COVID19

The British Independent Retailers Association (Bira) is pleased the Government has agreed to extend its rent moratorium into March 2022. The extension follows extensive lobbying from Bira, which met with Small Business Minister…

Many retail businesses have rightly begun to prioritise critical social issues such as environmental sustainability and inclusion and diversity. The true impact of retail stores – and the influence of…

One month on from the reopening of non-essential retail, disappointing shopper numbers are fuelling concerns that the recovery of the UK high street is taking too long. Campaign group Save The…

The fashion industry has taken a substantial hit during the pandemic. The closure of non-essential stores and limitations on social interaction has created an impassive relationship between consumers, the retail…

Now that retailers large and small have been able to re-open and consumers in England are allowed limited social freedoms I for one am hoping we can ‘zoom out’ to…

With the majority of shops in the UK opening at some stage in April 2021 (and English stores next Monday) Underlines takes a look at consumer expectations of both small…

From April 2021 there will be a gradual re-opening of non-essential shops throughout the UK, with regional variations in Scotland, N Ireland and Wales. It will be a nervous time…

The boss of the British Independent Retailers Association (Bira) reflects on what for many independent traders will have been the ‘worst year of their business lives’. Andrew Goodacre has been looking back…

Underlines has written much about brands and retailers since the onset of the pandemic but not so much about the supply chain and the seismic changes that we have seen…

New Mastercard research reveals that Brits have discovered new ways to shop on social media during the pandemic, as bricks and mortar stores were forced to shut, with 43% of…

The John Lewis Partnership has warned over further store closures as it swung to a £517 million annual loss for 53 weeks to the end of January 2021 after the…

A new report from the Capgemini Research Institute examining the impact of the past year’s disruption on consumer product and retail (CP&R) supply chains has found that 66% of organisations…