Retail Cities names Britain’s Most Successful Festive Retailers

With the results from the Golden quarter released, we name the festive winners of 2020

London— 23 January 2021 — Not every retailer received the gift they had expected this festive season. Just as with humanity, we mourn the retailers lost to the high streets, put to rest by this brutal pandemic. Still, we wish to honor and celebrate the survivors and build hope for the retail landscape of tomorrow. Here are our awards for greatest success in Britain during the festive retail season[1].

Ranking Methodology – How to Level the Playing Field?

This year’s methodology is unique, given the extraordinary circumstances. Our awards team had to ask a fundamental question, “How do we create a level playing field?” We did so by looking at competitive realities. Festive period lockdowns created a two-tier competitive landscape: Essential and non-Essential retailers. Additionally, with vulnerable individuals encouraged to stay home, food-for-home retailers became lifelines for these individuals and households, creating a unique set of trading conditions. For this reason, we created three league tables separating those who were able to trade continuously for all 9 weeks of the festive 2020 calendar and those who were forced to cease trading for periods to comply with government regulations. Further, we split food retailers out from specialists in the continuously operating group.

Rob Parker, CEO of Tops Tiles said simply, “As we have done throughout the pandemic, we are continuing to put colleague and customer welfare first.” We must take a moment to applaud all British retailers for embracing this philosophy – no matter the competitive realities.

Top of the Table(s)

We are pleased to honor the following retailers for their 2020 festive trading performance.

·        Non-Essential Retailers Trading Continuously: AO World’s CEO, John Roberts said, “I believe we've seen ten years of change in ten months.” The retailers in this group had prepared well for the future, but more importantly had agile business models and were able pivot quickly to take advantage of a changed landscape. We honour In the Style, AO World, THG, and Boohoo for their ability to bring the future of British shopping to the present day.

·        Essential Retailers Trading Continuously: We are pleased to say that practically all retailers in this group paid back their business rates relief. Rates relief was the right action for the government to take in March. Tesco’s Board said it best, “We are immensely grateful for the financial and policy support…[t]his allowed us to ensure customers got access to the essentials they needed.” Despite having solid financials for a large period of the 2020/21 financial period, many of the retailers in this table have been unable to “book” the financial gains in the same way as retailers in the first table, due to the extraordinary additional operating expenses they continue to endure to remain open to the public. We honor B&M Retail, Lidl, and Booth’s as top British performers in the essential retailers trading continuously segment with honorable mention to Tesco.  

·        Non-Essential Retailers Forced to Trade at Less than Full Strength: Retailers in this segment are like the substitutes in a football match who come on in injury time and score the deciding winner. When it was time for them to perform, they often saw double or triple the footfall that they would in a normal period. Keeping the staff and the clients safe, therefore, was doubly challenging. Kevin Rountree, CEO of the Games Workshop, illustrated the correct attitude by stating, “It was great to see our store managers doing a fantastic job of delivering their normal outrageous service [when stores were open].” We honor Hotel Chocolat, Games Workshop, Seasalt, Mountain Warehouse, and Dunelm for balancing their business, protecting their loyal clients, and motivating their staff during this challenging stretch of festive retailing.

Best-in-Class Examples

Beyond Covid, retailers managed a wider set of challenges including challenges with warehousing, shipping, transport, staff absences, delivery capacity, and Brexit, to name a few. Some retailers found creative and interesting solutions to the biggest headaches of our times. We would like to call out some of these inspiring approaches in hopes of inspiring others.

·        Personalized and Insights-Based Marketing: Signet, the jewelry-giant parent company of H Samuel and Ernest Jones, took the time to upgrade their approach to targeted communications. With consumers bombarded with messages and experiencing screen-fatigue in record numbers, making these investments will certainly help the business in the future.

·        Simplified Promotions: Just as with screen-fatigue, consumers have begun to experience promotional fatigue. Superdry did an amazing job of simplifying their promotions, exemplified by Black Friday. More retailers should consider adopting a new approach to promotions in 2021/2022.

·         Agile Sourcing: Dunelm has indicated delays of 2-3 weeks longer than normal in getting goods from the Far East. As a result, they are adopting new and more agile approaches to supply-chain, something all retailers will need to consider in a post-Brexit environment.

·        Accepting Cash: Predicting how consumers wish to pay for goods is a recipe for failure. Next did an outstanding job of switching from cards to cash options when it became obvious that consumers wished to have greater diversity in choice of payment methods.

·        Charities: The types of charity most likely to have an immediate positive impact on vulnerable households changed across the pandemic. Aldi did a wonderful job of completely rethinking their approach to charity across the pandemic, enabling more localized and more flexible approaches in each of its communities.

·        Investing in the Frontlines: Being in the right place at the right time is a critical element of successful retailing. Halfords has done a magnificent job of reimagining its role in helping cyclists and motorists get the assistance they need while out and about. The company restructured property and invested in mobile vans to make sure Britain’s frontliners were able to get to work on time.

·        Supporting all Procrastinators: Very was able to get deliveries to procrastinators as late as 7pm on the 22nd of December. Expect the bounds to be moved again in 2021.

·        Helping to Grow the Family: Britain’s households became larger during the pandemic with extended families deciding to lockdown together and many adding pets and neighbors to their personal bubbles. Bigger households mean bigger expenses and Pets at Home has done a stellar job in helping new pet owners to manage changed consumption patterns with its VIP membership and Puppy and Kittens club programs. 

In evaluating this year’s award winners, we are sure you will agree that the future of innovation in British retailing is in good hands as we begin a new chapter.

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The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.

Retail Cities Global Inc is a Delaware USA-based corporation, connecting best-in-class retail insights from all corners of the world to retail industry leaders and entrepreneurs. Our motto is, “Retail is detail and detail means data.” 

In the UK we are represented by independent commentators Bryan Roberts, Natalie Berg, Ethan Sinick, George Argyropoulos, Tudor Popa, and from a distance – Ray Gaul – all of whom comment frequently on innovations in British retailing. We would be happy to arrange for interviews and appearances with these experts as requested.

For more information:

Desiree Fung

+44 (0) 7702 381780

www.RetailCities.com

[1] The festive season is defined as the 9-week period leading up to 25 December 2020, not all retailers follow the same financial reporting so we attempt to average out any differences in our analysis looking at ONS monthly trends and nearby competitors as reference to keep performance on an apples-to-apples comparison