Retail

Luxury retail brands are rolling out VIP schemes for big spenders

With luxury goods now available at the click of a button, high-end brands are rolling out VIP services and reward schemes to make sure they attract and retain ultra-high-net-worth clients

Tesco is poised to cut up to 15,000 jobs as part of a €1.7bn cost-saving strategy as it struggles in the face of competition from budget supermarkets and the e-commerce

Europe to shed thousands of retail jobs

German department store Galeria Kaufhof and British supermarket chain Tesco are among the retailers to have announced mass layoffs

Kingfisher Group set to exit Russia, Spain and Portugal

Europe’s second-largest home improvement retailer, Kingfisher Group, is streamlining its business in order to deliver on its ambitious profit targets

L’Oreal set to sell the Body Shop for $1.1bn

French cosmetics giant L’Oreal is in exclusive talks to sell the Body Shop to Brazil’s Natura in a €1bn deal

IKEA CEO packs up after five years

IKEA has appointed Jesper Brodin to replace outgoing CEO Peter Agnefjall and will continue pushing into global markets

Whole Foods appoints founder John Mackey as sole CEO

Whole Foods is set to dispense with its unusual co-CEO system, leaving founder John Mackey in sole charge

John Lewis appoints its first female managing director

Paula Nickolds will become the first female boss in the British retailer’s 152-year history

Walmart snaps up e-commerce unicorn Jet for record-breaking $3bn

Walmart has smashed the record price for start-up acquisition in the US in spending $3bn to buy e-commerce site Jet, taking on the company’s CEO Marc Lore in the process

‘Natural’ beauty products may not be so natural after all

Demand for natural and organic beauty products is soaring, yet a closer look suggests consumers might not be getting the full picture

Savile Row’s bespoke tailoring tradition is under threat from all sides

Savile Row is increasingly seeing its heritage used to sell clothing that does not meet the standards implied by the famous name. To protect their legacy, the tailors of the Row are fighting back, writes Tom Bailey

Vinyl is back as a popular and profitable music medium

Analogue formats were once thought dead, replaced by physical digital storage mechanisms that have themselves been usurped by online streaming services. Vinyl, however, is now experiencing a full-blown revival

New case highlights the confused state of gift card regulation

The collapse of Dick Smith has reinvigorated the legal and moral debate over the rights of gift card holders when a company enters administration. Most of the time, public perception is the most important factor

In redesigning the store layout for Kafkas, Greece’s largest electrical retailer, Stirixis replaced traditional counters with service booths

Stirixis puts customer experience at the heart of business

Customer experience is everything in business. An interconnected, holistic company is well placed to provide customers with the best possible service

M&S profit rise lags rivals, cautious on outlook

Marks & Spencer, Britain’s number one clothing retailer, said it was cautious about the outlook for consumers ahead of expected tax rises, as it posted a smaller rise in annual profit than most of its major rivals. The 126-year-old group, which also sells food and homewares, said it was taking market share in clothing and […]

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M&S new CEO Bolland gets £15m “golden hello”

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