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Localism and convenience REPOSITIONING


BRICKS-AND-MORTAR There may have been record numbers of store closures in 2020, but a trend for new formats in physical retail is responding to how today’s consumer wants to shop


such as Debenhams, Arcadia and House of Fraser, and the bankruptcies of Neiman Marcus, JC Penney and L’Occitane in the US. Then came the announcements of permanent store closures – John Lewis shut eight stores in 2020 and is planning to close eight more outlets this year while Boots was already in the process of closing 200 stores before the pandemic hit. The US has also seen Macy’s and Nordstrom permanently close a number of their least profitable stores too. But just as all of this occurred, something unexpected happened. Retailers began to announce plans to open up new bricks-and-mortar stores, with one important common factor: the locations are in local ‘neighbourhood’ areas rather than in malls or shopping centres. Sephora, for example, announced the largest store expansion in its history. It plans to open over 260 new locations in North America in 2021, with 60 standalone stores and 200 shop-in-shop locations in Kohl’s stores, and a growing presence locations where its customers live and work, to make it more accessible to more beauty shoppers.


M


uch has been documented about the crumbling state of bricks-and- mortar stores, with the high profile collapse of retail giants in the UK


THE RISE OF LOCAL RETAIL


52%


of UK consumers say they are shopping more locally


74%


want to see retailers adapt to local areas and residents


Source: Westfield How We Shop: What’s Changed quantitative survey


US & UK STORE OPENINGS AND CLOSURES, 2020- 2021


US Macy’s


Walgreens Boots Alliance L’Occitane


Bath & Body Works Target


Sephora Ulta Beauty


+/- -45 -34 -23


+49/-4 +38 /-2 +60 +39


UK Boots


Debenhams Superdrug


Marks and Spencer John Lewis


+/- -168 -38 -30


+19 /-17 -8


Ulta Beauty’s major announcement to open more than 100 mini-stores within Target stores in the US in 2021 (see Retail spotlight) further illustrates the growing trend for expansion strategies involving partnerships between retailers. Wizz Selvey, founder and CEO of Wizz&Co, believes that there is scope for more retailers to consider similar opportunities: “I think the opportunity for stores is to collaborate with more brands or other retailers to improve the density of their footprint and I think retailers are really looking at which stores are performing and why, and where, within their country, they need presence.” Frasers, a new 34,000sqft store located on a former Debenhams site in Wolverhampton, UK, has partnered with digital start-up marketplace Curate Beauty, that sells an edit of independent beauty brands, in order to encourage the ‘social media shopper’ back to the high street. Meanwhile John Lewis is planning to trial the introduction of John Lewis shopping areas within its Waitrose stores, as well as improving its next day Click and Collect service in these stores, and offering more local collection points through third parties.


Adapting to shoppers’ needs Such steps respond to the changes in the way – and the where – consumers now want to shop. According to the Westfield How We Shop: What’s Changed report, 52% of UK consumers say they are shopping more locally, while 74% want to see retailers adapt to local areas and residents – up from 69% in 2019.


Data covers numbers of announced store openings and closures, year ending April 2021. Certain stores announced plans to both close and open stores. Source: Coresight Research


It is a trend that has in fact been bubbling away since before the pandemic hit. Nordstrom’s small ‘Local’ store format first launched in 2017 and, proving successful, was rolled out to further locations in 2020, providing convenient access to


8 cosmetics business May 2021 cosmeticsbusiness.com


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