teryx Jackets Really Good?

Yes. Their jackets are really good. Be it in performance or in longevity, it's very hard to find other jackets that compare on both of these factors.

Especially when you take into consideration that these are technical pieces that are made not just to perform beautifully but to also wear and fit comfortably.

5. Is Arc'teryx Worth It?

Arc'teryx is not a cheap brand, and we mean it in all of its implications. It is not cheap in its attention to detail, quality of materials, manufacturing and it's not cheap in its price.

But just because a jacket is not cheap in price it does not necessarily mean it is expensive either. Let us explain. In our opinion, something is expensive when its price does not really match up to the quality and performance.

In the case of Arc'teryx, while there are some jackets that can go upwards of $700, which is a lot of money, there is still room for considering their quality and performance.

Overall, their prices are not that much higher than other similar brands and when looking at how their products perform in comparison to the other brands, it gives you a pretty good idea as to for which ones you are actually paying more than they are worth.
Are their jackets worth their price?
Absolutely! Online reviewers, be they professional or regular commenters on forums, agree that Arc'teryx is a brand worthy of its reputation.

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Why is Arc'teryx so Expensive? Are Their Jackets Worth It? | Norway Geographical

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Outdoor brands are numerous and some are comparable to each other in regards to how their products perform, their quality and, sometimes, their prices. Expensive brands can be found everywhere, but some take it a bit to the extreme. Why are certain brands so expensive and at the same time how come they are so popular?

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"Luxury fashion brand mostly known for its skiwear" 

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"Luxury fashion brand mostly known for its skiwear" 

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The name moncler is taken from an abbreviation of Monestier-de-Clermont, which is an alpine town near Grenoble, France. Like the other two brands I have spoken about, Moncler started as a simple, everyday brand used to protect workers from the cold.

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Vogue is highly well respected and read by millions all over the world, many reading this article may feel inclined to visit Moncler, Vogue have done lots of other articles on them too. This will ensure that alot of people will be aware of the store if I place it in my town.

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Who doesn't want to feel like a genius? The aptly named Genius collections from luxe outerwear brand Moncler will undoubtedly smarten up your fall wardrobe.

The company tapped eight of the fashion industry's most prolific and exceptional designers-including, among others, Valentino's Pierpaolo Piccioli, Simone Rocha, and menswear maestro Craig Green-to each create a capsule collection that reflects their distinct aesthetic. For Rocha that meant amping up the femininity on Moncler's signature utilitarian designs by incorporating floral prints, ruffles, and all manner of embellishments. Piccioli, on the other hand, took inspiration from early-Renaissance paintings-as is often his wont-reimagining the iconic down jacket as a floor-dusting cape, or a cinched-waist gown in bold, distinctly modern colors.

That each of the collections bears little in common stylistically is a reminder that genius has no single look. Indeed, while the 21st-century image of a genius may wear a white lab coat (or, perhaps, a black turtleneck and wire-rim glasses), for most of human history, the word's meaning defied such distinctions. In ancient Roman times, genius was the name for the guardian deity thought to watch over each person throughout their life-like the proverbial angel on your shoulder, these geniuses protected an individual's moral character, and helped one to do the right thing. It wasn't until the 16th century that the word came to mean "defining characteristic"-and even later that it came to be synonymous with exceptional brilliance. In other words: We each have our very own genius.

The young talents in the images above are proof positive that true genius has many different faces, and shows up in a multitude of different ways. We set them loose in an art museum-a veritable storehouse of genius itself-and watched what happened.

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Isn't It Genius? Moncler Will Smarten Up Your Fall Wardrobe

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Who doesn't want to feel like a genius? The aptly named Genius collections from luxe outerwear brand Moncler will undoubtedly smarten up your fall wardrobe. The company tapped eight of the fashion industry's most prolific and exceptional designers-including, among others, Valentino's Pierpaolo Piccioli, Simone Rocha, and menswear maestro Craig Green-to each create a capsule collection that reflects their distinct aesthetic.

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Moncler's report on Sustainability within their brand. It is important that the brand I place in my town uses sustainable methods to create and source materials for the garments. 100% of purchased down was DIST certified. 98% of the Moncler stores worldwide had LED lighting, which is important to note as this must be integrated within the pop up shop.

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To offer you a better experience, this site uses profile cookies, even from third parties. By closing the pop-up, you consent to the use of cookies. For more information or to select your preferences consult our Cookie Policy.

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To offer you a better experience, this site uses profile cookies, even from third parties. By closing the pop-up, you consent to the use of cookies. For more information or to select your preferences consult our Cookie Policy.

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Rendering of digital images or data onto real life objects. Augmented changing rooms - people can see themselves in the clothes without actually trying them on.

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Arcadia -  Online Visual Merchandising Manager.
Roles include:

- Ensuring product is appropriately merchandised for E-commerced campaigns, homepages, emails and features.
- Working with stakeholders across the business to get products live on the website.
- Actively identifying opportunities for improvement and deriving key insights for the wider business to utilize.
- Use google analytics, excel and other tools and instill a culture of data driven decision making.

MUST HAVE

- Track record in eCommerce merchandising and site optimisation.
- Significant experience translating trading plans, brand guidelines and journeys to deliver improved product awareness, purchase intent and relevancy.
- Experience and passion for fashion retail.
- Strong visual and aesthetic awareness with a love for optimising digital customer shopping experiences
- Excellent communication skills (written, verbal and visual) with a naturally collaborative style.

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Looking at differences on Verge Girl and Selfridges in terms of their omni channel marketing.

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Easy to navigate and true to brand identity, the VergeGirl mobile site speaks to the target customer by displaying new in items and making their front page into an arty display. The three icons at the bottom make it an easy shortcut to instantly shop for new in and all of the Verge Girl stock without having to hunt too far and proves to be a smooth shopping experience.

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Like the website, the Christmas advertising brings in the customer straight away and makes them aware that Selfridges is a trusted place to order gifts from. The read and shop button is a clever way of advertising different features that they offer including their rental service which is perfect for seasonal parties. At the bottom of this there is different gift and appropriate christmas items such as wine, bluetooth speakers, photo booth and karaoke kits, further proving that a buyer can get alot more than just clothing and accessories from here and can build their seasonal holiday just from this website alone. The search bar along the top makes it simple for customers to instantly find what they are looking for, as the mobile site lacks the links to different areas at the top.

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The Selfridges web design is easy to navigate and everything is clearly stated on the page. The same advertisement shows with the same links, however shopping for specific items is alot easier, due to the links along the top that bring drop down bars to show different areas such as women and menswear, home, accessories. The search bar in the right hand corner also makes searching for anything on the site extremely accessible. The icons next to this also make it simple to access a wishlist, basket and personalised account page.

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On the website of Verge Girl there are more advantages listed as soon as you enter the home screen. On the mobile design it simply said 'Shop without regrets' however here we can see that they also are offering free shipping and easy refunds and returns. Offering advantages to shopping such as free shipping is sure to keep a customer on the page, as they don't have to worry about additional costs to their purchase. As well as this, it promotes customer loyalty, if you didn't have to pay for shipping the first time you shopped here, you may feel more inclined to shop here again - and also tell others about the great benefits of shopping on Verge Girl. Like Selfridges, the links at the top are easy to navigate and you can see all the different areas of the website, as well as a search bar and wishlist service.

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To ensure the brand has success in a localised town I have looked at Holistic approaches for it. My pop up shop is going to be located in Guildford which is a localised town in Surrey. There is a new development situated on the high street which incorporates a more modern touch to the town - Tunsgate Quarter. In my plan I have decided to place the Moncler shop here, as more high end shops are starting to be built here and therefore would attract the target customer. As well as this, the modern architecture and surroundings means that Moncler would fit perfectly here and not look out of place and therefore fit with the current brand identity. In my store I have decided to sell mainly the basics that would appeal to the customer however as Guildford is a hub that is only 30 mins away from London, the town also attracts people that may have a higher disposable income so I will be incorporating a small collaborative section that Moncler do with a variety of designers so there is an exclusive range available and offers something different for the high street. With the store I will make sure that it links with the season. I am launching in the winter time as this is when the store will take a high percentage of its annual take and give an option for those to buy luxury christmas gifts. To fit with this there will also be a small accessories section that would be perfect for 'stocking fillers' come christmas time. The windows will have snowy semantics that link to the seasons that may change to rain as this links to the general weather of the area at this time of year. This creates many brand touchpoints which will therefore increase awareness, loyalty and increases revenue. Throughout the store there will also be QR codes as well as on the tag of the clothes that if scanned will take the customer to the website, allowing those that shop to explore more of the collection and therefore establish long term relationships. The experiential section will mean that it's not just yet another brand moving into the high street but it will show that Moncler have more to offer than other competitors and builds long term memory with customers who will hopefully go on to tell others.

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1st carrier bag invented by Margaret Knight, in 1871. Invented in Massachusetts and she then quickly went on to invent a machine which folds and glues paper to form the flat bottom brown paper bag. 1912 saw the invention of the shopping bag by a grocer in Minnesota, Walter H. Deubner. He noticed that customers purchases were limited to what they could carry therefore he reinforced a paper bag with cord handles. By 1915 he was selling over a million shopping bags a year.

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They must be made from recyclable materials. Used for marketing and advertising, therefore should reinforce brand identity and be eye catching and innovative. Must stand out but be sustainable.

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SIngle use plastic bags sold by retailers has dropped by 83% since the carrier bag charge has been implemented. Recycled plastic is now used by some retailers.

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Forbes article on Reusable bags being the new luxury item

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Forbes article on Reusable bags being the new luxury item

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This article is good inspiration for the design of my own carrier bag, as I am aiming to make the whole purchase something special for the customer to have and something that can be proudly reused for ages. Balenciaga sells a leather version of their reusable carrier for $1100 as it has become so iconic. In the future this may be an idea for the brand? "outrageously expensive and hard to come by"

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I know where all the cool girls shop. On the subway, in McCarren Park in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, walking purposefully through the streets of Soho, they're carrying the same black tote bag, from the Los Angeles-based, "it" eco-friendly women's clothing store, Reformation.

The tote is sturdy, chic and minimalist in black and white, and it comes free with purchase (dresses, which the brand is known for, average around $200). Reformation, beloved for its de rigueur mix of style and sustainability, offers reusable shopping bags instead of paper or plastic ones to cut down on its environmental impact. But there's an added benefit, which is that the store's core customers - mainly fashionable young women - carry these totes around like purses. Long after their most recent trip to the Reformation boutique, they're using their black logo bags to convey other, day-to-day things, and therefore providing the store with inimitable grassroots advertising.

This has been going on for years now. Refinery 29 covered the luxury tote bag trend back in 2015, describing the use of free bags from places like Reformation, The Strand (a hipster mainstay bookstore in downtown Manhattan) and the Japanese fast-fashion giant Uniqlo as a deliberate fashion statement. But all of this is a prelude to the latest bizarre iteration of the fad, in which Ikea, the Swedish affordable furniture chain, is collaborating with high-fashion designer Virgil Abloh on an update of their iconic blue shopping bag, and Balenciaga is selling a leather version of their black and white paper one for $1100.

The latter example sounds particularly crazy, but the reality is, shopping bags have always served as marketing opportunities. The famously understated brown paper bag from Bloomingdales, the Hermès one in egg-yolk orange and the Tiffany bag in eye-catching blue - all of these double as bold, outward-facing statements. They tell us who shops where. However, while their effectiveness is profound, it's also limited. Who uses conventional paper shopping bags more than once? (Personally, I use mine to carry my other recyclables down to the sidewalk.)

Now, the demand for companies to reduce waste by offering reusable bags has created an interesting side effect. Disposable shopping bags provide fleeting branding moments but reusable ones are forever . Ikea sells its famous Frakta bag for $0.99 and everyone knows to associate the store with that surprisingly multipurpose carryall in crinkly blue. Case in point: when Balenciaga did its own take on the bargain basement tote for $2,145, the internet was quick to call them out for copying Ikea. In the end, both companies benefited. Balenciaga got a wave of publicity for its perceived misstep and Ikea responded with graciousness and good humor.

Yesterday, Balenciaga stirred up yet another wave of internet outrage when it released a calfskin version of their shopping bag for over $1,000, which sold out quickly. Skeptics were quick to wonder if the luxury French fashion house was trolling for publicity, while the UK Sun expressed its bewilderment in a headline: "Balenciaga is selling a fake paper bag for £876 - and we don't understand why."

My suspicion is that while the leather shopping bag is certainly intended to be a bit tongue-in-cheek, it is also a very earnest attempt to elevate the design to icon status. I didn't know what Balenciaga's shopping bag looked like before this week - did you? Meanwhile, back at Ikea, the Virgil Abloh collaboration should give a mass-market symbol some hipster, hypebeast appeal. In the end, both companies want their bags to have the same impact: to be identifiable but also covetable.

Balenciaga's version of the reusable tote seems bizarre, but it's actually on-trend, in its way, and perfectly in keeping with its brand identity: outrageously expensive and hard to come by. I imagine we'll see others like it from the luxury sphere soon.

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Why A Reusable Shopping Bag Is The New Must-Have Luxury Item

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I know where all the cool girls shop. On the subway, in McCarren Park in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, walking purposefully through the streets of Soho, they're carrying the same black tote bag, from the Los Angeles-based, "it" eco-friendly women's clothing store, Reformation.

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This packaging is extremely similar to the look i'm going for with my Moncler bags. I like the idea of the bag that doesn't have straps but has ovals die-cut from the body of the bag. The reasoning behind these bags was to acheive an androgynous appeal, which I also think can relate to my brand, as although there is separate women and menswear it is easily worn unisex and there is not a distinct gender line.

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When Atea Oceanie were looking to build a new line of e-commerce packaging, it was Assembly London, who brought their branding to life and commissioned Progress to manufacture the bags and cartons.

Two versions of bags were produced, both made from off-white Kraft Paper and stamped with a black gloss foil to both sides to showcase their identity. The handles were different on each version - one fitted with black pinstripe embossed paper carrier handles, the other, more structural, with ovals die-cut from the body of the bag. To keep the product and bags safely protected during worldwide shipping a custom corrugated mailing box with a one colour flexo print on the outer was produced.

For a brand with androgynous appeal, the white and black theme helped to emphasise the finer details of the packaging range that also included swing tags and button bags.

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When Atea Oceanie were looking to build a new line of e-commerce packaging, it was Assembly London, who brought their branding to life and commissioned Progress to manufacture the bags and cartons. Two versions of bags were produced, both made from off-white Kraft Paper and stamped with a black gloss foil to both sides to showcase their identity.

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As the existing branding for moncler is extremely sleek and simple, I am keeping to this to match the brand identity however also changing it in a way that makes it exclusive to the pop up store and isn't recognisable to the brand already. I have decided to do this due to the difference in stores, my store is going to be extremely modern with harsh lines which is evidenced on the logo. I will be printing onto the back however instead of a block colour I will use the image of mountains that I am consistently using as a background for the text and I think that is all that's necessary to relay the exclusivity and importance of the brand. As Moncler is big on sustainability the bag will be crafted from recycled card. This will also make them easily reusable. The handle will be crafted from black dyed grosgrain ribbon, this is alot sturdier than regular ribbon and comes with a ribbed finish. I feel the simplicity will catch peoples eyes, and keep some mystery towards the brand, and make some want to find out more.

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Communicate brand values, reinforce brand identity. For moncler, high quality material with an elegant interface. For my swing tags I am once again keeping it simple to fit with the brand identity, I am making the heading on the front larger than on the bags. To acquire a luxury tag I am using thick card and found a website called colorplan which shows different ways of embossing these. For a more textured tag I have decided to use a granular effect. I have also decided to do different swing tags for the genius collection and collaborations that I am going to be selling instore. My normal swing tags are going to be very simple so I am looking to create a more exclusive swing tag for a more exclusive range.

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Implies that all materials and products in society are used and circulate among its users for as long as possible, in an environmentally safe, effective and just manner.

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In terms of different VM roles in the industry, I have had a think about where my current skills lie and what I need to improve and work on in order to have success in a role that I am most interested in. The roles that appeal to me the most are generally quite creative roles that require knowledge in different softwares such as Photoshop and Illustrator. Although I came to this course knowing nothing about these programmes, I have a desire to learn and be able to adequately use them. To do this I have downloaded Creative Cloud and have got Skillshare therefore I can have lessons on how to do the basics and then move on to more specific things. I will start this after our current project so that hopefully by the end of the year there is a clear progression in my ability to use adobe. In the roles I looked at alot require good communication skills and ability to work in a team. I believe that I am already good at both of these as I enjoy working with others and sharing ideas, and I am fairly confident in speaking in front of a group of people and pitching my own ideas. For any VM role it is always important to keep up with current trends and industry news and I already do this often so wouldn't find that a problem at all.

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I have written a small piece about the science of VM and how this fits with my localised pop up store.

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I made a mindmap on modern vm and how it has changed in past years to where it is now in 2020.

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One of the areas that our group visited was Coal Drops Yard in Kings Cross. It is a destination for Shopping and visiting different restuaurants and mixes independent stores with signature brands.

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The layout of the Coal Drops Yard stores is different to anything else found in London. It mixes cobbled streets with brick arches and industrial buildings.

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The interior of the stores gives a nod towards the exterior by incorporating brick walls and industrial beams and floors. This makes each of the stores completely unique. A variety of stores are run here, below is a wine store showing that there is more to see here than just fashion boutiques, Coal Drops yard has alot more to offer.

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Each store shows its brand identity in a multitude of ways. Below is a small plant store that appeals to the modern buyer and can be suitable for homeware or gifts, again showing a variety of stores that Coal Drops Yard has to offer.

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I used this article on why Moncler garments are so expensive and used this in my strengths section. The article delves into how the brand have succeeded in making stylish yet well insulated jacket that sell to modern day consumers.

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Brands that are renowned for their jackets can be found anywhere online and even locally in many places. It's great that the market is full of options and that anyone can find exactly what they are looking for.

Expensive brands are also many and some of them are really expensive, to the point where the question "Why?" comes naturally to mind.

Exactly! Why are popular brands so pricey and what exactly is their deal? Considering how many other brands are available, why do they carry on with such unreasonable price tags for their products?

Well, the short answer to that, we have found, is that the quality of their products far surpasses that of more affordable options. We have looked at Canada Goose, Arc'teryx, Patagonia and The North Face in past reviews, and delved a bit more on the reasons for their high prices.

Today it's time to add another brand to the collection of price reviews and the chosen one is Moncler, which we have previously compared to Canada Goose. You can find out which of the two did better over here.

Contents:

1. Moncler: The Brand

Moncler was founded in 1952 in Monestier-de-Clermont in Grenoble, France by René Ramillon. The brand takes its name from the abbreviation of its place of origin, in case you were wondering.

If you were to Google the brand, it would show up as being an Italian brand. The reason for that is because the brand was purchased by Italian entrepreneur Remo Ruffini in 2003, which moved the headquarters in Milan, Italy ( here are some other French brands and here some Italian brands).

Moncler is a luxury fashion brand, which originally made tents and sleeping bags and later, due to the need of workers to be shielded from the cold, they created their first quilted jackets.

Their quilted jackets became so popular that in 1954 they were used by the Italian expedition to K2 and later used by the French expedition of 1955 to the summit of Makalu.

In 1964, Moncler was the official supplier for Alaskan expeditions by Lionel Terray and four years later the brand became the official supplier of the French national team of downhill skiing.

Nowadays their product range features a number of products that include parkas, coats, dresses, skirts, knitwear and many more.

2. Why Is It So Expensive and Yet So Popular?

As we have mentioned in the previews reviews that focus on brand prices, our main focus is on jackets and that is where we will be focusing today as well.

That is just a heads up because we are aware that Moncler has many other popular products.

Materials and Manufacture

High prices make us think of high quality products, and while that may not always be the case, in regards to brands that make outdoor clothing, we have found it to be true so far.

Moncler jackets are primarily made of Japanese nylon that gives them a basic level of weather resistance, while at the same time it makes them quite durable.

The quality of yarns used and other raw materials is also very high.

This is evident also in the down used for insulation in their down coats, which is sourced from white geese. Goose down is renowned for its insulating ability and it is considered to be the best quality down in both composition and performance.

Another factor that influences the price is the use of fur trims in their winter coats, which is sourced from coyotes.

Natural fur from coyotes is of very high quality, and yes, there are ethical concerns as with everything that is sourced from animals, but we are looking at it just as a price-influencing factor and it definitely plays a role.

In regards to manufacturing, Moncler jackets are made in Europe, which is a lot more costly than if they were made in China or other countries where the cost of manufacture is lower.

The main countries where these jackets are made are Moldova, Armenia, Hungary, Georgia, Bulgaria and Romania.

This is also a good authentication method because jackets that are said to be Moncler and made in France or Italy are 100% likely to be counterfeits.

Apart from a very limited number of collections that are made in Italy, Moncler does not manufacture their products in Italy and France.

Read also: Moncler Fake vs Real Jacket: How To Spot It?

Environmental Consciousness

We see the effort of trying to source materials through sustainable means quite often with brands as big as Moncler and it is a commendable thing, in our opinion.

Protecting the environment and the means of doing that are good ways of deciding whether it is worth giving your hard earned money to a brand.

In this regard, Moncler has gone to great lengths in order to minimize its environmental impact and that is not solely limited to the materials it uses or the supervision and standard of its manufacturing facilities.

Even for things as small as their cards and the paper bags used in their stores, Moncler uses paper that is responsibly sourced and ISO 14001-certified. Nearly half of its shopping bags are made out of recycled materials.

They have also implemented workplace responsibility by rationalizing the number of printed documents in their efforts to reduce paper consumption.

Their offices' lightings rely almost exclusively on LED lighting and, through the years, they have received a number of certifications that guarantee the quality of their products and the lack of harmful chemicals.

The down and other materials are also responsibly sourced and meet the required standards necessary, such as the DIST standard for down insulation.

All of these come at a financial price however, which must be accounted for in the retail prices of their finished products.

Target Demographic and Jackets' Style

We will cut to the chase here, Moncler does not design clothes for everyone. Their luxury jackets are made for those that can afford to pay for a unique design of high quality.

Their jackets are well-made in both design and comfort, and if you have the money and are keen on looking chic, a Moncler jacket is worth a shot.

Their jackets are undoubtedly very stylish, yes, even the puffy down jackets, and they are exceptional at providing insulation. It's for that reason that Moncler is considered one of the closest rivals to the brand of down coats, Canada Goose.

A good thing about their jackets is that they are made for functionality, therefore they can be used for different activities and not solely worn as a fashion piece.

3. Are Moncler's Jackets Worth Their Price?

Moncler jackets are quite well-made and their down coats are a great choice for harsh winters as they come with both weather-protection and the amazing insulation provided by goose down.

The number of styles and designs is considerable and not limited to the standard looks we are used to seeing everywhere, even from other major brands of the same caliber.

However, the real question is whether they are worth such a high price or not.

The answer to that question would be that it depends on what you are looking for. If you want functionality and style this might not be the brand to go for.

In our opinion, there are several other brands out there with much more affordable jackets that are high-performance and fit perfectly. At this point you are paying for the brand name and reputation more so than the jacket's performance.

On the other hand, if it is cold where you live and you are in need of a very well-insulated jacket that is also shiny, stylish and lightweight, then a Moncler down jacket will do the job perfectly and it will also last quite a while. In that regard, they are worth the price.

All in all, Moncler jackets look great and are well-made, but they are not for everyone. Therefore it comes down to what you are looking for in a jacket and how much you are willing to pay for it.

Here is another video that discusses whether a Moncler jacket is worth it or not:

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What about you? What do you think of Moncler jackets? Let us know in the comments below.

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Why is Moncler so Expensive? Are Their Jackets Worth the Price?

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Brands that are renowned for their jackets can be found anywhere online and even locally in many places. It's great that the market is full of options and that anyone can find exactly what they are looking for. Expensive brands are also many and some of them are really expensive, to the point where the question "Why?"

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For my floorplan I chose to follow an exhibition layout as this is quite normal for luxury retailers. To achieve this I am leaving plenty of empty space in the middle and showcasing mannequins in glass cabinets wearing the new trends. On the tables I will have small accessories mannequins also. I am using the perimeter space as the place where I store most of the product so the customer can follow the wall around.

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This article shows how COVID has impacted luxury retail businesses and how people are more interested in second hand shopping for these items as it is tough times financially for many.

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Coronavirus and luxury retail: Shopping for used Hermes, Cartier in Covid era

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The RealReal and ThredUp boomed before coronavirus. Stores like Macy’s and retailers like Walmart are trying apparel and accessories consignment. Can high-end pawn shops thrive in Covid?

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Moncler have successfully brought out an innovative collaboration project which I am including in my pop up store. This is a massive opportunity for the brand and could go in many different directions. Different designers create completely unique collections for the Genius project and this rotates very often meaning that there is always something new and exciting for the consumers to buy into. This is also very limited therefore increases massively in value secondhand and becomes a timeless piece.

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One house, different voices. Eight collections. Twelve design partners. A curation of the now. Times move, Moncler Genius moves, and reaffirms itself as an open concept driven by experimentation. This year it welcomes JW Anderson to the creative hub, and goes beyond the boundaries of fashion by bringing in RIMOWA and MATE.BIKE.

WHAT'S NEW

Shop Moncler Genius 2020 Collection

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Moncler Genius Evolution: One house, different voices | Moncler

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One house, different voices. Eight collections. Twelve design partners. A curation of the now. Times move, Moncler Genius moves, and reaffirms itself as an open concept driven by experimentation. This year it welcomes JW Anderson to the creative hub, and goes beyond the boundaries of fashion by bringing in RIMOWA and MATE.BIKE.

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Raw materials and the fact that the high pricing of them is most definitely going to continue

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INVERTO GmbH - Unternehmensberatung für Einkauf & SCM

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Rising raw material prices

Our recent study on raw materials confirms what many buyers are concerned about: business performance is being put under significant pressure by rising raw material prices and reduced availability. The current developments in world politics are among the main causes. Measures for ensuring secure supply are therefore becoming increasingly common, such as developing alternative procurement markets.
Raw material pricing trends: respondents expect a rise in raw material prices
In July and August 2017, we surveyed 91 managing directors, board members and procurement managers from German, Austrian and Swiss companies, and asked which external factors currently have the greatest influence over their business performance. Raw material pricing trends took top position with more mentions than ever before. Approximately three quarters of all respondents anticipate price increases that range from moderate to severe. Reduced availability of raw materials also plays a decisive role. The majority of survey participants consider raw material procurement to be under threat because of increasing trade restrictions. Companies requiring industrial raw materials such as metal, plastics and chemicals, in particular, face major challenges. The uncertainty of raw material pricing trends means that 65 percent of companies surveyed now negotiate fixed price agreements with their suppliers. However, the duration of these price agreements is becoming progressively shorter.
Alternative procurement markets on the rise
The participants see increasing trade restrictions as a major risk. 56 percent of respondents anticipate shortages, and resulting price rises. Only one third source their raw materials within the EU and therefore see no threat to their raw materials procurement. Over half the participants expect China, which supplies raw materials to almost 80 percent of respondents, to face restrictions. To counter these risks, participants are attempting to secure alternative procurement markets through relocation or partial relocation. Companies are also responding by changing suppliers and testing alternative raw materials.
Managing supply and price reliability
'It is common for companies to have only two or three suppliers and to know very little about the rest of the market. By systematically investigating the market and actively managing risk, companies can gain themselves time to react in an emergency, and consequently become more flexible and ensure supply in situations that may be critical,' maintains INVERTO Managing Director Markus Bergauer. Together with his team he assists businesses in setting up professional risk and raw material management. As well as using a wide network of suppliers, Bergauer suggests regular risk monitoring to avoid supply shortfalls.

The most commonly used measures in raw material management remain supply chain analysis and inventory optimization. In second place is supplier base optimization, followed by long-term price agreements. Companies would prefer to reduce their raw material requirements, in particular by using new materials and recycling.
Raw material pricing is likely to continue its negative trend. It is therefore essential for industrial businesses to actively manage their risk and increase their flexibility by spreading raw materials procurement over several countries. The task now is to build up the relevant expertise, sooner rather than later.

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Raw materials study: rising raw material prices impact on business performance

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Our recent study on raw materials confirms what many buyers are concerned about: business performance is being put under significant pressure by rising raw material prices and reduced availability. The current developments in world politics are among the main causes.

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Garments that are designed, sourced, produced and provided with the intention to be used and circulate responsibly and effectively in society for as long as possible in their most valuable form.

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My PESTEL analysis on Moncler and the fashion industry in 2020.

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Article showing how unsustainable the fashion industry is even in 2020. This supports my points in my environmental section of my PESTEL

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These facts show how unsustainable the fashion industry is

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The fashion industry emits more carbon than international flights and maritime shipping combined. Here are 22 statistics showing its impact on the planet.

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My SWOT analysis on Moncler as a brand.

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An article on visual storytelling through the use of window displays. Led lights are a great way of inviting customers in, and this is an idea that I will use in my window for Moncler. Light installations are also great as well as themed displays such as woodland. For my window design I am incorporating the alpine theme of Moncler to keep with the original brand identity and show purpose for the garments being sold inside.

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This microscopic point of view, where plants and other vegetation reign as masters, is like a kind of picture, a flash, a precise instant in nature's unrestrained run.

Woodland Window Display: Hermès

In what can only be described as a paper woodland wonderland, Hermès unveiled 'Forest Folks' window display for their store opening in Dubai. Hermès commissioned French artists-Lucie Thomas and Thibault Zimmermann-who were inspired by nature and traditional folklore to craft the enchanting forest. The windows depict alien botanical life, neon tall mushrooms and little enchanting homes that mimic spaceships.

"Nature is surrounding us and never ceases to evolve since its beginning," explains Lucie. "It defines the world we live in. Nature is linked to every living being, and every living being is linked to it. In this project, spectators have a sneak peek of the curious characters living inside this environment.

"This microscopic point of view, where plants and other vegetation reign as masters, is like a kind of picture, a flash, a precise instant in nature's unrestrained run. Life is everywhere, flowers are growing... Mysterious people are evolving, building, and living right in the heart of the nature, revealing a fragment of their daily life."

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5 Unique Window Displays Designed to Inspire | Best Window Displays

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This microscopic point of view, where plants and other vegetation reign as masters, is like a kind of picture, a flash, a precise instant in nature's unrestrained run. In what can only be described as a paper woodland wonderland, Hermès unveiled 'Forest Folks' window display for their store opening in Dubai.

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My first annotated window design idea. I used the rule of 3 here to make impact and the strips behind were designed to be strobe lights. My window designs are fairly minimal to create impact and fit with the brand identity.

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The second window design I did was more focused on womenswear and incorporated Moncler's brand identity by using framed photos of mountains and snowy settings. I designed the frames to be made from white strobe lights and the rest of the window to be dark. Also to fit with brand image.

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This was the final window design I have done and the one that I am going to be using for my digital window design. I chose this window for a few reasons. Like the first sketch I did it uses the rule of three which is proven to create impact. The coats are going to be orange to fit the theme of the pop up. I am also going to incorporate marble imagery as this is highly on brand and promotes it as a luxury store. The window is going to show the customer durability and use of the items that they sell and the warmth of the coat as arctic conditions are suitable for the clothes. The background will be black to bring attention to the garments. The coats are going to hang as I don't want to use mannequins as I feel it is unnecessary to show off the coats. The three are going to be separated by white strobe bar lights that illuminate the window. There will also be spotlights above each garment to highlight it further and make it stand out from the dark background.

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Coal Drops Yard also offers niche stores that are hard to find anywhere else in London, making it a hub for unique buyers. This is a knife store that sells products from different London-based designers, giving a nod to where the store is based and making it a completely unique store. The VM used in here also makes this instagrammable as it is such a different layout compared to other stores selling the same products elsewhere.

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Each store here offers something different for the customer to try and buy. This particular store offers the visitor to try out the product before buying, a clever marketing skill which can ensure sales and means that the consumer can go home trusting the product that they have purchased and will allow them to then spread the word.

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Can add scheme to back wall, cannot see into store

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Some backdrop but isn't taking up the whole of it, you can see some of the store.

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Boxpark in Shoreditch is a retail and food park made out of old shipping containers. It contains purely pop ups and concept stores. The concept of the stores all being made from containers means that all the shops are the same size therefore the VM of the brand identity is important as the store is essentially at first a small, blank canvas.

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Alot of stores in Boxpark are gift stores. The way the products are visually placed creates an ambience that makes the customer feel inclined to buy more, as the ornaments and lights etc all fit together perfectly.

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All the Boxpark stores have the same facia meaning that the interior of the stores is really important for the brand to stand out amongst others and show brand identity. They all differ completely despite having the same exterior.

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This brand has used their minimal brand image to fit in with the Boxpark look and exterior. It is still effective despite the minimal changes as it looks modern and clean and the plants are helpful to draw customers in.

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The upstairs is used for bars and restaurants - both floors flow together with the black and white arrows and lines and the consistent size and structure of the stores within the building. It is easy to follow round and to visit each store. Despite the stores not having specific windows as such, each brand uses different methods to attract customers in, whether that be sticking things in the small window area, or putting objects outside the store.

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Regent street holds alot of flagship stores and bigger stores for brands. Usually alot of money gets spent on the windows of these stores due to the amount of tourists that visit this street each year. As the stores are so big it is also an opportunity for the brand to show off the brand identity as a whole and get creative. This coach window shows the launch of a Basquiat collection. Decals are the main attraction and the actual garments are shown behind. The infamous Basquiat dragon has been used to appeal to a wide audience.

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The Kate Spade window stays very on brand and is simple yet effective. It is an open back window with just the baubles acting as a mock background however you can still see into the store. The clothes being shown on the mannequins are bold and capture the brand of Kate Spade immediately with the polka dot print as well as fitting in with the season.

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Levi's have used their window on Regent Street as a way to promote sustainability and immediately tell the buyer how the clothes are made. This appeals to a modern audience as in the past couple of years there has been a large push on sustainability and alot of people now primarily look for this when buying clothes.

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Canada goose have used a simple window that captures the brand well. The photos fit with the brand image and the garments shown are suitable for the season. You can see the coats in the back so the buyer can see more of what the store has to offer as there are not many garments shown in the window.

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Explains the impact that covid has had on employment. I have discussed this in my economic section of my PESTEL. Loss of jobs means lack of spending and lack of disposable income so makes shopping at luxury brands difficult.

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More than 170,000 jobs disappear as Covid-19 pandemic takes toll on corporate Britain

Companies across Britain have seen their revenues decimated by the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic - and many have begun to announce job cuts ahead of the closure of the Government's job retention scheme in October.

Below is a list of the companies that have axed jobs in the UK since the coronavirus crisis. In total, some 171,998 British jobs have been lost or are at risk. This does not include more than 100,000 job cuts from companies that have not put a figure on UK job losses.

Antler - 164 jobs

Luggage retailer Antler fell into administration in May, cutting 164 UK jobs of a 199-strong workforce. Administrators said Antler had been "profoundly impacted" by the coronavirus pandemic.

Accenture - 900 jobs

Consultancy firm Accenture is planning to cut up to 900 jobs in the UK as the firm tries to cut costs to deal with the fallout from coronavirus.

Accenture is a US firm headquartered in New York, but it employs more than 10,000 people in the UK.

Addison Lee - 422 jobs

Private taxi firm Addison Lee has started laying off staff after the coronavirus downturn forced it to speed up its efforts to slash costs.

The firm has axed 422 people from its premium chauffeur service Tristar, documents show, and is considering further cuts to the parent company's backroom staff, according to an industry source.

Airbus - 1,700 jobs

Airbus is to cut 15,000 jobs globally as the plane-maker slashes staff numbers to match the collapse in demand for new aircraft. Of these jobs, some 1,700 will go in the UK.

Guillaume Faury, Airbus chief executive, said: "Airbus is facing the gravest crisis this industry has ever experienced."

Alexander Dennis - 650 jobs

Alexander Dennis Limited (ADL), Britain's largest bus maker, announced that the significant decline in UK demand for new buses and coaches had forced it to initiate a restructuring programme which places up to 650 jobs at risk.

Arcadia - 500 jobs

Sir Philip Green's retail empire Arcadia is slashing 500 roles from its 2,500-strong head office workforce to help it weather the Covid storm.

Arsenal FC - 55 jobs

Arsenal announced plans to make 55 members of staff redundant due to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

Aston Martin - 500 jobs

Aston Martin is preparing to cut 500 jobs as the carmaker restructures under its new management.

Azzurri Group - 1,200 jobs

Up to 1,200 jobs are set to be lost after Azzuri Group, owner of the chains Zizzi and Ask Italian, said it would not reopen about 75 restaurants following the coronavirus pandemic.

BBC - 520 jobs

The BBC is to cut 520 jobs across its English regional TV news and current affairs, local radio and online news.

The broadcaster said it would cut roughly 15pc of its BBC England team, as it seeks to bolster its balance sheet amid the coronavirus crisis.

Bentley Motors - 1,000 jobs

Bentley Motors is seeking to lay off up to 1,000 staff - almost a quarter of its workforce - through a voluntary redundancy programme in return for a severance payment.

Boeing - 26,000 jobs (globally)

UK engineering giant Boeing, heavily disrupted by the devastation wrought across the aviation sector, announced plans to make 7,000 more job cuts after counting a $3.5bn (£2.7bn) loss for the three months to the end of September.

That brings its total number of redundancies to a staggering 26,000 by the end of 2021 after announcing 19,000 job losses over summer.

The engineering giant has already suffered a blow from the grounding of its flawed 737 Max model, with the jet still not ready to fly after two fatal crashes.

Bombardier - 2,500 jobs

Bombardier is to axe 2,500 jobs as the aerospace industry reels from a collapse in flights worldwide. Hundreds of roles are thought to be at risk in Northern Ireland, where Bombardier has 3,500 staff and is the country's largest manufacturer, however the Canada-based company said the majority of redundancies will be in its home nation.

Boots - 4,000 jobs

High street pharmacy chain Boots has said it plans to cut more than 4,000 UK jobs in a bid to mitigate the "significant impact" of Covid-19. It plans to restructure its head office and store teams and close 48 Boots Opticians stores.

BP - 10,000 jobs (globally)

BP will dispense with more than 10,000 jobs this year as low oil prices bite and the energy titan accelerates its switch to green power.

Bernard Looney, the company's chief executive, told staff that 15pc of the firm's global workforce is to be laid off following a collapse in the oil price that has left the industry reeling. How many of these roles are in the UK is unknown.

BrightHouse - 2,400 jobs

In March, BrightHouse, the UK's biggest rent-to-own retailer, collapsed into administration, placing 2,400 jobs at risk of redundancy.

British Airways - up to 12,000

British Airways is to shed as many as 12,000 jobs after plunging to its worst ever quarterly loss and admitting air travel will take years to recover from a global collapse.

Irish airline Aer Lingus, which is also part of IAG, along with BA and Iberia, has been forced to cut 900 jobs.

Burberry - 500 jobs (globally)

Burberry has said it will streamline front-office and certain retail functions to cut costs, including the loss of 500 jobs worldwide, after global lockdowns caused sales to fall by almost half in the latest three months.

Burger King - 1,600 jobs

The boss of Burger King UK has warned that the economic damage triggered by the coronavirus pandemic may push the fast food chain to permanently shut up to 10pc of its restaurants, resulting in the cutting of 1,600 jobs.

Buzz Bingo - 573 jobs

Nottingham-based Buzz Bingo announced the permanent closure of 26 sites, putting 573 jobs at risk. It said it had taken the decision due to an "unsustainable operating environment for the foreseeable future".

Buzzfeed - unknown

In May, BuzzFeed closed its news operations in the UK and Australia as part of further cutbacks aimed at minimising losses amid a massive drop in advertising revenues. Ten staff in Britain and four in Australia have been furloughed and their future remains unclear.

Byron - 1,200 jobs

Burger chain Byron is poised to fall into administration as it races to find a buyer who can stave off a collapse, with 1,200 UK jobs cuts likely. Byron is one of many casual dining chains to fall on hard times during the coronavirus pandemic after struggling to obtain financial support through the Treasury's emergency loan schemes.

Cameron Mackintosh - 850 jobs

Redundancies at theatre companies owned by the leading west end producer Sir Cameron Mackintosh are set to total more than 850.

Carnival - 450 jobs

Cruise giant Carnival UK has announced plans to make a "large number of redundancies" in Southampton as it grapples with the havoc the coronavirus outbreak is wreaking on the travel industry.

The company employs approximately 1,100 people in and around Southampton. Although Carnival declined to reveal the number of people who may lose their jobs, local media have reported that 450 roles are under scrutiny.

Casual Dining Group - 1,900 jobs

More than 1,900 jobs have been lost after the owner of Café Rouge and Bella Italia fell into administration leading to the permanent closure of 91 restaurants.

Cath Kidston - 900 jobs

More than 900 staff at Cath Kidston lost their jobs after the retailer said in April that it was closing all 60 UK stores.

Chief executive Melinda Paraie said: "Despite our very best efforts, against the backdrop of Covid-19, we were unable to secure a solvent sale of the business which would have allowed us to avoid administration and carry on trading in our current form."

Celtic Manor Resort - 450 jobs

The Celtic Manor Resort and the International Convention Centre Wales will make 450 workers redundant due to the "catastrophic effect" of the coronavirus pandemic.

Centrica - 5,000 jobs

In June, British Gas owner Centrica announced the loss of 5,000 jobs at the energy giant this year. More than half of the job losses will come from the business's leadership roles, as Centrica revealed it would strip out three layers of middle managers, in a bid to cut bureaucracy.

Clarks - 900 jobs

Shoe chain Clarks is preparing to slash 900 corporate roles, which will be partially offset by the creation of 200 new jobs.

Co-op Bank - 350 jobs

The Co-operative Bank has announced it will axe about 350 jobs, including head office and middle management roles, as well as close 18 branches. The branches being cut include its outpost in the City of London, where footfall has plummeted due to finance workers continuing to work from home. However the decision to close the branch was based on footfall in 2019, the bank said.

Costa Coffee - 1,650 jobs

Around 1,650 Costa Coffee baristas are facing redundancy after the cafe chain said it did not know when trading might return to pre-coronavirus levels. The cuts are equal to more than 10pc of its workforce.

Daily Mail and General Trust (DMGT) - 100 jobs

The publisher of the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday is to axe up to 100 jobs in the latest blow to the newspaper industry. Daily Mail and General Trust (DMGT), which also owns MailOnline, Metro and the i, has begun consulting with staff over cuts to both editorial and commercial roles in its publishing division.

Debenhams - 2,500

Debenhams is poised to cut another 2,500 jobs as the ailing department store chain continues to cull roles across the business. Although it has reopened 124 stores and was selling more clothes than expected since lockdown, Debenhams said its costs were still too high. The move comes just months after the retailer cut hundreds of jobs at its headquarters, where it employed about 3,000 staff.

Deutsche Bank - unknown

Deutsche Bank, one of the City's largest employers, said it was ploughing ahead with its plans to cut 18,000 jobs despite the coronavirus pandemic. Half of these cuts will be in Germany, and it is not known how many will fall in the UK.

DFS - 200 jobs

Retailer DFS Furniture warned it may axe up to 200 jobs across its Sofa Workshop and Dwell chains.

DHL - 2,200 jobs

German courier service DHL has announced that it will be slashing up to 2,200 jobs in its UK division which is responsible for doing logistics for Jaguar Land Rover. According to the Unite union, two in five of the entire workforce employed by DHL on the JLR logistics contract face redundancy, across full-time, salaried and agency staff on the contract. The cuts are expected to affect workers at the Solihull and Castle Bromwich car plants.

Dixons Carphone - 800 jobs

The Currys PC World owner has announced it will slash 800 jobs in a bid to weather the pandemic. The retailer is taking aim at 800 store manager roles to slim down the business. The move comes just four months after it said all its 531 standalone Carphone Warehouse shops would shut.

DW Sports - 1,700 jobs

Fitness chain DW Sports has called in administrators after being starved of income during the coronavirus lockdown, putting 1,700 jobs under threat.

Dyson - 600 jobs

Dyson is to shed 900 jobs due to the effects of the coronavirus pandemic. About 600 of the company's 4,000 staff in the UK - roughly 15pc of the workforce - stand to lose their jobs. But of the engineering firm's 10,000 non-UK employees, only 3pc will be affected by the job cuts.

EasyJet - 1,900 jobs

EasyJet is axing 1,900 jobs in the UK, including 727 pilots and 1,200 cabin staff. The FTSE 250 company is pushing the cuts through as part of plans to lay off nearly one in three of its 15,000 workers.

Ryanair has also warned it may cut 3,000 jobs as it wrestles with the devastating impact of coronavirus, however most of these will be in Ireland.

Economist Group - unknown

The Economist Group announced in May that it was laying off 90 employees, around 7pc of its total workforce, to address the drop in revenues caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. It is not known how many are in the UK.

Emirates - unknown

A leaked email seen by The Telegraphshowed bosses at Emirates told their 600-strong British staff that it had to "consider reducing the size of the UK workforce".

Evening Standard - 115 jobs

The Evening Standard is to cut 115 jobs, a third of its staff, as the London newspaper seeks to cut costs to survive the coronavirus pandemic, which has hit its advertising revenues.

G4S - 1,000 jobs

British multinational security services company G4S is planning to cut around 1,000 jobs from its struggling cash-handling business. The G4S branch has been harmed by the recent trend away from using notes and coins, which has accelerated during the coronavirus pandemic.

The Gambling Commission - 332 jobs

The Gambling Commission announced in August that it would be moving ahead with plans to cut jobs as part of wider cost saving measures aimed at saving the organisation £1m.

Gatwick - 600 jobs

Gatwick airport is to cut up to 600 jobs in response to the "devastating impact" of Covid-19. The redundancies, which represent almost a quarter of the airport's workforce, come as passenger numbers fell 80pc in August.

Boss Stewart Wingate said: "If anyone is in any doubt about the devastating impact Covid-19 has had on the aviation and travel industry then today's news we have shared with our staff, regarding the proposed job losses, is a stark reminder."

General Electric - 369 jobs

General Electric is to cut 369 jobs at its aircraft engine maintenance plant in south Wales. The company, which makes jet engines for Boeing and Airbus, blamed the "unprecedented impact of Covid-19".

Genting - 1,642 jobs

The casino company Genting is to cut up to 1,642 jobs at clubs and hotels across the UK owing to Covid-19.

Global Media - unknown

According to reports, British media firm Global Media - parent company of radio stations Capital, LBC, Heart, and others - has told staff that there will be substantial job cuts due to the pandemic with redundancies across many areas.

Gourmet Burger Kitchen - 362 jobs

Gourmet Burger Kitchen (GBK) is set to close 26 restaurants and axe 362 roles despite being saved from administration.

The chain was bought in a rescue deal by Boparan Restaurant Group, which also snapped Carluccio's out of insolvency earlier in the pandemic.

Grant Thornton - 70 jobs

Facing a 20pc fall in profits, professional services firm Grant Thornton cut 70 UK jobs in the firm's tax and consulting divisions, having refused to take advantage of the Government's job retention scheme.

Guardian - 180 jobs

The Guardian has plans to make UK job cuts in both editorial and commercial roles, due to the economic shock caused by the coronavirus pandemic. The proposals could affect up to 180 jobs - 110 in departments such as advertising, Guardian Jobs, marketing roles, and the Guardian Live events business, with 70 coming from editorial.

Greene King - 800 jobs

Brewer and pub chain Greene King has vowed to close 79 sites - of the 3,100 it operates - as a result of the crisis. The industry giant warned the Government's 10pm curfew has hit the sector with a wrecking ball, and its cuts are a result of the blow to trade.

Sky News reported that the company has now started consultations over 800 jobs. The business will try to move workers to other sites where possible.

Greggs - unknown number

Even everybody's favourite high street baker has warned of possible redundancies, telling investors it predicts demand will remain low for the "foreseeable future" despite a partial recovery in sales by October.

The bakery has entered talks with unions and staff over cutting hours to limit UK job cuts.

Harrods - 680 jobs

Harrods is poised to make almost 700 staff members redundant after the luxury department store conceded it has struggled because of the coronavirus pandemic.

In an email circulated to staff, Harrods chief executive Michael Ward said 680 jobs out of its 4,800-strong workforce - around 14pc - will be lost.

Harveys - 1,330 jobs

Furniture retailer Harveys has collapsed into administration, putting around 1,330 jobs at risk.

The company's sister business Bensons for Beds also called in administrators but was immediately bought back by its owner through a so-called pre-pack rescue deal where it is shorn of debts.

Hays Travel - 878 jobs

The bosses of Britain's biggest independent travel agent called on Boris Johnson to save summer by restarting flights to the Spanish islands as they cut up to a fifth of their 4,500-strong workforce. Hays Travel owners John and Irene Hays said some of the 878 jobs at risk could be saved if the Government introduces "regional travel corridors" to the Spanish islands.

Heathrow Airport - up to 25,000 jobs

Heathrow Airport chief John Holland-Kaye said that a third of the 76,000 people employed at the airport could be made redundant as it battles to stem losses following a huge collapse in air travel.

While those jobs include those linked to shops operating at the airport, Heathrow has said it would have to cut up to 1,200 of its 4,700 staff as Rishi Sunak's furlough scheme concluded at the end of October.

HSBC - 35,000 (globally)

HSBC is resuming a massive redundancy plan that had been put on pause after the outbreak of coronavirus, with 35,000 jobs set to be cut worldwide.

Investec - 210 jobs

Investec said it plans to axe 210 jobs at its London headquarters as the banking and wealth management firm warned that profits could fall by up to 60pc in the first half of the year. The company will cut around 13pc of its City-based roles in order to help "simplify and focus the business".

Jaguar Land Rover - 1,100 jobs

Jaguar Land Rover plunged to a half-a-billion pound loss in the first three months of the year after sales fell by a third. As a result, 1,100 jobs will be lost.

JCB - 950 jobs

JCB is set to cut up to 950 jobs, or 15pc of its UK workforce, after demand for its diggers halved since the coronavirus pandemic began.

Jet2 - 500 jobs

Jet2 said it would have to axe nearly 500 staff - more than 100 pilots and about 380 cabin crew - due to the collapse in air travel.

John Lewis - 2,800 jobs

John Lewis will permanently close eight of its department stores, making up to 1,300 UK job cuts. The British brand has been hit hard by the pandemic, which arrived as it was trying to simplify its structure anyway to combat sliding profits.

The partnership then announced another 1,500 head office redundancies in November 2020, saying the cuts would save it £50m as it chases £300m in annual savings by 2022.

It also revealed 26-year veteran, finance director Patrick Lewis, the only member of the original founding family left at the chain, will step down at the end of 2020. He lost out to Dame Sharon White for the chairman role earlier this year.

Johnson Matthey - 2,500 jobs

Manufacturer Johnson Matthey is cutting almost 10pc of its workforce, around 2,500 roles, as it battles the coronavirus downturn.

The redundancies announced alongside its annual results represent more than a sixth of the FTSE 100 company's workforce going over the coming three years.

Kier - unknown

Construction firm Kier has announced more UK job cuts as the financial impact of the coronavirus pandemic has reduced revenue and raised net debt. The contractor expects to reduce costs by £100m by next June. It had previously been looking to reduce costs by £65m by next June, the majority of which comes from cutting 1,200 jobs. The company has not confirmed how many extra jobs have been lost.

Laura Ashley - 2,700 jobs

Laura Ashley filed for administration in March after the struggling retailer failed to secure £15m of emergency cash to stay afloat, putting around 2,700 jobs at risk. Laura Ashley blamed coronavirus for its decision.

Le Pain Quotidien - 200 jobs

The British arm of the bakery chain Le Pain Quotidien was sold in a pre-pack deal that cost 200 jobs.

LHG Hotels - 1,500 jobs

Hotel group LHG announced in August that it plans to cut some 1,500 jobs from its workforce as the company looks to cut costs in response to the coronavirus crisis. LHG runs hotels under brands including Holiday Inn, Crowne Plaza and Hallmark.

LinkedIn - 960 jobs

The employment networking site, owned by Microsoft, has announced that it will cut 960 jobs, equivalent to around 6pc of its global workforce. The company stated that reduced demand for its recruitment products as a result of coronavirus was the primary motivation behind the decision.

Lloyds Banking Group - 1,935 jobs

Britain's biggest high street bank has revived its restructuring plans by axing 865 jobs, months after it revealed gloomy forecasts for the UK economy.

Lloyds Banking Group will begin shedding the roles from November, although the cuts will be partially offset by the creation of 226 new jobs. Like most of its rivals, the bank froze the shake-up due to the coronavirus crisis but is now reigniting its original plans. Those affected were told earlier in the year they would not lose their jobs before October.

At the start of November Lloyds announced another 1,000 UK job cuts. It said 1,070 roles would go, but that it would create 340 new ones. Unions blasted the redundancies as "shameful" considering the hard work of staff during the crisis.

Lloyds earned over £1bn in pre-tax profit for the three months to September, boosted by mortgage lending, but banks face a difficult end to the year.

London City Airport - 239 jobs

London City airport has said that it plans to cut some 239 jobs, equivalent to 35pc of staff, after the airport began a consultation as part of a major restructuring.

Chief executive Robert Sinclair said: "We have held off looking at job losses for as long as possible, but sadly we are not immune from the devastating impact of this virus."

Luton Airport - 250 jobs

The airport, London's fourth largest, has started consultations with unions to sack 250 jobs - almost 30pc of its workforce - after forecasting a 70pc drop in passenger numbers this year because of the coronavirus pandemic.

M&Co - 380 jobs

M&Co has confirmed plans to permanently close down 47 stores and axe 380 jobs as part of a major restructuring via a pre-pack administration deal to secure its long-term future.

Manchester Airports Group - 900 jobs

Britain's biggest airport owner, Manchester Airports Group, has warned its staff of plans to axe nearly 900 jobs due to the pandemic.

Passenger levels have fallen by 90pc since the beginning of lockdown, the airport operator, which also owns Stansted and East Midlands airports.

Proposed job cuts would see 465 jobs go at Manchester, 376 disappear at Stansted and 51 axed at East Midlands, subject to union discussions.

Manpower UK - unknown

Recruiter Manpower UK has warned that job cuts among its own 1,800 staff are looming as Covid-19 shatters the employment market.

Mark Cahill, its UK boss, said that the firm, which has placed "hundreds" of its staff in the Government's coronavirus job retention scheme, could be forced to shed workers as support for employers starts to be wound down at the end of next month.

Marks & Spencer - 7,000 jobs

Retail giant Marks & Spencer has said it plans to cut around 7,000 jobs over the next three months across stores, regional management and its support centre.

M&S said the plans came after seeing a "material shift" in trade.

Marston's - 2,150 jobs

Pub chain Marston's is set to cull more than 2,000 jobs after the Government's latest restrictions on the hospitality industry "undermined" consumer confidence and "created uncertainty".

It has also launched a full review of overhead costs, which will be concluded by the end of the year.

McLaren - 1,200 jobs

Woking-based supercar and Formula 1 racing business McLaren announced in May that more than a quarter of its workforce, around 1,200 jobs, will be slashed. McLaren has been particularly hard hit because the pandemic has halted the Formula 1 racing season, which accounts for a large chunk of its earnings.

Mears - 200 jobs

Housing services and construction firm Mears has warned it may have to make job cuts. The firm is set to consult with up to 10pc of its 5,000-strong workforce, with fewer than 200 jobs expected to go.

Meggit - 1,800 jobs

British engineering company Meggitt plans to shed about 1,800 jobs as part of a cost-cutting scheme to cope with a contraction in the world's air travel market due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Monsoon Accessorize - 500 jobs

Fashion chain Monsoon Accessorize is to make more than 500 staff redundant after being bought out of administration.

Around 450 jobs have been transferred to new group company Adena Brands, while 35 shops have permanently closed with the loss of 545 jobs.

Mulberry - 500 jobs

Almost 500 jobs are at risk at Mulberry as it takes drastic measures to slash costs during the coronavirus crisis.

The upmarket handbag maker said it was being forced to cut staff because the pandemic had hit demand for its products while retail remains closed in the UK.

National Trust - 1,482 jobs

Almost 1,500 jobs are due to go at the National Trust as it seeks to slash £100m from its annual costs.

It had already warned of 1,200 redundancies in July 2020, and has since made 514 redundancies after consultation. The UK charity has also said 782 employees have taken voluntary redundancy, as part of measures aimed at saving £59m a year. Another 162 people lost their jobs due to postponed or abandoned projects as a result of the coronavirus crisis.

NatWest - 550 jobs

NatWest has said it will cut up to 550 jobs in bank branches and will close a major London office as it grapples to adapt to the post-Covid world. The taxpayer-backed bank has asked branch staff to apply for voluntary redundancy following dramatic shifts in customer behaviour during the crisis.

News UK - unknown

Rebekah Brooks, chief executive of News UK, wrote to staff on the Sun and the Times titles to announce that "in the coming months, we will need to streamline the business and take some tough decisions, saying goodbye to some valued and talented colleagues". It is not known exactly how many staff will be let go.

Oak Furnitureland - 163 jobs

Oak Furnitureland has revealed plans to shut down 27 showrooms, in a move which will put 163 jobs at risk.

Oasis and Warehouse - 1,800 jobs

Oasis and Warehouse were bought out of administration by Hilco in April, resulting in 1,800 UK job cuts.

Ovo Energy - 2,600 jobs

The UK's second largest energy supplier is planning to cut 2,600 jobs following its merger with SSE.

P&O Ferries - 1,100 jobs

In March, ferry company P&O Ferries announced it was temporarily laying off 1,100 staff members as the 180-year-old firm teeters on the brink of collapse. The ferry company's Dubai owner is scrambling to agree a £250m rescue deal that will include cuts to staff's wages and pensions alongside a Government bailout.

Pendragon - 1,800 jobs

Car dealership giant Pendragon has announced plans to cut 1,800 jobs as it looks to close stores and streamline its operations in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. The firm said the virus and subsequent lockdown had "accelerated" a review of its operating model which had already been under way.

Pizza Express - 2,400 jobs

Pizza Express, which was founded in 1965, has been put up for sale by its Chinese owners Hony Capital as the pandemic hammers sales. The restaurant chain is planning to close 73 of its UK stores, putting 1,100 jobs at risk.

Later in October the dining establishment warned of another 1,300 redundancies, though no extra closures, as it counted the cost of the 10pm curfew and the three-tier system of restrictions. That was before the Government announced a second month-long national lockdown from Nov. 5.

Pizza Hut - 450 jobs

Pizza Hut has announced plans to shut 29 restaurants, putting 450 jobs at risk as it becomes the latest chain to scale back in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.

The company, which has 244 restaurants in the UK, is in talks with creditors over a Company Voluntary Arrangement (CVA) restructuring deal after facing "significant disruption" in the last six months.

Pret a Manger - 2,800 jobs

Pret A Manger has announced it is to permanently close 30 of its shops after it experienced "significant operating losses" as a result of the pandemic. The chain will also slash some 2,800 jobs after 10 years of growth were wiped out by the Covid sales crash.

Around 1,000 other roles at Pret were saved when staff members agreed to move to reduced minimum weekly hours.

Quiz - 93 jobs

Clothes retailer Quiz is placing the division that runs its 82 standalone stores into administration, putting 93 jobs at risk.

Reach - 550 jobs

Daily Mirror and Daily Express newspaper owner Reach plans to axe around 550 jobs or 12pc of its workforce as part of an overhaul to slash costs. The company said the cost-cutting scheme would incur a one-off cost of £20m but would help it save £35m a year.

River Island - 350 jobs

High street clothing chain River Island announced that it will slash 350 jobs following a slump in revenues and profits during lockdown.

Robin Hood Energy - 250 jobs

Robin Hood Energy was acquired by British Gas in September after falling into debt and struggling with the onset of coronavirus. As a result the company made 250 employees redundant.

Rolls-Royce - 2,200 jobs

Rolls-Royce has launched a wave of job cuts in a bid to slash costs. Around 1,500 roles will be shed at the company's Derby base roles this year, along with at least 700 redundancies at its site in Inchinnan, Scotland.

Further, smaller job cuts will be made around the company's UK operations as part of a plan to shed 3,000 British jobs this year.

Selfridges - 450 jobs

Luxury department store Selfridges is to axe 450 jobs, or 14pc of its workforce, as it warned the recovery from the Covid crisis will be slow.

Anne Pitcher, managing director of Selfridges Group, said sales this year would be "significantly less" compared to 2019, adding that the current year would be "without doubt" the toughest in its recent history.

Shearings - 2,400 jobs

Specialist Leisure Group, owner of coach company Shearings, has collapsed into administration, putting around 2,400 jobs at risk.

Travel trade association Abta said the coronavirus pandemic is the main reason for its failure as it battled with thousands of refunds and a stop to new bookings.

Shell - 9,000 jobs (globally)

Europe's largest oil company has announced that it will be cutting some 9,000 jobs globally, amounting to around 10pc of its workforce. The statement came following the company's vow earlier this year to embrace green energy and slash its carbon emissions to net zero by 2050, in the latest sign of seismic changes sweeping the oil industry.

SSP - up to 5,000 jobs

Upper Crust owner SSP could let go of up to 5,000 people as its seeks to restructure its business in the face of plunging passenger numbers at railway stations and airports.

The job cuts will affect its head office and UK operations, it said.

Swissport - 4,500 jobs

Airport ground handling company Swissport is planning to cut more than 4,500 jobs in the UK due to the collapse in air travel.

Chief executive Jason Holt said: "It is true that we've seen tough times before - volcanic cloud, 9/11, the financial crisis - and we've weathered these. But this time it's different. We have never seen anything like Covid-19 in our lifetimes."

Ted Baker - 500 jobs

Ted Baker is reportedly planning to make some 500 staff redundant as it struggles to cope with the coronavirus pandemic. The job cuts represent a quarter of its UK workforce, and will take place across both retail and its head office.

The Restaurant Group - up to 3,000 jobs

The Restaurant Group is to shut 125 sites as part of a a deal with landlords. Bosses will swing the axe hardest at their Italian-American Frankie and Benny's division, with up to 3,000 jobs at risk. The closures will leave the chain with just 160 outlets.

TM Lewin - 600 jobs

TM Lewin stores will disappear from the high street after it became the latest retailer to collapse into administration at the cost of 600 jobs.

Travelex - 1,300 jobs

Troubled foreign exchange provider Travelex struck a rescue deal to stay afloat, but with the loss of more than 1,300 UK jobs.

Travis Perkins - 2,500 jobs

Builders merchant Travis Perkins is cutting almost 10pc of its workforce as it battles the coronavirus downturn, amounting to some 2,500 jobs.

Half of the FTSE 250-listed company's 30,000 staff were furloughed during the lockdown as demand for building materials plunged.

TSB - 969 jobs

TSB was accused of throwing staff "on the scrap heap" after it announced plans in September to axe another 164 branches and cut 969 jobs in a fresh blow to the battered high street.

The purge means TSB will shut 246 branches in 2020 and 2021 - cutting total numbers by 46pc in just two years.

Tui - 8,000 jobs (globally)

Anglo-German travel and tourism company Tui confirmed in September that it would axe 8,000 jobs after summer bookings fell by more than 80pc and it battles to cut costs but almost a third.

Tui hit out at "continuous changes in travel advice by various governments", which are hampering attempts to offer holidays and flights, resulting in fresh cuts to capacity.

Vertu Motors - 345 jobs

Vertu Motors will make 6pc of its workforce - 345 people - redundant, citing improved efficiencies in car sales administration online.

Robert Forrester, CEO, said: "The Covid crisis has driven an acceleration of technology uptake and we are embracing this trend to futureproof the business. As automation progresses, we have made the difficult decision to reduce group headcount."

Vice Media - unknown

Vice Media Group boss Nancy Dubuc told staff in an internal memo in May that the company was cutting 55 jobs in the US and 100 globally, mostly to its digital operations. It is not known how many roles were in the UK.

"The reality is that some tough decisions had to be made primarily around our digital teams," she wrote in the memo.

Victoria's Secret - 800 jobs

The UK arm of Victoria's Secret fell into administration in June, putting more than 800 jobs at risk.

The lingerie retailer, which operates 25 stores in the UK, confirmed that it has called in administrators from Deloitte after being hammered by the coronavirus lockdown.

Virgin Atlantic - 4,150 jobs

Virgin Atlantic plans to cut another 1,000 jobs on top of the more than 3,150 jobs it announced four months earlier. The airline has been fighting to secure its future since the Covid-19 pandemic brought scheduled passenger services to a standstill. Ministers snubbed a request for a £500m state loan in April.

Chief executive Shai Weiss said: "We have weathered many storms ... but none has been as devastating as Covid-19."

Virgin Money - 300 jobs

High street lender Virgin Money will go ahead with plans to shut or merge 52 branches and lay off 300 people after initially putting the overhaul on hold amid the Covid crisis.

The group said the immediate job cuts are 200 fewer than those previously announced due to changes made in response to Covid-19.

Waterstones - unknown

Waterstones will make many of its head office staff redundant in the wake of Covid-19, the chain announced. Though it did not reveal how many colleagues would be affected, it has started consulting with those in its Piccadilly head office whose jobs are at risk.

Wetherspoon - 580 jobs

Wetherspoon will axe up to 130 roles at its head office as it seeks to cut costs amid the virus-induced downturn in the pub and restaurant sector. The pub chain said between 110 and 130 head office roles are at risk, about a third of the total, including those based in the regions.

In September the pub chain announced plans to sack up to 450 staff as the pandemic continued to wreak havoc on ailing hospitality firms.

Whitbread - 6,000 jobs

Premier Inn owner Whitbread has said it will axe as many as 6,000 jobs, with most cuts coming in its hotel arm and a significant proportion expected to be voluntary redundancies. Whitbread, which also owns chains Beefeater and Brewers Fayre, said the cuts are vital to protect its business.

The firm said: "This is a regrettable but necessary step to ensure that we emerge from the crisis with a lower cost base, a more flexible operating model and a stronger more resilient business."

WH Smith - 1,500 jobs

WH Smith is planning to cut up to 1,500 jobs as bosses said its recovery from the Covid-19 lockdown has been "slow".

The company said it needed to reduce costs as its shops in airports and train stations are hit by low passenger numbers and its high street stores also suffer from low footfall.

Willmott Dixon - 100 jobs

Construction firm Willmott Dixon is to cut around 5pc of its staff after revealing that revenue is expected to be down by 20pc this year.

No specific figure for redundancies was provided by the contractor, but it according to the most recent published accounts the company had 2,132 staff, so 5pc would amount to around 100 roles, according to industry website Construction News.

Yo! Sushi - 250 jobs

Sushi restaurant chain Yo! Sushi has said it plans to cut 250 jobs and close down 19 restaurants as part of a company-wide restructure. The chain also announced that it will be launching a company voluntary arrangement (CVA).

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UK job losses: all the companies axing staff amid coronavirus

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More than 170,000 jobs disappear as Covid-19 pandemic takes toll on corporate Britain Companies across Britain have seen their revenues decimated by the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic - and many have begun to announce job cuts ahead of the closure of the Government's job retention scheme in October.

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This article looks at how Brexit can affect trade and therefore affects retail companies - there is a loss of connection with distribution.

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Since the UK voted in favour, albeit with a slim 52 per cent majority, of leaving the EU in June 2016, Brexit has become a permanent fixture of media headlines - as well as creeping up in countless conversations with friends and family.

Now that the UK has officially out of the EU for just over a month now, Brexit still isn't quite complete.

Retailers are asking themselves what this actually means. For now, it just means that the UK is not represented in the EU parliament. The UK is in an 11-month transition period, and in this time, it remains in the customs union and must still conform to EU rules.

During this transition period, a trade deal with the EU is on the to-do list, so retailers can figure out how to continue trading with the UK, and vice versa. The government said there would be no extension on this, and if no trade deal is reached by the end of 2020, the World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules would be implemented. This would result in tariffs on exports to the EU, and customs checks at the borders.

The dangers for British retailers have been well documented by the BRC. Last month the industry lobby group said that "without a pragmatic agreement, consumers face higher costs and reduced availability of goods". The BRC also called for solutions on future compliance and regulatory checks that will apply once the transition period ends from January 2021.

"Almost 80 per cent of all the food that UK retailers import comes from the EU, making the EU negotiation particularly important for these essential goods," the BRC stated.

"Most of this comes through Dover and Folkestone, the UK's largest roll-on/roll-off ports, which handle almost 7000 lorries every day."

Despite fears, Birmingham City University lecturer Dr Steve McCabe believes "nothing dramatic is expected" - due to the transition period. However, he said that should there be changes in such arrangements through the implementation of tariffs on food imported from the EU, there could be an increase in prices.

Currencies Direct chief market analyst Phil McHugh agreed. He said retailers who do not take steps to mitigate the currency risk "will add to their problems in a post-Brexit environment as trade talks are currently threatening profit margins through increased import costs".

However, other products imported from outside the EU which are part of any future trade agreements, especially food from the US, may be cheaper, according to McCabe, although there are concerns that standards there are not as stringent as those required in the EU.

"There is a possibility that free trade negotiations between the UK and EU will result in failure which would mean that tariffs on a range of goods would come under World Trade Organisation rules," McCabe said.

"This could potentially result in widespread alteration across a range of goods.

"In the forthcoming months everything will be uncertain. Brexit is far from 'done'."

One of the major issues the retail industry is likely to face following Brexit relates to staffing.

Recently-appointed Home Secretary Priti Patel made headlines recently when she unveiled the government's new points-based immigration system.

The system - designed to curb what the government calls "low-skilled workers" from the EU coming to the UK after free movement ends on January 1, 2021 - means prospective employees will need to will have to gain at least 70 points to be eligible for a skilled work visa. Points are gained through efficiency in the English language, a job offer from a vetted UK employer, minimum salary requirements, among other things.

A points system existed previously, but it only pertained to non-EU citizens and the system of allocating points was slightly different.

Patel said "employers will need to adjust" to the system in the next 10 months, and that retailers need to "move away from reliance" on immigrant workers through "staff retention" and "wider investment in technology and automation".

"Retail is one of the many sectors that relies disproportionately on international employees, the majority of whom are from the EU and who have previously been able to enter the UK without any visa or requirement for particular qualifications or measurable skills," said Shara Pledger, an associate at Latitude Law.

"This isn't to say this workforce isn't skilled, just that the government doesn't treat it as such.

"The government's points-based immigration system is set to have a significant impact on the retail industry.

"When free movement ends and EU and non-EU workforce are treated in the same way, the criteria will have profound repercussions and has the potential to cause huge skills shortages within retail where roles have been widely filled by EU workers.

"What we expect to see, then, is a developing and widening gap between what the retail industry requires staff-wise, and the availability of people to fulfil these roles. This is likely to cause a real headache for retailers, in what is already a volatile industry facing a wide range of challenges.

"The sooner retail organisations can begin getting to grips with the system, the better."

Kevin Murray, managing director at digital commerce agency Greenlight, said: "Retailers can now expect a difficulty to trade with EU customers, increased delivery times, as well as a decrease in overall transactions."

"Although these concerns cannot be fully resolved until a final decision is made, retailers must take action now to minimise the impact of Brexit.

"With the January 31 deadline behind us, UK brands must start looking towards a future separate from the EU.

"The UK's post-Brexit future has delivered such uncertainty over recent years that many retailers have remained stagnant mainly due to apprehension over what is to come."

Murray added that retailers must understand their customers and put their needs first to ensure their consumer retention rates don't suffer while they adapt to an "uncertain and shifting retail environment".

"Customers' needs and expectations are at an all-time high, while brand loyalty is relatively low," he said.

"Retailers need to continue to deliver outstanding customer experiences across the board to keep their customer base engaged and satisfied."

He argued that retailers need to develop and evaluate their online channel during the "Brexit transition period" to "ensure stability".

The fact that the ONS found that the amount of goods sold in the UK rose by 0.9 per cent in January, suggests there has been something of a "Boris bounce" after December's General Election, especially after falling figures in the months leading up to Christmas.

Last year was characterised by the ongoing crisis of business restructures, stores closures and job cuts - all with Brexit as one of the main underlying reasons - so retailers were not so surprised to end 2019 with a total sales decline of 0.1 per cent - the first time this has happened since 1995.

Given the continuing headwinds of uncertainty, it might be hasty to assume that the barrage against the retail sector has come to an end. Consumers can be expected to remain cautious in their spending, and announcements made in the Budget this month could impact on the overall health of retailing and in terms of people's spending power.

The UK has always been a country of trade, and although Brexit may present a slew of challenges, it will not change its fundamental status as a powerful commerce force in the world.
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While many retailers fear Brexit will only disrupt and negatively impact their businesses, the UK's departure from the EU also highlights the need to be able to transform in order to thrive in a fast changing, unpredictable environment. What can retailers expect?

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Furlough schemes and how this has affected workers and retail. Applies politically on my Pestle. Means there is a huge loss of jobs and many out of work.

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The government has extended the furlough scheme until the end of September.

Chancellor Rishi Sunak confirmed the extension during his Budget announcement on March 3, saying that the the scheme - which pays 80 per cent of employees' wages for the hours they cannot work in the pandemic - would help millions through "the challenging months ahead".

Employers will be expected to contribute ten per cent towards the hours their staff do not work from July, and this will increase to 20 per cent in August and September.

Under current rules, all non-essential businesses have closed. The current Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme was set to expire at the end of April 2021. The scheme, which paid up to 80 per cent of the wages of around 9.5 million people (at a cost of £41.4 billion) from March 2020, could surpass £50bn.

The changing lockdown rules have left millions of people perplexed and concerned about where their next pay cheque will come from.

To clear things up, here's what the government's current furlough scheme means, how it can affect you and how long it will last. The government may issue new guidance around furlough schemes. The below information was correct as of January 6.

How does the UK's new furlough scheme work?

Anyone working in a full time job (or on a PAYE basis) on October 30 can be furloughed. This includes people on zero hours contracts or those working flexibly. HMRC has clarified that companies can rehire employees who were made redundant after September 23 (the qualifying date for the Job Support Scheme), and they would qualify for the scheme.

Employees won't notice any difference in their pay packets from the first furlough scheme, but employers are set to receive more support from the government.

In recent months, businesses were told to top up furloughed wages by 20 per cent, while the government paid 60 per cent. Under new rules the government will go back to paying up to 80 per cent of people's wages, up to a maximum of £2,500 per month until July.

While the government updates the system, employers can submit their wage claim to the government, and be refunded afterwards. After that, they will be paid upfront to cover the cost.

Being placed on furlough is similar to gardening leave. You would still be paid by your employer and will still pay taxes from your income - but you would not be able to continue working for your employer for the duration of the furlough. In this case, you would effectively be paid not to work until the end of March.

There is no guarantee that your employer will keep you on after the scheme ends. And if you are furloughed, you will not qualify for 80 per cent of your salary if you earn more than £2,500 per month. In that case, an employer could choose to "top up" your salary, or you could be eligible for support through the welfare system, including Universal Credit.

If you receive a regular salary, the 80 per cent should be calculated based on an employee's actual salary before tax (their gross salary).

If your pay varies (because you are on a zero hours contract or flexible working contract, for example), the 80 per cent limit will be applied to the same month's earnings from a previous year, the average monthly earnings for the 2019/20 tax year or an average of their monthly earnings since they started work - whichever is highest.

Furlough has been extended until September 2021. What does that mean?

The chancellor has extended furlough provisions to cover 80 per cent of people's salaries until September 30. The conditions are exactly the same as those set out by the government in November.

After furlough ends in September 2021, it is not clear whether the government will decide to revisit the Job Support Scheme if any further lockdowns are imposed.

Are self-employed people eligible for furlough?

Self-employed people will be eligible for financial help during lockdown - but not through the furlough scheme. The UK-wide Self-Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS) will offer up to 80 per cent of their average trading profits, up to a maximum of £7,500.

Applications for the third grant must be made on or before January 29, 2020. The months of February to April 2021 will be covered by the fourth SEISS grant. All SEIS grants are calculated over three months.

The changes will ensure that self-employed individuals who temporarily cannot carry out their business or have suffered reduced demand due to the outbreak are supported over winter, the government says.

However, you will only be eligible for the extension if you were eligible for the previous grants launched earlier this year, although you don't necessarily need to have applied for them. You must also declare that you intend to continue trading.

How can you apply?

Any UK employer can apply to the scheme to temporarily cover people's salaries, including businesses, charities, agencies and public authorities. Employees have to agree to be put on furlough - and an individual can't apply by themselves.

There is no requirement for the business to be considered "essential" in order to access the scheme. Nor it is necessary for employers to show that they are suffering any sort of financial hardship. If employers are already receiving public funds, they are expected to use them to cover the staffing costs rather than also applying for the furlough scheme.

I've been furloughed but my employer still wants me to work. Is this allowed?

Laura says:* I've been furloughed but my employer still wants me to work and has said he'll "pay on the side for work completed". He also claims an association okayed this. This isn't right, is it? I learnt today that all of my colleagues have been working full time since being furloughed. I expressed my concerns and he said "we can either keep clients happy or I can make everyone redundant". My boss is taking away annual leave despite the new two year government rollover scheme and has said it will be pro rata when we get back to work. I queried that too. My boss wants me to carry on working today and I don't know what to do.

David Hunt, employment partner at law firm Farrer & Co, responds: The government guidance on the Job Retention Scheme is absolutely clear that if an employer wants to fall within the scheme for any furloughed employees, those employees will not be able to do any work for the employer. Moreover, any training or volunteering carried out by employees on furlough must not make money for or provide services to their employer either.

So, in Laura's case, her employer is acting against the rules of the scheme by asking furloughed employees to carry on working. The government has the right to audit the scheme at any time, and if they find signs of deliberate abuse, have the right to claw back any payments reimbursed to the employer. Laura's employer therefore runs the risk of either not being eligible for the grant once the portal opens or being asked to repay it once it has been paid (and possibly being subject to further sanctions as well).

If HMRC were to seek clawback from an employer for the reasons above, this should not, however, then allow the employer to then claw back payments made to its employees as an employer's ability to seek reimbursement from the scheme should be separate issue to its obligation to pay its employees under their contracts of employment. To guard against this, employees should, however, try and ensure that wages during furlough are not stated in any furlough letter or agreement to be conditional on the employer receiving reimbursement under the scheme.

In terms of her options, we would suggest that employees like Laura direct their employers to the government's actual guidance (rather than the employer relying on the advice of third parties), drawing their attention to the section on "employees you can claim for", which sets out the relevant details on this point. If employees are unable to persuade their employer to changes its approach, the government's guidance for employees suggests that employees should raise this with the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (Acas). An alternative option would be to contact HMRC's fraud hotline (details can be found here). This is a confidential phone line, and so could be used without the employer finding out who made the report.

Otherwise, employees like Laura who are asked to work in breach of government rules are placed in a horrible situation. If they raise this as an issue with their employer, they will have protections afforded to them under "whistleblowing" legislation if they are then dismissed or subjected to any detriment. The charity Protect has a confidential whistleblowing advice line which Laura could contact for further information on her rights.

Most of my earnings are commission and my basic salary is too low. What are my rights?

Curtis says: I work in sales so my basic annual salary is £10,000. Almost all my earnings are commission based yet the company is only paying me the £833 basic. We are used to earning anywhere from £3,500 per month. Are they supposed to conclude commissions during furlough pay or not? Is there anything I can do? Bearing in mind I have monthly outgoings that match my usual monthly income, how I was expected to drop down to £833 per month is beyond me.

David Hunt responds: The government published updated guidance on the Scheme on 4 April, which changed the position on commission payments. Previously, the guidance stated that, in calculating the wage costs to be reimbursed for employees on furlough, commission should not be included (similarly fees and bonuses were also expressly excluded from the calculation of any reimbursement).

The new guidance has changed this and now says that commission payments can be included if they are regular "compulsory commission payments" which an employer is obliged to pay. Similarly, regular payments such as past overtime and fees can now also be included. Discretionary commission remains excluded by the Scheme.

Hopefully this will be good news for people, like Curtis, who are in roles where pay is heavily dependent on things like commission. However, we haven't yet been given any guidance on how to interpret what "compulsory commission" actually covers. I anticipate it will cover contractual commissions (as opposed to discretionary schemes) and the position for Curtis will very much depend on the terms and nature of his specific commission scheme and whether he can say that his commission is indeed contractual and something his employer is obliged to pay.

If Curtis' entitlement to commission is discretionary, unfortunately, the position remains that it will not be taken into account when calculating his wage costs under the Scheme. In that situation, we suggest he tries to understand as much about the furlough scheme and his employer's plans before he agrees to being furloughed. This will include things like how much he will be paid and how long his employer envisages any time on furlough lasting at this stage.

If Curtis' commission payments are not included in, he (and employees like him) will need to weigh up the employer's proposal around pay during furlough (and here the lack of commission), when deciding whether to give his consent. However, he will also need to weigh up what the alternative to being furloughed is. For example, depending on the circumstances of his employer, there is a risk that redundancy might be the only other option available to the employer. Is no job a worse prospect in the current climate than being furloughed on basic salary only? Furthermore, even if Curtis could remain in work for the time being, what chance is there that he could continue earning commission at the moment? This is likely to depend on the particular market and industry in which he works and the extent to which it has been impacted by coronavirus.

If Curtis thinks redundancy is otherwise unlikely or thinks he may be able to find another job during any notice period, despite the difficult job market conditions, he can always seek to negotiate with his employer as to what the employer is willing to pay during the proposed furlough period and certainly should be discussing the possibility of the employer offering some form of top up.

Are companies obliged to use the furlough scheme instead of making people redundant?

* Alice says:**My friend's business just made him redundant and refuse to put him on furlough so he can have an income. Can anything be done about their refusal, can he claim it elsewhere?

David Jones responds: Firstly, there is no obligation on an employer to put an employee on furlough leave. It is a process that only the employer can initiate in circumstances where there is no work available (e.g. in the event of a temporary business closure). Unfortunately, despite the creation of the Job Retention Scheme, inevitably there will still be cases where an employer feels there are no suitable alternatives to redundancy.

If you are made redundant, the first thing to do is check what you are entitled to be paid. This will include, your pay until the effective date of termination, pay in lieu (if you are not required to work all or part of your notice period), accrued but untaken holiday pay and any other payments your employer might owe you (e.g. outstanding bonus, commission or expenses).

Anybody that is out of work can check online if they are entitled to claim Universal Credit. The Jobcentre also provides a useful resource for getting to grips with what help is available. A final point worth mentioning - if you have a mortgage protection policy, check it. Employment disputes are often covered under the terms of legal expenses provisions, and some may even include income protection cover.

My partner is being asked to "volunteer" to work while furloughed. What should they do?

Steve says: My partner is furloughed but her employer insists that she carry on working. They are not topping up 20 per cent of her wages or paying her at all. She does not want to break the rules which clearly don't allow any working. She is being asked to volunteer lest they look at making redundancies, and decide who stays when this all blows over. They claim they are currently paying her, after being furloughed and that she should continue working (although they will claim this expense back when the portal is live). Are they allowed to do any of this?

David Jones responds: It sounds like this employer might be in some difficulty. Furlough leave doesn't mean an employer can unilaterally reduce an employee's pay by 20 per cent. It only applies in a situation where there is no work. If a business is currently suffering as a result of the coronavirus outbreak, it may be necessary to review its operating costs to ensure its sustainability. Such a review may include salaries. However, this is not a carte blanche option. Changing terms and conditions of employment is complicated, even on a temporary basis. It necessitates consultation and agreement.

Employers who change terms and conditions of employment unilaterally run the employment tribunal gauntlet. If an employee resigns in response to a breach of either an express or implied term of their contract, they may have a cause of action against the employer. An employee cannot bring a claim for breach of contract claim whilst still employed. However, there are legislative provisions that prevent employers from making unlawful deductions from an employee's wages.

There are ways to resolve matters before they escalate or cause irreparable damage. Consider the grievance process and the services offered by Acas. If you're in any doubt, the best course of action is always to take legal advice.

*Some names have been changed
Updated December 17, 2020 20:35 GMT: This article is being regularly updated to include the latest information about the UK's furlough scheme Natasha Bernal is WIRED's business editor. She tweets from @TashaBernal

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The UK's coronavirus furlough scheme, explained by experts

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The government has decided to extend the furlough scheme again. But what does that mean for you?

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This article is explaining the benefits of having sponsorships within brands and how it increases brand awareness and pushes sales.

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Vodafone sponsors several leading sporting brands including the record breaking Ferrari Formula 1 motor racing team and Manchester United, one of the world's most successful football clubs. Sponsoring these leaders is an important part of Vodafone's corporate and marketing strategies, which are designed to make the company one of the world's best known brands. As a winner itself in its own line of business, Vodafone sees good sense in being associated with other winners, and being involved in aspirational activities which excite the public.

The benefits of sponsorship

Sponsorship is the material support of an event, activity or organisation by an unrelated partner. It is a good way of increasing brand awareness, which helps to generate consumer preference and to foster brand loyalty. A company can reinforce awareness among its target market by sponsoring an event or organisation that attracts a similar target market.

Sponsorship is not an act of charity - it must show some form of positive return on investment (ROI). Since sponsorship is a business arrangement, standard evaluative criteria should be used to establish the suitability of a proposed event in relation to the sponsor? image and products. A sponsor can enjoy a wide range of benefits from a carefully selected sponsorship, which can:

raise brand awareness and create preference

create positive PR and raise awareness of the organisation as a whole

provide attractive content for a range of products and services

build brand positioning through associative imagery

support a sales promotion campaign

create internal emotional commitment to the brand

act as corporate hospitality that promotes good relations with clients.

Before sponsoring an activity, the sponsor must feel sure that the event/organisation will be successful; has a proven track record, good prospects and generally be aligned with the sponsor's brand and business objectives. Sports sponsorship is the most common and can range from international to regional and local events.

The organisation receiving the sponsorship (sponsee) stands to benefit enormously from both financial support and other forms of backing from an established partner, provided that both parties have agreed a set of common objectives to underpin the sponsorship. In this case, Ferrari will benefit from joint ventures and shared revenue streams arising from the creation of a range of products and services, as well as the sale of merchandising within the telecom sector.

Sponsoring Ferrari

Vodafone intends to be recognised as one of the world's leading brands. Its sponsorship of Ferrari, with the immensely valuable media coverage that Formula 1 attracts, helps Vodafone to achieve this objective. Vodafone has over 100 million customers worldwide, spanning five continents and 28 countries. Formula 1 offers Vodafone high profile exposure in a sport that commands a worldwide television audience of 360 million people for each race.

Ask most people to name one racing team that they associate with Formula 1, and they will say 'Ferrari'. The name conjures up images of passion, joie de vivre, a can do attitude, innovation and technology, all qualities that help Ferrari to take it to the top and keep it there. Who better then, to sponsor Ferrari's next two assaults on the world title than Vodafone - the world's largest telecommunication company. That is the thinking behind Vodafone's offer of sponsorship, and Ferrari's acceptance of it.

Key events in the early days of the sponsorship were:

25th May 2001 - The sponsorship agreement was announced at the Formula 1 Grand Prix at Monaco.

6th February 2002 - The Vodafone-branded car was launched at Ferrari's headquarters in Italy.

3rd March 2002 - The Vodafone-branded Ferrari team raced for the first time at the Australian Grand Prix.

Sponsorship strategy

Vodafone sees sponsorship as involving far more than having a logo on a football shirt or a racing car. The company believes that its sponsees act as ambassadors for the Vodafone brand, saying to the world 'This brand is all about being dependable, empathetic, innovative, can do and full of vitality and life.' Moreover, Vodafone has established tangible links between the products and services it offers and the organisations that it sponsors. For example, Ferrari fans can subscribe to Multimedia Messaging Services (MMS), news services and chat forums, download games, ringtones, wicked welcomes, wallpaper and other images and play in quiz competitions. Similarly, the Vodafone Race Track racing simulator allows customers to compete in a racing simulator. Vodafone is thus committed to developing a range of value added connections to the sponsorship package. It explains this link in the expression. 'It's no good having the toys if you don't invest in the batteries to make them work'.

Organisations gain competitive advantage by developing USPs: things that only they provide and which make them distinct from anything provided by their competitors. Vodafone's link with Ferrari gives them a USP in terms of up-to-the-minute involvement with the world's leading racing team.

Fitting into corporate strategies

An organisation's strategies are the long-term plans that are the means that enable it to achieve its objectives (ends). Vodafone's current target is to become one of the world's top ten brands. To achieve this, it is expanding its global presence.

Vodafone is the market leader in the UK and in many of the other markets in which it operates. To stay ahead of the field it continually seeks to bring new technologies to the market. For example, it has recently launched 'Vodafone live!' This is a completely new world of mobile services, delivered on the latest camera phones. Users will be able to communicate with more than just words, helping them to keep in touch with the people that matter to them, better than ever before.

Marketing strategy

Marketing strategy is a key part of overall corporate strategy, which is concerned with developing plans for finding out what customers want and then efficiently meeting their requirements. Vodafone's marketing aim in the UK is to retain market leadership on revenue per customer, network quality and customer satisfaction.

Vodafone's strategy is customer focused and product led; the company is continually developing new products and services which utilise the latest technological advances. However, as consumers become increasingly sophisticated users of modern mobile technology, they make new demands and seek added value through product improvements. Vodafone must feed this back into its product strategy.

In the UK, the mobile phone market has approached maturity in a very short space of time, particularly with young people. To keep its leading edge, Vodafone is continually looking to add value to the services it provides and to the packages it offers to customers. Soon, within the UK, there will be few new customers available. So the challenge is to provide added value services and competitive charges to existing customers who are becoming more sophisticated and demanding. For example, young people think hard about which mobile phone to buy. In their search for the widest range of appropriate services and the best value for money, young people in particular examine catalogues, surf the Internet and study what their friends have bought. Trying to sell to them is tough. In order to retain market leadership, Vodafone has established a set of marketing objectives. These are to:

keep the customers it already has

increase penetration of new data service (i.e. Vodafone live!)

introduce new technologies and services (e.g. Vodafone live! and mobile internet)

continue to develop the Vodafone brand

acquire new customers.

Vodafone is achieving these objectives by continually updating the range of phones and services offered to keep ahead of its competitors. Also, Vodafone's distinctive 'How are you? & live!' advertising is helping to improve the brand image and saliency to all mobile users.

Vodafone UK, Ferrari and Formula 1 products - building public relations

Public relations (PR) is the planned, sustained effort an organisation makes to establish, develop and build relationships with its many publics. Links that Vodafone has built with its partners (including Manchester United and Ferrari) provide excellent positive public relations. In an information hungry society, many people want to know about key events and breaking news. Consumers want information whilst on the move - hence the need for modern phones which give far more control and access to information. Providing up-to-the-minute sports services is a winning formula , and is one that is providing Vodafone with plenty of positive press coverage, word-of-mouth and public relations.

Vodafone has provided a range of value added services that form part of its sponsorship package of Ferrari and Formula 1. Examples include:

'Grand Prix on the Fone' Generic Alerts

Customers can obtain wide-ranging updates texted to their Vodafone mobiles for every race of the 2003 Formula 1 season. They can even follow their favourite team, with lap speeds and times, positions of drivers and constructors as well as the drivers points table after the race. With Vodafone live!, it will be possible to compliment this service with up to the minute images, technical drawings, circuit layouts and graphics showing the grid order.

Ferrari news

Exclusive news from Ferrari texted to phones includes comments from Michael Schumacher, Rubens Barrichello and team manager Jean Todt. In addition there are exclusive results from Ferrari's test track on every day of testing, as well as key announcements from Ferrari (e.g. new driver signings) all through the year.

Grand Prix Quiz Trivia Game

This service is tied to races during the Formula 1 season. To win Ferrari merchandise prizes, players must be the quickest to answer 5 Ferrari Trivia questions.

Ferrari Ringtones and Icons

This service allows you to customise your phone with exclusive Ferrari logos, pictures, screensavers and ringtones.

Ferrari content on Vodafone live!

Ferrari content is particularly suited to Vodafone live! being provided in colour and pictures. Users can access regular alerts including pictures, that can be banked as wallpaper or sent on to friends.

Is it worth it?

Sponsorship is expensive, particularly at the premium end of the market; a world famous company like Ferrari deals only with partner organisations that it also sees as its equivalent. Given the cost of sponsorship agreements, companies make a careful financial analysis of them to ensure that there are substantial ongoing rewards. Vodafone is committed to sponsorship because the benefits are extensive, ranging from increasing the visibility of the brand name to providing sponsor related services as value added to Vodafone products.

Conclusion

This case study has shown that intelligent sponsorship involves far more than putting the sponsor's name on football shirts or racing cars, however famous. A sponsorship partnership involves identifying a shared set of objectives, and also leveraging a set of additional benefits from partnership - which in this case involves providing a range of value added services to users that enhance consumers' use of the latest technologies such as Vodafone live!

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Superbrand sponsorship - Business Case Studies

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Vodafone sponsors several leading sporting brands including the record breaking Ferrari Formula 1 motor racing team and Manchester United, one of the world's most successful football clubs. Sponsoring these leaders is an important part of Vodafone's corporate and marketing strategies, which are designed to make the company one of the world's best known brands.

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This discusses the major impact that COVID has had on eCommerce sales due to bricks and mortar having to shut for multiple lockdowns and people staying at home. This means that alot of people have started exclusively shopping from home.

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On top of health concerns, brands across the globe are worrying about how coronavirus (COVID-19) will impact ecommerce as a whole.

Ecommerce, B2B, B2C, and brick-and-mortar brands alike are all bracing for the impact that coronavirus will have on their business. In this article, we've collected everything your brand needs to know about coronavirus and ecommerce, as well as what you can do to lessen the blow.
Note: Keep coming back to this post as updates on coronavirus and ecommerce continuously roll in. We'll be adding updates throughout the pandemic to help keep you in-the-know. On December 9th at 11:30 am ET, join experts from ROI Revolution to learn critical strategies to boost your brand awareness, bring your brand's personality to light, and reach your full growth potential on Amazon. Register today to secure your seat!
COVID-19 + ecommerce: B2B stats

As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, 57% of purchasing managers are spending more on marketplace ecommerce sites, with 22% spending significantly more. When it comes to B2B marketplaces, 89% are buying at least the same amount or significantly more.

B2B ecommerce sales have grown from $1.1 trillion in 2019 to $1.3 trillion in 2020, with B2B marketplace gross merchandise volume growing from $16.58B in 2018 to $22.56B in 2019 to $31.19B in 2020.

COVID-19 accelerated many trends, including brands looking more toward third-party sellers. Amazon is of course emerging as a dominant force in this arena, set to top $52B in gross merchandise volume by 2023.

COVID-19 + ecommerce: DTC stats

COVID-19 has accelerated many consumers' shifts to direct-to-consumer (DTC or D2C) brands. In fact, 52% of DTC brands have seen surges in demand. The brands surveyed in this research spanned verticals including home, fashion, beauty, electronics, food, and more.

D2C brands have been faring better than their traditional counterparts throughout the coronavirus pandemic. Where 80% of traditional retailers have seen sales decline since the pandemic started, only 22% of D2C brands have a seen a dip.

In a world that is becoming more digital by the minute due to the pandemic and social distancing, D2C gives brands an opportunity to boost their online sales even more by getting a clear, first-hand look into their customers' buying behavior.

COVID-19's impact on holiday shopping

The uncertainty that continues to linger around the coronavirus pandemic will impact consumer shopping habits this holiday season beyond the shift to ecommerce.

25% of consumers are stressed about their ability to afford gifts this year, with 30% of consumers saying they'll spend less this year due to the current state of the US economy as a result of the pandemic response. In fact, 57% of shoppers rate the economy poorly - a 37% increase from last year.

Brands who are able to extend layaway and other "buy now, pay later" options like Klarna, Affirm, and Afterpay may see this holiday season may see a boost in sales. In September, Dillard's began offering Afterpay as an option, which resulted in increased purchases and more shoppers to their website. Macy's followed suit in October by announcing a long-term partnership with Klarna.

Holiday + COVID-19 ecommerce stats

The COVID-19 pandemic will lead to an additional $40 billion in online holiday revenue over November and December 2020, according to new data from Digital Commerce 360. Pre-pandemic, this level of digital holiday shopping wasn't expected to be reached for another four years.

For the first time ever, more than a quarter of holiday sales will occur online in 2020. In fact, US consumers are expected to spend a collective 43.3% more with online retailers this holiday season, a total of $198.73 billion. That's a 26.1% increase in web penetration, up from 19.2% in 2019.

Along with this ecommerce shift, in-store sales are projected to decline 3.7% year-over-year. Brands and retailers with brick-and-mortar locations can cope with this shift by offering options like buy online, pick up in-store and curbside pickup.

Social media pandemic performance stats

Many marketing experts expected social media usage to soar over the course of the pandemic due to stay-at-home mandates and people spending more time isolated.

However, the number of social media users has grown a modest 3.3% this year, after being forecasted to grow 2.5% pre-pandemic. Most of the growth has come from consumers 35 and older, although all age groups saw slight increases.

Growth is expected to stay largely on target with pre-pandemic estimates through 2024, with user growth continuing to remain modest. There will be 212.1 million social media users in 2020, and that number is expected to grow to 226 million by 2024.

It's not too surprising that user growth hasn't been significant, with 81.3% of adult internet users already on social media. But while the number of social media users hasn't grown much, users are spending more time on social media networks.

In 2019, time spent with social networks fell by 1.3%. In 2020, time spent with social media networks is projected to grow 8.8%.

In May 2020, 43% of social media users ages 16-64 said they were spending more time on social media, with 16% planning to continue doing so post-pandemic. 54% of social media users who typically spent 4+ hours on social media pre-pandemic said they were spending more time on social media, with 26% planning to continue doing so post-pandemic.

Q4 coronavirus and ecommerce stats

The coronavirus pandemic forced brands to pivot their 2020 ecommerce strategies immensely to cope with consumers' constantly shifting behavior. Here are some the latest stats:

12% more time spent with digital this year (Merkle)

10% more time spent on mobile this year (Merkle)

79% of consumers will continue to spend more conservatively in the coming months (Merkle)

11% of advertisers expect COVID-19 to significantly impact their ad spending in Q4 (Influencer Marketing Hub)

68% of advertisers expect COVID-19 to impact their ad spending into 2021 (Influencer Marketing Hub)

62% of consumers shop online more now than before the pandemic (Bazaarvoice)

3.5% less foot traffic in UK stores the week of October 17th (Reuters)

Prime Day amid the pandemic

After being postponed from July to October due to the coronavirus pandemic, Amazon Prime Day 2020 went off without a hitch.

The annual sales event took place on October 13 and October 14 this year across the U.S. and 18 other countries. Prime members saved more than $1.4 billion over the two-day sales event, according to a press release from Amazon.

Digital Commerce 360 estimates that despite the pandemic, Amazon Prime Day 2020 sales hit $10.4 billion - up from $7.16 billion (+45.2%) over Prime Day 2019 and from $4.19 billion (+148.2%) over Prime Day 2018.

Dive deeper into the Prime Day wins that happened despite COVID-19 in our Prime Day recap & stats blog post!

The data is in: Online shopping habits since pre-COVID-19

36% of consumers shop online weekly since the rise of COVID-19, up from 28% pre-pandemic, according to new data from Digital Commerce 360.

29% say they currently shop more online than in person, while 35% have an even mix of online and in-store shopping.

What about after coronavirus subsides, though? 28% say they will continue to shop mostly online after the pandemic, with 39% saying they will shop both online and in-store, 24% saying they "can't wait" to shop in-store, and 10% not sure.

64% of shoppers surveyed want mobile and contactless pickup options, with 79% saying contactless store pickup is very important.

60% want curbside pickup options. 85% of shoppers have significantly increased their use of the curbside pickup option over the course of the pandemic.

90% of consumers prefer home delivery over a store visit, 80% are likely to use digital communications with store associates, and only 28% plan to increase in-store shopping between August 2020 and February 2021.

Executives' optimism toward economy improves

According to new research from McKinsey, 57% of executives expect the economy to improve six months from now, with 29% expecting the economy to worsen - the most optimistic outlook since the beginning of the pandemic. 14% of executives expect economic conditions to remain the same.

In March, 25% of executives expected the economy to improve in six months, with 58% expecting it to worsen and 17% expecting it to remain the same.

April has had the worst outlook out of all of seven months of COVID-19 in the US, with 66% of executives expecting it to worsen in the following six months.

Executives' outlook on profitability has also improved, with 53% expecting to see profits in the next six months compared to 33% in March. While over half (54%) of executives surveyed in April expected profits to decrease over the next six months, that number is down to 31% now - the lowest it's been since the beginning of the pandemic.

Executives also increasingly expect customer demand for their brand's products to grow, with 53% expecting an increase compared to 42% in June. 23% of executives still expect a decrease in customer demand over the next six months.

Turbocharged ecommerce shift brings 31.8% QoQ increase

Consumers spent nearly $212 billion on ecommerce between April and June 2020 according to new data from the US Department of Commerce.

This nearly 32% increase clearly paints the picture of ecommerce's growth during the pandemic. US ecommerce sales were only up 2.4% quarter-over-quarter in the first three months of the year. Now, ecommerce accounts for 16.1% of all US sales, compared to 11.8% in Q1.

Retail sales, however, continue to decline, down 3.9% QoQ in Q2 after a 1.3% decline in Q1. Grocery, office supplies, electronics, and, of course, essential goods are some of the categories that have grown the most online during the pandemic.

BOPIS sales up 259% due to COVID-19

Buy online, pick up in-store (BOPIS or BOPUS) surged 259% YoY in August 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic, with many shoppers wary about the safety of in-store shopping. This equates to a 59% month-over-month increase in August compared to July.

BOPIS also brings consumers the immediate satisfaction of receiving their item almost immediately without having to search for it in the store or wait for it to be shipped. This is an especially attractive option considering delayed delivery and shipment have been significant issues for consumers during the pandemic.

According to an Adobe consumer survey, 33% of consumers have received online orders later than expected and 30% prefer BOPIS or curbside pickup over delivery.

Coronavirus accelerates shift to ecommerce by 5 years

As the pandemic has reshaped life as we know it, it's also accelerated many trends - but the biggest of these trends may be ecommerce. The shift toward ecommerce was happening before COVID-19, but according to new data from IBM, the pandemic has accelerated consumers' shift toward ecommerce by five years.

Ecommerce is projected to grow by nearly 20% YoY in 2020. This growth was even more pronounced at the beginning of the pandemic, with U.S. retail ecommerce up 44.5% YoY in Q2. Also in Q2, Walmart's ecommerce sales were up 97% YoY and Target grew its same-day fulfillment services by 273%.

The top categories consumers have gravitated toward during this shift are alcohol, home improvement materials, and groceries (up 16%, 14%, and 12% respectively), with apparel seeing significant declines.

U.S. department stores may not survive the pandemic

Will the pandemic be the end of department stores? Department stores have held strong to their fashion and apparel categories, but with apparel sales in a free fall across the board, many department stores are hurting as a result of COVID-19. Many major chains are being forced to file for bankruptcy or even liquidate entirely.

According to recent research from the Commerce Department, apparel sales were down 20% YoY in July 2020 after a 20% decline in June.

"Department stores' decline has been masked by the survivors like Macy's [...] But that gig is over. The end was in sight pre-Covid." said Mark Cohen, former Sears Canada CEO. "The mall-based department store is in its last stages."

With market share being ceded to retail giants and big box retailers like Amazon, Target, Walmart, and Best Buy, department stores and malls have slowly but surely been on the decline for decades. Department stores accounted for 14.3% of retail sales in 1992, which was down to 3.7% in 2019.

COVID-19: H1 2020 update

According to new data from Digital Commerce 360, online spend with U.S. retailers grew 30.1% - that's $60.42 billion - year-over-year for the first six months of 2020 to reach a total of $347.26B. From 2018 to 2019, ecommerce sales grew just 12.7%.

Total retail sales were up 4% YoY, with online spending representing 18.6% of this growth.

In Q2 2020, $1 of every $5 spent by U.S. consumers came from online orders. Online spend with U.S. retailers grew 44.4%, with a total of $200.72B spent during this period.

The ecommerce sales growth is slowing now that many stores across the country have been reopening. Ecommerce sales were up 76% ($73.0B) YoY in June 2020, followed by 55% ($66.3B) in July.

COVID-19 news & industry updates

Prime Day's proximity to Cyber 5 introduces yet another new factor to consumers' changing holiday shopping habits in 2020. In this video replay, our ecommerce experts pinpoint online strategies that are here to stay, top considerations to keep in mind as you plan for the unprecedented, and how you can still leverage your 2019 data to forecast for the holidays.

Next week, Amazon will host Amazon Accelerate, a three-day virtual conference designed to help SMB Marketplace sellers navigate "a strong finish to 2020 and beyond."

Digital initiatives like BOPIS (buy online, pick up in-store) have been crucial for big box retailers during the pandemic, with BJ'S Wholesale announcing big plans to expand these initiatives after seeing 300% digital growth YoY.

According to eMarketer research, the number of smartphone food delivery app users is forecasted to rise 25.2% this year, with adoption anticipated to continue through 2023.

Home Depot had a very successful Q2 due to do-it-yourself projects taking off during the pandemic, with sales soaring 23.4% YoY at a 10.1% higher AOV and transactions increasing by 12.3%.

COVID-19 industry updates

For better or for worse, no industry has gone untouched by COVID-19. In every edition of our biweekly COVID-19 Compass newsletter, we share updates from various industries on how they are being impacted by the pandemic. Here's a look at what you may have missed.
PS: If you're not currently signed up for the COVID-19 Compass, you can

Retail: Global retail sales are expected to dip by 5.7% this year due to the coronavirus pandemic. Online purchases of clothing, however, are up 76.7%, with online revenue up 22.2% - but average order value down 54.5%.

Homemade goods. The market for handcrafted items like masks and home furnishings has exploded during the pandemic, with sales spiking 146% on Etsy's marketplace as a result.

Grocery. Online grocery has seen continued growth throughout the pandemic, with online grocery sales for delivery and pickup increasing 9% from May to June.

Travel. Due to COVID-19, U.S. digital travel sales are expected to in 2020 after staying mostly stagnant in previous years. Most sectors of the travel industry won't recover from the pandemic until drop 44.7%at least 2022, with most consumers planning to either not vacation at all or to stay in their country or local area.

Automotive. Previous challenges faced by the automotive industry have been exacerbated by coronavirus, with China experiencing a more than 80% drop in sales for light vehicles due to the pandemic.

Technology. Demand for communications equipment and cloud infrastructure is forecasted to continue growing, although many factories are experiencing serious challenges with resuming production.

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Mobile ad spend rising despite pandemic

While total overall U.S. ad spending is down due to COVID-19, mobile ad spend will increase by 4.8% to reach $91.52B in 2020.

According to new data from eMarketer, while mobile is one of the few ad formats expected to churn out growth this year, the growth is much smaller than it was projected to be before coronavirus. Prior to the pandemic, mobile was projected to grow to $105.34B in 2020.

Without mobile's projected growth, U.S. digital ad spend would shrink this year. Digital ad spend isn't projected to reach pre-pandemic levels until at least 2024.

Overall U.S. ad spend (not just digital) is now expected to drop $16.40B this year instead of growing $20B as was expected pre-pandemic.

Amazon + COVID-19

Prior to COVID-19, Amazon was estimated to net $81.2 billion in revenue in Q2 2020. Because of the pandemic, Amazon allocated $4 billion in additional spend to keep customers and employees safe and increase deliveries after prioritizing only essential items.

The ecommerce giant's Q2 2020 numbers actually ended up totaling $88.9 billion, marking 40% year-over-year growth. YOY growth was especially impressive for grocery sales, which tripled YOY after Amazon increased its grocery capacity by 160% amid the pandemic.

In the UK, 35% of all online purchases during the lockdown period were made via Amazon, with one-fifth of survey respondents saying they now have a higher intent to purchase from Amazon post-pandemic. Free delivery, availability, and price were the top three key online purchase drivers for this group of consumers.

Walmart, Target, & More to Shut Doors on Thanksgiving Due to COVID-19

Major brick-and-mortar retailers including Walmart, Target, and Best Buy are shutting their doors for Thanksgiving in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The holiday closings come as retailers work to avoid overcrowding their stores and allow all of their employees to have a day off. Retailers have not yet announced their store opening plans for the other days but we can expect more announcements in the future.

Walmart was the first major retailer to announce it close on Thanksgiving. In a news release, Walmart stated that stores would be closed as a show of appreciation to Walmart associates, who have been deemed essential workers in the COVID-19 pandemic.

This will be the first time since the late 1980s that Walmart stores will be closed on Thanksgiving. The retailer shared that Black Friday store hours will be shared at a later date.

Six days after Walmart's announcement, Target released a preview of its adjusted holiday plans , which include starting to roll out the biggest deals of the year in October to avoid large crowds of shoppers - an earlier start to holiday shopping than ever before.

Target's plan also includes expanding same-day grocery delivery to accommodate for increased holiday demand.

Other retailers shutting their doors this Thanksgiving include , Dick's Sporting Goods , and .

Many retailers will focus their efforts on curbside pickup this holiday season, with curbside pickup orders at retail stores surging 208% amid the coronavirus pandemic.

UK spending and banking habits shifting

According to the Toluna and Harris Interactive COVID-19 Barometer survey, 40% of consumers in the United Kingdom plan to reduce spend related to entertainment as lockdown restricitons ease. That is in contrast to only 14% of consumers who said they would be increasing their spend over the next 1-2 months.

Additionally, of those surveyed, 38% said they would be looking to put more money into savings and an additional 28% said they planned to create stricter budgets in the near future.
Only time will tell.
What does all this mean? Basically, consumers are being cautious with their discretionary spending, even as restrictions are slowly being reduced in the UK. This shift in consumer mindset will have a trickle-down effect on ecommerce as well, especially in areas like the United States that are still being hard hit by the pandemic. Consumers are still incredibly hesitant about the stability of the economy, and rightly so.

With so much uncertainty on the future, a possible second wave, and a widespread vaccine still months away (at least), it's no surprise that many people are hunkering down and safeguarding their income. How will this affect Q4 seasonality and holiday shopping?

COVID-19 Pushes Prime Day to October

Before COVID-19 took hold, it was assumed that Amazon Prime Day would occur on July 12th. Then, it got postponed to August. Then September.

According to reports from CNBC, Geekwire, and BusinessInsider, Amazon Prime Day 2020 has now been rescheduled to October in the wake of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Although no official date has been announced, it's looking like the week of October 5th is the tentative new timeline.

And now it's been pushed back again to give time for the marketplace giant to get all its shipping and fulfillment ducks in a row, including the hiring of more than 175,000 new workers.

Due to COVID-19, merchandising, fulfillment, and shipping have been major concerns of brands large and small for the past several months. Although the situation has improved in recent weeks as many countries have seen a decrease in COVID-19 cases and shipping lag times have finally caught up with demand, a second wave in the U.S. will most likely lead to more challenges for those advertising on Amazon.

Walmart, Amazon, & Coronavirus

As part of its continued steps to compete with Amazon during the pandemic, Walmart has plans to launch Walmart+, a Prime-like service priced at $98/year. Perks will include same-day delivery and grocery delivery, something that sets Walmart apart from Amazon.

With the arrival of coronavirus in 2020, ecommerce has been expanding rapidly. U.S. online sales grew 76% in June, reaching $73.2 billion last month. As an essential business selling high-demand products like toilet paper, surface cleaners, and groceries during the pandemic, Walmart has continuously seen increases in spend both online and offline.

Walmart also just surpassed eBay in U.S. ecommerce sales to rank #2, second to Amazon. Amazon remains in the top spot by a wide margin - 38.7% compared to Walmart's 5.3%. eBay sits at 4.7%.

As far as retail ecommerce sales growth, however, Walmart sits at #1 with 27.0% compared to Amazon's #6 ranking at 17.2%.

Ecommerce Up 18%, Brick-and-Mortar Down 14%

An eMarketer survey released last week shows how the coronavirus pandemic has shifted the world of ecommerce in 2020. February forecasts projected U.S. retail to grow 2.8% in 2020, but new data shows that U.S. retail sales will decline 10.5% this year, including a 14% decrease in brick-and-mortar.

Ecommerce, on the flip side, is expected to see 18% growth in 2020, largely driven by BOPUS initiatives like curbside pickup that have seen unexpected growth due to the pandemic. Click-and-collect and curbside pickup are expected to persist and experience a long-term trajectory of ecommerce growth post-pandemic.

Increased uptake of online shopping from consumers who moved online while brick-and-mortar stores were closed is also a big part of what's driving the increase. Many consumers have turned to online shopping for the first time, with 12.2% growth for new online shoppers 65 and older.

Post-COVID ad spend

Whereas many US agencies and ad marketers said in early May that they expected ad spend to resume or ramp up by July and that major impacts wouldn't last through Q3. However, 43% of those respondents said in late May that they did expect major impacts to last through Q3.

Most respondents expect moderate to major impacts through the end of 2020, with one-third still expecting to see impacts into next year.

The journey to a new normal will be a slow one. eMarketer predicts that YOY ad spending increases won't return to where we expected them to be pre-pandemic until 2021.

2020 Ecommerce Paid Search

COVID-19 has thrown the entire ecommerce landscape for a loop, with consumers' buying behaviors seemingly changing overnight. While some trends have accelerated, others have declined unexpectedly, and the impact your brand is feeling depends largely on your industry.

15 secrets to fortify your multichannel marketing strategy across Amazon, Google, Facebook, and more.

In-depth analysis of the emerging trends redefining advertising and how to leverage them.

Underutilized new ad formats to enhance your audience targeting and customer acquisition.

The pandemic has made predicting what the future will hold even more challenging. How do you forecast a Q4 that is still facing a hurdle as unpredictable as COVID-19? The truth is, you probably can't. What you can do is leverage the data in our 2020 Ecommerce Paid Search Report from $400 million dollars of ad spend from 400+ industry-leading brands, as well as strategic insights from top PPC experts to get a major leg up on your top competitors.

In this exclusive executive report, you'll uncover:

We're excited to share with you the data and insights that will help you grow your brand profitably in the new decade. Claim your copy today!

Amazon Prime Day Prep: Gearing Up for the Perfect Ecommerce Storm

Prime Day began in 2015 as a celebration of Amazon's 20th birthday. It quickly grew from a $415M event to more than $7B in 2019. But with COVID-19, supply chain & inventory disruptions, economic unrest, the uncertainty of Prime Day official date(s), 2020 has created a perfect storm that even the most proactive brand executive couldn't have predicted.

At the same time, Prime Day is a time when consumers are eager to buy, creating increased opportunity for brands to leverage their websites and other marketplaces to drive sales. This halo effect makes it critical to have a strategy that encompasses all of your marketing channels.

July 22, 11-11:30 AM: The New Normal for Prime Day in 2020

July 29, 11-11:30 AM: Inventory Planning + Merchandising

August 5, 11-11:30 AM: SEO + Retail Readiness

August 12, 11 AM-12 PM: Digital Advertising Strategies + AMA

We've prepared a four-week webinar series to ensure your brand is completely prepared to weather the storm and vastly increase your overall revenue.

You'll gain access to the following sessions:

You can learn more about this webinar series here!

Social media advertising and COVID-19

Before Covid, the amount of time that U.S. adults spend on social networks was expected to plateau in 2020 and 2021 after doing the same in 2018 and 2019.

However, during the coronavirus pandemic, up to 51% of U.S. adults have been using social media more.

This trend is not expected to continue post-pandemic. eMarketer predicts that this trend will begin to moderate as we approach the end of 2020 and routines return back to how they were pre-pandemic (at least as much as possible), then proceed to visibly decline into 2021.

Only 9% of U.S. adults expect to continue spending more time on social media post-pandemic (compared to 17% of adults worldwide).
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How ecommerce stores can take advantage of increased social media traffic during COVID-19

Does your ecommerce store take advantage of social media posts on top of ads to get more sales? Sprout Social recently conducted an analysis of the best times to post on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn based on user activity and engagement. Here's what they found:

Walmart tests store without cashiers

To both help speed up checkout times and prevent the spread of coronavirus by limiting human interaction, Walmart is testing a store without any cashiers or conveyer belts at checkout lines. If the experiment at the Fayetteville, Arkansas location is successful, Walmart may test the concept at additional locations.

In response to COVID-19, Walmart has already integrated a touch-free payment system where customers can add money to their Walmart shopping app and use their phone to pay.

COVID-19 has played a large role in accelerating pre-pandemic trends. Retailers and restaurants have been testing cashierless checkout for many years with order kiosks and self-checkout options. The concept of Walmart's touch-free payment system is very similar to Apple Pay, which saw users increase from 67 million in 2016 to 441 million in 2019.

As ecommerce retailers continue to test new strategies and expand upon previous ones, the winners who see the most success will be the ones who test, test, test to figure out what works for their exact brand as opposed to trying to follow industry best practices.

Customer Acquisition to Retention: Now available on demand

Multichannel Acquisition Insights: Google, Facebook, & Amazon (ROI Revolution)

How to Convert Browsers Into Buyers (Searchspring)

The Power of UGC: Build Your Brand Reputation and Increase Conversions (Trustpilot)

Leveraging Headless Commerce to Level Up Your Site Experience (BigCommerce)

Watch the video now!
To address the pressing concerns of growing brands, we partnered with BigCommerce, Searchspring, and Trustpilot for a virtual half-day event all about creating a seamless customer journey to become an industry-leading force.

In this video replay, you'll access the following sessions:

Want to dive even deeper into the current marketing landscape? Digital Commerce 360 is offering 30% off their 208-page analysis of the top 1,000 retailers and current ecommerce trends, as well as their database with more than 100 data points on each Top 1000 retailers. Download your report today and use promo code 1000ROI30 to get your discount!

COVID-19 ecommerce industry impacts

In a recent analysis of retail and online brands, Digital Commerce 360 found that brands that pulled back on marketing spend during COVID-19 are now seeing their online sales struggle. Brands that stayed on course with their spending have seen online sales steady out after an initial dip. Brands that aggressively pushed their spending are seeing unprecedented growth.

While looking at industry trends can be helpful in informing your strategy, it's also important to look at how channels are performing within different categories. Wholesale and retail channels in general are underperforming during this time in any industry. During this time, retailers who were able to double down on their direct-to-consumer initiatives instead of leaning more on brick-and-mortar stores and wholesale have seen online sales growth.

Focusing on ecommerce and D2C in a way that allows for a mix of both retail and online sales is how most brands are finding success during the time of COVID-19.

These growths and declines have been happening while consumer discretionary spending has dropped over 50%. With consumers spending less on transportation, travel, restaurants, and childcare in light of coronavirus, and strong discounts and ad placements being placed near essential items being sold online, non-essential ecommerce has continued to fare well despite this dip.

COVID-19 ecommerce industry impacts

As COVID-19 continues on, ecommerce impacts continue to fluctuate depending on the industry. Around the end of March, the top five categories for YOY page view growth were:

1. Business & industrial

2. Toys & games

3. Food, beverage, & tobacco

4. Office supplies

5. Health & beauty

By the end of April, however, these top categories saw a significant change:

1. Toys & games

2. Arts & entertainment

3. Sporting goods

4. Animals & pet supplies

5. Business & industrial

Looking at YOY order count growth can provide an additional helpful perspective, and similar to the data above, these industries also changed from March to April. Around the end of March, the top five categories for YOY order count growth were:

1. Food, beverage, & tobacco

2. Sporting goods

3. Business & industrial

4. Software

5. Health & beauty

At April's end, these top five categories became:

1. Hardware

2. Sporting goods

3. Vehicles & parts

4. Business & industrial

5. Arts & entertainment

The coronavirus pandemic has been filled with fluctuations and general unpredictability, and the impact COVID-19 has had on different industries is no exception. We'll continue to keep you updated here with the latest COVID-19 and ecommerce news. You can also dive more into the research done by Bazaarvoice on COVID-19 industry impacts here.

Racial inequality and COVID-19

On top of racially charged police brutality, Black people in the U.S. have also faced higher rates of mortality and joblessness related to COVID-19. For every 100,000 people, 55 Black Americans have died from coronavirus compared to 25 Latinx Americans, 24 Asian Americans, and 23 White Americans.

In other words, the coronavirus mortality rates of Black Americans are more than twice as high as other races. In fact, in Chicago, Black Americans have made up 68% of coronavirus deaths, while the city's Black population is only .

Centuries of discrimination and inequality in America play a major role in this and have led to fewer available resources for Black people - resources that have been much more easily accessible to White people, especially resources related to financial security and health. This lack of resources has contributed to Black people making up a disproportionate share of low-wage essential workers who have had to keep working during the pandemic, despite risks to their health. This helps to explain the disproportionate amount of deaths, and also the inherent racism built into the United States' socioeconomic system.

Further, the median White worker makes 28% more than the median Black worker. This racial wealth divide has exceedingly grown over the past several decades. The median White family has 41 times more wealth than the median Black family.

You can visit inequality.org to learn more about racial economic inequality.

Black-owned small businesses in the wake of coronavirus

Black-owned small businesses have faced a disproportionately negative impact from coronavirus. The number of working Black business owners has fallen by 40% compared to the 22% drop across all demographics. Additionally, the Center for Responsible Lending estimates that 95% of Black-owned businesses had a slim chance of receiving a loan in the first round of the Paycheck Protection Program, which was created to help small business owners during the pandemic.

Black people have faced excessive difficulty starting and maintaining a small business in the first place. According to the 2018 Small Business Credit Survey, large banks approve around 60% of loans sought by White small business owners and just 29% of loans sought by Black small business owners.

You can visit McKinsey's report on how COVID-19 has impacted minority-owned businesses to learn more. You can also visit supportblackowned.com to locate and donate to Black-owned small businesses near you.

COVID-19 and ecommerce long-term impacts

In light of coronavirus, nearly one-quarter of shoppers are looking for contactless payments or delivery options, with 36% of shoppers saying they won't return to brick-and-mortar stores until a vaccine is available, according to a recent survey of 3,558 consumers from Salesforce Research.

The amount of consumers who are shopping online has been steadily increasing throughout the pandemic, with 44% of respondents conducting more of their shopping online in mid-May - an increase from 42% two weeks earlier. Even after COVID-19 effects subside, 68% of U.S. shoppers expect to continue buying essential goods online. This is especially true for Gen Z and Millennials, 73% of whom fall into this category compared to 69% of Gen X and 57% of Baby Boomers.

Online shopping is slightly more prevalent among high income households during the COVID-19 pandemic, with 71% saying they see more online shopping in their future and 65% of lower income households saying the same. Coronavirus is also expected to impact back-to-school and holiday shopping, with consumers across all income brackets saying they expect to spend less during these seasonal times than in 2019.

Uncommon Goods sells face masks, donates 100% of profits for COVID-19

Online marketplace Uncommon Goods is donating 100% of the profits of its rainbow face coverings to NYC Health + Hospitals.

These washable masks were all made in New York and designed by children ranging in age from one to 11 years old. The masks come in sets of two, each with a label that has a big, positive message like "lift others up" and "keep smiling."

There are three designs to choose from and the full $25 will go to NYC Health + Hospitals, an organization that provides essential inpatient, outpatient, and home-based services across New York City for trauma care, mental health services, primary care, long-term care, and more.

The masks can be found on the Uncommon Goods website here.

Amazon's coronavirus testing efforts

The same team who developed the Amazon Kindle e-reader, Echo smart speaker, and Fire TV stick is in the initial stages of building a robust COVID-19 testing network. Amazon's plan is to build out robust internal testing labs to test its workforce for coronavirus.

The multi-state medical testing network would aim to fly samples from Amazon warehouses around the U.S. to a central hub in Hebron, Kentucky, where Amazon's main air freight hub is located. There are currently job listings for microbiologists, medical researchers, legal roles, and design engineers to assist with the development of this project.

This development comes as part of Amazon's $4 billion commitment to dealing with the effects of coronavirus. Funds will also be allocated toward providing personal protective equipment (PPE) for Amazon warehouse workers, cleaning of facilities, and increases in hourly wages. The ecommerce giant's robotics group is also working to make face shields for frontline workers, roving bots that emit disinfecting UV light, and sorting machines that cut down on human contact.

Underutilized PPC customer acquisition strategies to increase revenue at a profitable return.

The hidden levers to SEO domination and the metrics to effectively track and monitor your performance.

Client success stories from brands just like yours showcasing the tremendous impact of a paid + organic advertising strategy.

Expert insights from Don Davis, Editor at Large for Digital Commerce 360, on the state of paid and organic search and how the Digital Commerce 360 Top 1000 is adapting.

Optimizing your paid and organic channels during COVID-19

Paid and organic search are the digital duopoly for audience acquisition that can transform your brand into an industry-leading force. To help you make the most of your paid and organic efforts, we partnered with the experts at Digital Commerce 360 to show you strategic insights to optimize and strengthen both channels in a webinar last week. A replay of that webinar is available now! You'll learn:

It's time to take your SEO and PPC efforts to the next level. Watch the video today!

Walmart's ecommerce during coronavirus

Largely due to online grocery orders, Walmart's ecommerce sales increased by 74% last quarter - revealing an area where Walmart has ample room to compete with Amazon. After seeing around 25% year-over-year sales growth for U.S. ecommerce in 2018 and just over 40% in 2019, Walmart has seen 74% YOY growth so far in 2020.

Walmart CEO Doug McMillon says that Walmart has seen four times as many new customers trying their pickup or delivery services, many of whom are becoming repeat customers.

Even with Whole Foods under its belt, it's hard for Amazon to compete with the 3,200 Walmart locations that offer in-store pickup compared to the 150 Whole Foods.

Walmart is also fighting Target for the ecommerce spotlight, with both companies' online sales surging during Q1 2020 as a result of coronavirus. Comparable sales surged 10% for Walmart from February to April 2020 and 10.8% for Target. While Walmart's 74% ecommerce growth is impressive, Target's ecommerce has surged 141% during the COVID-19 period.

Impact of COVID-19 on SMBs

According to a recent survey by global payments network Veem, 81% of U.S. small businesses expect to feel long-term impacts from COVID-19, with 87% preparing for economic slowdown.

More than one-third of the small- to mid-sized businesses surveyed say they're pivoting their supply chains during this time, with around 25% investing in new technology or aligning their IT systems in some way in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

A key pain point for SMBs has been liquidity. 52% are cutting operational costs, with 54% freezing hiring.

The three SMB industries most impacted by coronavirus are personal service, hospitality, and retail. SMBs in the telecommunications, professional services, and life science industries are feeling the least negative impact from COVID-19. Other heavily impacted SMB industries include education, financial services, and retail.

COVID-19 industry updates: automotive, apparel, & gaming

The automotive industry has seen a 42% increase in online revenue since March, compared to 9% this time last year. In paid search, the average cost per click of a digital automotive ad has dropped 31% year-over-year. Looking at the beginning of May versus the beginning of March, conversion rates on ecommerce automotive websites have increased 11.1%. In the last week of April, automotive ecommerce revenue went up 61%.

The apparel industry has struggled throughout the pandemic as consumers choose to spend their discretionary income in sectors deemed "essential." Apparel sales are continuing to decline, with U.S. retail sales dropping almost twice as much in April compared to March. Some areas in retail are performing better than others, with U.K. luxury apparel brand Browns seeing a 70% increase in loungewear sales during the COVID-19 period. The fashion industry as a whole is expected to face a 27-30% drop in global revenue as a result of coronavirus.

While the casino industry faces devastating numbers, at-home gaming and puzzling retailers thrive. As one of the leaders in the casino industry, Caesars is experiencing a daily cash burn of $9.3 million. Despite furloughing 90% of their North American employees, Caesars will soon begin a phased reopening of some of its properties. Contrasting in-person gaming, board games and puzzles spiked 240% and building set sales are up by 59%. While puzzle retailers are benefiting from their huge increases in sales, many of their manufacturers are only working at 40% capacity, making meeting that demand very difficult.

Paid search post-COVID-19

No matter your industry, if you work with Google Ads and Microsoft Ads, you've likely noticed COVID-19's impact on ecommerce search interests, buyer habits, and overall performance.

In the initial weeks of the unprecedented stay-at-home mandates, marketers felt like they were on shaky ground. The closings of brick-and-mortar stores presented an opportunity for digital commerce, but the rising unemployment rate created uncertainty in whether or not commercial and consumer product sales would come to a screeching halt.

After a couple of weeks, it became clear that consumers were depending more on ecommerce than ever before for essential and non-essential items alike (everything from face masks and gloves to puzzles and children's swing sets).

How will your paid search performance be affected once daily consumer life has returned to a level of normalcy? To help you answer that question, we've compiled a short list of tips for making the most of the inevitable shift in competitive landscapes, buying behavior, and consumers' renewed confidence in brick-and-mortar after the peak of lifestyle disruptions caused by coronavirus. Dive deeper here!

Amazon debuts digital storefront for fashion designers

In partnership with Vogue and the Council of Fashion Designers of America, Amazon is launching a digital storefront where shoppers can purchase luxury goods from independent designers.

Common Threads: Vogue x Amazon Fashion is aimed at providing relief to high-end designers who have suffered greatly from the cancellation of fashion weeks globally. The partnership also benefits Amazon greatly. Many high-end designers have avoided Amazon for fear of being associated with inferior or ordinary products, so this pandemic is pushing them into agreements that they may not have considered under normal circumstances.

Amazon is also showing their generosity by donating $500,000 to the Common Threads grant program, which raised over $4 million in their first round of fundraising. This program was developed to help support designers, retailers, and garment manufacturers during this period of plummeting demand.

While some consumers may be excited about the easy access to luxury goods, others may be skeptical about purchasing high-ticket items on the ecommerce website.

Google Business COVID-19 updates

At the beginning of April, Google My Business created an option for businesses to post updates specific to COVID-19. Businesses should be aware that these updates may replace standard Google Posts, which could impact local SEO strategy.

If you use a lot of Google Posts as a part of your local SEO strategy, consider deleting the COVID-19 posts or updating them to include the same information as your standard posts.

In March, Google stopped displaying new business reviews in Google My Business. Early this week, new reviews started showing up. This included backfilling old reviews during that suspended period as well as new reviews since the suspension was lifted. These reviews will be important to check because they may comment on how businesses are functioning during this crisis, for better or for worse.

Amazon works to catch up

On Sunday (5/10), Amazon lifted restrictions that limited the amount of inventory suppliers could send to Amazon warehouses. They also have addressed long delivery times for nonessential products. Some delivery times that stretched weeks have been shortened back to days.

With quick delivery a central part of Amazon's competitive advantage, fixing these times is essential for customer retention. Amazon received 800,000 negative reviews in April - double the amount last April. Despite Amazon's rapid hiring, demand has been a challenge to keep up with.

During the worst weeks of April, many shoppers turned to competitors Walmart and Target for curbside pickup, a more immediate option than what Amazon could offer. While it is unlikely that these shoppers will turn away from Amazon permanently, the expedited change in habit may lead them to spread their spending across these huge retail options in the future.

Walmart and Target have been working tirelessly to challenge Amazon's online presence and may benefit in the long run by converting loyal Amazon shoppers into repeat customers for themselves.

Social media advertising in Q2

As businesses are pushed to cut budgets, marketing has taken major hits. Advertisers pulling back spending have pushed social media ad prices to fall as much as 50%, while engagement has reached all-time highs.

For tips on taking advantage of this increased engagement, see our latest blog post, Facebook Advertising Strategies During COVID-19.

Some companies in technology, telecom, and CPG industries continued to spend on social media and benefited from the lower prices. While each industry will likely see different patterns in the coming months, CPMs are predicted to remain low throughout Q2 and into Q3.

The overall economic health of the U.S. will play a role in dictating CPM levels, while industry-specific CPM levels will likely depend on the elasticity of the industry and how well the industry aligns with consumer needs post-pandemic. Marketers simply can't prepare for all the possible outcomes of the coming months. What they can do is make decisions that set them up to be agile and ready to move quickly and efficiently in an unpredictable market.

B2B sales challenges

With COVID-19 decreasing overall economic activity, many businesses are experiencing budget cuts. This can often lead to the end of partnerships with B2B companies, and can certainly reduce opportunities available to B2B sales teams.

When asked what their biggest struggles are during this time, B2B teams' top answer was customers postponing purchasing decisions. This puts salespeople in a limbo that is a struggle to fight against. Unless sales people can prove their services will help a business weather this storm better or recover more quickly, they will find it hard to close sales.

This leads right into salespeople's biggest fears about the future of business development: the lack of budget available to buyers. This is closely followed by losing more deals due to the pandemic.

Based on all of this data, most (about 2/3 of) sales teams have low confidence that they will hit their sales targets this year. While B2C businesses will hopefully start recovering in the coming months, B2B recovery will likely take longer to bounce back. Businesses will likely wait till they are more financially stable before opening budgets back up for B2B partnerships.

Google's update on consumer interests

Google is launching a new Rising Retail Categories tool on Think With Google. It will surface fast-growing product categories in Google Search, the geographical locations they're growing in, and the queries associated with them. The data will be updated daily.

Considering the fast-changing digital landscape brought on by the coronavirus, these daily updates will be a huge boost for businesses trying to stay informed.

These insights can be used to better inform content creation, promotions, or even product ideas. This month's surging categories feature sewing machines and baking materials. So, a craft company may consider promoting sewing machines on their homepage or a home goods store may discount cooking supplies.

If businesses create content that appeals to these searches, it may also be an asset to their ranking on SERPs, which can have an effect lasting longer than promotion itself.

Prime Day deals deadline extended

Amazon has finally announced that they will be accepting Amazon Prime Deals until June 5th. Prior to this announcement, the deadline remained May 8, despite the postponement of the shopping holiday itself.

This will come as a big relief to sellers and vendors, as predicting inventory and profitability months in advance is highly complicated during the COVID-19 crisis. Additionally, since Amazon has yet to announce a finalized date, it's possible the event will be moved again.

While this is great news for vendors and sellers, Amazon has suspended other Amazon deals until further notice. This means that deals that Amazon has already approved will still run, but no new deals will be accepted.

Many sellers had planned deals to coincide with upcoming holidays such as Mother's Day, but those deals were rejected by Amazon. Many retailers are pivoting to offer heavy discounts on their .com sites to compensate for the absence of promotions on Amazon.

Amazon has offered no clear reason why they've stopped accepting new deals or an end date for this limitation.

Facebook introduces Messenger Rooms

Pairing with our update from Google on Tuesday, Facebook has also released an app to rival Zoom. Messenger Rooms is very similar to Zoom, but differentiates itself by focusing on personal meetings rather than professional.

Currently, rooms can be created for free within Messenger or Facebook, but they will soon be available in Instagram, WhatsApp, and Portal, as well. Rooms accessible to a user will also be visible on their News Feed, Groups tab, or Events menu.

With Facebook Messenger already being used by 44% of adults to talk to friends and family, Messenger Rooms has a good foothold to compete with Zoom.

Facebook will also be incorporating augmented reality (AR) features from Messenger into their new app. Users will be able to use filters on themselves while in the rooms and will soon be able to use immersive 360-degree backgrounds from iconic locations. As of now, Messenger Rooms won't feature ads.

Updates from Google

Google Meet free to all users

Over the next few weeks, Google will be releasing their video meeting tool, Meet, to all users for free.

With COVID-19 spawning the surge of video conferencing tools, Google is hoping this change will help them better compete with their direct competitor, Zoom.

While Zoom and Meet both have screen-sharing capabilities, real-time captions, and a tiled layout, there are some differences between the two platforms. The biggest difference is that Meet users must have a Google account to participate in meetings. While this does add more friction, it won't be a big barrier for most people. Google stands by this requirement because it allows for a safer platform by running in the browser.

It also addresses one of the biggest issues Zoom has been facing: Zoombombing. Meetings all over the world, from AA groups to government gatherings, have been impacted.

Currently, the only limit to Meet is that meetings can't have more than 100 participants. After September, however, free accounts will be limited to 60-minute meetings.

With daily participants surpassing 100 million last week, Meet is likely to see a huge surge in the coming weeks.

The return of free shopping listings

While not completely related to the coronavirus crisis, Google has announced the return of free product listings to the Google Shopping tab.

With many brick-and-mortar stores closing, ecommerce strategy has inflated importance during this period. The opportunity for free, organic listings could be a huge asset to some retailers.

This change is a part of Google's long-term vision and was simply expedited by the crisis. The Google Shopping tab will now house paid ads at the top and bottom of the page, with free organic listings in the middle (similar to the main search results tab).

Google My Business impressions plummet

A study of over 80,000 listings found that impressions for Google My Business were down by 59% across all verticals. This indicates that no industry was spared from the impact of COVID-19 on their business listings.

While views have been decreasing week-over-week since late February, April has shown the views flattening out and hopefully starting to show growth again.

With impressions taking a hit, it is no surprise that clicks are also suffering. Total clicks are down by 37%, but clicks to visit a website or call a business were not as drastic (31% and 21%, respectively). Despite poor performance in most other categories, clicks to call restaurants have received a huge spike as consumers check to see if they are open for pick-up or to place orders.

Fashion, luxury, and "new essentials" amid the coronavirus crisis

While fashion brands originally took a hit due to delivery delays and decreased discretionary purchases, the industry is starting to show signs of recovery. Transactions were up 23% last week and global sales are up 63% since the onset of the crisis. Luxury goods have also recovered slightly. Despite a 19% decrease in online traffic, U.S. sales have increased by 45%.

While this could be inflated by Mothers' Day (celebrated in the U.S. on the second Sunday of May), global luxury sales are also up by 21%.

The pandemic has defined a new category of goods called "new essentials." New essentials are products that help consumers feel more comfortable under stay-at-home orders. This includes office supplies, fitness equipment, cosmetics, housewares, home improvement, toys, and hobby-related products.

These goods account for almost 40% of all consumer spending right now. 30% of the total 40% is beauty and cosmetics. Both fitness equipment and toys/hobbies account for 29% of the new essentials spending.

As the world begins to revert back to old habits in the next few months, spending in this category is likely to decrease, but not completely disappear. We should soon see non-essential goods start to lift again, as well.

Amazon Vine suspended

On April 24, Amazon announced that Amazon Vine would be suspended until further notice. Amazon Vine is a program that invites top reviewers to post opinions on new or pre-release products. Reviewers are ranked and chosen based on various factors including recency, volume, and helpfulness of past reviews.

This news will affect vendors the most, rather than sellers, because they aren't allowed to directly contact customers to ask for reviews. Without the help of external review solicitation programs, it can be difficult for vendors to increase product reviews. This can hurt their ranking on Amazon's algorithm in addition to decreasing conversion rates.

One of our Amazon experts offered up four strategies for vendors to get reviews in lieu of Amazon Vine:

1. Send a launch email to customers lists.

2. Include package inserts reminding customers to review your product.

3. Use affiliate marketing to increase traffic to your new Amazon product pages.

4. Leverage Google and Facebook ads to send customers to your Amazon page.

Ecommerce orders continue to surge

Ecommerce order volume has increased by 50% compared to 2019. This surge, combined with disrupted supply chains, has led to an increase in shipping delays, as well.

Retailers are taking, on average, 1.5 days longer to fulfill orders. Supply chain disruptions are a result of factories being shut down, transportation methods being limited, and social distancing regulations slowing efficiency.

Larger products, such as furniture, have even larger delays. The fulfillment times for these orders have more than doubled in the past six weeks from 32 to 68 hours. These products are taking longer to fulfill because they are less often stored in inventory. While smaller products may only experience delays when being delivered to the customer, larger products may face delays from suppliers and during manufacturing processes.

Businesses that previously held large amounts of buffer inventory or diversified their manufacturing will be better positioned to succeed during this time and will hopefully recover faster in the upcoming months.

Shopify offers free tool

, a new marketing tool to make email marketing easier and more accessible for businesses new to digital marketing. In light of COVID-19, Last week, Shopify announced the global launch of Shopify Email Shopify is offering this tool at no charge until October 1, 2020.

With stay-at-home orders causing spikes in screen time, merchants who typically rely on offline avenues can take advantage of increased digital traffic by using email marketing to connect with their shoppers. With premade templates that can pull branded images, products, descriptions, and more directly from a merchant's store to create branded emails, Shopify Email makes communicating with shoppers more efficient and convenient - especially for marketing teams with already-strapped bandwidth.

These emails are perfect for communicating special promotions, changes in operations, or any other COVID-19 updates you want your customers to know about. Shopify Email also has the capability to track the results from each email in an analytics dashboard.

Increase in contactless payments

Another result of stay-at-home orders is a huge surge in demand for digital payment services. Italy, for example, has experienced an 81% increase in ecommerce transactions since the end of February. While these surges have been a challenge for payment platforms, many companies have contingency plans for high-demand events such as Black Friday or Prime Day, which have been vital to their success in handling huge payment volume.

Despite the success of payment processing companies so far, there are signs of the internet reaching capacity during this crisis. Netflix, YouTube, and Facebook have all agreed to reduce video streaming quality in Europe to avoid broadband congestion.

As we've seen with other shopping habits, the pandemic has triggered a change in behavior ahead of its time. Groups who may have been hesitant to convert to online payments before COVID-19 now use it as their primary option. Time will tell if this will be a lasting change in behavior.

Facebook's coronavirus efforts

Facebook is partnering with researchers at Carnegie Mellon University to build an interactive map that shows the symptoms people are experiencing most around the United States, county by county.

Data will be collected based on Facebook users' self-reported symptoms to help identify "hot spots" where more supplies are needed and predict possible resurgence of the virus.

The data is built into an aggregate report that doesn't include individual responses, and the individual responses won't go to Facebook either.

On April 20, the survey was expanded internationally in an effort to get more accurate data on how many people have had the virus in each country. This is on top of an effort by Facebook to take down posts that get classified as harmful misinformation.

SEO coronavirus checklist

During the current coronavirus pandemic, the ecommerce landscape is changing rapidly. Consumer priorities have shifted in recent weeks in response to COVID-19, and this means that ecommerce brands need to react quickly and nimbly in order to maximize organic traffic and revenue.

At this moment in time, SEO is in a unique and opportune space because COVID-19 is forcing consumers to shift their buying habits to online. While we don't know if these changes will be temporary or long-term, we do know the immediate and lasting impact will be that more customers will move online for a greater percentage of purchases.

We've compiled a checklist of tips for SEO in the time of coronavirus. By continuing to invest in SEO efforts during this time, you are choosing to remain visible in the search results. This will pay dividends now, and tenfold when search demand returns to normal and we are no longer adapting SEO to coronavirus times. Find it here.

Amazon reopens shipping for nonessential items

Amazon has announced that they're reopening their shipping services for nonessential items. At the start of the outbreak, Amazon shut down this service to third-party sellers to prioritize products that would assist in the containment of the disease the most.

With sellers making up 58% of Amazon's sales, this announcement will offer a huge boost to the company. Each seller will still have limits on how much they can ship to ensure essential goods still have rooms in the warehouses.

Amazon is able to make this change partially due to the mass amount of workers they've hired for their distribution centers and delivery network. In the past month, they've hired over 100,000 people, and are looking to fill an additional 75,000 roles. These jobs are a great opportunity when so many other companies have had to furlough employees. These jobs will be temporary work, similar to hiring during the holiday period, and will likely not be sustained after the crisis subsides.

Consumer behavior changes

The New York Times has released two articles this month on consumer behavior during the pandemic, featuring informative, timely, and easy-to-read graphics for their readers. The first is on how consumers are searching and the second is on how consumers are spending. Here are some takeaways on how COVID-19 has affected internet behavior.

Activity on websites specializing in entertainment (Facebook, Netflix, and YouTube) is up. Their apps, however, are stagnant or decreasing. This points to an overall trend of mobile traffic lacking the boost that desktop traffic has received. With people spending the majority of their time at home, they are picking their laptops and desktops over the cell phones.

News and media sites have seen an uptick in readers as the search for updates on the virus continues. The media organizations who have seen the largest inflation are CNBC, The New York Times, and The Washington Post. Partisan sites, which have been popular in recent years, haven't experienced the same popularity as the non-partisan sites. It seems that the search for unbiased facts has overcome the need for opinionated takes.

Zoom has become a worldwide phenomenon. Other services that have helped businesses transition to the home include Google Classroom, Microsoft Teams, VPN Super Unlimited Proxy, and Hangouts Meet by Google.

Another surprising habit change comes in the dumping of sports for gaming. Twitch.tv is up almost 20% while ESPN has dropped a whopping 40%. With no new events to draw in viewers, ESPN is suffering.

With internet gaming so popular this quarter, it's no surprise that Americans have increased their spending in that category, as well. Other increases in spending can be found for online grocers, food delivery, meal kits, alcohol, home improvement, and general merchandise and ecommerce.

Spend is, unsurprisingly, down in many travel-related categories, including cruises, airlines, and lodging. Other notable categories that have suffered include apparel, toys, arts and crafts, sporting goods, and book retailers.

An essential retail store with less than 10,000 square feet must have less than 25% of its occupancy inside at one time.

An essential retail store that is 10,000 square feet or larger must have less than 10% of its occupancy inside at one time.

Lines will form outside of the stores, with people waiting approximately 6 feet apart.

Some grocers expect or even require shoppers to wear masks and gloves before entering.

Stay-at-home orders impact grocers

An industry that has seen huge increases in spending is grocery. As an essential good, this spike is expected. With stay-at-home and shelter-in-place orders being announced more frequently, here's how consumers are affected:
More than one million products with similar suspicious or misleading claims were removed from the site in February alone.
Coronavirus exposes gaps in Amazon's regulation of their marketplace

The problem of counterfeit goods isn't a new issue for Amazon, but the need to regulate and remove these goods is more important than ever. Hundreds and thousands of hand sanitizers, face masks, and other cleaning products have popped up on the sight claiming to prevent coronavirus.

One step Amazon took to discourage sellers from profiting off of the pandemic is banning sellers from bidding on keywords like "coronavirus" or "covid-19". While this was a good first step, sellers have easily worked around it by putting the false claims in images next to the products.

This avoids Amazon's algorithm from sweeping the product description and identifying the false claim.

A problem that goes hand-in-hand with false claims is sellers increasing their prices on cleaning products to gain from consumer panic. Amazon has suspended over 3,900 sellers for violating the Amazon Marketplace Fair Pricing Policy rejects offers that harm consumer trust, which these cases certainly fall into.

It seems that Amazon is fighting battles on all fronts. The gaps in the regulation of their marketplace have been exposed, their inventory is volatile, and they have order surges so high that they are looking to hire 100,000 people. To make matters more difficult, they must tackle these challenges while ensuring that they don't contribute to the spread of the virus. This period should prove to be Amazon's most challenging yet.

Upcoming virtual event: Driving Ecommerce Growth in the Wake of COVID-19

Staying up-to-date on this pandemic and its effects on ecommerce is a great first step in weathering the storm. But once the dust settles, businesses will need to hit the ground running if they want to recover from the impacts of COVID-19. ROI Revolution is hosting a free half-day virtual event to help you discover how to overcome the hurdles you're facing in the ever-changing online landscape.

Driving Ecommerce Growth in the Wake of the COVID-19 Pandemic will lead you in unifying your digital strategies to stabilize and grow your brand online. Virtual sessions led by our experts will include Embracing (or Salvaging) Your Amazon Efforts, Maximizing AI-Powered Campaign Technology, Enhancing Attribution Models to Make Every Dollar Count, and AMA With Experts in Digital Strategy.

Join us on April 30 from 10-1 to join your peers in being proactive, not reactive.

Amazon Prime Day postponed

With uncertainty in the air and Amazon operations strained, Reuters announced that Amazon will no longer be hosting its annual sales event in mid-July. The event is expected to occur sometime in August, but with future projections of COVID-19 variable, it could be even later.

While this delay may, in the end, help Amazon and 3P sellers by waiting to capitalize on the huge sales day until the economy lifts, it will put a big strain on inventory and revenue. The decision will leave Amazon with 5 million extra electronic devices and they are surely not alone in having inventory already prepared for the big day.

With small business sellers reaching more than $2 billion in sales last year, this loss in revenue will only exasperate the tough times that have taken over these businesses. This announcement was inevitable, but hopefully the summer will bring clarity and Amazon Prime Day 2020 will be bigger than ever.
"Crocs is donating 10,000 free pairs of shoes a day to healthcare workers. While any shoes would help healthcare workers, crocs are especially helpful because of their easily cleanable rubber material. JanSport, a heritage backpack brand, is also giving away their specialized products. Their initiative plans to donate 10,000 packs of food to the World Central Kitchen to compensate for students who lost their free meals with school closures. With a lot of businesses closing their physical offices, one firm in Atlanta is doing something rather creative with their stock of supplies. By founding the Toilet Paper Exchange, the marketing firm has found a way to donate their stock of toilet paper to those in need and has offered to help other organizations with the distribution of their excess."
Inspirational brands

While the share of bad news seems to overwhelm the good these days, the pandemic has also brought about many inspirational stories of brands and businesses contributing to aid efforts selflessly. In an article published on April 8, 2020, we share some of those stories. Here's an excerpt:

For a recap of how COVID-19 progressed through Q1, please visit our infographic where we outline the impacts of coronavirus on global communities and ecommerce.

COVID-19 webinar replays

Over the past few weeks, we've hosted two virtual events to help you navigate these uncertain times.

In our Paid Search Trends in the Coronavirus Climate webinar, we analyzed past trends & data and offered strategic advice to help guide your brand through this challenging period. You'll uncover how to stay agile with your advertising budget and what long-term paid search strategies you can implement to overcome short-term market pitfalls. Watch it here.

Next, we hosted COVID-19, Ecommerce, and Your Brand, a live, interactive roundtable discussion answering the top questions on the minds of brands and marketers. In this replay you'll uncover strategies to combat supply chain disruptions, low-risk campaigns to maintain and gain market share, and the live answers to viewer's questions. Watch it here.

Small business assistance

Support from Google

In an attempt to alleviate financial pressure on small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), Google is giving away $350 million in ad credits. These credits will be given to SMBs that have been active since January 2019. The credits can be used until the end of 2020.

Google hopes this will help provide stability to SMBs in a time when their local communities may not be able to make use of their products or services. Eligible SMBs will see a credit notification appear in their Google Ads account in the coming months.

Support from the government

As part of the $2 trillion coronavirus stimulus package, the U.S. has reserved a much-needed $370 billion for small businesses loans. The loans, backed by the Small Business Association, can be used to pay for basic expenses. Additionally, owners would not have to repay portions that were spent on paying employees, a mortgage, rent or utilities.

For more information or to apply for a loan, access the site here.

Digital purchasing power has increased by 20%.

Computers and monitors have seen a 40% increase in average daily sales comparing March 1-10 to March 11-25.

Fitness equipment has seen a 55% increase comparing those same periods.

From January 1-March 11, non-perishables have increased by 87%.

During that same period, virus protection products (gloves, masks, hand sanitizer, etc.) have increased by 807% and over-the-counter cold/flu drugs have increased by 217%.

Adobe releases 2020 Digital Economy Index

Adobe's 2020 Digital Economy Index analyzes trillions of online transactions across 100 million products in 18 categories. Here are some of the top insights Adobe uncovered:

"The Dow is now up 20% from its coronavirus sell-off low reached on Monday." - CNBC

Conversion optimization during COVID-19

Is consumer behavior in the current crisis an indicator of things to come? Short answer: Yes.

By utilizing specific statistical methods, testing micro-conversions like add-to-cart events or PDP views, and iterating on and expanding winning tests, you can test faster than your competitors and stay ahead of the curve.

Whether your industry is being affected positively or negatively by the crisis, it is more important than ever to be correctly managing your on-site testing program.

Our latest blog article on keeping up your digital marketing in this crisis covers how to win new customers and retain existing ones over the coming weeks and months by utilizing on-site testing to optimize your messaging and site experience. Our website optimization service lead, Brandon Howell, guides you through the best tips and strategies for conversion optimization in this crisis.
The bad:

Global airlines stand to face a $113 billion hit if the coronavirus continues to spread.

Hotel occupancy dropped by over 24% year-over-year for the week of March 8-14, with revenue per available room down more than 32%.

Carnival Cruise Line's stock is down nearly 60%, with Royal Caribbean and Norwegian down over 70% in the past 30 days.

The good:

The canals of Venice have become clear for the first time in centuries. Perhaps in the future cruises will decrease and this may be maintained.

Pollution around the world has dropped dramatically: According to NASA, nitrogen dioxide levels across eastern and central China have been 10 to 30 percent lower than normal. Since Italy went into lockdown, nitrogen dioxide levels in Milan and other parts of northern Italy have fallen by about 40 percent.

While the US is behind both these countries in terms of stay-at-home orders, we are already starting to see the effects of those orders in places such as Los Angeles, Seattle, and Atlanta. The maps on this site compare the pollution levels between March 2019 and March 2020.

Travel industry updates
Source: European Space Agency
The travel industry is seeing some of the biggest hits from COVID-19 as fears and restrictions around travel grow. While some of the statistics are shocking, experts believe once the crisis subsides, the travel industry will recover - starting with local tourism.

Amazon is prioritizing products associated with childcare, health and household, personal care, grocery, scientific supplies, and pet care.

The program is predicted to end on April 5th, but as the pandemic progresses, the limitations may continue.

Sellers continue to have the option to sell their goods and fulfill the shipments themselves.

Amazon update

Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) provides warehousing and shipment services for third-party sellers. FBA, in addition to Amazon's larger vendor shipment services, will be suspended through April 5th to allow Amazon to prioritize "household staples, medical supplies, and other high-demand products."

VPN usage is up by 34% and video bandwidth usage is up 12%.

Last week web traffic was up 22% and voice usage was up 25%.

5G can also better support the development and running of apps that take and monitor temperatures.

Tech update

The demand for faster downloading speed is higher than ever. With a 75% increase in bandwidth demand from March 8 to 15, the rollout of 5G is being expedited.

Due to the impact of COVID-19, television and streaming services are also seeing a massive surge in consumption.
Whether your hours or business operations are changing or not, you should make some sort of notice on your site so your customers know they are receiving up-to-date and relevant information from your business.
Advice from Google

Update your business hours on your website and on your Google Business Profile.

Clarify what extra precautions your business is taking to ensure the health and safety of your employees, customers, and community.

Share if you are providing any new or extra services to the community.

If you are experiencing delays, be transparent about what kind of expectations your customers should have.

Add a new tab or bold header to your home page where consumers can easily find all information related to COVID-19 and your business.

In this time of constant change and uncertainty, it is essential to keep your business information up to date. Whether you're reducing hours to help your staff or closing down completely, make it clear to your customers. In addition to updating your website, you should also update your Google My Business profile, which many consumers solely rely on when searching via Google or Google Maps.

Here are some actions you should consider taking:

Ecommerce shutdowns

When COVID-19 first started showing its effect on the United States, it primarily affected brick-and-mortar businesses. In the states that have issued shutdowns of nonessential operations, we are now seeing equitable shutdowns of ecommerce operations. The ecommerce sites shutting down for the foreseeable future include fashion brands Reformation, Marysia and The Frankie Shop, and retailers TJ Maxx, Marshalls, Victoria's Secret, and HomeGoods.

Retailers experiencing a shopping surge

On the other side of these closures stand grocers, big-box stores, and electronic stores that are seeing huge boosts. Walmart has responded to this increased consumer need by raising entry-level wages for workers by $2. Walmart hopes this will help them manage the shopping surge and more properly reward their workers for the hard work they're doing. Walmart's rivals, Amazon and Target, have also increased pay and hiring to help manage their own respective surge in orders.

Despite the rise in sales to stores like Best Buy, Target, and Walmart, retail is suffering. Retail associations are pleading with the Trump administration for relief. They specifically are asking policymakers to lend a helping hand to the retail workforce and provide liquidity to retailers throughout the crisis.

Introducing one-on-one appointments in-person

Leveraging their large showrooms to allow for social distancing

Adding new services to their online sites

Allowing test-drives at the home or office

Offering at-home vehicle delivery

Corona pushing industries and regions to ecommerce

The auto industry has been highly dependent on the in-person sales experience up until this crisis. In an attempt to combat the immense drop in car sales that China saw, dealerships are testing out ecommerce capabilities. Select dealerships are making the following changes to adapt to social distancing needs:

As with many of the changes in shopping the coronavirus is bringing, we may see these offerings stick around even after the crisis is over.

Upcoming virtual events

In times of strife, business must adapt and think to the future to survive. In an effort to help you maneuver in this uncertain period, we are tackling the toughest questions in two live, interactive discussions.

The first webcast, The State of Paid Search in the Coronavirus Climate, wrapped up at 2pm on March 25th, but you can still register to watch the replay! The video will analyze past trends in paid search and offer strategic advice to help your brand navigate this challenging period. It will be focusing on staying agile with your advertising budgets and what strategies you can embrace to overcome short-term market pitfalls.

The second webinar, COVID-19, Ecommerce, and Your Brand, will take place on April 1st at 2pm and is the best place to get all your questions regarding COVID-19 and your business answered LIVE. In addition to answering your questions, we will cover supply chain disruptions, revenue-boosting campaigns, and how to thrive once this crisis subsides.

Register for both events here.

Instances of innovation

Every week reveals more drastic and unprecedented impacts resulting from COVID-19. While not all of these impacts have a silver lining, we have seen many companies react to setbacks with fantastic, innovative solutions. Here are some of the top cases.

One real estate developer, Evergrande Real Estate Group, retrained their offline sales force to use virtual reality and social media to engage customers. This has allowed them to provide a positive boost to the economy in its time of need and also allows customers to continue to make decisions and payments to benefit their future. These strategies may benefit them beyond this crisis allowing them to better serve their customers.

Another example is the grocery industry in general. Grocery delivery services have shown record sales growth as a result of social distancing efforts. Customers who may never have shifted to mobile grocery shopping, including senior citizens, have abandoned strict habits and converted with ease.

Again, this change of habits may never have occurred without the need for isolation, but after the crisis, the habits may remain.

Strain on events

As traveling fears grow and countries like Italy extend travel restrictions, marketing events across the globe are feeling the impact.

Many major in-person events are being postponed, canceled, or virtualized after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended that all businesses cancel non-essential company travel.

This recommendation is being taken seriously. Facebook canceled F8, its largest event of the year, which was to take place in May. Google transitioned its Cloud Next 2020 conference to be held online, and Adobe did the same with their annual Adobe Summit conference. Additional canceled conferences include Mobile World Congress, South by Southwest, Shoptalk, Shopify Unite, and Google I/O, among many more.

At the beginning of 2020, 41% of marketers said they would be increasing their event budgets this year. On top of that, 53% of marketers consider in-person events and tradeshows the best way to drive engagements and conversions.

From an events perspective, coronavirus has the potential to have a lasting negative impact on budgets, revenue, and sales for the rest of the year.

In fact, according to eMarketer, the total loss from canceled events will surpass $500 million.

That being said, all is not lost. If you have in-person events coming up this year, prepare now for the possibility that they'll turn into virtual events. Create additional copy to reflect that the event is virtual, alert your attendees immediately of any changes, and make sure you have all of the tools necessary to conduct a virtual event.

Be proactive, not reactive, in how you pivot to a digital event.

Additionally, being forced to cancel events provides an opportunity for marketers to analyze just how effective events are for their business. Do virtual events actually perform better than in-person events? Are in-person events worth the heavy time and money investments they require, or do they outperform virtual events for your specific business?

Be sure to measure everything so that you can accurately analyze the true impact of events on your brand and make informed decisions moving forward.

Influx in online shopping

As more consumers continue avoiding crowded public places, they'll increasingly turn to online shopping to get their essentials. In fact, JD.com, China's largest online retailer, has seen sales of common household staples quadruple over the same time period last year.

With the growth of ecommerce, coronavirus shouldn't disrupt the economy as much as the SARS outbreak did in 2002. However, it will still bring strain to online-based businesses who need to deal with potentially delayed deliveries or out-of-stock items because of increased demand.

On Amazon, it is extremely important to not let any of your products run out of stock in order to avoid being punished by Amazon's organic search and advertising algorithms. If your product is out of stock for over 30 days, it will be treated as if it has no sales history once it comes back in stock.

In other words, your product's ranking for its most important key words drops significantly and will thus show up much lower in search results.

Fears over having products go out of stock may be part of what fueled some third-party sellers to price gouge on Amazon when the virus first started taking hold in the U.S.

Some of the biggest culprits included a pack of two 12-ounce Purell hand sanitizer bottles being sold for over $100 and Clorox wipes being sold for 8x their typical cost. The items have since been completely removed and a company spokesperson told ABC News that there is "no place for price gouging on Amazon."

Overall, prices on Amazon spiked at least 50% for most surgical masks and hand sanitizers when coronavirus arrived in the U.S.

In addition to price gougers, counterfeiters have also been taking advantage of consumers' coronavirus fears, selling products that claim to cure the virus or that don't meet safety standards.

For example, latex-free gloves that claimed to "prevent coronavirus, flu, and pneumonia" as well as plastic face masks that claimed to "isolate saliva-carrying viruses" had to be removed. Over the last week of February alone, Amazon removed over one million items for violating such policies.

If your brand sells items related to hygiene and sickness, you've already seen an influx in sales. Compared to this time period last year, U.S. sales of hand sanitizer are up 54%, with thermometer sales up 34% and aerosol disinfectant sales up 19%.

Focus on keeping your products in stock and be up front with customers if there are going to be any delays.

Delivery and supply chain concerns
Can your brand handle this higher demand?
With the proliferation of online shopping and delivery demand comes inevitable delays. Consumers who are working from home, on sick leave, or trying to avoid contact with others are ordering more products to be delivered to their house. A shopper who tried to purchase items from Amazon on March 5 received a message warning that increased demand was leading to shorter supply and longer delivery times.

This comes at a time when consumers value fast delivery times more than ever before, with Amazon Prime promising free two-hour delivery for some products. Other major suppliers like Walmart and Target are competing for similar options.

As we mentioned in a January Amazon update, Amazon recently made some heavy investments in one-day shipping that aren't paying off quite yet. In Q3 2019, its net income fell by 26% and shipping costs rose by 46%. Stay tuned to our blog for future updates on how the coronavirus pandemic impacts Amazon's profits throughout the first half of 2020.

Another factor impacting Amazon is that many Amazon merchants rely on Chinese suppliers. Some sellers spent 6% less this year compared to last year on advertising throughout the middle two weeks of February. Ecommerce supply chains will be strained by COVID-19 as well as factory closures in China.

These factory closures will also impact mass merchants like Target and Walmart, who will almost certainly experience supply chain disruption, a drop in casual shopping, and an increase in purchases of essential toiletries, groceries, and health items.

Additionally, some food delivery companies, such as Postmates and DoorDash, are testing or rolling out contactless delivery options. With 32% of consumers reducing their frequency of eating at restaurants because of coronavirus fears, such apps are seeing an influx in traffic.

Your brand may have never considered advertising on this type of app, but now may be the time to do it!

Determining how to proceed with events and keeping items in stock are only two items on the marketer's to-do list as the coronavirus outbreak continues.

What other steps does your ecommerce brand need to take to thrive despite the COVID-19 disruption?

While overall ad spend is down, TV ad spend could see an uptick. With more consumers staying home to work and keeping coronavirus coverage up on their television, switching more of your ad budget to video platforms like television and even YouTube could be a good idea.

As we know, transparency is one of the most important characteristics that today's consumers look for in a brand. When it comes to coronavirus, proactively addressing customer frustrations and fears (e.g. delivery delays, out-of-stock products, the cleanliness of your warehouse), will support your brand's reputation and encourage customer loyalty.

Tell consumers about the coronavirus protections you're putting in place. On top of that, consider providing your agents with additional training on handling any inquiries with appropriate sensitivity.

Additionally, make sure that your display advertising game is up to par. App downloads (especially of news apps) may increase as people spend an increasing amount of time at home. In addition to the delivery apps previously mentioned, app downloads in general have surged as a result of coronavirus. In China, app downloads over the first two weeks of February were 40% higher than the average for all of 2019.

As the coronavirus pandemic continues, pin this blog post to keep an eye out for updates on how the virus will impact your brand and ecommerce in general. We'll keep updating it as more news comes in.

In the meantime, check out our other content related to coronavirus below:

For additional COVID-19 resources, see below:

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Sarah Davis, Content Marketing Specialist

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How Coronavirus (COVID-19) Is Impacting Ecommerce [November 2020] - ROI Revolution

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On top of health concerns, brands across the globe are worrying about how coronavirus (COVID-19) will impact ecommerce as a whole. Ecommerce, B2B, B2C, and brick-and-mortar brands alike are all bracing for the impact that coronavirus will have on their business.

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This article was helpful when creating my floor plan and deciding the best ways to lay out my store. It goes through each type of layout and how to lead a customer through

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You may have heard this well-known retail statistic: 90% of people turn right when they walk into a store. That's a mind-boggling insight into shopping behavior.

Anthropologists, experience designers, interior designers, brand managers, and data scientists have spent countless hours searching for the perfect bones and outer-layers of a store layout to optimize the raison d'être for retail spaces - also known as moving merchandise. Those hours of work have uncovered some amazing insights into human behavior that have developed into best practices for retail.

If you're looking at opening a new retail shop or you have a shop you want to redesign, you're likely doing your due diligence into interior layouts that could work for your space. But you don't need to spend a dime on research and development, as we're sharing some of the top retail store layouts and interior design tips that science has to offer.

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Store Layouts

Since moving merchandise is the name of the game, the store layout should help to achieve that goal by guiding customers through the store, exposing them to product, all while managing important stimuli that encourages purchasing behaviors. How people experience your store is a big part of your brand that needs to be as carefully crafted as other aspects of your brand.

That's a lot to consider, but layouts are a great place to start. Store layouts are the foundation that will guide the experience of your retail space.

There are four commonly used store layouts:

We'll take a closer look at each of them, but let's look at some of the commonalities each of the layouts share first by looking at a generic store with a blank interior.

Exterior signage and window displays are curb-side appeal for your store's real estate. Doing a good job here can help to convert foot traffic into store traffic. Check out these tips on how to create a compelling curb-side story.

Once a person steps inside, they enter the decompression zone, which is the first five to 15 feet of your store. Think of this as a transition space - customers take a broad, sweeping look at the store and anything placed right in this area will likely not be noticed. Avoid placing key items here like shopping baskets or high-demand products.

Notice the empty space at the front-the decompression zone helps customers transition into your store. Image Credit: RMSE

As we mentioned above, studies show that 90% of people tend to turn right after entering a space, starting a circulation trail through whatever store layout you've designed. Thus, placing your high-demand product or premium promotion in this space will ensure it'll be seen. This area is known as your power wall and it can be both an excellent promotional and brand-building space. Use it to strike an impression.

A power wall at American Eagle Outfitters. Image Credit: Ispira Blog

Beyond these common features, store layouts highly influence the remainder of the circulation path and experience of your store - so let's examine the four most familiar layouts now.

Grid

We're all familiar with the grid. Nearly every convenience store, pharmacy, and grocery store utilizes this familiar layout. Reams of merchandise are displayed on a predictable pattern of long aisles where customers weave up and down, browsing as they go. The grid maximizes product display and minimizes white space. This layout is all about product, product, product. A standard grid layout looks something like this:

The grid features long aisles with impulse purchase items near the front and staple items at the back. The ends of aisles are prime real estate and many stores use additional features such as wing shelves to further highlight products. If you ever wondered why milk is at the far end of a grocery store, it's because this design forces customers to walk past an assortment of impulse purchase items both on the way to and from the staple item that they need.

While far from standard, if you have the room, 4' wide aisles help prevent customers from bumping into one another. This is something you really want to avoid, given that when this happens, most customers leave your store within five minutes.

Best for stores with lots of merchandise, especially when products are varied

Lots of exposure to products, as the layout encourages customers to browse multiple aisles

Familiar for shoppers

Predictable traffic flow means you can put promos where you know customers will see them

Lots of infrastructure suppliers, such as shelving, are available as this layout is used so much

Best practices within this layout are well researched

Pros

Least likely to create an experiential retail space; this layout is a dime a dozen

Customers may be frustrated they can't shortcut their way to what they need

Customers may not understand your product groupings, leading to frustration and questions (or worse, departure)

Few visual breaks and lots of merchandise can make customers feel overwhelmed

Cramped aisles often lead to customers bumping into one another

Cons
If you operate the type of shop where customers pick up multiple types of items that aren't naturally grouped together (think shampoo and greeting cards), you may want a layout that makes it easy for customers to browse the whole space and find what they're looking for.

The grid creates natural barriers that serve to simultaneously group like products together and separate different products. This can help to clear up confusion about where to find things in a shop with a high number of SKUs. Furthermore, customers are highly accustomed to this layout, so flowing up and down aisles is second nature to most shoppers.

Some of the cons of this design can be addressed through some creative interior design that builds in improvement beyond the bones of the layout alone, such as using shorter shelving so make the space feel more open and help customers see how you've grouped products through visible signage.

A modern grid layout in a store - notice the promotional areas at the ends of each aisle. This shop cleverly uses shorter aisle shelving so that staples at the back are still clearly visible, which opens up the space, improves wayfinding, and helps to reduce thefts. Aisles are spacious, helping to avoid the butt-brush effect. Image Credit: DesignTAXI

Herringbone

If you think the grid may be best for your merchandise, but you have a very long, narrow retail space, the herringbone layout is one to consider.

The herringbone layout has many of the same pros and cons as the grid, with a few notable exceptions.

Suited to stores with lots of product, but minimal space

Warehouse-style stores open to the public may also find this layout works

Pros

Limited visibility down 'side roads' can increase shoplifting opportunities

Can feel cramped, and customers easily bump into one another

Tuck shops, small hardware stores, and many small community libraries use the herringbone to pack a tiny space full of wares. The side roads can be used for promotions, but by adding some welcome visual breaks within the promo areas, you can add some much-needed breathing room to an otherwise overwhelming space.
Cons
Some herringbone book shops that want people to linger set up a comfy chair at the end where people can leaf through their choices before they decide.

Learn More: 50 Exceptional Shopify Stores

You'll find large warehouse style stores use the herringbone layout as well. IKEA's convoluted loop track (which we will examine more below) is replaced by the herringbone when you're in the pickup area and the intention of the shopper changes from browsing to purchase intent.

A big potential downside with the herringbone is the potential for theft. But one way to mitigate the risk is to park security cameras at the end of the side roads as visibility from the checkout is likely to be limited to none.

Loop

The loop, or racetrack layout takes the grid's fairly predictable traffic flows a step further and creates a deliberate closed loop that leads customers from the front of the store, past every bit of merchandise, and then to the check-out. Customers are exposed to the most merchandise this way, but the path they take is controlled.

A basic loop layout is shown below - the white path represents the main corridor that traffic would flow through, although the central area would be populated with a micro version of any layout, which suits the product offerings and fits the space.

Maximum product exposure

Most predictable traffic pattern; easiest to place promotions and have highest assurance they'll be seen

Can be experiential - may work with retail where a journey makes sense and time spent in store doesn't need to be brief

Pros

Customers don't get to browse at will

May waste customer's time who knows what they've come for; they may avoid this shop in the future when buying intent is specific

Not suited for shops that encourage high traffic turnover, or carry products that people need to spend little time considering before purchase

IKEA takes the loop layout to the extreme, and if you've been to one, you've probably experienced both the pros and the cons of this design depending on your intent in the shop. If you're there to browse, the experience can be quite nice - it encourages perusing and their creative displays spark ideas for your home. However, if you've gone there for a few specific items, it's a daunting, frustrating place to be - it's no coincidence that haunted houses use the loop layout too.

The loop doesn't have to be frustrating though, so long as it's carefully selected for the appropriate purpose.

One well-considered loop layout application are those pop-up gift shops that accompany time-limited museum exhibitions that continue the story of the exhibit where the shop becomes a natural extension of the display rather than a sudden, jarring retail space.
Cons
A well-executed loop layout can let retailers tell a story, albeit within very well-defined parameters.

Free-flow

The free-flow layout philosophy is almost a rejection of the others. With free-flow, there is no deliberate attempt to force customers through predictable traffic patterns; wandering is encouraged. Therefore, with free-flow, there are far fewer rules, but that doesn't mean there aren't any - don't forget about the commonalities that are based on natural human behavior.

A sample free-flow store layout below demonstrates that exterior signage, window display and most likely start path and power wall still remain the same. But beyond that, it's a very creative layout to work within.

Free-flow has been called the simplest store layout because there's no defined pattern, but arguably that's what makes it the most complex. How you organize your merchandise in a free-flow store is limited only by your square footage and your imagination. With so few rules, it's easy to go wrong. However, the biggest mistake you can make if you decide to go with this layout is thinking there are no best practices - human preferences and behavior still matter and need to be considered for this layout to be successful for your shop.

Great for small spaces

Also works within areas of loop and spine layouts (more on that below)

Creates more space between products

Less likelihood customers will bump into one another

Better suited to higher-end shops with less merchandise

Most likely to create an experiential retail space

Pros

Often less space to display product

Easy to forget there are best practices that still should be followed; breaking the unwritten rules can turn people off and away from your store

Can be confusing for customers

Cons
Image Credit: Retail Design Blog

Well-designed free-flow layouts can encourage browsing and impulse purchases. They are ideally suited to more creatively focused shops or upscale brands that want to prioritize experiential retail as a key component of their brand.

The flip side is that because there's so much variety in free-flow shops, it's easy to do the wrong things and discourage customers. Setting shelves too close together, not creating enough visual breaks, or putting check-out in the wrong part of the store can encourage departure rather than purchase.

Get the playbook

Using Multiple Layouts

You don't have to select just one store layout. The loop layout lends itself to more than one - a loop on the outside and grid or free-flow in the centre. Large sized department stores often use multiple configurations connected by a single power aisle.

Nordstrom, for example, uses several layouts to differentiate between various branded shops that live within the store. The department store transitions from a grid layout Nike store-within-a-store to a free-flow, high-end designer label embedded within the space. They cleverly mix and match store layouts to create the feeling of different shops, even though they're all under the same roof and umbrella brand.

A main corridor acts as a spine connecting each of the shops, while visual décor helps customers understand where one embedded shop ends and another begins.

The spine is clearly seen at Kid's Cavern, which is flanked by free-flow layouts. Image Credit: Architectural Digest

Final Layout Selection

When deciding upon a layout for your retail space, carefully consider your products, desired consumer behavior and square footage you have available. If you have a lot of dissimilar products, consider the grid. A smaller number of products may work well in free-flow arrangements. If you want shoppers to slow down and browse, consider mixing loop and free-flow styles.

Picking the bones of your store matters a great deal and can directly impact your sales.

What layouts do you prefer for your shop? Let us know in the comments.

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The Ultimate Guide to Retail Store Layouts

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You may have heard this well-known retail statistic: 90% of people turn right when they walk into a store. That's a mind-boggling insight into shopping behavior. Anthropologists, experience designers, interior designers, brand managers, and data scientists have spent countless hours searching for the perfect bones and outer-layers of a store layout to optimize the raison d'être for retail spaces - also known as moving merchandise.

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initial floor plan sketch

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initial fixture layout sketch

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To help with my research I analysed an existing canada goose window as it is a similar brand to Moncler!

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I also analysed the instore VM and looked at how they used a grid design

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I analysed an arcteryx window to help with my research and see what similarities there are to Moncler

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I also analysed the inside of an Arcteryx store for comparison

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To help with my initial research on Moncler I decided to analyse an existing shop front so I could take ideas for my digital window. Things such as the marble exterior I wanted to keep therefore added it to my own window

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Also analysed the inside of a Moncler store. The exhibition layout and the mannequins in glass cabinets were both ideas I use within my
own pop up store as I think it captures the brand image well

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Notes on brand research for Canada Goose and pros and cons of putting it in the localised town I am using

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Portraying brand image in a visual space

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Portraying brand image in a visual space

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Notes on how to successfully portray a brand and its identity in stores

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These are some notes I made on different brands typography and how they successfully work to portray their brand image

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This explains the problematic tendencies of fast fashion and how it is not sustainable or ethical in the long term. Used this for the social aspect of my Pestel. Alot of big fast fashion companies sponsor celebrities who endorse their products and therefore this seriously increases the demand for fast fashion products.

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Fast fashion is 'fast' in a number of senses: the changes in fashion are fast, the rate of production is fast; the customer's decision to purchase is fast; delivery is fast; and garments are worn fast - usually only a few times before being discarded.

The rise of fast fashion has had devastating consequences, from its reliance on plastic fabrics and its enormous carbon footprint to its erosion of workers' rights.

In this article we explain what we mean when we say 'fast fashion' and why it is so bad for people and the planet.

What is fast fashion?

In the last few decades, we have seen fashion trends changing more and more quickly. Pressures on workers to produce more and at lower prices have grown alongside pressures on consumers to turn to the newest trends.

Fast changing trends

At its heart, the fast fashion business model relies on consumers endlessly buying more clothes. Brands tempt consumers by offering ultra-cheap garments (for example, Missguided's £1 bikini) and ever-changing new ranges. At the time of writing, fast fashion brand Shein featured 21,139 clothes under the 'New in' section of its website.

Fashion brands have long used new styles and lower prices to attract customers, but previously brands would plan new ranges many months, even years, in advance. The pace of change was relatively slow and there were fewer products on offer. In comparison, fast fashion is focused on responding to ever-changing consumer tastes as quickly as possible.

For example, in the BBC's 'Breaking Fashion' show we see Manchester-based fast fashion company, In the Style, reproducing a bodysuit worn by Kylie Jenner. The company manages to have the piece designed, manufactured and on sale within 10 days of the piece first being worn publicly by the celebrity.

The rise of fast fashion is intertwined with social media and celebrity/influencer culture. A celebrity posts a photo wearing a new outfit, and their followers want it, so fast fashion brands rush to be the first to provide it. Fast fashion brands often target young people - so called Gen Zs -, who have been brought up amongst social media and influencer culture. In fact, a recent survey found that almost 75% of 18-24 year olds believe influencers can be held somewhat accountable for the rise in disposable fashion.

Of course, the flow of causality is not that simple: fast fashion brands are not simply reacting to consumer demand, they are also creating it. But the essential point is that these brands operate on the basis of constantly producing new lines of clothes to meet the insatiable and ever-changing consumer demand for all things new.

Fast production

Faster changing trends means that producers are under pressure to manufacture clothes more and more rapidly. Factories are expected to produce new lines with only a couple of month's notice, meaning that their workload - and therefore the amount of employment they can offer to workers - is unpredictable and insecure.

The drive to produce garments rapidly has led many UK fast fashion companies to reshore clothing production to the UK, where previously almost all clothing brands sourced from less-economically developed countries such as Bangladesh or Vietnam.

Leicester has become a central hub for clothing production and many of the scandals associated with workers' rights in the UK have been found in factories in the city.

The exploitation of workers in fast fashion supply chains is partly the result of brands pressuring suppliers to produce clothes as cheaply and quickly as possible. We talk about this more below.

Fast sale and delivery

The low-cost of fast fashion items encourages fast sale. The average person in the UK buys 60% more clothing today than in 2000. We buy more clothes per person in the UK than in any other country in Europe, and our addiction has grown - with online searches for 'cheap clothes' increasing 46.3% during the first coronavirus lockdown.

Even if you are out-of-pocket you can buy items using Klarna and other easy credit services. Its post-purchase payment options allow you to defer paying for your garment for 14 to 30 days, much like a payday loan.

Most companies also offer cheap deals for quick delivery. At the time of writing, Boohoo offered unlimited next-day delivery for one year for just £7.99.

Fast use

It's estimated that the average item of clothing is worn just 14 times, and in 2019 The Guardian reported that one in three young women considered an item worn just once or twice to be old.

Much modern clothing is not made to last. Due to super-fast production, designs are generally not well stress-tested before sale, and cheap synthetic fabrics are used in order to keep costs low. Much of it will end up in landfill after only being worn a handful of times.

Five things you need to know about fast fashion

The problems with fast fashion

What are the environmental problems with fast fashion?

The endless creation of new clothes comes with a heavy environmental price. Every year the sector requires 93 billion cubic meters of water, which is enough to meet the consumption needs of five million people, and is responsible for around 20% of industrial water pollution as a result of textile treatment and dyeing.

There are also numerous problems with the materials and processes used. For example, cotton production uses 6% of the world's pesticides and 16% of insecticides.

The industry also has a heavy carbon footprint, which is responsible for up to 10% of total global carbon emissions, and estimated to increase by 50% by 2030.

The above problems affect the clothing sector more broadly, but one issue is particularly endemic to fast fashion: plastic.

How much plastic do clothes contain?

The rise of fast fashion has been heavily dependent on synthetic fibres such as polyester, nylon, acrylic and elastane, which are made from heavily processed petrochemicals (fossil fuels). These materials are cheap to produce - polyester, for example, costs half as much per kilo as cotton - and therefore allow brands to keep prices low, though with a high environmental price-tag.

Polyester is the most widely used of these synthetic fibres and is now found in over half of all textiles produced. It is generally produced from polyethylene terephthalate, better known as PET, a type of plastic derived from crude oil and natural gas - also used to make items such as plastic bottles.

The ubiquitousness of plastic in clothing means that the textile sector accounts for 15% of total plastic use; the only sectors that use more are construction and packaging. Many brands are making a song and dance about using recycled plastics for their clothes, but a recent report by the RSA found that the actual level of recycled content was pitifully low. Across four major online fast fashion brands, the use of recycled fabrics was a mere 4%.

Our analysis of Shein's website found its recycled content was even lower, at only 0.5%, despite the brand claiming, " When selecting materials, we do our best to source recycled fabric, such as recycled polyester."

Recycling plastics where possible has some benefits, but it does nothing to address the problem of microfibres - the miniscule bits of fabric that are released when clothes are worn, washed, or disposed of, that find their way into our bodies and the natural world.

According to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, clothes release half a million tonnes of microfibres into the ocean every year, equivalent to more than 50 billion plastic bottles.

These fibres have been found almost everywhere: from the summit of Mount Everest to the placentas of unborn babies. We still do not know the effects they may have.

How much waste does the clothing industry cause?

The industry is also responsible for enormous amounts of textile waste. The amount of textiles being produced globally per person has more than doubled from 5.9kg to 13kg over the period 1975-2018.

Many of the clothes bought are thrown away after being worn just a handful of times: the industry produces an estimated 92 million tonnes of textiles waste annually, much of which is burnt or finds its way to landfill, while less than 1% of used clothing is recycled into new garments.

Some of this waste consists of items that never even reached the consumer - clothing lines that have become outdated and so are destroyed instead of sold.

Atacama clothing mountain highlights over-consumption

The shocking reality of fast fashion's waste problem hit the headlines in November 2021 with an Agence France-Presse (AFP) report on the mountains of discarded clothing ending up in Chile's Atacama Desert. A total of 59,000 tons of second-hand clothing is said to arrive in Chile for resale each year from Europe, the US and Asia. However, an estimated 39,000 tons is unable to be sold and ends up dumped in the desert.

The situation highlights the myriad of problems in the fashion industry. The over-consumption of new clothing means that even an increasingly thriving second-hand clothing market cannot keep up, and this is exacerbated by the amount of poor-quality clothing not suitable for resale.

While second-hand markets certainly play a huge role in reducing the carbon impact of clothing when replacing the purchase of new items, a system where clothing gets shipped around the world multiple times, only to be wasted anyway is clearly not sustainable.

Clothing made of plastics

The piles mounting up in the Atacama, and in landfills across the world, are not biodegradable. Much of our clothing is made from synthetic plastics and also contains chemicals harmful to the environment.

Many fashion brands are pledging to address the issue of the use of virgin plastics in clothing manufacture, a material derived from the fossil fuel industry. However, this is often by replacing it with recycled synthetics.

And this may well be from recycled plastic bottles but, as a recent Guardian article points out: "PET bottles are also part of a well-established, closed-loop recycling system, where they can be efficiently recycled at least 10 times. The apparel industry is 'taking from this closed-loop, and moving it into this linear system because most of those clothes won't be recycled', said Maxine Bédat, Executive Director of New Standard Institute. "Converting plastic from bottles into clothes may actually accelerate its path to the landfill, especially for low-quality, fast-fashion garments which are often discarded after only a few uses."

The fashion industry, governments and consumers need to act to slow down consumption and ensure that garments are sustainable at every stage of their life cycle, from fibre production, to manufacture, to end-of-life.

Why is it bad for workers?

In order to offer clothes at ultra low prices, fast fashion brands need their costs to be low. One of the main ways of doing this is to drive down the wages of garment workers in the supply chain.

For years, brands have 'chased the cheap needle' around the world, seeking countries with the lowest labour standards so that garment workers can be easily exploited. In recent years, many UK fast fashion brands have found the cheap needle closer to home, often in quasi-legal factories in cities such as Leicester.

In the UK, Boohoo has become somewhat the symbol of fast fashion's worker exploitation problem. Numerous exposés have shown that while the pockets of Boohoo's directors are bursting at the seams, the people who actually stitch the seams of its clothing are paid a pittance, with some found to have been paid under half the minimum wage.

The Levitt report, which looked in depth at Boohoo's Leicester supply chain, found that "The allegations of unacceptable working conditions and underpayment of workers are not only well-founded but are substantially true." Levitt also claimed that these problems were endemic to the system and likely found across Boohoo's supply chain.

Worker exploitation is an essential part of the fast fashion model. If an item is very cheap, chances are that the person who produced it was paid little.

A 2022 report Unbearable Harassment: The Fashion Industry and Widespread Abuse of Female Garment Workers in Indian Factories, found that every single woman spoken to for the report (90), had either experienced or witnessed gender-based violence and harassment (GBVH) carried out by male supervisors and managers at the factories they worked at.

"Verbal, physical, and sexual harassment exists in every garment factory - not just this one. It existed before COVID, it exists during COVID, and it will exist after COVID..." Smita, Tamal Nadu.

The report goes on to state that:

"Violence on the factory floor cannot be dismissed as just a factory-level problem; rather, it must be understood as an industry-wide culture of violence driven by the business model of global fashion brands".

Which are the leading fast fashion brands?

It is important to note that most of the fashion sector has become 'faster' in recent years. As such, even the more mainstream, established brands will be 'fast' to some extent. However, there are some brands that stand out as much faster than the rest:

Boohoo, which also owns the following brands: Burton, Coast, Debenhams, Dorothy Perkins, Karen Millen, MissPap, Nasty Gal, Oasis, Pretty Little Thing, Wallis, Warehouse

In the Style

I Saw it First

Missguided

If a brand is offering vast numbers of 'new in' clothes (usually thousands of new items every day) and its products are super cheap, then it is a fast fashion brand.
UPDATE
Missguided collapsed at the end of May 2022, leaving suppliers and workers out of pocket for months of completed orders.

The Frasers Group, controlled by the Sports Direct founder Mike Ashley, has reportedly bought the company out of administration for £20m. This process will take around two months to complete.

We will review the impact of the collapse and new owner in due course.

Meanwhile, Labour Behind the Label have campaigned to demand workers and suppliers are paid, amidst reports that many are owed thousands of pounds.

Update from COP26 on fashion

Considering its comparative carbon impact, maybe the fashion industry deserved more focus at the recent COP26 summit in Glasgow, but it was not totally without attention.

In the second week, an update to the Fashion Industry Charter for Climate Action was announced, with more ambitious targets for carbon reduction to align with the Paris Agreement's 1.5-degree aim. The charter currently has 130 signatories including brands such as H&M, Primark, Levi's, Chanel and Adidas.

A request for government-backed incentives for using sustainable materials was also submitted by global non-profit Textile Exchange, with its COO, Claire Bergkamp, stating: "We need both regulations to stop bad action and incentives for sustainable materials to help reduce the price burden that currently exists for sourcing more responsibly. Our hope is through trade incentives and tariff reductions, we can level the playing field, without placing the burden on suppliers across the value chain".

The call was supported by 50 of the world's largest fashion and textile companies. It is an interesting turn of events considering the UK Government's complete reluctance to regulate the UK fashion industry as recommended by the 2019 Fixing Fashion report. The call could also be viewed as a profit-driven industry with a history of wreaking havoc on the environment, now demanding it be subsidised for doing the right thing. However, it is true that with such a harmful and complex industry strong legislation is badly needed to start curtailing fashion's destructive path.

Awful conditions at a Shein factory exposed

A Channel 4 documentary broadcast autumn 2022 went undercover at a Shein factory to expose predictably awful conditions and exhausted, exploited workers.

The brand is also shown to copy designs from independent designers, rely on unpaid influencers for its marketing, and use manipulative sales techniques such as countdown timers and multi-buys to encourage overconsumption.

Yet the company is hugely popular and massively outsells its fast fashion rivals. Despite many similar documentaries and decades of campaigning on garment worker rights, it seems that cheap clothes are an addiction we just can't break.

Check out our clothing guides to find some much more ethical options for new clothes, or choose second hand.

What progress has been made in the decade since the Rana Plaza disaster?

The Rana Plaza disaster and the Accord

April 2023 marks the 10th anniversary of the Rana Plaza disaster in Bangladesh which killed more than 1,100 garment workers, an event that exposed the appalling human cost of fast fashion. Simon Birch asks what progress, if any, has been made over the past decade in the fight against fast fashion.

Following the Rana Plaza disaster the Bangladesh Accord was established. This was the first and only legally binding agreement that holds brands to account for health and safety in the garment industry, and is designed to prevent another Rana Plaza tragedy from ever happening again.

"The Accord represents a significant victory for textile workers," says Anna Bryher from Labour Behind the Label, one of the UK's leading campaign groups against fast fashion. "There's been a massive improvement in the safety of clothing factories in Bangladesh," acknowledges Bryher.

Whilst this is welcome good news, the bad news is that the Accord hasn't done anything to address the pitifully low wages that Bangladeshi garment workers still receive.

But whilst the global fast fashion business model is still based on exploitative low wages, the brands themselves are now coming under increasing pressure.

Profits at fast fashion pioneers ASOS and Boohoo are tumbling whilst last year Missguided, one of the UK's flagship fast fashion companies went bust, all largely as a result of the cost-of-living crisis that's seen soaring costs of everything from cotton to shipping.

Environmental claims from fast fashion companies under the spotlight

Last year, the UK's Competition and Markets Authority launched an investigation into whether eco-friendly and sustainability claims made by the fast fashion chains Asos, Boohoo and George at Asda constitute greenwashing.

Meanwhile over in Europe, the EU is stepping up its fight against throwaway culture by aiming to end fast fashion by 2030.

In an ambitious initiative launched last year, the EU announced its intention to vastly expand its clothing design rules on recycling and sustainability. In just seven years' time, all textiles sold within the EU must be recyclable, free of hazardous substances and contain a high percentage of recycled fibres.

All these actions are clearly good news for the environment but the bottom line is that fast fashion still demands the exploitation of garment workers.

However, it's important to remember that the problem is with the clothing companies, not with the clothing industry.

"We all need clothes and the clothing industry provides millions of jobs around the world from farmers who provide the cotton and fabrics to workers in garment factories," says Heather Webb, a former researcher at Ethical Consumer who has since worked within the fast fashion industry as an ethical trade analyst.

"Big fashion brands are consistently treating the factories they buy from poorly and it's the workers and environment who suffer," says Fiona Gooch from Transform Trade that campaigns for a more ethical global trading system.

"We need a fashion watchdog to regulate UK garment retailers along the same lines as the existing supermarket watchdog that's successfully reduced the unfair buying practices of the UK's largest food retailers," explains Gooch. "A fashion watchdog would reduce abusive and unfair purchasing practices of the garment retailers which would ultimately benefit garment workers."

Whilst acknowledging that a fashion watchdog would be a good thing, Anna Bryher believes that it wouldn't fix the problem of low wages within the clothing industry. What's needed says Bryher is new legislation to enable clothing brands to be held to account for their unfair purchasing practices.

Heather Webb agrees. "We need government intervention in the market," says Webb. "One of the key things that could improve both the pay and working conditions of garment workers is a law outlawing the unethical buying practices of clothing brands."

Progress by brands is extremely slow

The Ethical Fashion Report published in 2023, 10 years after the first edition, found that although there has been some progress for garment workers, overall change is still too slow. Their research found that at the current rate of progress, it would be 75 years before all companies are paying a living wage at even a minimum of one factory per company. The vast majority of clothing companies (84%) were not sourcing from any factories which paid a living wage.

Find out more in the report and also use the charity's 'Speak Out' tool to see how individual brands are doing and let them know what you think.

People's clothing habits are changing

Despite the pervasiveness of fast fashion, things are beginning to improve.

New research from WRAP has found that compared with similar research carried out in 2013, we are wearing our clothes for slightly longer. Jeans, for example, now have a longevity of just over four years, compared to just over three in 2013. The research also found that more than half of us are happy to buy second hand clothes; nearly 60% of us put a lot of effort into maintaining our clothes; and that a similar proportion look for ways to repair clothes when they're damaged.

The WRAP research also estimates that the UK's wardrobes hold 1.6 billion items of unworn clothes, an average of 31 items for each adult. And yet we're still spending more than £4 billion on shopping for clothes each month. WRAP makes the point that as textiles and fashion are responsible for between 4% and 8% of global greenhouse gas emissions, we need a revolution in our clothing habits to make our wardrobes sustainable.

Circular clothing industry

The purpose of the WRAP research was to understand the population's receptiveness to circular business models for clothing. These included second hand, upcycling, subscription, rental (pay-per-wear) and repair (where a brand repairs an item of clothing a customer has purchased from it for a fee).

WRAP found that 40% of people are likely to use a subscription service and that 58% are open to using a repair service. Among those who have already used a circular business model, the majority said they would do so again.

WRAP argues that this shows there is a clear case for clothing brands and retailers to adopt circular business models.

Read the full WRAP report into clothing longevity on their website and read tips on repairing and buying second hand in our article on upcycling and buying second hand clothing.

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What is fast fashion and why is it a problem? | Ethical Consumer

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Alex Crumbie explores the growing concern about the social and environmental impacts of the fast fashion clothing industry and sets out what's wrong with fast fashion.

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Technological advances have made it possible for each and every customer on an app to be personalised, this creates customer loyalty as it allows the shopper to make quick and easy purchases.

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Today's retail environment is challenging from almost any perspective because of price pressure from discounters, market disruption from online players, and increased price transparency for shoppers. Traditional differentiation approaches in retail-such as a unique selection or strategic pricing and promotions-are not as effective as they once were, as competitors can easily imitate them. But differentiation is still possible through personalized approaches in which retailers create unique experiences tailored to individual customers.

Highly personalized customer experiences, when offered to millions of individual customers by using proprietary data, are difficult for competitors to imitate. When executed well, such experiences enable businesses not only to differentiate themselves but also to gain a sustainable competitive advantage. Moreover, our research has shown that personalized experiences drive up both customer loyalty and the top line.

Meeting customers' expectations for a personalized experience

Thanks to online pioneers, such as Amazon, customers have grown to expect and desire personalized experiences: a survey of 1,000 US adults by Epsilon and GBH Insights found that the vast majority of respondents (80 percent) want personalization from retailers. Personalization can even be called a "hygiene factor": customers take it for granted, but if a retailer gets it wrong, customers may depart for a competitor.

Personalization, once limited mainly to targeted offers, now extends to the entire customer experience. This means that customers want personalization throughout their interactions with a retailer-with multiple, personalized touchpoints that enable them to allocate their time and money according to their preferences. In the best personalized experiences, retailers make the customer part of the dialogue and leverage data to create one-to-one personalization. Customers receive offers that are targeted not just at customers like them, with brands targeting at the segment level with broad-based offers, but at them as individuals, with products, offers, and communications that are uniquely relevant to them.

Understanding how personalization pays off

Given customers' expectations, retailers must respond to the demand for personalized experiences not only to differentiate themselves but just to survive. When done right, though, personalization allows retailers to do more than merely survive: it enables them to thrive. Personalization at scale (in which companies have personal interactions with all or a large segment of their customers) often delivers a 1 to 2 percent lift in total sales for grocery companies and an even higher lift for other retailers, typically by driving up loyalty and share-of-wallet among already-loyal customers (for whom data are more abundant and response rates are higher). These programs can also reduce marketing and sales costs by around 10 to 20 percent.

Not only that, successful personalization programs yield more engaged customers and drive up the top line. In general, a positive customer experience is hugely meaningful to a retailer's success: it yields 20 percent higher customer-satisfaction rates, a 10 to 15 percent boost in sales-conversion rates, and an increase in employee engagement of 20 to 30 percent. Customer-experience leaders in the retail space (retailers with consistently high customer-satisfaction scores) have provided their shareholders with returns that are three times higher than the returns generated by retailers with low customer-satisfaction scores.

To maximize the results of a personalization program, we recommend focusing initially on the most loyal customers, as programs targeting regular shoppers yield a return on investment three times higher than that of mass promotions. Moreover, building data on the most loyal customers sets off a virtuous cycle by generating ever-more-relevant data and higher response rates that further boost data quality.

Learning from success stories

Retailers across many different categories have managed to implement personalization at scale effectively and have significant success to show for the effort. Of course, Amazon has been a pioneer in this field, but other companies-including grocery companies, which make up for what they lack in e-commerce data with loyalty data from their physical stores-have moved into the top tier in recent years with successful personalization programs of their own.

Personalization pioneer: Amazon

As the ruler of large, pure-play, online retailers, Amazon has used sophisticated analytics to shape its personalization efforts. Over time, Amazon has expanded its personalization program to show customers products that are often purchased with the item they are viewing, display items that can be bundled with products in a customer's cart, and recommend additional products in the e-mails it sends to confirm transactions.

Amazon continues to raise the personalization bar with ever-more-granular, -innovative offerings to individual customers. For example, Amazon Prime Wardrobe has recently launched a personal shopping service exclusively for Prime members. Customers complete a survey about their styles and fit preferences, and a team of stylists provides personalized recommendations from more than half a million items across brands. Amazon will probably continue to lead innovation in personalization, but other, smaller retailers-with far less sophisticated systems-are setting new standards, too.

Dynamic personalization: European grocer

A large European grocery company has successfully moved from one-size-fits-all marketing to personalized experiences. This shift began with research based on the retailer's macrosegmentation; the retailer was then able to drill down a level further to create smaller segments based on location, time of day, and other specifics. From there, the grocer built a new transaction engine so it could institute business rules. For example, the engine does not offer discounts to regular shoppers who buy coffee or lunch at the store every day. Instead, it routes discounts toward other segments and users of the grocer's smartphone app, who receive offers as they pass by the store.

The rich data from this grocer's transaction engine, personalization engine, mobile app, and other tools have allowed the company to track sales across its entire network of locations-enabling the grocer to optimize for weather, day of the week, time of day, and similar data points that greatly enhance the effectiveness of promotions.

Omnichannel experience: Sephora

Sephora, an international beauty-products retailer, offers personalized experiences that are truly omnichannel in their presentation to consumers. The company's digital channels-particularly its mobile app-encourage customers to book in-store makeovers and fashion consultations. The app's "in-store companion" feature enables users to find a store, check to see if an item is in stock, and book a reservation. When customers choose to have their makeup done in stores, they receive a log-in for the app so that the makeup artist can input each product she or he used into the customer's personal profile. The app also allows customers to virtually try on products and to receive recommendations based on their personal beauty traits. When customers visit a Sephora store, they can use the app to find the products they have virtually sampled.

All of Sephora's customer communications-no matter the platform-display the customer's loyalty points. Sales associates can see these point totals, too, and can access a customer's profile in store. The profile includes data on the customer's in-store purchases, online browsing and purchasing patterns, and interactions with in-store salespeople.

Sephora's program is notable for another reason, too: it clearly demonstrates the effectiveness of focusing on the most loyal customers. The company's tiered loyalty program, Beauty Insider, offers its highest-level members early access to new products, invitations to exclusive events, free custom beauty services, and more. All members receive customized recommendations based on profiles they fill out online. Their profile details-such as first name, buying habits, and quiz responses-are deployed across channels. Store associates can access a customer's profile in the store and track items that were sampled, making it easy for customers to find and buy those items on the website or app. Every communication from the brand, on every platform, displays the customer's loyalty points, and offers are synchronized across platforms.

The results of Sephora's personalization efforts have been striking. The loyalty program now has around 25 million members. In 2018, members accounted for 80 percent of Sephora's total transactions. And for the third year in a row, with a score of 79 out of a possible 100, Sephora has claimed the top slot in Sailthru's Retail Personalization Index.

In-store personalization: Nike

Not to be outdone in the personalization game is Nike, one of the largest athletic-footwear and athleisure companies in the world. Nike has taken personalization all the way to the individual product by allowing customers to configure their own clothes and shoes. The company recently launched a 3-D sneaker-customization platform that allows shoppers to generate real-time, shareable snapshots of finished footwear.

Personalization extends to Nike's physical locations, too. Nike's flagship store in New York City offers a compelling omnichannel shopping experience driven by membership in NikePlus, the company's personalized loyalty program. Members receive personalized, exclusive benefits, such as access to Nike Speed Shop, which offers a data-driven, locally tailored assortment of "NYC favorites." Members can also reserve items to be stored in pickup lockers and retrieve them by scanning their NikePlus member pass. With Nike Shop the Look, members can use QR-code-scanning to determine the availability of their preferred sizes and colors and to request delivery to their selected pickup location or dressing room. Using Instant Checkout, members can skip the cash-register line and check out directly from their own stored-payment device. Other benefits include access to Nike Expert Studio, where members can book personal, one-on-one appointments with Nike experts, and the opportunity to book appointments with Nike by You, where members can view a selection of silhouettes that are uniquely fitted to their specifications.

The necessary changes require a significant shift in the mindsets of employees so that they become comfortable with the experiments personalization requires.

Identifying common challenges for retailers

Given the success stories, it is little surprise that, in a Periscope by McKinsey survey of retailers attending World Retail Congress 2017, 95 percent of retail CEOs say personalizing the customer experience is a strategic priority for their companies. But that same survey showed that only 23 percent of consumers believe that retailers are doing a good job in their personalization efforts. What is behind this disparity?

First of all, most retailers are still in the early stages of their personalization efforts. Our research indicates that only 15 percent of retailers have fully implemented personalization strategies. More than 80 percent are still defining a personalization strategy or have begun pilot initiatives. The remaining retailers have decided to deprioritize personalization for now, for various reasons.

Retailers seem to be facing four main tactical challenges in getting personalization off the ground:

1. Data management. More than two-thirds of survey respondents (67 percent) indicate that their greatest personalization challenge is the gathering, integration, and synthesis of customer data.

2. Data analytics. Acquiring and maintaining in-house expertise in analytics and data science are proving to be major concerns for 48 percent of surveyed retailers.

3. Alignment of retail organizations across functions. For many retailers, siloed processes and organizational models prevent the efficient and prompt sharing of customer data and promotion decisions (for example, difficulty in aligning the marketing and merchandizing teams). Of the survey group, 43 percent say these silos "make life difficult," and 25 percent report that such silos make it difficult to get vendor funding-as well as buy-in-from suppliers for personalized offerings (especially in the grocery category). In many cases, these sorts of changes require a significant shift in the mindsets of employees so that they become comfortable with the test-and-learn and fast-fail experiments that personalization requires.

4. Tools and technology enablement. Of the survey participants, 67 percent admit that they did not have the correct tools in place to execute personalization at scale. An additional 41 percent say finding the right solution partner was a struggle.

These challenges are further complicated by the fact that many retailers still operate under a hybrid, "bricks and clicks" strategy, making it even more difficult to implement the right levels of personalization in stores and online. Retailers with an omnichannel setup, however, have their own challenges, particularly in structuring offers and executing across communication touchpoints.

Overcoming the obstacles

All is not lost, however. As our previous case examples show, retailers across the spectrum have managed to create truly personalized experiences for both the online world and brick-and-mortar channels. The results for both the affected customers and the financial results are impressive. So how do these retailers do this?

There is no single winning recipe, as the breadth of our case examples shows. In our experience, though, an effective personalization operating model has four prongs: a data foundation, decisioning, design, and distribution (exhibit). Within this model are eight core elements.

First, all of these retailers have started small. They begin by testing and learning while building the necessary capabilities and multidimensional intelligence on customers over time. Data management is crucial here: getting the right data is much more important than gathering every last scrap of data. The customer database needs to be multidimensional, but it does not have to provide a 360-degree view of customers. Successful retailers start by gathering the most important data before scaling up to a broader understanding of each individual customer.

A detailed customer segmentation and analysis is the next common element. With the right data management and analytics in place, retailers can identify customers' value triggers and then score and rank customers to facilitate effective targeting and personalization.

Developing a playbook of responses to certain triggers-such as abandoning a shopping cart and browsing of items that belong to a larger collection-is the third element. The goal here is to build a library of offers, with a few hundred as a good starting point. Some companies eventually build a large library of content that they can put together into a personalized magazine for customers. The right mix of triggers results in open and click-through rates that outperform those of traditional mass marketing.

The fourth element is a robust decisioning engine (campaign coordination) that plans experiences across multiple channels and reduces the risk of sending conflicting messages. It also allows retailers to drive the value created by each touchpoint and to maximize that value across the multichannel lineup.

An agile cross-functional team is the fifth element. A team room should be staffed by a cross-functional team-the engineers, merchandising professionals, and marketing experts should all be in one room. The team's work should include weekly deployments implemented with a test-and-learn spirit more commonly found in the internet software betas of Google and other web giants. The goal of this cross-functional room is to break down organizational silos and to have mixed teams working together to increase pace and quality.

The sixth element of a successful personalization effort is securing the right talents, capabilities, and culture to staff the team. The leadership needs to set the right example at the outset, but from there, the program will touch everyone from the HR team to the marketing and merchandising staffs. The right mix of data scientists and marketing-technology experts is also necessary.

The right technology enablement can be complex to implement, but it forms the core-and the seventh element-of a successful personalization effort. Getting the various systems to work together and pull in the same direction can form the commercial heart of an organization. Most retailers are not maximizing the value that their existing technology platforms can offer, so unifying the systems will squeeze more value from them along the way. Building a more flexible platform on top of legacy systems is often beneficial, too.

Finally, retailers should undertake this effort with a test-and-learn approach. There is no need to build a vast, multivariable database as the first step. As the exhibit notes, do not wait for perfection. Instead, start small. Pick a straightforward experience that will generate a positive impact and start with that. Test the efficacy of that idea, generate useful metrics, and then expand to a second idea. Repeat. As the resulting impact is quantified, and the insights generated by experiments are funneled back to the team, the loop will be closed on the analytics powering each deployment.

In some retail sectors (the grocery sector, for example), collaboration with suppliers is important. The goal here is to build a mutually beneficial partnership with the supplier. To do so, shift funding from mass promotions to personalized experiences and give vendors full transparency into how their products perform. Additionally, provide each vendor with a point person who manages its relationship with the retail network. This person will quickly become a strategic partner who helps better align the retailer and supplier.

All eight elements humming in unison will form an effective personalized-experience engine that differentiates the retailer, increases share of wallet among the most loyal customers, and ultimately boosts the retailer's top and bottom lines.

Getting started

Given the potential impact of personalization, it makes sense that retailers would be eager to begin their personalization efforts. But how can they do that thoughtfully?

The first step is to define a short list of high-impact use cases that are relevant to the consumer but not too complex to execute against. A skilled cross-functional team can then be assembled to construct an integrated database for those use cases. The team should make sure that the data are both highly available and targeted while also considering the needs of future programs (including high-impact use cases). This database does not need to be perfect. Rather, it should be built through iteration, testing, and learning.

To begin building a personalization program-and to fuel its effective execution-retailers should create a cross-functional team to test and learn from experiments. Analytics and technology professionals will be critical to the program, especially when scaling it up. Finding the right external partner to help develop the personalization program is important, too, and will help accelerate the retailer's progress toward results: a more personalized experience, greater customer loyalty, marked differentiation, increased wallet share, and substantially better top and bottom lines.

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Personalizing the customer experience: Driving differentiation in retail

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Today's customers expect a personalized experience when they're shopping. An effective personalization operating model, featuring 8 core elements, can help retailers and brands keep pace.

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It is shown that secondhand ethical shopping may be due to take over fast fashion. I added this to my environmental column of my PESTEL as this seriously impacts the environment and stops mass waste.

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The Resale Market Is Taking Over Fast Fashion, Report Says

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A thredUp report says the popularity of secondhand clothes and thrift stores is growing as consumers become more environmentally aware.

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This article shows how luxury brands such as Chanel are increasingly aware about using things such as renewable energy in their stores and being more sustainable.

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PARIS - Wind turbines and a solar-panel runway filled the Grand Palais as Karl Lagerfeld sent out Chanel's new spring-summer look in Paris on Tuesday, like a stylish hint to the renewable energy powering the classic house.

Jennifer Lopez and four-year-old daughter Emme -- both in baby doll dresses -- sat front row in the vast glass-and-steel exhibition hall, to watch the show which headlined the penultimate day of the Paris ready-to-wear collections.

On a giant runway in a blue solar-panel pattern, the models wound their way between a dozen towering white turbines, 68 girls modelling a marathon 80 looks.

"I wasn't going to go for an intimate show in a place like this," quipped the white-haired designer backstage, from behind his trademark dark shades.

Outsized pearls were clustered at the models' neck and wrists -- the only jewellery in sight -- with pearl-like embellishments dotting short black dresses and little bolero jackets, a keynote look of the collection.

"Its all about volume and lightness, which normally don't go together," said the designer, who this season used mostly cotton blends -- of the highest quality -- to achieve his sought-after airy feel.

The short skirt and cropped jacket silhouette came in bright colours too, like black under a graphic, red-and-blue patterned bolero, worn with chunky striped platform heels.

For evening there were sheer dresses with multicoloured feather-like embroidery at the rim, worn on their own or above sheer swishy pants.

Futuristic notes were dotted throughout, like with a quilted red mini skirt and puffed sleeve space-age tunic, or disc-shaped hats with a giant transparent brim, that mirrored the spinning motion of a turbine.

Likewise a tube mini-dress picked up on the solar-panel pattern in scintillating blue embroidery.

Lagerfeld ducked direct questions about the renewable energy metaphor as applied to Chanel, whose rivals Dior and Yves Saint Laurent have been making headlines for hiring a duo of edgy new designers, Raf Simons and Hedi Slimane.

"Energy is the most important thing in life," he replied elliptically, enthusing about the "beauty" of wind turbines.

"If I had to build a house, I would put them in the garden," he confided.

But the designer's pitch was clear: this is a clutter-free Chanel, that can appeal to the younger generation as well as its core client base.

"We will end up babies!" he joked when asked about the more youthful slant to this and previous collections.

In practice, his spring look picked up a job begun a few seasons back, of paring down the house's traditional esthetic.

"No braids, no classic Chanel buttons, no chains, just pearls, pearls and pearls, that's all," he said. "All that is gone, and yet it still looks very Chanel, I find."

The only "CC" monogram in the collection came on a bag, in quilted white, with giant circular handles.

"That one is for the beach -- you stick the handles in the sand and put your towel on it," Lagerfeld joked.

Linda Fargo, senior vice president of fashion at New York department store Bergdorf Goodman, said Lagerfeld seemed to have pulled some extra cards out of his sleeve in response to the hype surrounding Simons and Slimane.

But unlike other designers, she said: "Karl I think is so confident, that I'm sure he's curious but he will always stay his own course."

What does the Chanel designer himself make of the commotion surrounding Simons' ready-to-wear premiere for Dior, and Slimane's for YSL, which translated into a profusion of YSL-flavoured tuxedos on the Paris runways?

"These 'new designers' have been around for a long time," came the laconic reply. "I am not obsessed by the tuxedo. Everyone has been doing smokings. People come to Chanel for something other than smokings. Here it is no smoking!"by Emma Charlton

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Chanel invokes renewable energy of fashion

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PARIS - Wind turbines and a solar-panel runway filled the Grand Palais as Karl Lagerfeld sent out Chanel's new spring-summer look in Paris on Tuesday, like a stylish hint to the renewable energy powering the classic house.

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Consequences for brands that have security breaches and breach GDPR rules. High fines to pay: added this to my legal column

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In October 2020, three of the largest ever fines for breaches of the EU General Data Protection Regulation (" GDPR ") were imposed by data protection authorities in the EU. In Germany, the Data Protection Authority of Hamburg fined H&M €35.3m, while in the UK, the Information Commissioner's Office ("the ICO") fined British Airways and Marriott International, €22m and €20.45m respectively.
H&M - €35.3m fine
Swedish retail conglomerate H&M was fined for the illegal surveillance of hundreds of its employees. The company had collected sensitive personal data through the use of staff surveys and informal chats. The personal data collected included information about employees' religious beliefs, medical records, including diagnoses and symptoms of illnesses, as well as private details about vacations and family affairs. The company then used this data to create profiles of its employees.

These practices became public after a technical error whereby the information which was stored on the company's network, became temporarily accessible to staff for several hours in October 2019, prompting the Hamburg authority to open an investigation. The Hamburg authority noted that there had been a gross disregard of data protection rules and the large fine was " justified and should help to scare off companies from violating people's privacy".
British Airways - €22m fine
The fine against British Airways for its GDPR breaches was reduced to €22m from the original notice of €204m imposed by the ICO in July 2019. An ICO investigation found that the airline was processing a significant amount of personal data without adequate security measures in place, leading to a cyber-attack in July 2018, which was only discovered two months later. The attack resulted in hackers stealing personal data from more than 400,000 customers of the airline. Interestingly, the ICO stated that it had taken into account the economic impact of Covid-19 and the effect this has had on the airline industry when imposing the reduced fine.
Marriott International - €20m fine
In July 2019, the ICO issued a notice of intention to fine Marriott International just over £99m for failing to keep millions of customers' personal data secure. Marriott was the subject of a cyber-attack in 2014 from an unknown source which remained undetected until September by which time an estimated 339 million guests' records were exposed.

The ICO's investigation found that there were failures by Marriott to put appropriate technical or organisational measures in place to protect the personal data being processed on its systems, as required by the GDPR.

On 30 October 2020, the ICO issued its penalty notice in which it imposed a fine of €20.45m, substantially reducing the initial intended fine. As with its decision in the British Airways matter, the ICO took into account a number of mitigating factors, including the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. The ICO also acknowledged that Marriott acted promptly to contact customers and the ICO. It also acted quickly to mitigate the risk of damage suffered by customers, and has since instigated a number of measures to improve the security of its systems.
Conclusion
The imposition of such high financial penalties in quick succession highlights the wide ranging enforcement powers available to data protection authorities to ensure compliance with the GDPR and that there is no hesitation to use these measures when appropriate. It should serve as a crucial reminder to all companies of their obligations as data controllers and processors under the GDPR. Moving forward, it will be interesting to see if, when imposing fines, other data protection authorities adopt the position taken by the ICO in taking into account the current economic impact that Covid-19 is having across the globe.

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Large fines imposed for GDPR breaches | Lexology

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In October 2020, three of the largest ever fines for breaches of the EU General Data Protection Regulation (" GDPR ") were imposed by data protection authorities in the EU. In Germany, the Data Protection Authority of Hamburg fined H&M €35.3m, while in the UK, the Information Commissioner's Office ("the ICO") fined British Airways and Marriott International, €22m and €20.45m respectively.

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Creating unique attributes that set a company apart from its competitors.

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Visual representation of clothing built using computer technologies and 3D software.

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Languages and discussions and conversations that centre around a particular subject in society

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How the cotton was grown, How workers are treated and paid as well as their safety. (No sweatshops, child labour, worker abuse of slavery involved). Covers a range of issues such as working conditions, exploitation, fair trade and sustainable production.

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Offers more than just a store. People can meet socially. Collaborating - brands can promote within affiliate stores. Builds long term memory and loyalty with a brand.

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Still growing and dominating the high street and online. Delivers cheap clothes that resemble designer pieces. Often uses influencers to promote trend driven items at low prices. This comes at a cost to the planet and workers. Because the garments are so accessible it changes our perception of the lifespan.

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Ease of digital shopping into retail space. Offers option of instore computers and mobile apps. See and feel product but be able to also see entire brand collection.

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The network of physical objects that are embedded with sensors, software and other technologies for the purpose of connecting + exchanging data with other devices + systems over the internet.

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Commercial transactions conducted electronically by mobile phone.

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Interacting with customers using a combination of indirect and direct communication channels - websites, stores, catalogs, mail, mobile etc.

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Focus on providing the customer with a seamless, united experience whether they're shopping online or instore.

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Can see into store, sculptural

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Process of using personal data to provide tailored experiences to shoppers of products in a retail environment. Every path to purchase is different.