Report: Latest

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Transient design: how seasonality keeps brands fresh

Amidst the increasing consumer demand for novelty and personalisation, how can brands engage and stay in sync with their customers' individual and unique universes all year round?

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Premium vs luxury: how luxury is fighting back

With premium threatening to steal its consumer base, luxury is forced to carve out a new space. But with perceptions of value changing rapidly, just how is it going to define itself?

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Making social media work for retail

More and more retailers are embracing social media, but there is still uncertainty about the best way to use it. Given this, should social media marketing be viewed as an opportunity, a necessity, or is it all just keeping up with the Joneses?

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The highs and lows of dynamic pricing

As people become more wary of dynamic pricing, many businesses are developing transparent systems that engage the customer in the process.

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Augmented retail: how supermarkets are evolving the shop floor

As shoppers move online, real-world stores are finding themselves with floor space to fill. Following the example of major players like Tesco, retailers are providing services to complement their existing offerings and enhance their core business.

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Missing the train to stay at the station: how travel hubs are evolving

Once seen as merely a place to catch trains, UK stations are now taking advantage of their heavy footfall, offering quality food and leisure facilities that have begun to attract even non-travellers to these travel hubs.

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Pressure Valve: seeking a release

People are under increasing pressure to be the best versions of themselves they can be: to eat healthily, spend carefully, live ethically and achieve, achieve, achieve. But as the pressure increases, so does the need to let off steam.

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Demand and supply: how communities reshape the market

Technology lets communities form easily and quickly and as a result is unleashing an empowered public on markets, the media and more. From group buying to 'buycotting', people are putting their heads together and voting with their wallets.

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In-store expertise: how retailers are responding to ‘showroomers’

From pharmaceuticals to fashion, retailers are taking cues from Apple, recruiting expert staff, and encouraging consumers to exchange their online shopping behaviour for a lasting relationship with local stores.

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New World Order

America is the economic epicentre of the world, accounting for nearly a fifth of the global economy. But with 800 million new consumers joining the middle classes by 2020 – many of them in Asia – the world is undergoing an irreversible shift eastwards.

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Will digital save luxury?

Consumers of luxury goods are hungry for new experiences. Burberry's new flagship store combines digital with luxury – with their recent drop in share price, can this innovative approach rekindle demand?

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Natural Mindset

People want to get closer to nature mentally and physically, embracing all that’s perceived to be pure and wholesome.

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The connected store: double-sided data

Armed with smartphones, a new generation of consumer is forcing marketers to adopt new tools. But are the benefits entirely one-sided? Or is a new, mutually rewarding relationship set to flourish as retailers in the US turn in-store technology back on them?

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Everywhere shopping: Click & Collect delivers

With informed shoppers demanding more choice and less hassle, new imperatives are emerging for retailers. Many are fragmenting into access points or experiential hubs in order to offer the best of online, offline and mobile.

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Death of the Middle

Consumer habits and opinions are becoming polarised towards extremes, at the expense of the middle ground. We explore how the Death of the Middle has affected consumption choices and popular culture, with an emphasis on retail brands.

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Niche: only the specialists survive

People are building communities around the things they love, leaving a heap of brands in the middle that no-one really cares about. As a result, brands are taking cues from niche retailers to rebuild authority over their product range.

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Social commerce and the gift economy

With sales revenues predicted to total $14.25bn in 2013 and $30bn in 2015, social commerce represents a potentially very lucrative new avenue for brands. But what are the implications when your friend tries to sell you something?

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Culture luxe: breaking into emerging luxury markets

With the rapid expansion of luxury brands into Asia, BRIC and other emerging markets, there is a pressing need for luxury retailers to communicate more meaningfully with diverse audiences and to understand differing cultures and attitudes.

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Aspiring connoisseurs: the evolution of the Chinese luxury consumer

Chinese consumers are buying up luxury goods both domestically and abroad at an unprecedented rate, and there seems to be no limit to the growth in their luxury purchases. But the question remains – why do they buy?

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Online retail in Latin America: Mexico

In the second part of his report on e-commerce in Latin America, Ulysses De La Torre discusses the key differences between the Brazilian and Mexican markets, and examines the opportunities that are available to online retailers in Mexico.