Fashion retail was already in a dire condition in 2019. 2020 was brutal. But what's happening now is beyond any comprehension. Non essential stores are going down. State of Art, a men's fashion retail brand in Netherlands and Belgium, was a very successful business until March 13, 2020. We will be again in 2022 and beyond.
Read MoreMany flagship stores are just a regular store with an abundance of space. The same number of products are displayed more widely. Fancy gadgets and irrelevant visual merchandising, finished off with huge LCD screens often cover that it's really much ado about nothing. Some though are a delight, a bliss. Amsterdam based Rituals opened 'House of Rituals' in October to give momentum to its 20 years anniversary. The aim was quite ambitious: to transcend from a cosmetics brand into the art of soulful living.
Read MoreCovid-19 hit like a bullet. Much is said already, but I've found some new insights like: cash is the new God. Maslow is back. Hope is not a strategy. Forget forecasting. Dividends versus subsidies. Shit rolls downhill. And most of all: you are a leader, not an funeral undertaker. Show some resilience. It's definitely business as not usual.
Read MoreThe Dutch don't have what other leading EU economies have: Amazon as the leading e-commerce platform. Amazon skipped the Netherlands, back some years ago, preferring the other countries. Now, in just over a couple of weeks they will kickstart with a full grown Dutch webshop. What are the consequences for existing Dutch webshops, especially for Amazon look-a-like and Dutch leading e-commerce operator BOL?
Read MoreCitizens living in the already crowded big cities in Western economies have witnessed a change in the past few years. Delivery trucks parking on dangerous places. Way more traffic from DHL, UPS and others delivering e-commerce parcels, with more pollution from those trucks. Huge delivery hubs are being built near city centers on land where otherwise housing projects could have been developed.
Read MoreAround the globe people become more aware of the trade off between buying fashion items, wearing them a few times, disposing and what it does do our planet. Many new (online and physical) retail platforms have started concentrating on second hand items and renting out. Some even say that the second hand fashion market will outgrow fast fashion by 2028.
Read MoreQuite frequently I happen to visit one of the many shared offices the city of Amsterdam offers. I usually go to Spaces on the Vijzelstraat. One of the reasons why I prefer Spaces is their friendly baristas serving great cappuccino, from a brand called Bocca. This is a story about Bocca Coffee and its founder, Menno Simons.
Read MoreThis article is about Chinese millennials, with some insights on how they live and shop. Highlighting some remarkable differences between Europe and China. It was first published in April 2019 in Dutch Marketing Journal Adformatie.
Retailers trying to cross a frontier and doing some really exciting new things: we kind of miss it. If we see new brands, we experience mostly small, incremental changes. A new kind of display idea, new designs or styles or a different routing. Few physical formats take a more lateral (some call it crazy) route to market. Enter Gentle Monster.
Read MoreTesco is launching a new discount format with only a dozen stores. It might feel like dipping a toe in the water, but if you can't beat them join them.
Read MoreInstead of going West next time, travel East. Retail and e-commerce in the fast lane.
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