The Hut Group (THG), a British ecommerce business founded in 2004, has enjoyed phenomenal growth through acquiring beauty, nutrition, fitness and fashion brands. To date, the Manchester-based business has built an ecosystem of 200 websites operating across 40 currencies and 60 languages globally. Its ...

Costco ended its fiscal year exhibiting strength on almost every front. In Q4, adjusted sales were up 14% and its comps mix also improved as traffic growth returned to positive territory even as ticket remained strong. Even its ancillary businesses like Costco Travel are seeing an uptick from ...

Retail in the Week Ahead – Week 40 Stockpiling – in some places called ‘hamstering’ – creates more problems for consumers than it solves. It has been reappearing around the world in Weeks 39/40 and could cause many more headaches for suppliers and retailers before ...

Continuing positive trends first seen in Q1, Q2 was another strong quarter for Rite Aid. The retailer posted revenue of $5.98 billion, growing 11.5% from $5.37 billion in the same quarter last year. Net losses from continuing operations continue to narrow, falling to $13.2 million with an 83% ...

Test-and-learns are a common feature of grocery retail and online grocery is no exception. In fact, given the relative newness of the channel for many operators, it would be surprising were we not to see a vast amount of experimentation. With the coronavirus pandemic driving unprecedented uptake ...

Retail in the Week Ahead – Week 39 Knock-knock. Who’s there? Q4. Q4 who? Q4 2020. Oh no, I shouldn’t have come knocking… Yes, it’s true: Week 39 is the official end of Q3 2020 and the start of Q4 2020. So, knock-knock, what are we doing to prepare for the ...

Over the past few weeks, we’ve been talking a lot about holiday 2020 and all the different ways it could play out. From our four key predictions to data on anticipated shopper behavior, we’ve been helping guide you through economic, political, and COVID-19 related uncertainty, specifically ...

Key takeaways: Top-line sales grew strongly on a year-to-year basis even though it was flat month to month. August’s positive trend supports Kantar’s just-released holiday forecast for higher growth in the holiday fourth quarter relative to a year ago despite shoppers pointing ...

The Canadian retail landscape has profoundly changed since the COVID-19 outbreak. The novel coronavirus pandemic accelerated ecommerce transformation and altered the physical store layout to ensure shopper and employee safety. Shopper trip frequency has dwindled, but the average basket size ...

Despite a brief spike from pent-up demand, sales at most department store and apparel players declined anywhere from 25% to 50% during Q2, causing many to take decisive financial and strategic action. Almost all have cut their losses to start the fall season with a clean slate, slashing about ...

Retail in the Week Ahead, Week 38 When building joint business plans (JBPs), suppliers frequently spend hours trying to understand how their leading retail partners may change the marketing calendar in the year ahead or will diligently scrutinize the retailer’s CSR guidelines to find ...

As expected, Kroger posted huge growth for its Q2 2020 results. Identical sales excluding fuel grew 14.6% with digital sales up 127%. While sales growth slowed slightly from the 19.0% achieved Q1 2020, digital sales outpaced the 92% growth during Q1. Like many other grocers and consumables retailers, ...

Retailers have always had two personalities. I explored this in my ‘Gemini Effect’ piece earlier this week. Now, to follow up on that, I would add the following thoughts on how the brand promise and retailer personas are evolving out of the crisis. 1. The persona most familiar to ...

Q1 2021 Financials Empire Companies Limited’s (“The Company”) charted CAD7,354.2 million in sales in Q1 2021 which ended August 1, 2021. These sales amount to a 9.0% increase against sales during the same period prior year. Same-store sales excluding gasoline grew 11.0% up ...

Sleigh bells are ringing in the distance, but holiday cheer — at least as it relates to gift spending — is likely to be muted this year.   The initial ShopperScape® read on gift spending plans shows that the share of shoppers who anticipate spending the same or more on ...