Although it has been some time since I’ve written that’s certainly not a reflection of the state of retail, rather quite the opposite. Here in Melbourne we’ve had the momentous arrival of TopShop taking over the Borders site in Chapel Street’s Jam Factory with an impressive offering. South Melbourne Market established a curated space for young and emerging designers. And I finally made it up to Sin City to check out Westfield’s Pitt Street complex, a trip that again cemented in my mind why their leading the retail pack. Globally, November also saw the opening of Box Park – a pop up department store in London’s Shoreditch. Over next fortnight I’ll be covering off all of these (old news, but still interesting developments nonetheless).
What has been disappointing is the huge number of retailers that started their Boxing Day sales early in December. Rather than windows awash with traditional Christmas decorations, they were replaced earlier than usual with sales signage. November’s ABS retail trade figures released yesterday were labelled ‘disappointing’ by the Australian Retailers Association, though they reported “looking ahead to December we know most people leave their Christmas shopping until the last minute, so coupled with December’s interest rate cut this will hopefully mean December trade fared better on the fashion front.” We’ll have to wait another month to find out!
Economics aside, I thought I’d use this post to share some of the interesting things I’ve seen around the traps in the past month;
A more subtle delivery of the sales message by Brooksfield using QR codes. The code revealed the discount customers received in store.
The best use of space in a window this Christmas goes to Jigsaw, for their oversized decorations in the Flinders Lane store.
Although it’s difficult to spot the product, this clever display by Paul Smith in the Eyeworks windows on Chapel Street was certainly eye catching.
Because it is the height of summer… a quick way to check your size in Havaianas. Very handy sales tool!
Bring on 2012!!!
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