In recent years retail has gotten a bad rap - especially fashion retail.
Too often stores have fallen into a slump, neglected by management’s shift in attention to building up their e-commerce channels. And just as often because brands have too many stores and too little revenue to maintain them all properly.
That’s led to a rash of retail closures in many key markets around the world.
But is retail really fated to become just a memory of ‘the way we used to shop?’
Or can the right people with a vision and the drive to bring it to fruition and rejuvenate retail into a dynamic place where today’s consumers want to shop?
I’m Jane Singer and welcome to A Seat at the Table.
Today I’m speaking with Ron Thurston, retail expert and author, and a champion of physical retail.
Ron is Vice President of stores for Intermix and has a decades long career of working with leading brands and driving retail excellence from visual merchandising to taking teams of diverse retail staff and helping them to be the best they can be.
His enthusiasm for retail is contagious. And he takes an industry that many people view as an ‘if all else fails’ job and shows us the exciting career opportunities it offers for people of all different skills sets and education levels. Retail is one industry that has almost no barriers to entry - and few limits on how high you can rise.
Most importantly Ron talks about his vision for revitalising retail and provides a path that both large and small companies can easily follow.
You can find Ron’s book, Retail Pride, on Amazon in paperback, hardcover or kindle versions.
Before we get started, if you’re overwhelmed by information and wish someone could sift and sort through it all and provided you with a tight summary of just what you need to know, then you might want to check out Inside Fashion’s market snapshots. You can find more information at insidefashionlive.net/snapshots.
Visit A Seat at The Table's website at https://seat.fm